New sand or old sand on tank move?

[matlet]

Hi,

I have a 75 gallon that has been set up for 10 years. I'm getting ready to move it across the room to another wall. After I move my live rock / fish into buckets/other tanks, I plan on draining the water and sliding the tank across the hardwoods (using furniture sliders).

My question is what to do with the sand? I have around an inch of fine white sand in the tank (i.e. not a deep bed). In the past, when I have disturbed the sand much, I get a gray haze in the water column and most of the corals are unhappy. The last time this happened, it wiped out all of my hair algae (a bonus).

Should I re-use my sand with a little rinsing (stir it up in the water column after removing inhabitants and then drain the dirty water) or go buy all new sand? There may be good critters/pods/bacteria in the old sand worth keeping.

P.S. I have a CPR hang-on refugium that will stay with the tank, so I do have a pod population in there.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[berje]

Get a new sand bed. The way you describe it sounds like the sand bed doesn't get siphoned out often, and when you move it you are going to disturb all the crud in the sand bed and it will all be released into the water column, potentially nuking your tank. So imo not worth the risk for $50 worth of sand.

 

[jennm]

When I'd move a tank, I almost always replaced the sand. Only exception was if the sand was newer/cleaner and the move was just a few feet - such as yours is.

However you said the tank has been running for 10 years... that would trump the short downtime and distance. It's a perfect opportunity to replace.

Do you vacuum your sand bed regularly? If you don't then I'd say replacing the sand is a MUST because moving everything else will dislodge all the crap that has accumulated.

And even if you do vacuum, it will freak you out how turbid the water will get, just by pulling out your rock and stuff.

Hope you have enough water made up in advance even if you plan to re-use some, and drain off whatever you plan to save, before you start moving stuff.

Jenn

 

[nickg]

10 years old= definitely new...

 

[darren24]

I always use 90% new but put a cup or so of the old just to keep some pods, etc. in it.

 

[nassar0505]

This...... Seed the new just a bit with some old.

Darren24;966525 wrote: I always use 90% new but put a cup or so of the old just to keep some pods, etc. in it.

 

[matlet]

Thank you everyone for the very good advice. New sand it is.

 

[lepchitz]

If the sand hasn't turned into mud, I would re-use it after a thorough rinsing. I just did this last weekend when i moved my tank onto a new stand. I did add a bag to it and sifted around just because after years of cleaning and siphoning it had deteriorated a little. Sand is sand, new or old, as long as you give it a good cleaning.

 

[jdavid]

Kudos to a 10 year old reef!