Replace sand when i move?

[Jake_the_reefer]

I am moving 20 miles in a few days an I am looking up the best ways to move my 20g nano reef, every source I look at people mension replacing their sand during the process. Is this necessary or just something some people do? And any tips on transporting my live rock and live stock? I have a small sedan and it is going to be very hot with no ac in my car so I have to act fast when I start

 

[road_runner]

Best is to replace your sand and start with new nutrients free sand.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Best is to replace your sand and start with new nutrients free sand.

My tank runs 0 nitrates no matter what I do. It's a 5 month old tank could replacing the sand ruin my cycle?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Now that I think of it I feel that replacing the sand bed will bea problem because I have hundreds of nassarius snail babies in it that I dont want to accidentally throw in the trash. Is keeping the old sand a huge problem. Espessially if I'm running a skimmer?

 

[road_runner]

It's a judgment call and depend on how clean your sand is.
If you will keep it at least rinse it well before reusing it...
Nutrients is not only no3. Depend on how old your sand is and what's your husbandry regimens was, you sand might contain nutrients that will eventually break down. Then when you stir the sand you will accelerate the proccess..
Again its judgment call.

 

[Biokabe]

It's not necessarily a huge problem, it's just that for most of us keeping the sand is more trouble than it's worth. The equation is a little bit different when moving a 20g tank than it is when moving a 300 gallon tank. For a larger, older tank, there's a lot more sand to speak of, and it's had more time to accumulate detritus. When you disturb the sand, many things that have been buried in your sand come to the surface and mix with your fresh, highly oxygenated water. This can lead to blooms of various types (ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, sulphur and more) and can spike a mini-cycle.

So on a larger tank, where you'd have to move hundreds of pounds of sand and could potentially set off a mini-cycle that could damage livestock, it's just easier to toss the sand. If you wanted to preserve your microfauna (like your nassarius babies), you'd take a few samples from your sand bed in different parts of the tank to "seed" the new sand with.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

I moved my tank to my new house ( 10 miles) back in December. I experienced an ammonia spike in the process but didn't lose any stock. If you decide to keep the sand then make sure you have some prime handy to detox any ammonia spike.
I had a few extra tanks handy so I set up a 40 breeder for fish, a 20 tall for rock and a 20 for corals and cuc the day before at the new location all with new water at same salinity and temp. Also had a trash can fiul of fresh salt water as insurance. I moved the corals first in a couple of Rubbermaid totes and got them dripping, then the fish, and then the rock while leaving the tank heated with flow. Siphoned the heck out of the sand bed and left just enough water to keep the sand submerged. Moved the tank as fast as I could, replaced the rock and used the water from that tank to fill. Then fish, and used that water, then corals and used that water. When it was all said and done I only had to use about 10 gallons of water from the trash can to top off the tank.
Sorry for the novel but thought I'd be thorough. Good luck with your move and again... keep some prime handy just in case.

 

[sghera64]

@brandon429, might have some educated input on the OP’s question.

 

[xiholdtruex]

If It was me I would follow what the sand rinse thread does. take out the rock and scrub and rinse live rock with some fresh mixed salt water. I would rinse the sand till clear in fresh water and then the final rinse I would use salt water and you should be good.

 

[sghera64]

FWIW, if you want to keep sand and not switch to bare bottom after this move, I think you have a few options.

1.) You can begin disrupting the sand bed now. Do 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank’s bottom by stirring your fingers through it to turn it over. This will cause “junk” trapped in the sand to be collected in the filter system and organic nutrients to move into the water column where your biodiversity (microbes to benthic creators) can process it. Depending on how old and deep the sand it, there may be a temporary ammonia spike. The benefit of this is that your existing system is in place to process what exits the sand when it is disrupted.

2.) you can remove on move day after you remove the coral, rock and fish. Save all the tank water for now. Put the sand in a bucket and use house tap water while stirring the sand with your hand in the bucket. Let what may float out over the top of the bucket onto a driveway. When done, remove as much of the water as you can by tilting the bucket. Then dump some of the tank water into the bucket and swirl around with your hand. Tilt and remove as much of the water as you can. Repeat several more times until you use up all your tank water. Cap the bucket and it will keep the microbes (and likely snails) alive for a few days. The microbes are not really killed off during this process as they are inside the small sand particles and trapped in a biofilm. Some will die, but most will be there when you put the sand back into the tank in a day or so.

The biggest concern many have with a sand bottom tank move is disrupting the entire sand bed and releasing far more nutrients into the water column than the system can handle and too much ammonia is released killing all the fish. Either method above can mitigate this risk.

 

[Billdogg]

It's a 5 month old tank? I'd catch the livestock, remove any corals to a 5g bucket, remove the liverock to another bucket and then use the remaining tank water to to stir up the sand and siphon off any detritus that settles out. The last time I moved tanks, it was a 60g cube that had been set up for ~15 years and a 150 that had been up for at least 10. I used 100% of the existing sand (I left it in the tanks) after cleaning it as I described and had exactly zero issues doing so.

When you get it to the new place, get the tank set up,put in the LR, fill it with freshly made up salt water (DON'T waste time/effort moving old water), make sure it is to temp, then add the corals. Temp acclimate the fish and let them be free. DONE!!!