Sand Bed?

[wesheltonj]

What would be the best guess as to how Long and how high a cycle I would get from the following: The complete removal of my current live sand bed from my current tank, that sand moved to another tank with the additional (store bought) live sand added to the new tank. All the current live rock would be moved and all the current water would be transfered to the new tank. Additional fresh saltwater could be added or the saltwater could be circulated with the current tank water and then added to make up the 50 gal differance. Thanks.

[cbianco]

I image that disturbing the sand, especially taking it out and moving it, would cause a large ammonia spike. Lots of junk gets built up in the sand bed. On the other hand, the rock would probably not cause much of a problem if moved carefully.

Christopher

[JimD]

Ouch... Make sure you dont put anything in there till ammonia is zero, there will almost definitely be a substantial cycle.

[michael_t]

I was thinking of this same thing and still am.

I resently moved my tank. I didn't remove the sand before i moved it but adding all the water back stirred it up pretty badly. Luckily I didn't lose any fish or corals. I could only imagine what removing the sand would be like. Hopefully someone who has done this will chime in.

Michael

[Bill S]

Uh. Don't do that. Removing the sand bed is what screwed up my whole deal at Xmas. Killed most of my SPS, and a couple of fish. Hiatt filter is the ONLY thing that saved it, I believe. I didn't think it would be that big a deal, as I only had about an inch or less. I was incorrect...

Use "new" sand with your new tank. Sell/dump the old. Or, put some new in the new tank, and when you have a chance, clean up your old sand, and add it a bit at a time over a couple of weeks.

[jrsatx20]

i took all mine out of my 75. rinsed till it rinsed clean. then left out in the sun to dry. then added it to my 135 with new sand. still had a small amn spike when i tested.

[wesheltonj]

Don't know if I am going to do it or not. Just in the planning stages. I have to see what I could get for my old tank, stand, glass tops and canopy and then talk the wife into it.

[Noober]

I moved sixty lbs of sand and added it to eighty lbs of new sand in my new tank and didnt have a really bad ammonia spike. I do however have a big cleanup crew that consists of over 100 nassiserius snails, or however you spell it. They clean a lot of ditrus and uneaten fish food out of the sand. I took out all but 1/2-1/4 inch of water over the sand bed and collected it all into buckets, there was still water covering the sand in the buckets. It was about 3 days and even mixed with the new sand I saw lots of nitrogen bubbles through the side glass. Good luck and just because i lucked out dosnt mean you will to, take the more expierenced peoples advise! Be careful!:thumbs_up:

[Kristy]

I read your post a couple of times to see if I was missing this, but... will either of the tanks (old or new) contain ANY livestock at all? It could be okay if you're only moving live rock over and setting up a new tank that you can give plenty of time to cycle.

But, if there is any existing livestock in either tank, then BAD IDEA.

And when you think about it, in terms of the overall investment in either tank, a couple of bags of live sand is not that expensive. Way too risky to save a few bucks.

[wesheltonj]

Everything moved to new tank, sand, rock, water, filters, lights, pumps and could add with additional 50 gal of fresh or could circulate the new water for days with the old tank water, can hold fish in small tank but not all corals. New sand would have to be added as the new tank has a bigger footprint.

My concern is its not trying to save a couple of bucks on sand, its cheap relative to the new DSA 140 tank, but to have all the bacteria that in the old tank to the new.

[OrionN]

A sand bed hold lots of nutrients in it. I would not reuse a sandbed. You may want to use some of it to seed an new sand bed. My experience is that once a sand bed full of worms and life was disturbed, it will take a long time if ever to become stable again. Of course how bad this is depends on how full of nutrient it is. Imported live sand from the reef do not really hold anywhere near as many animals as the sand typical of our tanks.

[OrionN]

.......
My concern is its not trying to save a couple of bucks on sand, its cheap relative to the new DSA 140 tank, but to have all the bacteria that in the old tank to the new.
I think your should try to minimize the amount of nutrients in a tank. The bacterial is unimportant. They will reproduce and multiply very quickly.
Many people who used to have a deep sand bed (I am in that group) recommend a remote sand bed (remote from your display tank) so that you can remove and exchange them for nutrient removal with minimal disturbance to the tank.

[Bill S]

As a molecular geneticist by education (and therefore a microbiologist), all it takes is a cup of old sand. Most bacteria double in less than an hour - some as quickly as 10 or 15 minutes.

Remember the old chessboard equation. Put a grain of sand on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the 3rd, 8 on the 4ths, etc. By the time you get to the 64th square, you have a pile of sand a mile high with a mile base.