changing sand bed

[pgsasi]

hi guys
am relocating. i am planning to change my sandbed which has been there for 2 years now. will use max amount of water from my existing aquarium and remaining will be new water.

i would like to know if the nitrogen cycle will come again once the tank is setup in the new place. please let me know.

Cheers / Sashi

[Poseidon]

Yes, it will. It will be smaller though, as long as you move the live rock in water. The sandbed is a large nitrogen filter, and replacing that will cause a bump.

When I moved my tank, I did not lose any inhabitants to the nitrogen cycle, more to temp change and overall stress I think.

[pgsasi]

So Mike, is it OK to use the existing sandbed to reduce the cycle?? i am sure there will be a lot of dirt coming up from underneath !! any advise on that please..

[Minh Nguyen]

Don't use the old sand bed. I would use all new sand mix in it with a cup or two old sand from your bed.
If you keep your rock under water, there will not be any significant spike. Decrease feeding for a few day, everything will be fine.
How big is your tank? With a little help, you should move anything less than 120 g in the same city without too much trouble.
Mix water at the destination, correct salinity, heat and well aerated at the destination ahead of time. Keep lots of mixed water on hand use tap water if there is no RO water. This will be OK. Make sure you know where you will set up the tank, and any support are in place so that you can quickly set up on arrival. Do what ever needed to save transit time. Move the fish tank by itself before or after the rest of the move, or whatever needed to ensure that the rock and the fish are not our of the water long.
For new sand, if you can wash the sand ahead of time and soak it in old tank water for about 1 week. This will keep really jumpstart and the sand bed will be effective right away as a filtration system.

[Poseidon]

What ^^^ said!

I agree, do not reuse the sand.

[pgsasi]

Thanks for the advise people. I am getting my pet shop guys to move the aquarium. will use new sand for the relocation. they will also bring in new water for the aquarium. this way, i can bring down majority of the risk factors.. thank you very much for your time. I will update you on the move and get some pictures of it as well.

Cheers / Sashi

[My2heartboys]

Ok, when we moved into where we are now I took a majority of the sand out of the tank and then put it back in after we got the tank in. It was all the same sand and I really did not have any problems. Corals stayed happy and did not lose any fish until a few months later (lawnmower blenny). A friend of mine did some tank moving (switching tanks from upstairs to downstairs and vise versa) and did the same thing and did not have any real problems.

Anne

[Minh Nguyen]

Anne,
Really depends on how long the sandbed was in the tank, and how big the load was in that tank. A two year old bed will accumulate lots of nutrients. If there is a large number of sand dwelling creatures in the old sand bed, then there will be a huge release of nutrients that make cycles from new rock look tiny.
For a new reefer, nothing beat a sandbed as a filtration method because it and absorb such a huge amount of nutrients. From my own experience, a disturbed mature sand bed is an unending tank problem.

[kronos5]

I agree