So im moving my 55 gallon to a new 105 gallon...

[Reefin247]

And im stumped about what to do with the sand. Some say you must use old sand for bacteria etc... some say use new sand to keep from creating toxins in new tank. I just wanted to see what everyone would do. Happy Reefing!

 

[Kristy3693]

Keep a couple handfuls of sand to seed the new thank. But you have two options for the bulk of it. Rinse your old sand a million times before using it again. Or buy new sand. Then put those couple handfuls of old sand on top to seed it. Just tossing all your old sand in will cause a nitrate nightmare! Hope this helps.

 

[Animal-Chin]

Ya i'd start over with new. Im sure the old has lotsof wonderfull critters in it but the new will soon enough. Get ready for another diatom bloom though. Yippee!!! Lol

 

[jeffaquarius]

With new sand you need to cycle. If you decide to reuse the old sand, it has already the bacteria and stuff to produce ammonia for cycling. I don't think you need to rinse it. Either way, you have to wait until the sand is stabilized and cycled. The thing is, you need to have the new tank ready before disturbing the old tank. With that said, it is a common sense to use new sand to the new tank seeded with old sand to facilitate cycling.

 

[obscurereef]

With new sand you need to cycle. If you decide to reuse the old sand, it has already the bacteria and stuff to produce ammonia for cycling. I don't think you need to rinse it. Either way, you have to wait until the sand is stabilized and cycled. The thing is, you need to have the new tank ready before disturbing the old tank. With that said, it is a common sense to use new sand to the new tank seeded with old sand to facilitate cycling.

I disagree. With just live rock you'll have a mini cycle. You would have one with live sand anyway, but I think it will be fine of your tank before was pretty established. There's a reason why you don't add sand on top of already existing live sand. There are certain creatures that live in different depths of the sand and taking that all out (top Sand would prob. Go to the bottom of a bucket). It could lead to hydrogen sulfide in the sand. That's just what I think. Doesn't mean it's right though. Google what's best. The part I agree with is to seed the new sand with sand from your established tank. That's probably the way to go.

 

[Reefin247]

Ended up buying new sand and just seeding with old. But, I treated old water like liquid gold and got every drop I could. 72 hours in now, fish are happy corals are happy, and im happy. The only thing I worry about is my sea cuc. he seems to be having a hard time finding detritus, and I dont want him to starve.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Ended up buying new sand and just seeding with old. But, I treated old water like liquid gold and got every drop I could. 72 hours in now, fish are happy corals are happy, and im happy. The only thing I worry about is my sea cuc. he seems to be having a hard time finding detritus, and I dont want him to starve.

Did you say you already moved all the tank inhabitants to the new tank and seeded with sand from old tank?

 

[Reefin247]

Yes, 55 gallon had cracks in load bearing parts of stand and did not know how much longer I could use it safely. I had also read about many many successful moves in one day without tank cycling and new sand being used.

 

[Rutrag]

My upgrade wasn't as big as yours (37 to 40), but I
1) Removed all live rock and placed in buckets of tank water
2) Removed corals and placed in a bucket of tank water
3) Removed anemone and bagged it. (I didn't want him stinging corals in the confines of the bucket.
4) Caught fish and placed them in the bucket with the coral.
5) Siphoned as much water as possible into other buckets.
6) Scooped sand into another bucket with a layer of tank water on top.
7) Moved old tnak out of way.
8) Put new tank in place.
9) Placed rock in tank.
10) Placed sand in tank.
11) Cleaned protein skimmer and rinsed sump. (The sump had accumulated a lot of detritus.)
12) Installed sump and protein skimmer.
13) Made about 10 gallons of new saltwater.
14) Poured and pumped all saved old water into tank, except for what the fish and corals were in.
15) Topped up with fresh saltwater.
16) Added corals.
17) Added fish.
18) Added anemone.

The tank was very cloudy for a day, and the whole process took several hours, mostly due to a plumbing issue. (I think I slept for 90 minutes that night.) I lost no animals at all. That was about two weeks ago. It did take me another day to get lights back on the tank becasue I had to go buy a tool to do it the way I wanted.

 

[Reefin247]

Did you have any phosphate or nitrate issues?

 

[Rutrag]

Not to my knowledge. (I'm not as diligent about testing as I should be.) The roughest part was finding my melanarus wrasse when breaking down the old tank. He shot into the sand, so I had to be careful to find him as I was removing the sand and actually ended up catching him by hand as I was scooping.

The second day after the transfer, everyone was out and about and eating. The bubble coral seemed the most affected, but he also fell into the carpet anemone early in the process, so it's difficult to say if it was the transfer or the stinging action that ticked him off.

 

[Reefin247]

I was just starting phosphate control (10.0) when I broke my 55 gallon down and, I had always had some nitrate issues with how my live rock was stacked. So I thought it was best not to carry sand to the new tank.