Help, necessary movement

Fiish

Member
I installed a 30 gallon tank a couple of months ago where I intended to keep a P. multifasciata or Centropyge aurantia if I could get it. Currently the whole system is very well, the living rocks are quite populated, and many amphipods roam the rocks and crystals. Sadly the tank has a leak underneath at the base and heck it needs to be uninstalled to get it fixed. The problem is that I put a 2.5 "bed of sand, my question is if it is safe to move the sand together with the rock to another place, or can I only move the rock? I don't want to remove the sand and restart a cycle, I'm willing to lose the sand in case it is better not to touch it, I must act quickly before the leak becomes more severe, what is your recommendation?
 
If you can keep the sand, rock and some of the water in a tub or tote with a small pump or air pump it should be fine.
 
Look at it as a great chance to clean the sand! Remove everything else (including fish, stir it up well, and use a gravel vac (Python Siphon) to celan the sand/drain the tank. When you do, and you see all the gunk in it, you'll want to start cleaning some (1/3 or so) every water change. If it were a well established deep sandbed (DSB) you could run into troubles, but your tank is still very new and the sandbed relatively shallow. Keep it, clean it, reuse it

Pics of the new tank!
 
Thanks for your input guys, I was aware that the sand bed has stored enough ammonia in the deepest part and it could cause problems when moving it, I guess it will be fine if I move everything to another place to be able to repair the tank as soon as possible, no I still have fish, I'm in Mexico and here it's difficult to find one of the two fish that I mentioned above, I'm just being patient and letting the tank mature.
I think I can attach a photograph of the sand bed, it has only been running for two months.
 

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