Moving an old SSB

[insane]

My sis has an old 72g BF reef with a 4" SSB that is approx. 5 years old. We are setting up a new 120g RR in it's place. I plan on moving the old bed into the new tank and adding 120lbs of new sand to make up the difference to keep a 4" SSB.

My plan is to take off the top 1" of the old sandbed and hold it in a bucket, move the remaining sand into the new tank, fill in with the new sand then replace the top 1" I had removed.

I doubt there is hydrogen sulfide gas in the old bed and I know what to look/smell for when I do the move. My sis would like to hear what others think of this plan. The tank had been a fowlr for an eel, puffer, damsel, betta & a Picaso Trigger and has only been a reef for a few months. The live rock was removed and reworked a few months ago but I didn't disturb the sand bed when we moved the tank.

The 72g was a downgrade from a 180g a few months ago and now we are doing an upgrade to the 120g. Never downgrade too far too fast or you will go through reef withdrawls like she did.

It is currently all softies with one LPS bubble coral but will be SPS/LPS/Softies.

This is the 72g.

I am insane and my sister is nerotic.

 

[cubsFAN]

I don't consider 4" sand bed shallow nor deep, but I think there may be a hydrogen sulfide issue. I would only use the top 1-2 inches of sand. I could be totally wrong, but it would make me a little uneasy.

 

[ReeferHead92]

i would rinse the deeper sand before you add it to the new tank just in case

 

[anbosu]

I recently moved my reef that had a 4" sand bed and removed a lot of the sand when I moved it. This caused a huge issue and as a result I lost a few of my fish. I would strongly encourage you to not use most of your old sand bed, and if you do, rinse it out very thoroughly before adding it to the new tank.