I haven't personally transferred sand to a new tank but when I purchased my used set up I retained the sand from the previous owner. I was a newb & didn't know better, in hindsight I would have rinsed it well before restarting the tank. I went to Vancouver from Vernon to pick it up and needless to say it needed to be emptied for transport. Live rock went into a rubbermaid and was wrapped in newspaper soaked with tank water, sand stayed in the bottom of the tank with a little bit of water. Of course no livestock was involved in the initial set up so it didn't matter too much that I was a newb & fired up the tank with all this old stuff. In hindsight I probably should have given the sandbed a real good rinse. I think as long as you take a few precautions such as rinsing well and allowing things to settle before you transfer the livestock you should be able to use all your old sand. The old water is not going to do much for any kind of secondary cycle or transferring beneficial critters, the sand will likely harbour much more of the stuff you want to get the new tank going again.
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