Help required with transferring bacteria and critters from old gravel bed to new sand bed

Fishkeeperontheroof · Oct 9, 2019

Hi guys, can anyone help me with transferring all my organisms/bacteria/critters that are in my old gravel bed to my new sand bed? I have removed my old gravel bed and have it sitting in a separate tank for now. I have my new bed in my tank and dont want to mix the old gravel with the new fiji pink.. my old bed is full of small fan worms copepods and other small organisms.. is there any kind of trap I can set that will draw most of them in? I've read on other posts that a sponge can sometimes work but I cant see my fan worms being drawn to a sponge.. any help would be greatly appreciated as I really dont want to lose all the stuff I've built up over the years in my bed

thanks again guys!

reef lover · Oct 9, 2019

I would remove the fan worms by hand and transfer over. And then id use a large container to scoop some old sand and place in new tank and allow the critters to escape.

bearsfish · Oct 10, 2019

Yeah putting the old in a container or a bag of some type and leaving it open in the new tank will help get them over there.

Not certain you will get them all over, or all of them to move in, but otherwise it will be a big pain in the butt to get them over.

Fishkeeperontheroof · Oct 10, 2019

Thanks guys! This may be a crazy question bit can fanworms move about? I mean can they move location by themselves? If so I think this may just work

thanks again all!!

flsalty · Oct 10, 2019

No, they don't move about like that. They occasionally leave their tube under extreme duress as a last ditch survival method.

reef lover · Oct 10, 2019

When i transfered tanks i just dug them up and replanted them in the new tank.

Fishkeeperontheroof · Oct 10, 2019

They are still tiny, and mixed up in about 10kg of gravel, I'm pretty sure they do move about during lights off as a lot of mine started on the rocks and ended up down in various areas of the gravel, even in my new sand bed I can see 1 or 2 that have crept down off the rocks, if only there was some way to attract them.. thanks again guys!! All input greatly appreciated!