# Tank Upgrade - Substrate Question



## Octavian (Sep 30, 2009)

I'm in the process of upgrading my 29g salt aquarium to a 50g drilled tank. Just wondering what people do with the substrate from the old tank when they do upgrades. I'm using sugar fine oolite sand. Do you completely rinse it, add it to the new tank as is or do a combination of both?


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## Chromey (Sep 25, 2010)

from what ive read, Most just add new Sub, With a scoop of the old.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

leave few inches on the top of the old sand in the old tank. Put one side of the tank higher and take sand out with the kitchen strainer with very small holes. All dirt with stay in the tank and put this sand in the new tank. It worked well for me, but I am not sure if the strainer will stop your fine sand from leaking back

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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

I'd so something similar to sig. There is lots of good stuff in the substrate that should help kickstart your knew tank.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

i was adding a few scoops of substrate to my new tank every week while it cycled. It took me about 6 weeks to move everything but atleast I knew that I wasn't really destroying any of the good critters in the sand.


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

If you're moving stuff over, I would either use none of the sand, or wash it very very well, and move it over a period of several weeks.
If you're planning on cycling everything, I would get as much detritus out as possible - it adds up - and vacuum it out.
I've lost tanks after moving over sand beds... its not worth it imho.
even considering how much it costs!


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## Chromey (Sep 25, 2010)

I think that what altcharacter stated. Little bits at a time.


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

If you have both old and new tank running at the same time then you have a couple of options. As stated above, move a little bit at a time OR you can try what I did;
- remove all sand to a tub (keeping it submersed in a couple inches of water). Use sigs strainer idea if it works.
- Take small amount of sand in a cup and swish it gently. The crap will come to top and you'll notice the dirty water. Pour this out and add some more water to the cup and keep doing this till the water looks reasonably clear. Now put this in your new tank. Make sure it is submersed in a couple of inches of water.
- Keep doing this till all the sand is in the new tank. It will seem like a painfully slow process but how clean you want it is up to you.

Now you can wait a couple of days for the new tank to settle and then move over everything else. I did it last week and everthing went smooth. Check out my pics.

Make sure you use old tank water when you do this.


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

Dax said:


> If you have both old and new tank running at the same time then you have a couple of options. As stated above, move a little bit at a time OR you can try what I did;
> - remove all sand to a tub (keeping it submersed in a couple inches of water). Use sigs strainer idea if it works.
> - Take small amount of sand in a cup and swish it gently. The crap will come to top and you'll notice the dirty water. Pour this out and add some more water to the cup and keep doing this till the water looks reasonably clear. Now put this in your new tank. Make sure it is submersed in a couple of inches of water.
> - Keep doing this till all the sand is in the new tank. It will seem like a painfully slow process but how clean you want it is up to you.
> ...


I'm glad this worked for you, but I'm not convinced that a couple of days are enough. I would still cycle the tank for a week to 10 days to see if you get an ammonia spike (I did on day 6). I cleaned my sand until the water was crystal clear....


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

Fair enough. Longer wait times are always better.

Now you have me scared because I'm on day 5  Not really but I do agree with you. I was planning to wait till the following weekend but I checked everyday and the parameters were stable enough for me. In my case the tank is fairly large so I have a certain luxury of smaller swings.


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

I checked until day 5. Hell rained down on day 6....
Do yourself a favour and do a 25-30% water change today, and add a good amount of prime to the tank, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

OK Teeme is freaking me out. Moral of the story, don't rush it .. and if you don't mind spending the money, new substrate is definately the way to go. I'm just too cheap.

BTW, I added about 25% new water over the past 2 days and already put in a healthy dose of Prime. Still not worried.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

+1 what Teemee said.

Washing your sand will also get out the phosphates that have been building up in your sand bed. Personally I'd err on the side of caution and wash it all except for a few cupfuls to seed the tank, and then move the live stock over slowly once you know it has cycled for a couple weeks. 

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## Octavian (Sep 30, 2009)

Keeping a few cups of sand to seed the new tank. Got an established 10g tank that will be connected to the system so I'm not tooo worried about losing too many critters. Going to wash the old sand this weekend. Got three buckets of new sand - pre-washed and two brute containers with pre-mixed saltwater ready to go. Moved all the corals to a tempoary tank and will start the plumbing soon. Found a white/cream coloured hairy crab in the process too. Never seen it before and the 29g tank has been running since 2009. Tempted to upgrade to LED lighting while I'm at it.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

you guys are lucky to be able to do it in steps. With my amount of corals and fishes, I must complete move in 1 day. I know new tank will run in huge cycle, but I simple have no place to store fishes and corals safely until big cycle will be completed

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