Upgrading Tank "What to do with old substrate"

[lildodoo]

I currently have a 90 gallon (48"x18") with about 3" of sand, and will be upgrading to a 150 gallon (36"x36"). My question is what should I do with the old substrate. Should I transfer all of it to the 150 and and add new sand on top of it until my desired depth, or is better to just use all new sand? Any advice is a appreciated.

Thanks

[FarmerTy]

New sand... I'd trash the old stuff, except save a scoop or two to seed your new tank. Just my 2 cents.

[jestep]

How old is it? I've heard of people reusing, but I probably wouldn't do it without thoroughly rinsing it. If it's an older tank, you're going to stir up so much crud the tank's going to be uninhabitable.

[lildodoo]

The sand is 3 yrs old and is full of little critters, just hate to see it go to the trash. When using new sand will I have to cycle the new tank?

[subsea]

Before I would throw away 300 pounds of substrate, easily $300, I would wash it thoroughly and reuse.

[victoly]

Yeah, it's gonna suck to lose some of that biodiversity that you've spent time building up, but when you transfer tanks, you're going to stir up grud and potentially eliminate a pretty large chunk of them anyway. If I were to do it, I'd probably transfer just the sediment, and try to disturb it as little as possible, and then fill the tank and let sit for a good while before I added/did anything else. I'm kind of risk averse, so personally I would probably just cycle new sand if it were me, but if you have your heart set on it, I'd try and be as cautious as possible.

[Scutterborn]

You could seed the new sand with it. The remaining could be passed out to members to help increase the biodiversity in their own systems. Just a thought. It's better than tossing it out completely.

- Ben -

[August]

I would dry it out and re use it start fresh with it... or all of it but like a scoop to re seed it

[subsea]

If you have a mature sandbed and were not having algae problems, I would use it as is. Treat the critters in the sandbed as any other livestock. When you make the transition, minimize the time. Provide water and oxygen to the sandbed during transition. No matter which way you go, the tank will need to cycle. I suggest you find a safe place to keep your sensitive corals and fish while the tank cycles.

Patrick

[Timfish]

If there is a lot of crud in it you could clean a lot, not all, of it out by dumping it into a bucket of saltwater. Doing this 2 or 3 times gets a significant amount of the detrius out without killing anything and you could use it right away but it is messy. Otherwise I would rinse it out with freshwater knowing it will kill everything on it but I would not toss it. As to whether or not you cycle your new tank it just depends. I've set up bigger tanks using all the old stuff and adding new as needed and not had problems but this is an area that is a potenial catastrophe if something starts to go south and it's not caught in time. Definetly do some tests before hand to get benchmarks to work with and test after moving everything. Remember RO and RO/DI does not remove ammonia (the carbon cartridge just breaks the chloramine bond and removes the chlorine) so test your new make slat water for ammonia so this is not confused with a minicycle.

[Bannerfish]

I've always had an extra filter handy so when I stir up the sand to transfer it or move it, I ran the filter on the bucket of sand to suck out the nasty stuff, using tank water in the bucket. Its always ran clear by the time I was ready to put it back in the tank. Then I drain all the water from the bucket of sand and put the sand back.

[(Bio)³]

Something I have done before is hang a temp filter sock in the sump and slowly stir the sand bed, suck up the water column with a hose and run it right into the filter sock. I changed socks about every 30 seconds-1min but I managed to pull a lot of crud out of the sand bed before a tank move.

[victoly]

If there is a lot of crud in it you could clean a lot, not all, of it out by dumping it into a bucket of saltwater. Doing this 2 or 3 times gets a significant amount of the detrius out without killing anything and you could use it right away but it is messy. Otherwise I would rinse it out with freshwater knowing it will kill everything on it but I would not toss it. As to whether or not you cycle your new tank it just depends. I've set up bigger tanks using all the old stuff and adding new as needed and not had problems but this is an area that is a potenial catastrophe if something starts to go south and it's not caught in time. Definetly do some tests before hand to get benchmarks to work with and test after moving everything. Remember RO and RO/DI does not remove ammonia (the carbon cartridge just breaks the chloramine bond and removes the chlorine) so test your new make slat water for ammonia so this is not confused with a minicycle.

I'm pretty sure the DI stage removes ammonia.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.php

[lildodoo]

Thanks for all the advice. Think i'm gonna go with new sand, and just seed it with a cup or two of the old stuff.

[subsea]

When will this upgrade happen? What type of critters are in your sandbed? Is it aragonite and what is the grain size?

If you are discarding 200 pounds of aragonite, I can take it all of your hands.

Patrick

[lildodoo]

Upgrade, hopefully will happen by mid next month. I just bought the aquarium and drawing out my stand and canopy build now. With work, three kids, and you throw in soccer, tennis, and whatever else the wife wants me to do, things tend to not go as planned.

[new55galSALT]

Old substrate is always helpful to newcomers who need a little here and there

[Sascha D.]

What kind of substrate is it?

I'd love to take some off your hands if you're throwing it out.

[(Bio)³]

Yes before it hits the trash, offer it up here there are several of us who can use it.

[+SChrisEV]

I'll throw my hat in the mix, if you are getting rid of your substrate, I'd love some of it!

[lildodoo]

NP, I will post when it is ready for pick up.