Breaking Down an Aquarium

[DenverSaltyFarm]

 

[Freenow54]

Hey I'm a school teacher and I put up an aquarium in my classroom. Its a 32 gallon bow front. I have two plecos, two hill stream loach, lots of shrimp, and some guppies. I want to bring them home with me for the summer and keep them in a tank there. Do I need to remove all of the sand too or can I leave the sand and just take out the water? I have almost 3 inches of sand and it can get really heavy.

I would not worry about the sand. Probably filthy anyway. However you might want to remove it and throw it out and start over in September. The plecos make a lot of waste I found

 

[Dmmz]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Fungusamongus]

Welcome!

 

[rc8t6353]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Middle School Teacher]

I am a bit confused by the wording here... Do you want to move the entire tank home? or just relocate the fish to a tank you already have at home? (I read it as the latter, but then read @Buckster 's post and it sounds as if they got the impression you'll be moving the tank too...)

I assume the goal is to bring them back next school year and be able to get the tank back up and running before the school year? If so, just drain out all of the water, let the rest evaporate, the sand will dry out, and maybe when you return in the fall fill it back up and do a few water changes with it fallow to get rid of anything that died off while you were away...

Yes, I usually leave the tank but take everything home (rocks, caves, and sand). When I return I treat it like a brand ne tank and let it cycle a while before returning the inhabitants. I usually put all of the sand in covered buckets and was just trying to avoid this last step if I could.

 

[Middle School Teacher]

I would not worry about the sand. Probably filthy anyway. However you might want to remove it and throw it out and start over in September. The plecos make a lot of waste I found

Thanks

 

[CoralB]

Welcome!!

 

[Kiwi reefer]

Welcome to R2R!