Hey everyone I have a 55 gallon tank and it's about five months old and four months old with livestock. I have around 50 pounds of LR and I have a 2 inch sandbed. Question is, can I rinse the sandbed out and reuse it when I set it back up? If so do I need to do anything special to it? I bought it as live sand and since I have a lot of live rock I don't feel like I should need to invest in a new sandbed. Would that be okay to do? Thanks.
Moving tanks
- Thread starter larrybugcatcher
- Start date
- Tagged users None
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
I would make sure to keep it wet during the move. Once the tank is setup again, I would test the water parameters frequently. Be prepared and have at least 30 gallons of fresh saltwater in case you need to do a water change or two. There shouldn't be much issue with using the current sand bed.
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
I wouldn't fill the buckets too much with water. Just a little bit above the sand. It is going to be pretty heavy with the sand. As an extra precaution, you could rinse with saltwater. This could get expensive if you decide to do that. Your sand bed is not too deep or too established to cause many issues.
eburger2011
Community Member
Im doing the exact same thing lol. But I have a 4-5 inch bed and everyone posted saying not to disturb the sand or it will cause a cycle. Would love to hear how your move goes. We are moving ours on the 24th
We purchased a second hand tank (our first reef tank ). LFs said to start with new sand bed, guy we bought tank from said keep old sand don't rinse otherwise will lose all good bacteria causing a mini cycle or worse still a crash. So we thought LFS was just trying to sell us something,
Now this is a large tank 280g with about 180kg of live rock and sand about 3-4cm high that was 8 months old.
Well move went well didn't have a mini cycle at all and tank thrived
BUT
wish to god we had bought new sand !!!!
The sand after being moved & stirred in the move started leaching trapped nitrates & phosphates- algae algae algae,
So about 6 weeks of changing rowaphos every couple of days and lots of water changes took the plunge and decided to vacuum out ALL the old sand and replace with new.
So thats what we did, no mean feet I promise you with all that rock and a 2.5 depth tank.
But as soon as we changed out the sand bed, nitrates & Phos dropped to just about 0.00 and algae disappeared very shortly afterwards.
My advice would be - to start with new sand. even though your tank isn't that old you would be surprised how much **** there is in there (ours was not much older than yours and only had 2 fish in it)
We have recently ordered a new build 300g and when we move everything over to the newbie tank we will 100% start with new sand.
wish I had changed to new sand originally would have save a lot of heartache and hassle.
80% of your good baceria is living in your rocks only about 20% lives in your sand bed.
Hope this helps.
Now this is a large tank 280g with about 180kg of live rock and sand about 3-4cm high that was 8 months old.
Well move went well didn't have a mini cycle at all and tank thrived
BUT
wish to god we had bought new sand !!!!
The sand after being moved & stirred in the move started leaching trapped nitrates & phosphates- algae algae algae,
So about 6 weeks of changing rowaphos every couple of days and lots of water changes took the plunge and decided to vacuum out ALL the old sand and replace with new.
So thats what we did, no mean feet I promise you with all that rock and a 2.5 depth tank.
But as soon as we changed out the sand bed, nitrates & Phos dropped to just about 0.00 and algae disappeared very shortly afterwards.
My advice would be - to start with new sand. even though your tank isn't that old you would be surprised how much **** there is in there (ours was not much older than yours and only had 2 fish in it)
We have recently ordered a new build 300g and when we move everything over to the newbie tank we will 100% start with new sand.
wish I had changed to new sand originally would have save a lot of heartache and hassle.
80% of your good baceria is living in your rocks only about 20% lives in your sand bed.
Hope this helps.
Yep, go with the new sand or switch over to tile.
chrisfraser05
Community Member
Personally what I've done with house moves and tank changes is keep a small amount of the old sand in tank water to seed.
Then the rest of the sand I've completely cleaned with tap water until there is no more waste coming from it.
When disturbing an established sand bed it's amazing how much waste comes out of it regards of how clean you keep it.
Attempting to move and reuse the complete bed in my opinion is the most likely way to create a spike.
No point buying new sand though, an hour's effort to clean the old sand is all it takes
Then the rest of the sand I've completely cleaned with tap water until there is no more waste coming from it.
When disturbing an established sand bed it's amazing how much waste comes out of it regards of how clean you keep it.
Attempting to move and reuse the complete bed in my opinion is the most likely way to create a spike.
No point buying new sand though, an hour's effort to clean the old sand is all it takes
leptang
Well-Known Member
I have moved my 55g tank that was a year old with a 4 inch deep SB. I only drained out all the water I could, but I left the SB in the 55g tank undisturbed. The empty tank with sand was vary heavy but I was strong and my friend too, so we could muscle the tank carefully onto a collapsible table for support and carried the table with the tank on it strapped to the table. We got it to the truck folded the legs to the table up and place it in the truck. I drove slow not to disturb the sand as much as possible, it wasnt vary far of a move either. well got it to the new home carefully unloading it and placing it on the stand, the sand did shift a bit and had the smell of swamp gas. So me already tight on money from all my moving expenses couldn't afford new sand, so I did what came to my mind. I laid a plastic trash bag over the top of the sand and placed rocks on all 4 corners of the tank on top of the trash bag, then I filled in 10 gallons of SW then removing the plastic trash bag and added a pump to stir it all up. Then I drained all of the water I could, I placed the trash bag back in and poured in another 10 gallons of SW and mixed it up again with a pump and emptied it all out. I placed the trash bag back in on top of the sand and filled the tank half way and removed the bag from the bottom added the pump back in and it didn't have the swamp gas smell anymore but it looked cloudy. I placed my rocks and livestock into the tank and filled it to the top. Over night the cloudiness went away and no bad smell and nothing died and the tank didnt leak.
I have one more move to do, from san diego ca to portland or, about 1075 miles and in going to start with new sand.
I have one more move to do, from san diego ca to portland or, about 1075 miles and in going to start with new sand.
Last edited:
Just be sure to keep and eye on your nitrates and stuff. Glad to hear it went well, back breaking I'm sure but well worth it.
Karen
Active Member
Finished moving mine about a week ago. Took the rock in one bucket, the fish and corals in another, and water in a third. I left enough water in the tank to cover the sand. Daily water checks show no spikes, fish are doing great and corals look good.
