Move to new tank (what to do with sand bed)

[jtbone68]

I am fixing up my house and have to move my 65 Gallon tank I was thinking about going to a 90 gallon tank while I was going to have to move the tank anyway my main concern is the sand bed ,should I change the whole sand bed -part of it or just mix it up and siphon off what is stirred up ??? I was was leaning towards changing about half of it -I was going to put the new sand on bottom of tank and the top layer from the old tank on top of that- is this the route I should go? (By the way the tank is 2 years old and my fish load is a little on the high side)

:fight2: Bababooy

 

[digitalreefer]

How deep is the sandbed?

 

[Will]

if it's a deep sand bed ...I would start over.I would siphon off the top layer and use that to seed a new sand bed.

 

[TimberTDI]

Jt,

Are you going to switch out the tanks at the same time? Or are you going to move the 65 somewhere else and when your ready to go back to the original spot replace it with a 90?

Steven

 

[jtbone68]

I have already moved the tank to temp place and that took about 10 hours (Added new sump and skimmer also )I have 80 pounds of sand ,I would say about 1" to 1 1/2" sand bed .

 

[jtbone68]

Hey any new ideas

 

[TimberTDI]

I thought you spent ten hours moving everything yesterday?

 

[jtbone68]

I moved the 65 gallon to a temp place about 2weeks ago, I am going to have to move it again when my floors are done ( I am putting in new floors in the whole house )When I move the tank again I was going to move to a bigger tank there is where the sand bed comes in .

 

[Henrye]

Do you want a DSB or SSB in the 90? You'll need more than 80 lb for a 90g for a DSB.
You can use new sand, and mix a few cups of your old in to seed it. I don't think you need to cover the entire surface of the SB with old sand. Besides, if your plan is for the SB to help in denitrification, you've broken up the anaerobic environment by stirring it all up anyway, and will have to wait for it to reestablish itself. While the bacteria may already be there (actually, they always are) you'll still have to allow for stratification within the sand to recreate anoxic zones.