Advice and process. -- buying used 125 g tank

[CEverii]

Alright so im about to upgrade from my 75g to a 125g. The guy i'm buying my 125g from has two to choose from(both come with stand and canopy). One is $200. This tank is not predrilled, has 2 overflow boxes on the back, but comes with over 100lbs of live sand. The second one he has is $300 and is predrilled, but it comes with no sand. Which would you go with?

Also, what is the process of moving my sand over to the new tank, or adding the sand I have to the existing sand in the other 125g

*Update* - Ok so i actually just heard that it is not good to reuse any sand beds. Including the one in my previous tank. Any truth to this?

 

[BigJim]

I'd say it's up to you with the tanks. Is having the drilled tank really worth $100 to you?

As for reusing your sand, it's possible that you could have some sort of nastiness built up in the sand bed and transferring the sand will stir it up. I'd take the safe route and get some new sand.

 

[thincat]

How old is your setup? Sand in areas of your tank that has no movement
(anaerobic)
will become areas that produce hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This is small amounts will not harm the animals in your tank, but if you stir up enough of it you will have a problem. I would add new aragonite sand and just a cup of your old sand to seed your new sand.
Also as Jim stated it's your choice on the drill or no drill. You can always drill it yourself, but you stand the chance of cracking the glass.

 

[ccCapt]

I would definitely take the predrilled ReefReady tank.

As far as reusing your sand, I reused mine when I upgraded from my 75 to 125. I took all the old sand, put it in a tub, took it outside, turned the hose on and washed it out thoroughly. I may have lost some good critters and such living in the sand, but it's a trade off I thought was worth it instead of risking a cycle from upsetting all the crap in the old sand and releasing it in the new setup.

 

[jsoong]

Assuming that both tanks are in identical shape, I would take the drilled tank. It is a lot less hassle to maintain compared to HOB overflows, worth the $100 to me.

 

[CEverii]

Hey ccCapt, I was reading your build project thread and saw where you were in the process of reusing your old sand rinsing it out. cmor1701d made a suggestion about going to home depot or lowes and getting "playbox sand". Is this a viable alternative to live sand bags from the store that are around $3/lb? Maybe use like, 20-30% of my existing sand mixed with it?

 

[ccCapt]

You can use playsand, just be aware it WILL release silica into your system which may cause a diatom outbreak. I don't like the silica playsand because if you look at it up close, there are alot of very small, very sharpe pieces of crushed quartz.
I used regular(not live) dry aragonite oolitic sand from CaribSea.