Transfer sand bed?
 

Hey looking for some help and clarification

I have a 55 gallon mixed reef which will be transferred to my new 120 gallon with 55 gallon sump

The current tank is 10 months old, so the sand is 10 months old

I vacuum the sand, or at least 50% of the sand in a reg basis

Can I just transfer it to the new tank?

I have read a lot about Re-cycling etc and nitrate boosts etc.

I am running high grade gfo in a reactor with zero phosphates and less than 5 nitrates all the time.

Any help?

I wouldn't. Or at least, not without washing it in tank water thoroughly. I did that once, my tank died :)

I'd keep the sand but put it all in a pail and stick in the garden hose & start stirring... When the overflowing water is clear, go ahead and dump it back in to your tank.

Not terrible advice at all, but using the old tank water will preserve a lot of the bacteria while getting rid of the muck. Whichever is easier really :)

It's best to start the new tank with new substrate. Even with meticulous regular cleaning you'll still get a big ammonia spike if you try to transfer the existing sand bed. I'd personally never reuse a sand bed, even after a thorough rinsing. I'd possible consider reusing a larger grain aragonite after a bleach soak to get rid of any remaining organic material that might cause an ammonia spike, and then a few days in fresh RO/DI but it's so much easier to start fresh and not have to worry about problems.

Again, not terrible advice, but I have done the rinse and re-use without any ammonia. If I lived somewhere I could easily buy new sand, I may have gone that route. If at all concerned, a good wash with fresh water should clean it up fine. Or get all new sand, it'll be shiny and, well, new :)

I re-used my sand,I just cleaned it very well until the water was clean, so all the debries are gone and put it back in the new tank without any issues..

Maybe it would help the OP to know for those that have reused a sand bed, did you immediately transfer livestock over after adding the sand, before adding the sand, waited a few days before adding livestock? and did you have LPS, SPS, mixed reef?

Transferred the livestock right away and I have a mixed reef with mushrooms Zoas sps and lps. Didn't had any loss after the move

SPS, same day transfer of all livestock. If you clean all the detritus out of the sand, there's nothing to generate ammonia. Using tank water keeps the bacteria intact.

Garden hose will cause some die off... But all the detrius & other toxins are gone.

Put in your sand and add all the salt water - make sure youve got live rock in the tank as there will be a slight amonia spike - live rock should handle it. Dont stir the sand for a few days, that way if theres die off/ ammonia in the bed its trapped... In a week once your confident theres no ammonia in the water, go ahead and stirr a small section - fingers in sand, just a section. How much depends on your tank size/live rock lbs/depth of the bed. Go slow and check you ammonia.

I did have bit of a spike and did a water change. I had live stock in there at the same time.

Using tank water will cause less die off in the sand but sand wont be as clean (unless you use a ton of salt water), other stored/saturated toxins my still be present.

Its a toss up whats better. Be prepaired for a water change and be measuring your ammonia.