Moving contained deep sandbed

[sawrip]

Hello all, just after some advice please regarding a Dsb move.

In short I own a RS 200xl and in the sump I have an acrylic cube 6x6x6 filled with sand to increase microfauna and bio diversity in my tank.

I want to upgrade my skimmer but need to downsize the Dsb to accommodate it - probably going for a 5x5x5 cube.

Any thoughts on how to go about this without putting my tank inhabitants at risk from gases and such like. Take the old one out pour it into the new container and leave in salt water for a day or two before transferring back?

I don't want to really start over and would like to keep the biodiversity already present in the sand.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

 

[blaxsun]

I don't know if you need to leave it for 2 days; a few hours would probably suffice (just to let everything aettle).

 

[sawrip]

I don't know if you need to leave it for 2 days; a few hours would probably suffice (just to let everything aettle).

Thanks, do you think that would remove the risk of it impacting the tank inhabitants?

 

[Dan_P]

Hello all, just after some advice please regarding a Dsb move.

In short I own a RS 200xl and in the sump I have an acrylic cube 6x6x6 filled with sand to increase microfauna and bio diversity in my tank.

I want to upgrade my skimmer but need to downsize the Dsb to accommodate it - probably going for a 5x5x5 cube.

Any thoughts on how to go about this without putting my tank inhabitants at risk from gases and such like. Take the old one out pour it into the new container and leave in salt water for a day or two before transferring back?

I don't want to really start over and would like to keep the biodiversity already present in the sand.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

There might not be anyway to move the sand bed. It is a complex structure. Move it and you could make a mess because the top and bottom layers will likely get mixed up. Start over is your best bet. You might use some of the old sand to seed the new bed. Reestablishing the DSB will likely take months.

 

[sawrip]

There might not be anyway to move the sand bed. It is a complex structure. Move it and you could make a mess because the top and bottom layers will likely get mixed up. Start over is your best bet. You might use some of the old sand to seed the new bed. Reestablishing the DSB will likely take months.

So take the cube out and fill new sized cube with new sand I guess. Where do you put the old sand just mix it in with the new stuff or top / bottom of the cube?

 

[Dan_P]

So take the cube out and fill new sized cube with new sand I guess. Where do you put the old sand just mix it in with the new stuff or top / bottom of the cube?

This is “no man’s land” when it comes to inoculating a new sand bed. I am guessing that the more of the old sand that is added to the new, the uglier will be the new sand bed.

 

[blaxsun]

There might not be anyway to move the sand bed. It is a complex structure. Move it and you could make a mess because the top and bottom layers will likely get mixed up. Start over is your best bet. You might use some of the old sand to seed the new bed. Reestablishing the DSB will likely take months.

Agree with this.