Moving. Do I get new sand?

Hi everyone.

My tank has been up for 4 months, and unfortunately, I'm going to be moving house.

I have a smaller 30G I used to use, so I'm going to be setting it up at the new house (10 minutes from where we are), letting it run for a day or two with water from my current setup barebottom. I will then capture all of my livestock, and transport them over to the new house, then, move the 90G setup and have it ready within a couple days.

My question is... What do I do with my sand to avoid a cycle? I've read to throw it away and replace it. I'm very hesitant to do this. It is aragonite crushed coral, so it would be very easy to wash, if I need to wash it at all. As I said earlier, the tank is only 4 months old.

Any thoughts from ones with experience? I don't want to cause a cycle, but I don't want to waste all this awesome aragonite.

 

I would take everything out just when your moving the tank and vacuum the sand thoroughly, get as much detritus out as you can. I would not rinse it, but if you do only with SW from the tank.

Keep the sand wet, submerged, and provide some flow if you can, if the sand is left standing for long (hours).

I do not believe anyone can predict if you will have any type of cycle accurately and without fail, but I do believe if you are using live cured rock and the sand has been handled in the above described manner you reduce your chances of a mini-cycle significantly.

 

If it's a shallow bed, it will be fine. If you can leave it in the tank undisturbed, you can put your rock, water and livestock right back in.

 

I'm curious as to why you're waiting a couple days to set up the 90 again?

 

if you move and the water the sand is in turns green or had any algae issues before I would replace all but about 1 cup full of sand, imo better safe then sorry I shouldn't cause a cycle either use 50/50 sw, 50% from your old tank and 50% fresh new water
.

 

Good advice, or if its more than a few years old, I'd just replace it. You can wash it and siphon the detritus all you want, but that isn't going to do anything for the phosphate and metals bound to it. These will be released slowly, as dissolution happens and tend to cause problems in older tanks. Most of us should really swap out our sand every few years, regardless.