moving live sand?

[daveonbass]

I currently have about a 3' sand bed that is loaded with critters. And I want to upgrade to a larger tank and boost the new tank sand with a majority of the old sand. My problem is that I'm worried that by disturbing the sand bed that is established, I will release all the dangerous nitrifying parts of the sand bed. Is this a non issue, or will I kill off my corals and fish durring the move if I simply SCOOP out the old sand and add it to the new sand?

(I am talking about moving the majority of the old sand by the way...I would have no need to keep it in the old tank as I wish to be rid of it. I just hate to toss out all the existing "live sand" and it's critters if I don't need to, but again I don't want to release any dangerous chemicals into the water coloum that are present deeper in the sand.)

thanks
dave

 

[SSpiro]

Tagging along, about to do the same.

 

[c.rob]

I am going to siphon off the top layer of about 1/4". The rest I am going to wash out with clean water , then bleach water and a third rinse of clean water.

 

[daveonbass]

bump

 

[RedAnt78]

:Bump:
I am planning on moving mine too. My sand bed is pretty shallow 1-2 inches. Do I need to worry about moving it or is it shallow enough to not have problems?

 

[musty baby]

A friend has moved her 4" bed repeatedly with no ill results (or at least no dead or dying critters) by carefully taking off each inch, putting them in separate buckets, and laying them down just as they came out.

 

[ParadiseReef]

I just did this a month ago... moved a 4-5" bed out of a 100 rubbermaid and into a 135. The old sand went to the bottom with an additional 2 inches on top with no ill effects whatsoever. I would say as long as the old sand is buried under the new, everything would be fine.

James

 

[CLOWNSPUR]

i never kept the old sand when i moved. Hear some bad stories about it.

 

[jnb]

i moved my 1.5 inch sand bed to a new tank in 2006 - the only issues were that it caused much cloudiness which in the next morning was gone - on your deeper bed maybe just take top layer but more than 1/4 inch - the rest if you can rinse with old tank water - may be ok too - I think you are being a tiny bit too conservative - but I disclaim any bad results

 

[Ajilon]

I moved my 120 from one house to another. We removed all of the sand and placed it into 2 buckets. When we set the tank back up, we dumped the sand into the tank and then added the water using a powerhead and a filter sock. I did have a mini cycle but nothing significant to cause any losses.

I know a guy that had phosphate problems. He stirred up the sandbed, sucked all the water out and then filled the tank with new water and put the fish back in the next day. Not a problem!

 

[chaderic26]

I learned a pretty cool trick for this. When I move a tank and have to move a sand bed I just use a fish net and fill it with sand and hang it dangling the bag end in to a bucket of salt water. then you just kind of shift it around in the net letting the crap filter out in to the bucket. Like a filter of sorts. Takes a little while but its worth it.

 

[stemonia]

Same here. I recently had a crack in my 120g show tank. I had to break down the entire tank and rebuild. I moved the sand to a bunch of 5g buckets for the transition and then moved it back. Rebuilt my reef and pumped my water back to the tank. Not one casualty. All is well and everyone seems happy and healthy.