Looking for Advice on Tank Transfer

[DKoKoMan]

Lot of good information from all you folks. It’s much appreciated. Could I get away with using dry sand? Not sure if I can even find it as lost LFS have live sand now a days.

[Razor Ramon]

My thought on sand dry or live get the grain you want.
Order it from lfs because you going to need a lot .
Dry sand is a good start because the Bactria you add will be
Dominate.
Funny thing with ocean stuff it can dry out for years add water
And it comes to life.
For ease to buy I would just go to Big Als ,Aquarium Illusions
And buy what they have (Carib Sea) it’s a good product.

[DKoKoMan]

Ok well that works. I was planning on going to AI as they carry the Carib sea argonite which I’m currently using. I like this grain as I haven’t had an issue with it blowing around in the high flow areas. I believe they are all sold as live sand though in the plastic bags. Online vendors have some different dry sand options but the shipping would be as much as the bag of sand.

[CHEAPREEF]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Ok well that works. I was planning on going to AI as they carry the Carib sea argonite which I’m currently using. I like this grain as I haven’t had an issue with it blowing around in the high flow areas. I believe they are all sold as live sand though in the plastic bags. Online vendors have some different dry sand options but the shipping would be as much as the bag of sand.

Just remember AI will price match anywhere in Canada so double check the prices before you buy.

[DKoKoMan]

Awesome! I will look in to that.

[albert_dao]

Don't start it with sand. You can always add it later, and you'll have a far easier time starting the tank bare bottom.

[gregzz4]

Starting bare bottom is definately your safest option.

I recommended using as much old water as possible as this will, in my opinion, cause the least amount of stress to your corals.
Whatever new water you need to use, make sure you test and dose it first to get the big 3 matching your old water - Alk, Ca and Mag. And aerate it well to off-gas the CO2, bringing the pH up. I do this overnight as it's part of my routine before a WC.
I use a Maxijet breaking the surface for this.

[Dash]

Hey you’ve been following my tank transfer, right? Now you know what NOT to do

Anyway, best thing for me was being able to run both tanks side by side for a while so I could move a few things over to start it off. I guess I’m in the minority here in that I wanted to keep my sand. I moved some over to help seed the bit of new sand, and then the rest of the sand on transfer day I swirled around & rinsed in the old tank (after livestock was out) before taking it out by net. It was not a lot of work at all & settled quickly.

Anyway just wanted to wish you well on your transfer!