Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[FunkyReef]

I’m so happy with that laser clear transfer pic set, so helpful for other movers planning large tank work

you didn’t use any bottle bac, right?

it’s so helpful to see that all reef tank cycles are linked in predictable, exact control since we are all dealing in stacks of rock in a display

that final arrangement, if done cloudless like you did, will transfer skip cycle any reef tank we can see it in the patterns

by not using bottle bac here we show that wet rocks will do just fine in retaining all needed bacteria + ammonia- consuming animals

Not only did I not use any bottle bac, I used someone else’s old sand. Which from my understanding is supposed to be a big NO NO.. 8th day in and everything is flawless, just started my new skimmer back yesterday. Water is still prestine without any additives, just replaced my filter sock a little sonner than I usually do

 

[Bakedpwn]

How do yall rinse dry sand indoors with no hose since its 10 degree outside. I was using the tub but its not like i can submerge a hose end under the sand so it isnt working 100%. Just wondering if theres a simpler quicker way im not thinking of

 

[brandon429]

I had that same issue in my apartment, dont dump rinse water down the sink it will clog the drains

I had a big cooler set in the bathroom. A small bucket had sections of my rinse sand, and the cloud water was dumped into the cooler over and over from the rinse bucket. Then every five dumps I had to wheel the cooler out front and dump it


Here’s a quick sandbed exchange from CrazyDuck

Can I switch my sand bed out and replace it with Aragonite?

I was just wondering if it would be possible to switch out my sand bed and replace it with new Aragonite? Every time I do a water change and siphon it clouds up the water in my tank and the sand has been looking extra dirty recently. Would this be a bad idea? Could it kill everything? Is there a...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[chrisd6]

Hi all,

I have had a fish only saltwater tank for going on 4 years now and came across this thread a few days ago. I hate to admit, my tank has been seriously neglected for the majority of its lifespan. I believe the last water change was around a year ago and the sand bed has not been stirred up in at least three years. The rocks were covered in gunk/detritus and some algae. The sand bed (which was approximately 4 inches thick) was caked in cyano.

Decided it is time to seriously devote my effort to this tank and also add coral and make it a true reef tank.

Given that I have (well, had) a very deep sand bed, I knew this method was the safest way to fix my situation.

I did some things a little different than outlined here, but I believe it is still in the same spirit.

I ordered new sand, which I spent three hours rinsing last night. I bought new sand as my previous sand was absolutely disgusting, but furthermore I believe this helped minimize time the fish were outside of the tank, as I was able to rinse the sand before tearing down the tank.

This morning, I drained the tank and got to work cleaning. I left ALL of the equipment in place. The tank is a 20 gallon AIO cube and I did not touch the rear chambers at all.

First, I took the rock out and took a wire brush and got to work. I was not gentle with the rock at all and harshly scrubbed each rock clean. I then sprayed generously with hydrogen peroxide.

I then took a shop-vac and vacuumed the sand out of the tank. A note for anyone who might do this, remember to take your vacuum's filter off. I forgot and it is a mess.

Once the sand was removed, I wiped the entire tank with paper towels until I felt it was spotless.

Once clean, I took 15 gallons of old water and 5 gallons of new water and added the water and fish back to the aquarium.

I matched salinity but since there are no corals I did NOT match temperature. The temperature of the tank when I added the fish was 72 and I keep them at 78.

Added fish back and, while it has only been 2 hours since I finished, everything seems fine. Fish show no signs of stress.

I used majority old tank water merely out of convenience.

I had been keeping the salinity at 1.020 (laziness/neglect) and will be slowly raising it to 1.026 before adding coral.

Wanted to post my experience and share what I did as well as thank everyone here for the guidance/sharing their stories to make me feel confident doing this.

I forgot to take a before photo (which is probably for the best, I am not proud of the condition the tank was in) but attached is the finished product as well as a photo of the old tank water that the rocks were cleaned in. Disgusting.

 

[brandon429]

@chrisd6

Do you have updates

 

[Ado]

@brandon429
How would you tackle this situation? I've gotten quite a few answers x.x I'm upgrading my 40 breeder to a 200. The 200 has about 150 lbs of dry rock and I plan to add 120 lbs of new, special grade sand. Would 50ish pounds of live rock in sump and display make it skip cycle? Would love to add fish and rocks together.

I plan on matching temp and salinity, doing some dental work on the live rock and tossing into sump/display. Moving fish and inverts into a tote at this time.

Any tips? Thanks

 

[mrpontiac80]

@brandon429
How would you tackle this situation? I've gotten quite a few answers x.x I'm upgrading my 40 breeder to a 200. The 200 has about 150 lbs of dry rock and I plan to add 120 lbs of new, special grade sand. Would 50ish pounds of live rock in sump and display make it skip cycle? Would love to add fish and rocks together.

I plan on matching temp and salinity, doing some dental work on the live rock and tossing into sump/display. Moving fish and inverts into a tote at this time.

Any tips? Thanks

I’m not Brandon but I did something similar last year. Went from a 65 gallon to a 180. I used a lot of new dry rock, new RINSED Caribsea live sand, and Fritz turbostart 900. I used probably 40 gallons of tank water from the 65 gallon and the rest was new salt water. I then moved every fish, cuc, rock and coral from the 65 over to the 180 and set my lights at 30% of what they were and saw zero losses. I increased the lights 3-5% every 2-3 days until I got them where I needed them.

 

[brandon429]

Fifty pounds of live rock will skip cycle any bioload we keep in a reef tank agreed.

It needs to be in the display though for at least a month after the transition

Then can move some down into sump. When ammonia builds in the display it needs immediate contact with active surfaces for quick handling vs having to wait until its piped down to the sump and back as processed water. The plan is good for sure, rinsing all the new sand will take hours done in sections but is worth the work

 

[Chasselti]

I used this method this week to consolidate and reset my two nano tanks. I had fallen behind on maintenance of both tanks, 16g & 10g; the former had a bad case of hair algae while the latter was covered in bryopsis and bubble algae. Because life has become busier I decided it would be good to consolidate the two tanks and deep clean in the process. It took me most of Monday and some of Tuesday and now that Wednesday is here I think things are going well…

No before pics but some to give you an idea of the state of things.

After transferring fish and corals to a temporary tank I made sure the 16g was sparking clean, basically like new. I used new sand that I thoroughly washed - not till crystal clear, I used some clarity in the tank to take care of the last dust cloud. I also used all new water.

I transferred the inhabitants of the 10g to their own holding tank and removed the rock work which was covered in thick matt of bryopsis and bubble algae - I removed as much as possible by hand, gave it a brush down and spray with H2O2. The idea was to get it as clean as possible so I can treat with fluconazole in a week or two and not have too much die off in the tank. I would’ve liked to do more targeted scraping but with so much to do I was feeling pressed for time.

I acclimated the 10g fish and introduced them on Monday night; the 16g fish went in Tuesday night - I’m hoping the two clownfish will pair/get along; they are different sizes. There has been a bit of chasing but I’m keeping a close eye on them. There is also a hasselts’s goby and a few small cave gobies which I’m hoping won’t contribute much to the bioload. It was quite nerve wracking but this thread gave me the confidence in the resilience of the microbiology to go ahead. Now to stay on top of maintenance. Anyone with fluconazole advice? How long do you think I should wait?

 

[brandon429]

Thank you so much for posting that perfect work

It’s the most thorough clean I’ve seen in a while, will also link your work to two other work threads for others to study that is sharp reef control wow

 

[BR260354]

I am planning on upgrading from a 42g (2.5 years old) to a 110g (when I get final permission, of course). The one thing that I have that may help is an external refugium. That refugium is around 16g and has a "cooked" rock. So, if I take down the current 42g, put the fish and corals in a big tub, move the current rock to the 110g that has NSW and connect the external refugium, would that help stabilize things?

The 110g is going into the same place as the 42g...only place I can really put it.

I will add new sand, of course. I also need to add a lot more rock and that will probably be dry. Should I cook that ahead of time? Looking to minimize the uglies. I beat them in my 42g.

I'm still in the early planning stages.

 

[brandon429]

If you don’t disturb the sandbed in a Refugium you can move it and attach it to a new tank. The main thing is not transferring unrinsed display sand, so the skip cycle benefit can continue in pattern

Excellent tests planned and underway here am thankful for the thread motion

 

[BR260354]

If you don’t disturb the sandbed in a Refugium you can move it and attach it to a new tank. The main thing is not transferring unrinsed display sand, so the skip cycle benefit can continue in pattern

Excellent tests planned and underway here am thankful for the thread motion

The external refugium has no sand. Currently I pump water from my sump to the refugium and it gravity feeds back. It's more or less a second display. I figure this could give me a head start.

Once I have the new aquarium plumbed in and ready to go, do I use any water from the old system....take the water from the big tub?

Yes, this is a great thread. I'm mapping out my plan in a document trying to be detailed as possible. I appreciate everyone's time!

 

[brandon429]

All new water matching temp and salinity is 90% of the jobs outcome here so that is ok, and for systems where no invasion challenge was underway it’s for sure ok to use old tank water.

 

[rtrdeuce]

I have a 75g that’s been up a month. Holds about 75 lbs of rock, 60 lbs of unrinsed sand.

Next weekend, I’m upgrading to 166g w/ a 30+ sump. The upgrade is a tank currently in use. It is an established tank with plenty of rock and sand (unsure if rinsed). I have to figure out a way to accomplish a few things.

The upgraded tank comes with a pair of yellow tangs that I would very much like to keep alive. I’m unsure how to plan for this. Do I keep the existing sand bed and just rinse it until it passes the glass test, or buy 160+ lbs of new and rinse. What do I do with the tangs while I’m rinsing the sand if I keep it? Would it be worth doing a complete rip clean on the upgrade?

Will have a 100g brute container. Could I put all the rock in there with the fish for a day or two while I rinse the sand thoroughly? Could I leave them in there for a few days while I take the rock out one piece at a time and scrape? I do not want to put the tangs in my 75, as the goal is to QT all of my fish before introducing them to the upgrade. Trying to plan all this out and feeling defeated already.

 

[brandon429]

Thank you so much for posting! Take good sequence pics for us and post the work updates pls, others will copy your work one day as someone else seeks tank combo planning on file

I’m very thankful to have transfer and combination jobs on the line here live time so we can keep using updated cycling science on these tanks to create auditable logs for the jobs after completion.

Here are my answers to what I predict will make a seamless skip cycle blend of your tanks:

—The upgraded tank comes with a pair of yellow tangs that I would very much like to keep alive.

-there will be a change in environmental stasis that keeps ich/crypto and other maladies under control if they’re asymptomatic in the current setup and being blended with portions of your current setup. Depending on your receiving tank’s disease preps -and- the current owners disease preps/fallow and qt history my main concern would be common disease outbreaks having nothing to do with cycle control. Am relaying this because I’m seeing an uptick in disease outbreaks that occur during substrate disturbances, cleaning and moves, in the fish disease forum and have mentioned that several times in discussions already. Since you have QT planned for them I think that’s great and you’ll likely be able to spot any changes and manage outside the main display until ready to integrate.



—Do I keep the existing sand bed and just rinse it until it passes the glass test, or buy 160+ lbs of new and rinse.

Makes no difference biologically. Pick whichever you prefer

I’ve tracked both approaches here and there isn’t any outcome difference between the two options. In my own 18 year old pico reef I’ve managed it solely by rip cleans and whether or not I’m replacing sand or using old doesn’t change the frequency of rip cleans needed to age out the system. I have to use rip cleans because the sand is six inches deep and the system fills up with waste every 18 mos or so since I don’t do interim cleaning.

I used to wonder if old sand being exposed to waste was an issue, it’s not in my opinion with several old sand reuse jobs on file now.

—What do I do with the tangs while I’m rinsing the sand if I keep it?

We like to hold in totes with lids so they cannot jump out, matching temp and salinity to their current water. The sand rinse part takes hours. I mean hours! They will likely need aeration and heat and some form of rock or seeded material from their current system in the totes that brings in no detritus but provides surface area for ammonia control. Either change some water if they’re going to be in there all day, or have some ammonia filtration ready as this is a ~6 or 8 hour prep detail.

One benefit of buying new sand is you can get it rinsed and ready in a clean pile long before you acquire the tangs. The tangs could just go right into the new setup with sand already prepped, and no hours long hold time.

If you might be able to have Qt seeded and active and ready, they could go into qt right then and that would reduce your rush time if choosing to go with old sand.


—Would it be worth doing a complete rip clean on the upgrade?

For sure yes, there’s no benefit in reefing to leaving old sand or rocks in place uncleaned and then moving them or transferring systems with waste laden materials even if you can usually do that without big losses. It’s a recycle risk to skip deep cleaning, and it’s an invasion outbreak risk to leave waste in place on rocks or sand, our exclusive results here come from putting every single tank through the exact set of prep steps.


—-Will have a 100g brute container. Could I put all the rock in there with the fish for a day or two while I rinse the sand thoroughly?

That part is unpredictable. It’s not going to crash due to ammonia in the brute with fish, but I’m not able to predict how they’ll handle that behaviorally, disease-wise or whether or not rocks that were relocated to the brute have any attachments on them (waste stores) that may be harmful.

—-Could I leave them in there for a few days while I take the rock out one piece at a time and scrape?

Same as above, it’s not an ammonia risk but has several other unpredictable factors involved.

I think your best bet would be to have a quarantine setup ready and cycled and matched for the bioload they’ll carry. Then you can store the rocks in a circulated brute and rasp scrape them over a few days as the new tank is being built up

 

[brandon429]

a bump for the thread because I am seeking more tank invasion jobs to run live time



I edited the intro speech on post #1 to try and introduce the topic that anyone who owns a nano reef and wants it to be uninvaded by tomorrow can have that result. it's also a silent implication that if they choose to be invaded day by day, for months on end after seeing our results, that it then becomes a matter of psychology vs reefing.

every entrant into this thread selected a mode of total command over their reef tank without hesitation or restriction on action. I'm trying to find more tank owners who are willing to act vs willing to still be invaded in October of 2024. for nano owners, it's easy due to tank size/easy access.

the people willing to join this thread are the same people who refuse to be that guy on the block who's front lawn is a total wreck while every other home is edged and kept straight up. nice lawns take work.

nice reef tanks take work when the going gets tough.