DSB relocation?

[Questin]

ok, so I am adding a few tanks to my tank, and I would like to move the deep sand bed that I have hanging on the back of my main tank into one of these new tanks.

First off, is this something that should even be done? Its one of those AquaFuge External Hang-On Refugium and has been up and running for year. Will dumping the sandbed into a tank cause a problem that you can think of? I am worried that it will release too much stuff into the water can cause my parameters to go out of wack.

This is the larger AquaFuge, and what it holds is not enough to give me a 4inch deep sand bed in the tank I am moving it too so I need to get more sand for that.

I have plenty of time to do whatever might need to be doing, so if you have a plan that takes a while I would like to hear it. Thanks

 

[VanGogh121]

I would ditch all the current sand and start fresh, Use a handful to seed your new sand bed. When moving your existing sand bed you will inevitably cause a Bloom...

 

[turbois300]

I am interested in the response here also. I am tihnking of taking out the sand in my display and putting it into one of the other tanks in my system (all tanks are connected). The sand is fairly new (about 2-3 months old) I can deal with a bloom but I don't want anything to be catostophic.

 

[coral88]

If you can leave your current sand bed alone and just add a second one this will be safer than moving the sand bed. if much of it has been undisturbed for months It will be full of anaerobic bacteria. When you move it you will kill the anaerobic bacteria by exposing it to oxygen in the water and in the air. This will not kill all of it and you might speed up the new locations effectiveness but there is no telling what the impact to your parameters will be. It would be safer to take out the sand bed and add new sand than to move it in the system. The safest way would be to start the second sand bed let it do its thing for two or three month and then remove the unwanted sand bed. Seeding the new sand bed with sand from the old sand bed is more or less pointless because you will kill the a b when you remove it from dsb and if the new dsb is connected the same system it will seed itself.