Do you reuse your sandbed when upgrading?

[vanguard]

I have a 150 gallon tank on order and a 25 gallon tank today. My plan was to move the sandbed over to take advantage of it as a bio diversity seed. However, as I type this I'm watching a video that says not to reuse the sandbed because it has trapped detritus and will cause a cycle.

Would you move the sandbed over like I planned or start with all fresh sand? Why?

 

[Cell]

Fresh sand. Old sand can cause issues like nutrient spikes etc...

 

[Create New]

I have a 150 gallon tank on order and a 25 gallon tank today. My plan was to move the sandbed over to take advantage of it as a bio diversity seed. However, as I type this I'm watching a video that says not to reuse the sandbed because it has trapped detritus and will cause a cycle.

Would you move the sandbed over like I planned or start with all fresh sand? Why?

You know this is really interesting to me because I don't see any downside to reusing old sand if you rinse the sand fully till clear for a new tank, I wouldn't recommend using old sand to seed an aquarium tho.

 

[d2mini]

Personally, I would not. I'd rather start with some fresh LIVE sand like from Tampa Bay Saltwater.
If you do want to use the old sand I would clean it really well.

Are you moving rock over? The old rock will help seed the new tank if you are not getting new live rock.

And you will have a cycle. It's a new tank. Again you could go with all new rock and sand from TBS to have a much quicker cycle, but it's still a new tank.

 

[SpyC]

I would start with all new sand to prevent a possible nutrient spike, but would spread a handful or two of the old sand through the tank to help seed the sand.

 

[EricR]

I vote new and rinsed well, especially since making that big of a jump I'm sure you'd be buying a good portion of new sand anyway (going from 25 gallon to 150 gallon).

 

[Spare time]

Take a handful of it from the surface from the open sand bed to near the rocks. Then add that. The sand often has lots and lots of zooplankton and beneficial microfauna. Don't bother with taking sand deeper than a few inches imo. Established sand often gets crapped on when it's quit literally the same as live rock but far more area for critters and microbes. People are just bad at preventing their tank from getting dirty but won't take the blame and instead blame the sand. That's one area of the hobby where people simply don't bother to keep clean which is hilarious compared to all the animals bought to clean the rocks.

 

[C4ctus99]

I’ve reused and moved a 20g a few times, ended up rinsing it really well each time and had no issue. I just don’t like buying new stuff if I already have some of what I need

 

[vetteguy53081]

I never put thought to this but i can say each time ive switched tanks, I always use new aragalive sand

 

[AydenLincoln]

No!

 

[Smarkow]

I would start with all new sand to prevent a possible nutrient spike, but would spread a handful or two of the old sand through the tank to help seed the sand.

I do the same. Nice to transfer a bunch of snail eggs and other microfauna. Have never had an issue. Just would avoid stirring up any deep areas that might be anoxic while fish are still in the tank with that sand.

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Last year I moved to a reefer 250 from a nuvo 20, and I used all new sand. I added a couple new (dry) rocks which gave an odd look for a while.. sitting there all pearly white and out of place.. but have always used new live sand.

 

[James G]

I have used some if not all of my old sand every time I have upgraded my tanks over the years. I have neer had any ill effects.

 

[Dburr1014]

Rinse and re-use.

I've done it many times.

 

[McPuff]

I have done it both ways. Seems to work really well when I use all new sand, but seed it with a large cup of dirty sand from the old tank. The new sand bed populates very quickly.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Rinse and re-use.

I've done it many times.

Yup. The hellacious job of having to toss in the trash a few hundred pounds of aquarium sand is a nightmare, lol.

 

[brandon429]

the suggestions in this thread are a mix of offers that have killed tanks + saved them

you aren't being told of the times that using a handful of old sand killed everyone's fish, or when a dirty bed was moved and the whole tank died, because someone who hasn't experienced that can't relay it to you.

you'll be playing from that % risk depending on what you select. when we base choices off worked for 1 person, we take that risk

the way to protect your tank is to choose what works for 400 persons without one single kill. threads exist to show how to upgrade and move 400 reef tanks without one single kill, and they never use a handful of old sand and they never transfer unrinsed sand or use new, unrinsed sand. when all transferred sand is simply 100% rinsed clean, zero cloud, perfection results with no variation.

you haven't been shown this, for example

Sand Bed

I have a stable, successful (by my standards) tank for many years. I has a dsb which may or may not be relevant to that. Seems like all I read about DSB is anecdotal. So, I will add to it. I had to excavate a small section of my sand bed for a plumbing issue. With in 12 hours, both my tangs...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[j.falk]

Rinse and re-use.

I've done it many times.

Me too. Never had any problems reusing old sand in a new tank. I just make sure to rinse it really well first.

Especially considering OP is taking a small amount of sand from a 25 gallon tank and putting it in a large 150 gallon with additional new sand.

 

[*unique*]

Fresh sand!

 

[RichReef]

Going from a 20 gallon to a 150 it's a non issue. If anything you're going to want the nutrients.

Get a strainer and swish the sand in the 20's water before dumping it in the 150.

I wouldn't add it util your salinity and temp are on par. If you are adding it for your diversity you don't want to kill anything off.