Ram, a few ideas on moving your sand bed. I have been giving this a lot of thought as well because of my plans to move my tank to a larger one.

I plan on stirring my sand with a power head and trying to filter out the silt and accumulated debris with a Magnum and/or filter sock. Hydrogen Sulfide is volatile and water soluble so it should off gas fairly easily if stirred. The anaerobic bacteria won't be killed by aeration. They will simply shut down and wait until the conditions they need are restored. The black specks you mentioned is probably iron sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide from bacterial action reacts very readily with soluble iron to form iron sulfide.

I'll use a collander to remove any larger stuff like snail shells and any macro critters like stars, snails, and hermits.

Once I get my sugar fine sand back in the tank, I plan on putting in a 1" layer of special grade aragaonite on top of it to prevent blowing sand.

GARY