Moving Tank to Tank Advice

[JMetaxas]

In a couple months I'll be setting up my 180 gallon Reef tank, next to my currently well established 65 gallon mixed Reef tank. (SPS, LPS and Soft corals). The 65 gallon has a 2" sand base and of course well established live rock.

The live rock will obviously go into the 180 gallon, with additional "new" rock. (which was acid washed, bleached and soaked in RO water over a year ago). My question is regarding the sand bed. The 180 gallon will also have a typical 2" sand bed, however I'm not sure if it's safe to simply scoop out the sand bed from the 65 gallon and transfer to the 180 gallon.

Perhaps I'm overthinking it, but can I just use all the sand from the 65 gallon and put it on top of the new sand in the 180 ? Will this cause any bacterial blooms? is there an anoxic area in the current 65 gallon bed that can get disturbed?


Thanks for your help.


John / Old Saybrook, CT

 

[brandon429]

Hey, I'd change up one detail, rinse the sand before transfer. Sounds counterintuitive but check this 5 yrs works on it:

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

condensed from 35 pages: you want to do the #1 thing that would alarm the usual aquarist, rinse the sandbed for hours in tap water, then RO, then pack it for transfer as clean mud, rinse again, set up at new place. move over live rocks that have been swished in old tank water; saltwater rinsing for the bacteria we care about, and because we want to prevent any clouding of transfer

you now how cloudless rocks, and cloudless sand, install a snowglobe clean reef and fill w new water.


the clean sandbed eventually regains life, worms, pods from the rock.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I highly recommend you clean the sand before you move it. There will be a lot of trapped detritus in there.

 

[brandon429]

i hate to kill off the animals in it agreed, but getting to that waste is the priority and they're all complexed together

worms gotta go then lol sometimes hanging around waste isn't the best zone. we started that thread to prove that all cycles in reefing are predictable and controllable without testing for any param

try and find a nitrite reading in there or an ammonia read, its like a wheres waldo hunt and we're out to about 200 or so jobs. we can easily stop or start any cycle and name its completion date with no testing. one of the applications of that science is not losing reefs during transfer, we do what reef conventions do to assemble all those instant, skip cycle beauties

 

[ZoWhat]

I'm more interested in how you are navigating a 180g 6ft 340lbs tank thru your house

 

[JMetaxas]

Wondering if it's easier to just use new sand instead? I would think the cleaning with tap & RO water kills off the bacteria, fauna, life, etc.... What would be the need to re-use the old sand then?

condensed from 35 pages: you want to do the #1 thing that would alarm the usual aquarist, rinse the sandbed for hours in tap water, then RO, then pack it for transfer as clean mud, rinse again, set up at new place. move over live rocks that have been swished in old tank water; saltwater rinsing for the bacteria we care about, and because we want to prevent any clouding of transfer

you now how cloudless rocks, and cloudless sand, install a snowglobe clean reef and fill w new water.


the clean sandbed eventually regains life, worms, pods from the rock.

 

[brandon429]

be sure and check that thread linked above its got half a million in combined move jobs, we always rinse either old sand in tap, or new sand in tap, the only sand we dont rinse is from KP aquatics and its real ocean live sand, not the case here. when sand comes from a bag, we pre rinse it to total clarity, only the bacteria on your live rock matter, so we never rinsed those in freshwater.



it wouldnt be possible to build that thread without tap rinsing, which is proof the bacteria in sand dont matter, only rock bacteria. This was is the safest tank transfer way, others might work but as soon as pre rinse is eliminated, the variations and problems begin. we are 35 pages no problems