The generalisation of continuous orthogonal polynomial ensembles from random matrix theory to the q-lattice setting is considered. We take up the task of initiating a systematic study of the corresponding moments of the density from two complementary viewpoints. The first requires knowledge of the ensemble average with respect to a general Schur polynomial, from which the spectral moments follow as a corollary. In the case of little q-Laguerre weight, a particular 3 φ 2 basic hypergeometric polynomial is used to express density moments. The second approach is to study the q-Laplace transform of the un-normalised measure. Using integrability properties associated with the q-Pearson equation for the q-classical weights, a fourth order qdifference equation is obtained, generalising a result of Ledoux in the continuous classical cases.