Avoiding a sandbed crash when moving tanks

[Slick Fork]

Hey,

I am swapping one tank out for another (same location) but new tank will be bigger and I was hoping for some pointers on avoiding a sandbed caused crash when doing this.

My plan of attack:
1) drain 50% display tank water into various water containers.
2) Relocate coral and as much rock as possible without disturbing the sandbed into seperate containers -e.g. coral in one bucket, rock in another.
3) catch all the fish and relocate them into their temporary home
4) drain remaining water while leaving sandbed as undisturbed as possible.

Here's where I get stuck... what should I do with the sand it inbetween removing the current display tank and putting the new one back together? Should I start fresh with new sand (not ideal)? Stir it up and ditch the water it's in but keep the sand?

Thanks

[howdy20012002]

in my experience
if you are going to reuse the sand make sure that you clean it really well..more so than just swirling it around in the tank.
I would the sand out, wash it thoroughly and put it in the new tank
when I have moved tanks in the pasts, the sand bed is what has given me troubles
Neal

[FragIt Dan]

Go bare bottom ;). But if you want to go with sand either rinse it until the water comes clear, or get new stuff. Anything you leave in the sand will most surely decay after the move, spiking nutrients. I rinse by putting about 2 gallons of sand in a 5G bucket and running a hose into the bottom of the bucket liquefying the sand. Swirl the hose around until the water comes clear. Give it a rinse in salt water after as it will be difficult for the salt to permeate down into the sand once back in the tank and you want to start that bio filter back up quickly :)
Dan

[Reefer Rob]

Best: bare bottom (JMO)
2nd best: new sand

Put the old sand back in and you'll likely battle PO4 for a while.

[The Grizz]

I've done this a couple times now & the best way is:

Drain as much water as possible while relocating coral first.

Remove rock as it is getting close to the water a piece at a time leaving any pieces that are in the sand until all coral & fish are out.

Then go in for the fish, fill the temp home first so it's ready to go & put a heater in it to keep it warm as well as the coral bin & rock.

Once everything is out remove as much of the remaining water as possible, then last of the rock.

Scoop out the sand into a bucket & using a lg fine mesh fish net rinse 2 - 3 cups of sand at a time under the tap until water is clean, dump into a different bucket obviously ( you know that already )

Once it's all rinsed & new tank is in place reverse the order & rebuild.


That being said if you need a few extra heater I have a bunch you can borrow.

[fishoholic]

in my experience
if you are going to reuse the sand make sure that you clean it really well..more so than just swirling it around in the tank.
I would the sand out, wash it thoroughly and put it in the new tank
when I have moved tanks in the pasts, the sand bed is what has given me troubles
Neal

+1

Personally though I find it such a pain to rinse all the old sand out, much easier and safer to just buy new sand.

[The Grizz]

Yes it is a PITA but cost wise it's more reasonable.

[Madreefer]

I too have done this several times. Just rinse ur old sand and keep rinsing. I use RO water but I have a huge reservoir. Keep 2-3 cups of your old sand and don't rinse that and just mix it in with the rinsed sand. Don't know about the others but I do the same with brand new sand anyways. But if one can afford to run a SW tank than sand really isnt that expensive

[Slick Fork]

Thanks for the help

Spent the day moving everything and the new tank is up and kind of running. Old sandbed is still in the old tank, I may rinse it really good tomorrow but we'll see how ambitious I am. I may just buy new stuff, we'll see how tomorrow morning goes!

Back into a big(ish) tank - 75 gallons now! Feels good :)

[The Grizz]

Did you use the same stand the old tank was on?

[Slick Fork]

I did, having an existing stand was a big driver as to the size and shape of tank I could get.

I'm hoping that this is going to be a nice compromise between the stability and versatility of a big tank without the maintenance bill of a 100+ tank.

[The Grizz]

Nice!! Where's the pics MR.

[Slick Fork]

Nice!! Where's the pics MR.

I'll start a build thread up fairly quickly...

I tried rinsing out a small sample icecream container of sand and after 10 minutes full blast on the tap it was still looking pretty nasty. I think I'll toss the rest and just start with fresh stuff.