Tank transfer with substrate upgrade

[EnterName]

Hi everyone!

Quick note: I know this topic has been discussed before, but I'd still like to get feedback on my specific situation (and I need a thread to finish my R2R onboarding tasks :P)

I'm setting up a new tank to replace my slowly failing Reefer 625XXL. Since the tanks are similar in size, I plan to move as much water as possible and then transfer the fish, corals, and rocks to avoid cycle issues.

Problem: I want to ditch my old substrate after 5 years (it's looking rough and I'm unsure about its composition). I bought dry aragonite sand (CaribSea) for the new tank, but I'm worried about losing the established microbiology. I could seed the new sand with a small amount of the old, but the microbes won't have much detritus to feed on at first.

Question: Is using 100% dry sand fine, or should I add some live sand as well? I don't want throw in too many variables as it is an ultra low nutrient system and I don't know if the newly introduced live sand will cause more harm than good.

 

[JTP424]

100% dry sand is fine. There is minimal microbiome you're going to want to transfer, typically you'd want to rinse when transferring substrate, so unless you need more filler... Same for live sand, it's beneficial to rinse (and beneficial to not) 6 in one, half dozen the other.

Rinse your dry sand and seed as normal!

 

[Jarob]

Rinse the new sand 100 times until it's crystal clear. Sand doesn't hold much, the rocks are the biome.

For me, I bought the bagged "live wet" sand purely because it's so much easier to rinse so the few bucks price difference was worth it.

 

[EnterName]

Rinse the new sand 100 times until it's crystal clear. Sand doesn't hold much, the rocks are the biome.

For me, I bought the bagged "live wet" sand purely because it's so much easier to rinse so the few bucks price difference was worth it.

Yeah, I know the rocks carry the majority of the beneficial bacteria regarding the nitrogen cycle, etc. but there are all sorts of detrivores in the substrate I'm mainly concerned about. I will probably add tons of pods every few weeks to get the population back up. The annelids, etc. will have to recover on their own.

But yes, I always rinse dry sand very thoroughly and will try to make sure to not stirr it up too much when transferring water.

Thank you for the input :)