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View Full Version : Moving tank, keep sand or new ?


ClownBubbaJoe
10/06/2016, 03:50 PM
There's a lot of information on moving tanks, but not much with keeping the sand or buy new.
I watched a video where his advise was to keep a inch or two of water in the tank, even though it will make it heavier, the good bacteria will survive.

I read another's advise, to remove all the rock & fish, remove about half the water, stir up the sand and siphon off all the dirty water, then put the sand in buckets. Once you're done moving put the sand back in the tank, add the new fresh batch of water and run your skimmer unrtil the water is clear. Test the water for ammonia to make sure all the kill off has neen removed.
Wait a day and perform a complte test's, if all are in specs, add all you rock & fish.

It's a 120g tank and has beautiful fine sand that may be,......is reef flakes from Premium Aquatics or simalure.

I won't be using a deep sandbed, only apx 3" deep. I just would hate to rince away all the bacteria, unless the sand will harbor anaerobic bacteria evan after siphoning off the dirty water and skimming ?

bertoni
10/06/2016, 04:00 PM
I moved my DSB tanks several times, and always kept the sand. If it's in good shape, there's no reason to ditch it. My fine was still in perfectly good condition after more than 10 years. Unfortunately, I had to shut down those tanks due to travel requirements for work.

soverjas
10/06/2016, 04:16 PM
Sand doesnt absorb anything so just rinse it well before you reuse it and it will be as good as new. Can easily be done outside with a 5 gallon bucket and a hose stuck into the bottom then let the detritus spill over. just get in there ever few minutes and stil it up with your hand. It will take a little while but its simple. There are lots of good youtube videos on doing this.

ClownBubbaJoe
10/06/2016, 04:16 PM
Sorry you had to get out of the hobby, but I understand.

How did you move yours ?

bertoni
10/06/2016, 05:08 PM
I put the top inch of sand into a separate set of containers, so that it could go back on top, but otherwise, the sand was just in buckets. The live rock I kept in water, but the transportation time was around 30 minutes or less, so oxygen loss was not a major issue.

soverjas
10/06/2016, 05:14 PM
if you had to take the rock out and drain the tank its actually a good time to clean the sand completely of detritus fish food and poop. Personally Id rinse it all. The beneficial bacteria will populate fast from your established rock back onto the surface of the sand. If you dont rinse it expect all that detritus to move up to the surface in transit as the sand weighs more (gravity) and you ill see your ammonia spike and the tank will cycle.

bertoni
10/06/2016, 05:41 PM
The downside of rinsing is that you'll lose a lot of infauna, which I preferred to avoid. I did pay money to buy said animals, though. If the sand is in good shape, I suspect that rinsing it accomplishes very little, and could hurt. If the tank is having a lot of microbial blooms on the sand, that might change matters, though.

ReefsandGeeks
10/07/2016, 08:19 AM
Personally, I'd base it off of how old the sandbed is. If it's over a year old, I'd do a 100% clean with the bucket method mentioned. If less, you may be able to leave it undisturbed while moving the tank and keep it a live DSB. This is of course assuming you can get enough help to carry the tank with the sand. If you have to remove the sand, you sould clean it. If you want to keep the life in the sand, I'd take a big scoop out, un cleaned and kept submerged to seed the rest of the cleaned stuff. Disturbing the DSB can cause various issues, especially if it's very old.

I've cleaned mine a few times due to moving, and am always surprised to see how much sludge is in the sand. It's pretty disgusting actually.