Moving DSB

[Mike Arnold]

I need some advice on moving my 75 gallon tank with DSB. I've seen some good videos on moving tanks, and have a pretty good idea how to plan the move.

I see some recommend throwing the sand away, except for a a cup for seeding, and some recommend keeping the sand and some recommend keeping but rinsing; I understand that this is personal preference for shallow sand beds; however, I haven't seen anything for moving deep sand beds.

Any help or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@Wiz
Ive been thinking a lot about this too. Id keep more than a cup btw, having transferred on once, and the whole thing if I could. I probably woldnt rise in the conventional way.
I think theres a lot of misconception on DSB and whats in the sand.

 

[Wiz]

Just finished moving my 30 gallon with a 6 inch plus DSB. I would suggest draining all the water and moving the entire tank without disturbing the sand bed at all. You will get a little die off but if the sand bed is healthy it will recover. I actually have a recovery thread going from the bit of damage that was caused when I moved mine. It will be a little harder with a 75 but I imagine still possible with two or three Strong guys. I need to put a final picture on the thread. It is completely recovered now. Kind of slacked. But here it is.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dsb-self-repair-proof-it-works.264813/

 

[brandon429]

Why not put to rest what's in the sand before the move, if it's clean, ok to move it


Take siphon hose taped to end of a dowel and put it in the bed and press down to get a low strata sample for waste testing

If the mud sample is high in nitrate and or po4 and the top water isn't, don't move it, replace. I'd be curious to see the results compared to topwater, would link them to our sand rinse thread as handy info

Since this isn't a remote DSB, but one that catches and holds some direct input fish waste, there is an expected nutrient loading in the sand but tests can confirm or deny

 

[Wiz]

I'm no expert, But I would imagine that there will be nitrates in the sand always. That is where the nitrification takes place and therefore will always have nitrates there. As long as the sand is not black and nasty it is live and healthy. Even if there are nitrates in there they are being converted. If they were trapped organic matter that was not being converted you would have the black. Or at least that's my impression

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

were I to put it all in a buckets and move it, id keep adding water till was clean ish. put it back into a tank with a low water "cap it" with new sand and let the tank sit until the water was testing well.
OR
take half dirty or half rinsed , put it in the tank, rinse the old sand, put it in, and then cap it.

 

[Wiz]

Yes, if you disturb this and at all I would rinse it extremely well. Any disturbance will killThe macro fauna living in it and the bacteria. That is how you will get the black. And if you get too much it will be irreversible

 

[brandon429]

We save too many invaded tanks by rinsing the sandbed for the measured waste to be inert across tanks but agreed specially planned ones can run unchanged. To me it's a measured call based on the kits, inert should read inert. At least find a measurable strata that is inert...if it's all nitrate then next up is an offset like carbon dosing or ATS or eventual bare bottom due to the bed not reducing waste.

If it's measured then it's not fully converted and can leak is my countertake...incomplete conversion vs leaking drove the bare bottom sps reef trend. Nobody disliked the look, or a place for wrassses to go...it was for the stored waste most of the time imo. This move is a cleaning intercept opportunity

http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-of...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445



Given precise calculation a healthy sandbed we wouldn't want to rinse would have high animal inclusions in the dredge sample and it won't measure spiked nutrient. Other than that, it's a sandbed that eventually makes us consider bare bottom. That thread about remote dsbs were the unrisned ones imo, due to not being directly under fish in dt.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes, if you disturb this and at all I would rinse it extremely well. Any disturbance will killThe macro fauna living in it and the bacteria. That is how you will get the black. And if you get too much it will be irreversible

agreed to a point. some die off will happen but the half seed is the way id go to bring that stuff back. I think its pretty hard to kill of all of it.
Impossible Id say. just based on cycling w dry and getting worms and hydroids and such from nowhere

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

We save too many invaded tanks by rinsing the sandbed for the measured waste to be inert

If it's measured then it's not fully converted and can leak is my countertake...incomplete conversion vs leaking drove the bare bottom sps reef trend.

agreed. DSB vs bare bottom is a consideration to be based on live stock and husbandry choices and methods.
a dsb stores food. Its a gut.

 

[Nick92515]

How old is the sand bed?

 

[Wiz]

My uneducated take is that if there is no food there is no bacteria. So there must be some measurable Nutrients. I would love to take a sample from my DSB to find out. My tank measure 0 nitrates 0 phosphates