Here is the sand I went with

I went this this sand. It is .5-1 mm in size. Do I need to rinse it before putting it in the tank? It is not live. I have heard yes and no. I am going to try to do this in the midst of my moving. I have 1 day set aside to move the tank and get it set back up. Would it be better to change the crushed coral to sand now, wait until moving, wait until I have moved and go with a bare bottom tank for a while? I never had these worries with freshwater, but never enjoyed the tank as much either.

 

yes rinse it to, get all the dust off of it depending if your going to go sps dom. then I would stay bare bottom. As I wish I did but I would hadd the sand to the new tank but rishe it off real good. you want to get most all the dust off of it. then you can add some of the other live crushed coral I assume into the new tank to seed as long as you have no Piror issues with it. and you will be in like flynn.

 

I would rinse the sand. Put it in when you move. Suck the tank dry and clean with a shop vac then put the new sand in. Cover the sand with a layer of cling wrap and poor your water on top of that. The cling wrap will rise with the water level and should keep clouding to a minimum.

 

Thanks, thats what I thought would be the best. While moving everything we own, moving the tank, I also decided I needed to re-do the plumbing of the tank as it wont have any water in it. I figure to make all the parts before hand with some unions then just screw it all together hope it fits turn on the power and watch and hope it all works like I planned.

 

Moving is never any fun. I always try to devote a full day just for my reef tank because you never know what will happen.

 

Thats what I am doing. I am going to be as prepared as possible, but I know something will come up.
I figure about 2 hours to get all livestock packed up, 3 hours to clean tank and sump, 1 hour to pack all live rock in totes with water, 1 hour drive time and unload, 1 hour rinse new sand, put back together rest of the night, watch all night to make sure nothing goes wrong. The feeling you get from a successful move... priceless.