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Vagabond
02-08-2006, 07:09 PM
Hi everyone, been out of the loop for awhile....extended travels then a move into new digs.

Just moved the last of the tank over to the new place and in the process of setting it up as I write this. I had a 2 - 3" sandbed which is currently sitting in a bucket and am asking for opinions on whether I should a) rinse the whole thing and start it from scratch b) Just return it as is to the tank or c) rinse most of it and save a small amount to seed the rest. The sand has been in the bucket for 2 days now.

The tank has been running for 2yrs and is a 65 gal with a 33 gal sump.

I have all of my live rock (70 lbs) split between a rubbermaid container and a 20gal that is currently housing all of my fish corals etc....

Also how much old tank water vs new tank water?

TIA everyone

TheReefGeek
02-08-2006, 07:20 PM
I would preserve as much tank water as you can, then do a 10 or 15% change right away.

As for the sand, when I moved my tank I did in-between. I rinsed in tank water (this could be your water change!) not very vigorously, just to get the detrius out to avoid release all that detrius at once and spiking the tank. I am sure I lost a lot of life too, but the sand bed came back pretty quickly, and I didn't spike my tank. If you do it this way, if you can get a few cups of sand from an established tank to see with, that would help.

Murminator
02-08-2006, 07:22 PM
I had sand in a bucket with no light and no heat but under a bit of water for a couple weeks and I dumped it in. It really stunk but no i'll effects, but this was used in a new tank that had to cycle. I currently have a pail of sand sitting in a bucket for a couple of months that I plan on using.

tbone
02-08-2006, 11:27 PM
what i did was rinsh half the sand in water really well.
then i put the rest in the tank.
added saltwater and used a power head to mix the sand really well. then my skimmer cleaned the the water. waited a couple of days for the water to clear up and added LR in the tank.
so far the sand looks really good. small cyano bloom.