Re-use entire sand bed???

[MelanieF]

Hi all,

Question for you...

In about one month I'll be moving to a new apartment which is about 20-30 minutes away from my current one. Should I re-use all 120 pounds of sand that I have in my 72 gallon? Or, should I only re-use some of it and purchase some already "cycled" sand to replace the rest? My fish and corals will all need to go right back into this tank at the new apartment so I'm looking to keep the pollution levels down for this process. The current plan is to put any sand that I'm going to re-use into buckets with tank water to keep it from drying out in the process...

Thanks in advance!

Oh, by the way, my current sand bed amount works great for my system so I'm not in need of suggestions for sand bed depth, etc. I know how much some of you like to debate those issues... :wink:

 

[liquid]

Go with a new sandbed and seed with some from your existing tank. I've seen too many people try reusing their entire sandbed and subsequently seeing their tank have a huge algae bloom.

Shane

 

[Tackett]

I agree with Shane on this one. When I moved my fishies from a 30 gallon to a 55 I reused my entire sandbed and a week later I had to take a UV sterilizer (I know, i know, beat me later.) to clear up the nasty algae bloom. Just buy some more live sand and seed it with some old stuff. thats exactly what I am going to do when I move again.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I'm planing on moving in a couple of months too. Could you wash it in a saltwater rinse and reuse it? I can't really afford to buy that much sand for my tank.

 

[liquid]

You probably could wash it if need be. You'd be washing it quite a bit to get all the accumulated organics out of it though... If you do go this route, wash it until the rinse water rinses clear.

Shane

 

[Unarce]

I've had to move my reef a couple of times. What a chore :x . Each time, I replaced half of the shallow sand bed with the live sand stuff in a bag.

 

[Anonymous]

I have reused a sand bed once. I pulled it out rinsed in it fresh water until it ran clean. Dried it out in a thin layer. If you trie to dry it out thick it will get all nasty. I added 20 lb of fresh seeded live sand then I added it back to my tank slowly over a few weeks. I never had a problem until I nuked my sandbed in a flat worm removal incadent.