safely moving life sand from one tank to another

[tommy1618]

any body have any suggestions on swapping sand from one tank to another? any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.......thanks in advance

 

[BILBO913]

i just put mine in a bucket with water from the tank, and dump it in

 

[fishman1069]

How long has the sand been sitting? Its most likely going to cause a mini cycle once you stir it up. If your trying to cycle a new tank then theres nothing to worry about. If your putting it in a tank with exsisting livestock then I would rinse the hell outta it or use new sand

 

[smoq]

I've been in the same situation as you are couple of months ago. I was upgrading to a bigger tank and I've been told not to use more than a couple of handfuls of old sand in the new tank. Now I can advice same to you Live rock from your old tank is more than enough to seed new sand with beneficial bacteria and it's highly unlikely you're gonna go into any problems with using new sand. Contrary, if you decide to use sand from an old tank you may experience ammonia spike due to fact that there are detritus buildup in old sand and when you stir it it may leech into water. Believe me, when I removed the live rock from my old tank and stirred what looked like a clean sand layer, it clouded my tank completely and smelled awful.
My advice is- use some of the sand from your current tank and fill the rest with new sand (dry sand is good and cheaper, you just have to rinse it).

 

[albano]

I have done this a 'hundred' times, without problems...rinse the old sand in salt/tank water...as many times as necessary to remove MOST of the dirt/cloudiness. (you will NEVER remove it all...even with new sand, there will still be some cloudiness, no matter how much you rinse it).
Check my tank thread...I started my 450g with the sand from 3 other tanks (2 of them 6 years old)

 

[tommy1618]

thanks for the info guys much appreciated. its Hawaiian black sand so im trying to salvage it all to be honest. albano, did you add fish and coral right away when u swapped?

 

[skene]

I took sand directly from my old tank and put it into the new tank... I got a mini cycle, but it wasnt bad at all.
It was a straight transfer of everything.

 

[tommy1618]

and everything survived?

 

[albano]

albano, did you add fish and coral right away when u swapped?

Actually base rocks went in first (for stability) then sand was added, let it settle overnite, next day finished off rockwork/corals, then added fish... don't remember exact timing, but I would think less than 48hrs

 

[NYreefNoob]

ive re-used sand on almost all of my tank switch over, i would take sand from one tank and put it in the other and used either a diatom filter or a canister filter with floss. would fill tank partially with water and would occasionaly stir sand up and the filter would pick up most of the junk or debris. and this was done on 7 tanks with no loss's. either way you go about it, new sand or using ur old sane ur gonna get a mini cycle

 

[tommy1618]

thanks guys. will keep u all updated. once again, THANK

 

[NYreefNoob]

also if ya use a canister filter to do this get a polypad and put in there

 

[Imbarrie]

I highly recommend rinsing it with some used tank water. Or you could use RODI and then do a final rinse with tank water. I have done the same with some sand I got for free. It was sitting for a couple days so I rinsed it and then put it in a tank to measure the levels. Everything was fine.

 

[tommy1618]

all looks well nitrates at 20 ppms, corals seem a little stressed, fish are well. thanks to all.