Tank swap advice

[oldestham]

Looked for advice and experiences on swapping tanks. Currently have a 75 reef not drilled and looking to go drilled. Cannot drill my current tank. Wondering if I should keep the same sand or go with new. Current tank has been running for 3 yrs. worry about stirring up nitrates when moving sand and rock over. thanks for looking and would appreciate any advice.

 

[pickupman66]

Oldest.... If it were me.. New sand. you dont want to disturb that 3 year old sandbed. the Rock you are probably fine with. I have moved a 75 a then this past July, I downsized from my 180 into a 66 gallon cube. used 1/3 o my rock in the new tank and went barebottom. OMG do I love the barebottom.

 

[mfief]

I upgraded from a 55 to a 75 with a sump about 6 weeks ago.
I used all new sand with my old rock and as much of my old water as I could get. Everything seems to be fine to date. I lost a yellow eye kole tang in the process but that had nothing to do with nitrates. I had two tanks side by side and he was fighting his reflection ended up getting ich he couldn't kick. My nitrates were at 5 after the initial move (had an issue in the old tank with what I attested to using the old sand when I bought the tank) They were at 0 on an api test kit with in 7 days of the transition

 

[oldestham]

Thanks for input. What is ur thoughts on using some, like a few cups, of old sand to reseed.

 

[J Rog]

Thanks for input. What is ur thoughts on using some, like a few cups, of old sand to reseed.

Thats what i would do.

 

[fishroomlady]

I agree with others - 3 years old, get new sand, use current rock, and I'd use just one cup to seed the new sand.

 

[ReeferEric]

New sand, another idea would be to go with tiles instead of sand. Just my opinion

 

[dub3]

I swapped from a 75g to a 60g about 9 months ago, and just recently moved. Both times I used new DRY sand with a cup of old sand from the top of the bed. I blasted all my rock before taking it out of the water. I also used 75% of the old water and did a few 10-20% water changes the days following. Knock on wood I didnt lose anything either time.

 

[CUNAReefer]

Looked for advice and experiences on swapping tanks. Currently have a 75 reef not drilled and looking to go drilled. Cannot drill my current tank. Wondering if I should keep the same sand or go with new. Current tank has been running for 3 yrs. worry about stirring up nitrates when moving sand and rock over. thanks for looking and would appreciate any advice.

Hey Oldestham,

I've moved multiple tanks. One system was moved from Michigan to Wisconsin (I used the same shallow sand bed). I may be going WAY beyond the scope of your question, but its important that I mention it. In any new tank transition, a thriving nitrifying bacterial population is most important. Having a proper balance between carbon, phosphate, and nitrate is what is going to help you achieve success. If you move an old DEEP sand bed to a new tank, are you going to have issues? Of course, you just disturbed a common form of denitrification. If you have a shallow sand bed, you can worry less. When you add a large amount of new saltwater to established saltwater, time needs to elapse before the new water is populated with the new bacteria (this is where bacterial additives come into play).

Good Luck,
James

 

[Ibassfsh]

Go with new sand, but add couple of cups of you old sand. You can even remove old sand and wash with clean saltwater