Pros and Cons of replacing sandbed during a tank move?

[Oberst Hajj]

I'm getting ready to move into our new house next week and am trying to decide if I should keep my current sandbed intact (it will be 5 moths old at the time of the move) or trash the current sand and put new "live" sand in. My current sand is going through it's diatoms stage.

What are the pros and cons of both keeping my current sand and replacing it with new sand?

So things that might effect what I do...

My take is a 60g Cube with a 20g sump.

I have about 3 weeks between when we close on the new house and when I have to be completely out of our current house.

I have the ability to setup some temp tanks at the new house.

I possibly have the ability to setup a complete temp tank with filtration, lights, sump... basically a second system. This one would be borrowed from someone, so if I don't need it, I'd prefer not to barrow it.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I would consider a 5 months old sand-bed to be fairly new, especially if you vacuumed it. During the move leave about 30% of the old water in the tank and rinse it before taking it out. Older sand-bed should be thrown out IMO, (or washed really really good) moving an old sand-bed:
pro - you save a few dollars on sand,
con- it will either almost kill everything or kill everything.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

I would consider a 5 months old sand-bed to be fairly new, especially if you vacuumed it. During the move leave about 30% of the old water in the tank and rinse it before taking it out.

Thanks for the reply. So leave about 30% of the water in the tank and use that remaining water to rinse the sand and then transfer the sand to another container (5g bucket?) and keep it wet with a) new fresh saltwater or b) some of the other 70% that came out of the tank?

I've not vacuumed my sand if that will make a difference.

 

[cmcoker]

I'd keep it, I just had to do a tank swap (leak!) at about 6m mark.
I first scooped all the sand I could into a bucket. For the rest of it, I put a 1.5g bucket inside a 5g bucket. I siphoned the remaining sand with a 1/2in diameter hose into the small bucket and let the water overflow into the 5g bucket. Once I had a full small bucket I pulled it out, dumped water and repeat. I used 3 small buckets to hold the sand, iirc for a 54g display with around a 2in sand bed.
I then swapped tanks, put in rocks, sand and refilled tank.

I siphoned the sandbed more when it was new to help the diatoms go away. I kinda fell off on doing it after that though. So not sure how silty your sandbed is but you could rinse it before reusing.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Thanks for the reply. So leave about 30% of the water in the tank and use that remaining water to rinse the sand and then transfer the sand to another container (5g bucket?) and keep it wet with a) new fresh saltwater or b) some of the other 70% that came out of the tank?

I've not vacuumed my sand if that will make a difference.

I meant to say, syphon the old water out of the tank into the jugs, to use to re-setup the tank, before disturbing the sandbed. Leave 30% inside the tank to use to rinse the sand before taking it out. Make sure to use a lot of carbon when you first set up after the move.