complete teardown

[Rikko]

I agree with Jack.. Too much potential for problems when you're mucking about with anaerobic pockets.. If you really want to reuse the sand (the stuff's expensive unless you club Jack over the head with a trout and run away with the skid he was unloading), clean it in VERY small portions to be sure you can get everything off of it. Even then some life will cling to it and you'll have an echo cycle. When we changed our coral tanks to BB at the store I washed the CC like crazy in case I ever had a use for it.. Three days later that bucket was stinking up the whole back of the store! A second rinse after everything smelled and it was good to go again (well, at least the small amounts that I used didn't spread death and chaos throughout the universe).

If your time is worth more than the money involved, ditch the sand (or give away/sell it and let someone else deal with it) and hang on to a few cups from the existing one to seed it.