Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[brandon429]

that's a good summary above I have rocks with brain corals on them above removed from my vase, the rocks and attached corals are just detailed with a pick of some sort, working around the corals, I never dip or apply treatments to the actual coral you'd handle it like a dentist would be exacting on tooth vs gums rasping, set on the counter worked in the air. then set the cleaned rocks back into the clean sand tank with all new water. we dont need to seed with any old water or handfull of current sand, we dont need seeding the rocks are fine with their bacteria as they are, even after cleaning.

the prep work is primarily making sure you have enough saltwater heated, readied, for the all new gallons in the new setup. Ive seen a few posts now where that part wasn't ready and they delayed hours heating up water, things still awaited ok though.

one other minor prep: it takes a surprisingly long time to rinse used up sand, maybe 2 hours

use tap water the whole time, so you have endless rinse. we do not need the bacteria from the sand, you're trying to rinse it out along with the waste. final rinse is ro

with each passing 30 mins set of cloudy water, dump, rinse, cloudy water dump rinse lol you will begin to fear the loss of bacteria.
I even feel it lol as the author of the post, but we press through. that feeling is all the false training we've received about bacteria being weak and us needing to buy something to dose, so they're not weak


trust in the 37 pages lol rinse until that sandbed is this clean, then you will have a skip cycle reassembly 100% fact.




that sand is the caribsea ocean direct, falls like snowglobe grains.

*15 years of coral, rocks are sitting in the air on dinner plates next to it. I dont even submerge my rocks for 30 mins while rip cleaning, that's why its never a problem advising people here to hold their corals and rocks in a bucket of water.

 

[nastronaut]

that's a good summary above I have rocks with brain corals on them above removed from my vase, the rocks and attached corals are just detailed with a pick of some sort, working around the corals, I never dip or apply treatments to the actual coral you'd handle it like a dentist would be exacting on tooth vs gums rasping, set on the counter worked in the air. then set the cleaned rocks back into the clean sand tank with all new water. we dont need to seed with any old water or handfull of current sand, we dont need seeding the rocks are fine with their bacteria as they are, even after cleaning.

the prep work is primarily making sure you have enough saltwater heated, readied, for the all new gallons in the new setup. Ive seen a few posts now where that part wasn't ready and they delayed hours heating up water, things still awaited ok though.

one other minor prep: it takes a surprisingly long time to rinse used up sand, maybe 2 hours

use tap water the whole time, so you have endless rinse. we do not need the bacteria from the sand, you're trying to rinse it out along with the waste. final rinse is ro

with each passing 30 mins set of cloudy water, dump, rinse, cloudy water dump rinse lol you will begin to fear the loss of bacteria.
I even feel it lol as the author of the post, but we press through. that feeling is all the false training we've received about bacteria being weak and us needing to buy something to dose, so they're not weak


trust in the 37 pages lol rinse until that sandbed is this clean, then you will have a skip cycle reassembly 100% fact.




that sand is the caribsea ocean direct, falls like snowglobe grains.

*15 years of coral, rocks are sitting in the air on dinner plates next to it. I dont even submerge my rocks for 30 mins while rip cleaning, that's why its never a problem advising people here to hold their corals and rocks in a bucket of water.

Sounds good, yeah I'm not worried about bacteria atall - I've got a canister packed with biomedia, even if I went with all new rocks (I've got a lot of cured liverock), I'm sure they'd be fine. I'll likely have a bottle of fritz on standby just *incase*.

That said I'm super stoked to deep clean the aquarium! This green on the glass is very hard to scrub off with water and substrate inside.

I'll likely reuse the substrate after thoroughly cleaning, but I'm sure it'll look completely different - it looks like all the fine sand material are on the bottom layers, excited to see what it looks like clean!

 

[brandon429]

it will just ruby shine really it will

gosh you will like the sustained non glass cleaning after all the organics are robbed out of that system.

**nobody would think your tank looks bad right now it looks reef perfect. balanced, maturing and not invaded or out of balance. we are merely hashing out what's about to go down when we put the reef through surgery, the motivation for why surgery is warranted ranges tank to tank. one reason i do it is because how else are you going to keep a full reef alive for twenty years in a beta tank flower vase, its gotta be exported lol

the big tanks you all run are just scaled up models of that same impaction rate

You could certainly leave your tank as-is, and get a long time off it even with corals that is no doubt.


but now that we know deep cleaning is regenerative, not abusive or bad, once you decide to deep clean for whatever reason/house move safety you are assembling a tank that shines from the bottom up, and sustains low work for a while


your new reef is hungry

you just evacuated every space, now you're set for bodybuilding mass coral literally


you can't power feed on top of accumulation, it'll add more

but you can powerfeed now on a totally newold system, free of reserves

pack it in like a madman your corals push out new growths on the sides etc vs sit there

fish appreciate the new feed in, getting accustomed to wavy action work not just sitting there all delicate while the tank takes on waste.

there were side benefits to rip cleaning, several we've found. when you pack it all in, rip it again


your whole goal is to design a reef that runs with as low work, as fast coral mass, as reef exercise and then stop this method asap lol

until the world's best reefing method low work is found, we simply know its possible to drive coral growth with strong light and strong feed

by making room for that expected positive mass input vs sitting there daily, we dont poison the tank while we drive corals to look like antler growth, disease free, positive mass vs idle mass

the commoner approach is limited feedings, can't accumulate any you'll cause an outbreak. Whether I overfeed now or next month won't matter, a rip cleaning is coming in march Ill want a much deeper new bed then to change looks

I dont want to find a lower work way, dealing with a pico reef is already low work, this will be my permanent go-to method.

 

[nastronaut]

it will just ruby shine really it will

gosh you will like the sustained non glass cleaning after all the organics are robbed out of that system.

**nobody would think your tank looks bad right now it looks reef perfect. balanced, maturing and not invaded or out of balance. we are merely hashing out what's about to go down when we put the reef through surgery, the motivation for why surgery is warranted ranges tank to tank. one reason i do it is because how else are you going to keep a full reef alive for twenty years in a beta tank flower vase, its gotta be exported lol

the big tanks you all run are just scaled up models of that same impaction rate

You could certainly leave your tank as-is, and get a long time off it even with corals that is no doubt.


but now that we know deep cleaning is regenerative, not abusive or bad, once you decide to deep clean for whatever reason/house move safety you are assembling a tank that shines from the bottom up, and sustains low work for a while


your new reef is hungry

you just evacuated every space, now you're set for bodybuilding mass coral literally


you can't power feed on top of accumulation, it'll add more

but you can powerfeed now on a totally newold system, free of reserves

pack it in like a madman your corals push out new growths on the sides etc vs sit there

fish appreciate the new feed in, getting accustomed to wavy action work not just sitting there all delicate while the tank takes on waste.

there were side benefits to rip cleaning, several we've found. when you pack it all in, rip it again


your whole goal is to design a reef that runs with as low work, as fast coral mass, as reef exercise and then stop this method asap lol

until the world's best reefing method low work is found, we simply know its possible to drive coral growth with strong light and strong feed

by making room for that expected positive mass input vs sitting there daily, we dont poison the tank while we drive corals to look like antler growth, disease free, positive mass vs idle mass

the commoner approach is limited feedings, can't accumulate any you'll cause an outbreak. Whether I overfeed now or next month won't matter, a rip cleaning is coming in march Ill want a much deeper new bed then to change looks

I dont want to find a lower work way, dealing with a pico reef is already low work, this will be my permanent go-to method.

Appreciate the insights!

I've come across a supply of buckets, picking them up tomorrow even though my move is next month. I'm considering ripping my tank sooner than later that way when I actually move I won't have to worry about anything but transport.

I've got a big brute container I can home my livestock in temporarily while ripping and cleaning the tank and substrate.

Honestly I'm kind of stoked and might do it all this weekend if time permits.

I guess a checklist will be good to setup so I'll draft it below.

1. Get plenty of extra saltwater, I'm borrowing 6ea 5 gal buckets from a local reefer tomorrow, and I've got one on hand. 30-35 gal should be plenty (my tank is 39 gal total).

2. Transfer my curing liverock out of the brute, rinse it out, and then I'll fill a presumably empty bucket (or empty the bucket into the brute for water storage) with tank water, and locate my tester live rock, shake thoroughly, I don't have a bubbler but my live rock is relatively clean, will shake/scrub til I stop finding debris falling off, potentially using one of my powerhead in this bucket, I've also got a big pond water pump which could be handy.

3. Once I'm aware of the live rock cleaning standard/duration, I'll move my coral/anemone bound live rock into the brute, after transferring my heater and the other power head in there as well. Then I'll locate my other livestock, snails, crabs, conches, etc - I might keep the crabs in a separate bucket as they're sus.

4. Once all my babies are safe in the brute (including corals - which for their sake I'll probably stick to one powerhead in the brute), and it has proper water level, I'll use the remaining tank water for cleaning live rock, in the cleaner bucket, one by one, and then store them in a separate bucket once debris are mostly gone (should be quick and easy to clean the rock).

5. Now I have an empty tank with lots of worms which I'll feel sad for, but I'm going to pick out the big shells and repeat the live rock process on them - meaning plenty of them will make it, for example the shell with my feather dusters has 2 small dusters and a tube worm, and I've got several other shells with worms poking out of them.

6. Depending on the magnitude of my substrate, which I'm sure I underestimate, I'll possibly sieve the substrate into a bucket, depending on how long this takes I wanted to remove some of the random shells, but if it's overly complicated I'll just scrap it and hand pick as I'm scooping.

7. Substrate should be in buckets now, and tank should be empty. I'll set the buckets up in my spare bathtub that no one uses bucket inside a plastic tote inside the tub to prevent substrate in the drain, just waste lol. That'll run for quite awhile with periodic stirring until the overflow remains clear. Repeat for each bucket.

8. Once clear after stirring multiple times, I'll then siphon/pour out most of the water and then fill with saltwater, stirring thoroughly, for each bucket, then siphon out that water as well.

9. While 7-8 are happening I'll be giving the aquarium a good scrub with white vinegar, removing all the green and other buildup. I don't really have any beneficial buildup so not worried about the new tank look after.

10. Once done cleaning I'll make sure it's all thoroughly dry before adding my live rock and the substrate back into the tank. Prior to that id have preformed a drop test, ensuring that no floating detritus remains.

11. Prior to adding water, I'll heat in 5 gallon incriminates, that said, I'll up the temp in my apt to about 78 while I'm doing all this to minimize the idle time refilling.

* Brute tote should be fine while I remove the heat for just a bit while filling (as it had the heater the whole time, ambient temp should match.

12. Once live rock and substrate are secure, I'll have already reintroduced my anemone and a few softies. I'll continue to add the other livestock. Water parameters in both containers should be indistinguishable,

13. Assemble all other tank parts as they were, adjust flow, and enjoy a clean reef.

Please feel free to add any input as I very well could've missed something. Will edit and use as my blueprint

 

[brandon429]

Well done thats so well ordered I can simply now refer next job to post #724 we all wanted that ordered procedure at the start, nice one

bathtub filled w hot water will bring about 4 of the 5 gallon containers up to temps fast, about 3 minutes worth and the other two can heat in the kitchen sink lol that beats having to wait hours to bring up temps by heaters

guaranteed to work. * reduce lights a little and ramp back up not full production after the cloudless reassembly. Your live rock handled that way above retains all its bacteria. Even after rinsing the sandbed will still have some, all this song and dance was to jet out the detritus so half rotten waste can’t recycle

certain plan.

 

[nastronaut]

Well done thats so well ordered I can simply now refer next job to post #724 we all wanted that ordered procedure at the start, nice one

bathtub filled w hot water will bring about 4 of the 5 gallon containers up to temps fast, about 3 minutes worth and the other two can heat in the kitchen sink lol that beats having to wait hours to bring up temps by heaters

guaranteed to work. * reduce lights a little and ramp back up not full production after the cloudless reassembly. Your live rock handled that way above retains all its bacteria. Even after rinsing the sandbed will still have some, all this song and dance was to jet out the detritus so half rotten waste can’t recycle

certain plan.

Perfect thanks for the tips and reassurance!

Honestly I might just do the sand rip tomorrow - knowing all this and seeing any particles floating in my tank is driving my crazy - plus it'll make the move much more simple not having to multitask, so in half a month I can focus solely on transport and not clean and transport.

I'll try and document as much as I can tomorrow and then can edit the "guide" as we go.

I'm also getting my first few SPS frags tomorrow - I'm probably a madman, but I'm going to let them sit a bit and then install them after I get the tank put back together.

Reeeee.

I'm running x2 T5 - one superblue one coralplus. I can minimize my lighting schedule for a few days, been adjusting it generally lately to try and make my anemone more happy.

 

[Gabe]

Good to see you still around Brandon Used to run into you a lot on another forum where I was gabe3eb

 

[brandon429]

For sure recall and thats a solid decade plus ago nice to meet up again~ hope your reefs still rockin!

 

[nastronaut]

It's happening!

So excited, omg the substrate was dirty. Managed to locate all my snails (even the small one), and even saved a few big spaghetti worms!

 

[brandon429]

I know how strange It feels to have it all parted out, tank empty nice follow through here and excellent documentation

nice pic of fish hanging out in the brute their home w be ready in an hour !

 

[nastronaut]

I know how strange It feels to have it all parted out, tank empty nice follow through here and excellent documentation

nice pic of fish hanging out in the brute their home w be ready in an hour !

Took a little longer than an hour but finally back together. I probably went overkill cleaning the sand lol... Have grains imbedded under my finger nails

But it was worth it!

Omg I'm tired.

Will post more pictures tomorrow!

 

[brandon429]

That is beyond clear.

Perfection, and being able to tie in those results to the prior list is gold

For this final stage people care about ammonia control. The entire 37 pages is an exercise in predicting where it arises so we don't have to use test kits that commonly show ammonia when there is none to proceed

A non seneye test kit can't reliably show us an accurate ammonia picture, your tank can. It's ammonia is in full control above pic, water clear and fish distribution is proof

ammonia noncontrol events are consequential, massive loss, they're not just a test reading without obvious loss and they'll affect the tank overnite. Literally how it looks after this many hours seals the deal; no clouding no animal mass loss means skip cycle complete and whatever non seneye would read the whole time doesn't factor.

 

[nastronaut]

Here's some more pictures from this morning. Happy to say my brand new SPS frags (who got acclimated to the brute) look happy in their new home! The anemone is expelling waste right now, but it's looked really good so far when open! ( Will get pics of it shortly. )

Even the worms I saved are looking really good, haha. And like Brandon has said, plenty of them hitched a ride on the live rock, even still have copepods here and there.

Excuse the dirty exterior, haven't fully cleaned up OUTSIDE of the tank now.

 

[brandon429]

That really summarizes the order of ops post perfectly with after pics! So happy to see its final assembly that's perfect for us

 

[nastronaut]

Anemone update, excuse the dark/bad lighting -

- like Brandon said gotta tone down the lighting for a few days -

I think the anemone wasnt just expelling earlier but was just sensitive to the light today. Early in the morning, and once I turned the lights off, it's opening better than ever and the tentacles are looking quite good.

*My anemone is pretty small, like 1-2 inches, and has been slow to find a good spot, but it's showing signs of looking better than ever, especially in a few days I suspect it'll really flourish based on what I've seen today.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Moving 5 different aquariums in 5 days (kinda shot myself in the foot there!) to my new apartment. My nano has a gross sand bed and I am debating rinsing vs replacing (I have about 8 lbs of new sand) and "toping off" with rinsed sand. I am also replacing one of the two rock structures (about half of my mature live rock) with newly cycled dry rock. Worried I am going to set myself back by disturbing the sand bed as well as the rock swap... Additional question which concerns me, will all my beautiful coralline on the walls die off during transfer? Should I keep it wet?

 

[nastronaut]

Moving 5 different aquariums in 5 days (kinda shot myself in the foot there!) to my new apartment. My nano has a gross sand bed and I am debating rinsing vs replacing (I have about 8 lbs of new sand) and "toping off" with rinsed sand. I am also replacing one of the two rock structures (about half of my mature live rock) with newly cycled dry rock. Worried I am going to set myself back by disturbing the sand bed as well as the rock swap... Additional question which concerns me, will all my beautiful coralline on the walls die off during transfer? Should I keep it wet?

Personally I'm happy I just did the cleaning separate from the move cause rinsing sand took ages.

I recall you can keep the coraline alive if you continue to mist it down throughout, keeping it damp. Personally you'd be rinsing the new or the old sand either way if we're going with the theme of the thread - so I'd just recycle it.

Pro tip - when rinsing only fill your 5 gal buckets 25% of the way full to make it much quicker. I started 2 buckets 50% full and it was a pain. Vigorous stirring goes quicker.

Another thing, once you empty the aquarium and move it, misting and or keeping wet/damp saltwater towels over your coraline, maybe fill it with clean saltwater asap - ideally when you add your rinsed sand it won't cloud anyways so you can just drop it in the water - or use a cup and minimize the disturbance by slowly bringing it to the bottom and then dumping.

As for the live rock - your old rock is adapted to the bioload - so if you're reducing it, maybe consider supplementing a bit more bacteria with fritz turbo start or something similar, just to speed up the bacteria catching up.

Just my speculation take it with salt

 

[brandon429]

Be sure and take pics five tanks is quite the challenge some are freshwater I bet?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

75G Cichlid, 10G Cichlid grow out, 10G Coral QT, 13.5G Nano Reef and I am doing a tear down and replacement of my 40 Breeder reef. Its going to be a challenge but atleast my 40B is more like a replacement setup. I think I have it planned out pretty well so far. My living spaces are just packed with tanks/supplies at the moment.

 

[brandon429]

37 pages and first freshwater

I keep two freshwater setups am glad to have some relocation challenges for mixed setups

Freshwater relocation is different than saltwater in this way: nitrite really is harmful here and adding surface area
to cycle in place before the move is always solid prep

All our pages here have covered that reefs run excessive on surface area so removing a large chunk of it at once (sand) didn't leave the rocks unable

But freshwater rocks are slicks vs porous typically and we need strong foam filters or canisters/ overflows running that are cycled on the new setup in place

If you are transferring active filters to the new setup Id still do rinse bed but have extra filtration in place for the move if possible, have very clean but packed filters running on the old setup several days with dosing bottle bac to seed them if you want the safest move

the risk prep here is only freshwater, in marine setups we don't risk too- little surface area. We're free to flip clean and rip the sandbeds all day long, marine needs extra surface area


Dosing bottle bac into already cycled systems does no good, the implantation zones are full of bacteria, no room for more. It swirls around in the water and is removed vs settlement

what we need to have ready is more active surface area plus a clean move for the safest freshwater relocation

by rule a clean filter is most efficient, so the best approach in my opinion is clean existing filters and have all new media in place for two weeks or a week minimum before the move. Moving a filter two weeks aged connected to the old tank is wise.