Moving a tank... Twice..

[Myka]

Lots of detritus in a typical sandbed so you can have issues with noxious areas becoming waterborne. Also, when you move it the top layers mix with the bottom layers, and aerobic areas suddenly become anaerobic and anaerobic suddenly becomes aerobic causing lots of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to die-off. You'll usually get an ammonia spike when you move a sandbed (not nitrate). Sometimes you can remove the sandbed and clean it really, really well, dry it out, and then put it back in, but definitely don't move it "live". Ammonia is the killer in a tank move.

I also recommend that anytime you do a tank move you have some Prime or AmQuel on hand as well as a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge ($10). Put the badge in the tank and it gives you live ammonia readings. The readings themselves aren't too accurate in my experience, but I've had 100% success using these badges simply to alert me when there is ammonia present. If there's color on the badges besides yellow, add a dose of AmQuel (or Prime), wait 4 hours, add again if needed.