Moving sandbed

[speedstar]

Will I kick off any sort of mini cycle, if I move a shallow 1inch sand bed that has only been running for 4 months to a new tank?

Thnaks

 

[Rover88]

In my limited experience?

No, you should be fine. It hasn't been there long, and its not a 'deep' sand bed, so its not like its had time to grow stagnant. A small shallow sandbed like that stays fairly aerated.

 

[mcgyvr]

define "moving"?

 

[IowaReefer]

Most likely, yes. A little cyano may result, but damage should be minimal.

 

[mattgumaer]

It seems like you should be fine, one inch is not particularly deep and 4 months is not very long. I would just rinse it and add it to the top of your new sand bed (assuming the new tank will have more sand than the old).

If the sand were older/deeper, I would just abandon it completely and get new sand. If the old tank has a significant amount of live rock that is also being moved to the new tank, the live rock itself likely has enough bacteria to avoid a cycle. I moved a 90 to a 180 and left the sand behind, only moving the rock and livestock to the new tank and did not have an observable/measurable cycle. Nothing lost other than corals which were accidentally broken in the process.

Matt

 

[Zalick]

I've done that a few times and never had any issues.

 

[speedstar]

Thanks guys, I have a system up and running in just a 100g rubbermaid, as my tank builder was needing 8 weeks, and I wanted to cycle the live rock etc so it would be ready when the tank was done.

Basically the 100g rubbermaid is at about 80g of system right now, this will be moved to a 70g AIO drop ledge tank.

I do have some livestock in it and was wondering if this move will cause issues.

Sorry for not explaining fully in my original post.

 

[mcgyvr]

I usually recommend to not reuse the sand and just purchase new dry sand and rinse it well..
Then you can easily transfer whatever without any issues..

A problematic cycle only occurs when the amount of "dead/decomposing" is greater than the existing bacterial population can quickly process..
Thats usually not a problem with any system more than a few months old assuming you aren't introducing a TON of dead/decaying matter..

All should be fine..
Having a bottle of prime on hand is not a bad idea if you are concerned..

 

[AlSimmons]

Will I kick off any sort of mini cycle, if I move a shallow 1inch sand bed that has only been running for 4 months to a new tank?

Thnaks

Once the livestock/rocks have been removed from the tank just siphon the sand along with some water into a 5 gallon bucket or small ice chest. Stir it up and pour off the dirty water. Do this 3 or 4 times and you be golden. Nice clean live sand.