Why not transfer sand from an old tank to a new tank?

[homer1475]

Done it many times over the years. The main problem comes from not rinsing it before adding it back in.

Ever see the amount of "brown water" that comes even from a 1 year old tank when rinsing the sand? FYI most people never vacuum their sandbed.

I have always left a couple cups of "old" sand to add back in for the biodiversity.

Folks think its purely mean to ask for a link trail for their discoveries.


its not. work threads have overcame so many limitations set by reef rule makers. It is simply not hard for Homer to begin a rinseless tank transfer thread, but he isn't going to for a reason though he implies to be against the idea.

Your right I did unblock you, just to see what you had to say. And as usual you didn't disappoint with the same drivel as always.

And where did I ever say I was against it? Pretty sure by the bold in my quote, I'm all for rinsing sandbeds. Maybe you should read(and comprehend) what I wrote before post the same drivel you post in every thread.

WE DON'T NEED YOUR WORK THREADS. THIS IS FORUM FULL OF PEOPLE POSTING THEIR EXPERIENCES, AND THATS HOW INFORMATION IS PASSED ALONG.

God how did the hobby ever progress without work threads all these years? Oh thats right, we passed along information of one reefer to another on their experiences.

 

[brandon429]

I was not expecting any work threads, its not a problem I'm not quite as angry as you are on the matter.

posting opinions on the process is still a form of process evolution. your posts don't anger me so I never blocked you, no such nerve has been hit.

you say the patterns and work threads are useless lol I don't think so, we moved about half a mil of other people's time and money on file I know five thousand friends that disagree on utility. you're overstating the disagreements. we can't draw any procedure from what you're typing, reverse that and add to options. to be clear, I advocate rinsing your sandbed with so much tap water you instantly begin to lose friends and worms. rinse until its cloudless, until you've relented of all former training. then go a half hour more because you hesitated this long

then you rinse it in ro

then you use it any way you want

and then you lower your light intensity in the new setup to make up for ripping out all the organics and nothing will bleach. happy outcome.

I promise not to veer from that method no matter what kind of challenge mess gets posted for live time review.

and if they want to move the whole tank without a rinse, just plop that rascal right over, I'm subbed with notepad out.

 

[homer1475]

And as usual you can't even comprehend I agree with you. But because I don't have a work thread, my experience is dismissed.

Not angry one bit its a forum and the internet. If I get mad, I just shut off my computer lol.

Just bolded my response to maybe get through to you.

 

[zukihara]

Thanks for addressing the question. Do you happen to have a value of how deep a sand bed would be and/or how long it is left unperturbed for disturbances to poison a tank?

Thanks for your answer. Can I ask how you determined that it was the sand and not something else that killed everything slowly but surely?

Well, that was the only tank I have that had sand transferred and the only tank I have had that was plagued by constant death issues. I mean it's all anecdotal and I cannot give you a formal peer reviewed research paper on that tank, but I am smart enough (now) to know that I basically added raw sewage by not at least cleaning the sand thoroughly before going into the new tank.

The only advantage to using old sand is the bacteria and if you wash it all out then what is the point? You saved $50 and worked like a dog to clean it using copious amounts of water that costs money as well?

If you introduce bad things with the sand there is pretty much no going back on that without massive effort. Again, why risk it?

 

[Bleigh]

So I’m in the process of setting go up a new tank. It’s a Red Sea 650 peninsula.
I bought new live sand. Some of the reasons:

I’m letting the new tank cycle. While it marinated, the old tank is still up and running. So taking from there doesn’t make sense.

I do have a bucket of sand from an old tank l I took down. It’s full of bits of algae and dust and who knows what else. It looks pretty gross, so honestly didn’t even occur to me to use it I. The tank. I did use some of the sand to cover seams In the aquascape. Because all of the detritus in it that would rot, I imagine it would smell like a sewer. I probably could have cleanded it in and acid bath... I may still do that - but definitely no micro biome benefits then.

Finally, compared to the other expenses of the tank, 3 bags of live sand is pretty cheap and easy to manage. No extra work other than dumping the bag in. AND I have the Potential benefits of micro biome. My time is valuable and unless I’m saving around $100-$200 per hour of work, it’s not worth it to me to do tedious work.

 

[brandon429]

I agree it can pretty much be used just that way and in fact the labels say to use it just that way and add the flocculent packs.


what we're doing here is bio hacking lol of cycles, of transfers, of friendships of everything. we think there's an ideal way ha nice.

given settling time I bet it works out just fine above that doesn't sound like any overload for a typical reef tank described.

 

[Azedenkae]

So I’m in the process of setting go up a new tank. It’s a Red Sea 650 peninsula.
I bought new live sand. Some of the reasons:

I’m letting the new tank cycle. While it marinated, the old tank is still up and running. So taking from there doesn’t make sense.

I do have a bucket of sand from an old tank l I took down. It’s full of bits of algae and dust and who knows what else. It looks pretty gross, so honestly didn’t even occur to me to use it I. The tank. I did use some of the sand to cover seams In the aquascape. Because all of the detritus in it that would rot, I imagine it would smell like a sewer. I probably could have cleanded it in and acid bath... I may still do that - but definitely no micro biome benefits then.

Finally, compared to the other expenses of the tank, 3 bags of live sand is pretty cheap and easy to manage. No extra work other than dumping the bag in. AND I have the Potential benefits of micro biome. My time is valuable and unless I’m saving around $100-$200 per hour of work, it’s not worth it to me to do tedious work.

Thanks, make sense to me.

Personally I'd be happy to chuck the gross sand into the new tank to cycle because well, it is cycling, and let all that muck and everything establish the tank. But that's just me. XD See your explanation really makes sense, because both time and the lack of smell are things I can see why people would want to avoid old sand.

 

[Azedenkae]

Well, that was the only tank I have that had sand transferred and the only tank I have had that was plagued by constant death issues. I mean it's all anecdotal and I cannot give you a formal peer reviewed research paper on that tank, but I am smart enough (now) to know that I basically added raw sewage by not at least cleaning the sand thoroughly before going into the new tank.

The only advantage to using old sand is the bacteria and if you wash it all out then what is the point? You saved $50 and worked like a dog to clean it using copious amounts of water that costs money as well?

If you introduce bad things with the sand there is pretty much no going back on that without massive effort. Again, why risk it?

Nah that's cool, I am only quite hesitant to believe anecdotes when it is something like a single occurrence and a concrete determination is made on that. I believe if I did not misinterpret you, then you had other tank transfers where the sand did not come along and everything was fine? See that makes it a lot more credible. I mean, I would love to be surer, but at least it is a consideration that has a clear reasoning behind. Consideration for ever if I set up a tank in a similar way as everyone else and may have to worry about sand transfer. XD

 

[brandon429]

here are a few times we think non rinsing went bad:

Re-aquascaping nightmare!!!!!! Nearly killed all my fish!!!!!

Did you smell rotten eggs? Sincerely Lasse

www.reef2reef.com

Creating a safe anoxic environment.

Over the past few months I have come across information regarding the creation of anoxic environments in aquariums, one of them being a deep sand bed (around 10+ cm?). I have also heard that some people worry that it could create hydrogen sulfide, which could creep out if the sand bed is...

www.reef2reef.com

Upgrade disaster

Recently had a huge leak in our 90 gal reef which forced us to upgrade sooner than expected . The upgrade being a 230 gal with a 48 gal sump . Mistake #1 I added some of the old sand assuming it would be beneficial to have a little bacteria .. I was wrong . Nuked the whole tank killing all fish...

www.reef2reef.com

in all of Rcm's thread/harsh back and forth they all made a great case for the toxin to potentially be non ammonia related, can be other bacterially-associated compounds from sand. the debate continues on caustatives there and no ten folks will ever agree on etiology. some feel its unassociated fish poisoning, yet tbd.


but in the sand rinse thread, fifty pages of the same outcomes. for sure anecdotes move into patterned science if one can align enough repeats and log them.

by simply rinsing, none of the above outcomes will occur, not once. so I must trace them back to nonrinsing, though actual causatives are agreed yet to be pinpointed, measured etc.

we truly need someone with a seneye right now to go measure some stored up aged sand when its disturbed

does nh3 spike?

 

[ReefJCB]

So for those who transfer their sand from an old to a new tank, this question is not for you.

This question is for those who would not transfer sand over to a new tank, instead adding new sand. My question are:
1. Why do you do it,
2. What are the benefits you see in using new sand instead of old sand,
3. And/or disadvantages/dangers of transferring old sand?

P.S. Just to clarify: I am not planning to transfer tanks at the moment, or anything like that. I am just straight up curious and all I want to do is know more about what people do and think in this hobby.

I recently redid all my rockwork and sand.

The goal was to get a fresh start, redo my rock scape, and NOT transfer any pests.

I was pretty overrun with aiptasia and vermatids so bringing over old sand would pretty much guarantee reintroducing them to my new rockwork.

The downside was I lost a ton of beneficial bacteria and filtration. I had new tank syndrome for another 6-8 months and struggled with my corals for a while.

 

[Azedenkae]

I recently redid all my rockwork and sand.

The goal was to get a fresh start, redo my rock scape, and NOT transfer any pests.

I was pretty overrun with aiptasia and vermatids so bringing over old sand would pretty much guarantee reintroducing them to my new rockwork.

The downside was I lost a ton of beneficial bacteria and filtration. I had new tank syndrome for another 6-8 months and struggled with my corals for a while.

Thanks for your answer! That's a great reason not to transfer. What did you end up doing with your rocks? Sanitized them or got new ones?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Truth in this. Unless they have done their research and read all about your methods love reading your stuff @brandon429

Happy reefing.

To say someone must have 100 cases documented to have an opinion on a question is Ludacris and laughable at face value.

Look at the questions. I don't need Any work threads to answer why I do something (which is being asked) This is opinion gathering.

#3 is the only one where background information is helpful. Anybody who's been on this site for 24 hours knows Brandon's opinion on this. I've read them enough to regurgitate them and I have exactly ZERO pages of work threads.


"This question is for those who would not transfer sand over to a new tank, instead adding new sand. My question are:
1. Why do you do it,
2. What are the benefits you see in using new sand instead of old sand,
3. And/or disadvantages/dangers of transferring old sand?"