emergency...stupid movers!

[Cloudburst2000]

Hey all, my brother-in-law, Cole, just called me in a panic. He and my sister and the kiddos are moving today. Only moving a couple miles from their curent location. Anyhoo, he has a 14g biocube that was sitting a small side table. The movers were supposed to move everything EXCEPT the side table. Cole and I were going to dismantle the tank this evening and move it and the side table to the new house ourselves. Well, apparently not all the movers got the memo because when Cole went downstairs two of the movers had taken it upon themselves to move the still full tank and set it on the counter. Cole is livid and says the water is extremely murky from the sand being stirred up. He only has about four gallons of water made as we were planning on re-using the majority of the water in the tank. He wants to know what he should do. He knows the livestock need to be removed but wants to know how to do so since the water they are now in is a cesspool. He was thinking about putting all livestock in a bucket but how should he do this since he can't use the tank water now (total cesspool) but moving livestock to all new water is risky too. Any one have some pointers?

Also, is there a possibility of the tank being weakened since it was picked up full of water? He doesn't see any leaks or anything but wonders if he should be worried.

 

[sponger0]

Test the water first. It may not be as bad as you think.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

what type of tests? Can stuff being stirred up from a sand bed be picked up by tests? I thought the main worry about stirring sand beds was release of poisonous gasses, etc into the water.

 

[sponger0]

Phospahtes and ammonia would be primary.

Also, you have no LFS that makes saltwater?

 

[Maivortex]

The sand bed is not going to release ammonia. The main concern would be h2s. does it smell like rotten eggs?

 

[Cloudburst2000]

No, lfs don't make sw just rodi. I have some rodi for him. We will be mixing more sw when I get there.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

The sand bed is not going to release ammonia. The main concern would be h2s.

Any way to test for h2s? Will test ammonia anyway...can't hurt.

 

[disc1]

Any way to test for h2s?

Sniff test. Your nose can detect H2S down to a ridiculously low concentration. Smells like rotten eggs. If you don't smell it you're most likely in the clear with H2S.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

No rotten egg smell. Just an oceany smell, and no ammonia either. Anything else we should be on the lookout for?

 

[robs.mark]

i wouldnt stress too hard, i think they would physically have to stir up the sandbed to create any fatal spikes.

 

[leveldrummer]

is there a local fish store in the area you can buy some bulk pre-made salt water? put everythign in a tub, cover it with the 4 gallons of new water and how ever much of the old tank water you need to cover all the live stock, then you can break down the tank and take your time.

 

[Pheeshes]

Unless it was a deep sand bed or had been in a system running for a very long time you are probably going to be fine.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Yeah, everything looks good. I am staying at their new place for a couple days to watch the kiddos while my sister and brother-in-law get everything unpacked. I just woke up out of the blue and decided to check on the tank (never sleep well in strange houses). The fish, corals, feather duster, etc all seem to be doing fine. My brother-in-law panicked because he had heard horror stories of tanks being wiped out when the sand bed was destroyed. And no, he does not have a really deep sandbed...max of 2". We replaced the sand anyway when we actually relocated the tank to the new house.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

But I did notice that at the front bottom of the tank, where the silicone sits between the glass and rim has 'collapsed' at one place. My brother-in-law is not worried because he does not think this is a seal. He thinks it's just a 'buffer' between the glass and the outside rim. He does not know if it was like this before or if the movers caused it when they moved the tank. Anyhoo, I'll try to get pics later but is the only purpose of the silicone at the front middle between where the tank and plastic rim meet just to fill in the empty space (to make it look nice and neat) as my brother-in-law assumes or is this silicone part important to the integrity of the tank? He might be right as it doesn't look to be a seal between glass sections but never hurts to make sure.