Moving tank from upstairs to downstairs

[engine3b]

Looking for some advice on moving 90 gallon tank to my downstairs living room. Do I need to drain all the water and move fish out or can I leave sand and a few inches of water? If I remove all the water do i need to replace all the sand?

[epleeds]

Get yourself a 100 gallon tub. Drain all water to the sandbed and move all rock and coral into the tub. Then move tank. Then pump all water back into tank and replace the corals. Make another 20 gallons for NSW to put into the tank, leaving the other 20 gallons in the tub.

 

Also how deep is the sandbed. Unless it's a shallow sandbed I would take it all out. That's a lot of weight unsupported moving the tank. Could stress out the seams

[engine3b]

Think it's just 80 lbs of sand

[gmerek2]

I had the same idea. Just used smaller Tupperware containers. 15gallon to be exact because they can be lifted one at a time.. Filled each less than 1/2 way with water then added live rock and coral to bring water level up. Please please do not disturb the sand bed until you are drained to last few inches. All the rest of the water and sand is easiest to throw out and have new sand ready or it's a good time to start bare bottom. Yes you could try to save sand with tons of rinsing and sifting. It's so hard to add sand after water is in and not reccomended. After everything is up and running make sure you up water change schedule. There will be a lot of nasties stirred up and also you will lose some of your benificial de nitrifying bacteria in sand and tank walls etc so it's a good idea to help the system out. Good luck and if you work PE703 PM me

[lutz123]

If you do try to clean the sand, I have actually not found it all that difficult, though that is probably pretty deep if it's a standard 90. Also, it depends on how dirty, but it's worth a try. Empty all of the water except for a few inches and reserve half to use for sand cleaning. also remove life and rock. Stir the sandbed and really dirty that remaining water. Siphon the water. Add a few inches of water back to the tank. Stir and siphon. Repeat several times. Once the water isn't completely dirty I have reused with no issues.

 

If it's more than a couple of inches deep I would probably just save some from the top and add new sand. I have followed the advice of not mixing your old sand and new - just drop it in handfuls and let everything migrate.