Moving my tank - sand bed question

[alan mcilvried]

I'm moving my 75g tank so I can change the flooring in my living room. Tank has no fish but lots of worms, crabs, snails and other little critters. I have about 80# of LR and a 2.5" aragonite bed.

 

I don't think I'll be able to move it without removing most of the aragonite bed. Any thoughts on whether it would be better to rinse it in freshwater and reuse it or just punt and put in a new bed? If I put in a new bed, I'll probably go with much less depth. I don't think I'm getting any benefit of a deep bed with only 2.5". I see a lot of information around regarding depth of sand beds, but I don't really see anything compelling that would suggest anything other than covering the bottom of the tank is necessary. A deeper bed is nice for stablizing the stacks of rock (except when I got an engineer goby that just about did me in.)

 

I've had fairly bad luck over the last few years. I had majanos, then Ich several times, and then high nitrates that I couldn't control, even with aggressive water changes. Since I have no fish, I'm going to make a clean and fresh start.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Al

[Coral Hind]

I would just give it all very good rinse and reuse what you want.

[Ryan S]

I would just give it all very good rinse and reuse what you want.

 

I'd do the same.

[zygote2k]

why would anyone rinse the sand? if you do that, you'll kill much of the life. you'll be just fine keeping that sand bed going. have you ever had good sourdough bread? if it was good, it came from an ages old culture. one of the key components to a successful reef is an active and mature sand bed.

and an engineer goby.

[Coral Hind]

A mature sand bed is a nutrient sink by design. When you move a tank you disturb the sand and it releases those nutrients back into the newly filled tank.

 

Unless you want to battle algae for months I would rinse the sand. Your live rock will re-seed the sand bed. If you want you can keep a cup or twp of the sand aside and add it to the rinsed sand when you set your tank back up.

[treesprite]

Use old tank water to rinse the detritus and dirt out of the sand, NOT fresh water or tap water. That way the sand gets cleaner and the life doesn't die.

[zygote2k]

A mature sand bed is a nutrient sink by design. When you move a tank you disturb the sand and it releases those nutrients back into the newly filled tank.

 

Unless you want to battle algae for months I would rinse the sand. Your live rock will re-seed the sand bed. If you want you can keep a cup or twp of the sand aside and add it to the rinsed sand when you set your tank back up.

The organisms that live in your sand bed rely on those nutrients to live. I've moved several sand beds over the last few years and have never witnessed this algae bloom that you speak of. I have seen diatoms form from disturbing the sand, but that happens even in a mature tank at times. With all the different critters that go through your sand bed like sand stars, nass snails, crabs, worms, wrasses, engineer gobies, etc., you shouldn't have a nutrient problem anyways. But if you have a nasty, unturned gravel bed, maybe you might want to rinse it....

 

 

Use old tank water to rinse the detritus and dirt out of the sand, NOT fresh water or tap water. That way the sand gets cleaner and the life doesn't die.

define your definition of clean? why do you want clean sand? how do you know that the life wont die?

[Ryan S]

why would anyone rinse the sand? if you do that, you'll kill much of the life.

 

He has to remove it all to move the tank. I know several people who wiped out their tanks by disturbing too much of the sandbed at one time. So, in my opinion, he either rinses it out with a garden hose until it runs clear and all of the life is dead, or he throws it all away and adds a new bag of sand. But scooping it out and then just putting it back in when the tank is moved, is not something I would ever do. I've successfully moved my tanks several times, and rinsed each time, and never had any problems.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Ryan S

[steveoutlaw]

He has to remove it all to move the tank. I know several people who wiped out their tanks by disturbing too much of the sandbed at one time. So, in my opinion, he either rinses it out with a garden hose until it runs clear and all of the life is dead, or he throws it all away and adds a new bag of sand. But scooping it out and then just putting it back in when the tank is moved, is not something I would ever do. I've successfully moved my tanks several times, and rinsed each time, and never had any problems.

 

 

Ok, I can't believe this, but I'm in agreement with Rob on this one. If you have no fish or corals in the tank right now, I would just re-use it as is. I have switched a tank or 2 in my time and 90% of the moves were with fish and coral and I used the same sand bed with no rinsing. I don't recall suffering any casualties. So, with no fish and no corals I would just use the same sand as it is.

[zygote2k]

the reason why disturbing too much of the sand bed causes a tank crash is simple: you've messed with the biological filter and now the tank has to re-cycle. in a heavily populated tank, this could be disastrous.

[Ryan S]

the reason why disturbing too much of the sand bed causes a tank crash is simple: you've messed with the biological filter and now the tank has to re-cycle. in a heavily populated tank, this could be disastrous.

 

Understood. So you're saying because he doesn't have any fish or corals, why bother cleaning the sand? That makes sense to me then. But if he did have corals and fish, would you suggest cleaning it then?

[zygote2k]

When I moved my tank last January, I removed everything from the tank except the sand. I tried to disturb it as little as possible during the move and had no problems when I set it back up. I had a fair amount of corals and fish too. I experienced zero outbreaks of nuisance algaes and lost nothing. I suspect that it takes years to create a good sand bed in any given tank and that disturbing them can only cause more harm than good. As far as a sand bed becoming a nutrient sink goes, it only happens if there aren't enough critters that turn the sand over constantly.

I think that rinsing the sand to 'clean' it is completely backward thinking. What are you cleaning it of? Does anyone have any proof that re-using the old sand as is will actually cause an algae bloom? I suspect what causes algal blooms is lack of sandbed maintenance to begin with. There is so much speculation and conjecture in this hobby that the best course of action that I have found is to sit back, enjoy a beverage, and watch nature take its' course.

[alan mcilvried]

When I moved my tank last January, I removed everything from the tank except the sand. I tried to disturb it as little as possible during the move and had no problems when I set it back up. I had a fair amount of corals and fish too. I experienced zero outbreaks of nuisance algaes and lost nothing. I suspect that it takes years to create a good sand bed in any given tank and that disturbing them can only cause more harm than good. As far as a sand bed becoming a nutrient sink goes, it only happens if there aren't enough critters that turn the sand over constantly.

I think that rinsing the sand to 'clean' it is completely backward thinking. What are you cleaning it of? Does anyone have any proof that re-using the old sand as is will actually cause an algae bloom? I suspect what causes algal blooms is lack of sandbed maintenance to begin with. There is so much speculation and conjecture in this hobby that the best course of action that I have found is to sit back, enjoy a beverage, and watch nature take its' course.

 

 

OK - so here is what I'm going to do.

 

I'm going to get my trash can and put my sand, live rock and the water from my tank in it with a power head while I move the tank. I'm going to "sift" the sand to clear it of loose debris, and then put it back in the tank, with the expectation that I'm going to empty my skimmer cup every 14 minutes for the next 2 weeks.

 

OH - and I'm going to doing this one handed because I'm going to take the most important advice - which is to enjoy a beverage while figuring it out. What the heck - I don't have any fish to kill.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Al

[dschflier]

If you find that you are battling hair algea after this, I can loan you my sea hair. When I moved most of my stuff from my 210 to my 90 and 54 everything lived including my SPS but over about a month I began to have a bad hair algea problem. I got a sea hair and 20 snails and now I am back in a good place.

 

I recomend after the move to run carbon. I doubled up because you tend to get a lot of junk that now will be in your water column. Either way should work. If you clean the sand and just keep a couple of cups un cleaned I believe you would be fine also. I think this is not a bad idea in that you will remove much of the trapped junk in the sand bed. This is what I did when I moved everything.

[treesprite]

define your definition of clean? why do you want clean sand? how do you know that the life wont die?

 

By "cleaner" I just mean removing some still-breaking down detritus that may be on or mixed into the sand from old food and waste. Sloshing sand around in tank water is not going to kill the bacteria in the sand, using fresh water would.