Transfer--what do you think?

[Mrfish55]

When I did the upgrade the sand was the last thing out of the old and the last thing into the new, once everything was moved and most of the water was drained I used the remaining water to clean the sand, I just scooped out 5-6" into a 5 gal bucket and topped up with salt water then hooked up the trusty old Diatom filter, keep stirring the sand untill spiffy clean then remove the sand and add more. It only took a little over an hour to clean up approx 100lbs of sand, then bag it up, lower into new tank and gently pour out. The new tank was spotless clean and clear within an hour and stayed that way. This is also the same method I use to maintain the sandbed, when doing a water change I just siphon the sand into a pail, run the Diatom till clear then dump the water and return the sand to the tank. Good luck with the changeover, when all is said and done you will find it is not as bad as you feared, just make sure you have a little extra water mixed and ready to go.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I ran my 210g bare bottom for 6 months but Irene & I hated the look so I added some clean sand with no problems at all. You don't have to worry about adding the sand right away. You can set up the tank, rinse out the sand & then turn off all the flow before adding in a sandbed. I used a long funnel type contraption to pour the sand in, but you can just scoop it in. The bacteria in your LR will make the sand live again, soon enough.