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Tank upgrade


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Won the 20 gal waterbox cube at CFC. Plan is to upgrade my 10 gal reef tank. I have two small clowns, neon goby, yellow watchman goby, and cuc. 10 lbs of rock with soft and lps coral. 10 lbs of sand, the plan is to leave the sand behind. So a few questions.

 

1. Buy live or dry sand for new tank?

 

2. Then adding more rock. Cured live or dry artificial rock?

 

3. Any other advice to make this easy with little to no death.

 

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Just out of curiosity why are you leaving the sand behind? The sand is a part of your biofilter. If it were me, and I have done this a few times before, I would transfer everything, sand, water, rock and livestock. Make up the difference in fresh saltwater and cycled live rock. In this way you should have essentially no mini cycle and likely no loss.

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Just out of curiosity why are you leaving the sand behind? The sand is a part of your biofilter. If it were me, and I have done this a few times before, I would transfer everything, sand, water, rock and livestock. Make up the difference in fresh saltwater and cycled live rock. In this way you should have essentially no mini cycle and likely no loss.
What I have been reading is that the sand is a nitrate trap and will cause issues. If thats not the truth, I would prefer to keep it.

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I recently switched everything over from my old 40 to my new acrylic 50 with no losses, I've always just tossed the old sand, bought all new. So much nasties in old sand... the only time I've ever had an ammonia and nitrate spike switching tanks was when I decided to keep my old sand, you could try washing it first but to me it's just easier to buy new, you'd probably only need a ten pound bag. Besides your old sand will hang on to phosphates then can leach them out causing some serious algae issues, imo why take the risk you can buy a bag of sand for less than $10, and keep a cup or two of the old to seed it if you want. I prefer live sand personally, some people don't like it because it can cloud the water for a bit and a bit more $ depending on where you get it but in my experience it clears by morning if you just add it at night. Sometimes it costs a tad more but I'm the type that likes anything that shaves time off maintenance, so I spend the extra $1 or $2 to cut out having to lug around another bucket and have to rinse rinse rinse... Most dry sand you need to rinse, live sand is easier imo. I just cut open a corner drop it in and drag the bag across the bottom then spread it out. You could keep a cup full of your old sand to seed the new if you like. Absolutely NO reason to keep old tank water, use all new! Little beneficial bacteria is in the water itself, it's actually best to do all new like doing a large water change! Also like cured live rock, just a preference. I'm sure others can chime in on their preference, experiences. A tank that size should be quick and fairly easy, just have your water made up and heated etc. I know all my fish and corals were happy to have nice clean water and new digs to explore lol! You'll be fine, it's really not tough since you're basically just swapping and adding new sand and maybe more rock. You shouldn't have much if any spikes or a cycle at all if you add new sand, using your old sand you most certainly will have a small spike especially if you don't rinse it (it can and does happen, happened to me!) If you vacuum your sand bed a lot you probably don't have a ton of micro fauna anyway, and if you don't vacuum it then it's probably just nasty lol... If you don't vaccum it try stirring up a bit of your sand and watch what happens... Do you want that in your nice new tank? [emoji50]

 

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Your best bet would be to set up your new tank with the new sand, all fresh Saltwater, let it heat to correct temperature around ~24 hours, start by adding your rock let it settle a few more hours then add your fish. That's how I've done it countless times with great success, never any losses!!

 

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What I have been reading is that the sand is a nitrate trap and will cause issues. If thats not the truth, I would prefer to keep it.

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I have switched tanks, upgraded ect, at least a half dozen times and when moving everything, sand included, have never had a distinguishable cycle or increase in ammonia, trates or trites. That is just my anecdotal experience though.

That being said even if your trates did increase, due to moving the sand, trates are easy control and have a minimal impact on your livestock; whereas, adding new sand, be it dry or "live sand" (which I think is essentially a gimmick), will remove your already successful and established sand biofilter. This could possibly cause an increase in ammonia and trites (much more harmful to livestock). The only true livesand is that that comes from your functioning and successful system......my humble opinion only.

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When I moved, I reused most of the sand and all rock. I had everything back in tank including 50% of the old water the same day. Fish/coral, everything. No losses. But I did add biospira just before adding fish. No cycle detected with daily testing. Did that with 2 tanks, same results. Now I'd probably add new sand and a cup or two of old sand.

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I would say your plan is pretty good. I dont vacuum my sand so its pretty gross when I disturb it. I dont want to start or restart a tank with that much trash in it. 

I would get a bad of sand and more dry rock. I could see a mini cycle while the new rock get set up with the bacteria but I think this will be the least impact. 

I have moved with out changing sand and with new sand. I had pretty intense hair algae and cyano on the move with old sand.its still kicking around and coming in waves and am about to use some chemi.

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I have and haven't reused my sand in 2 tank upgrades. First was a five gallon to a 10 and I reused my sand plus added more. Second time was from the 10 to a 20 long and I bought new sand. I would say I had less cloudiness reusing the sand, but the 5 gallon wasn't very old. I didn't have any corals in the 5, but i did in the 10. Just moved them into my fluval for a week until everything settled. Everyone is happy and healthy and a diatom bloom is fading away. 

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