Should i keep existing water? - Moving tank, need advice

[DamonH]

[I'm new to saltwater fish and am in the process of building an inwall (should be done next weekend! yeah!). I bought a tank from another member of the board, and moved it to my house. The tank was still running when I picked it up, but only consisted of sand, live rock, and 3 hermits and 5 snails. I kept about 80% of the water during the move, and made the 20% I needed to fill it to the top. I had read not to disturb the sandbed, and I didn't really during the move, but when putting the water and rock back in the tank I disturbed it. :taz: Now my nitrate readings are through the roof. I've done some water changes, and it knocks it down a bit, but it seems to build back up. I was planning on redoing the sandbed when I moved it in the wall, and probably still will (but keep a cup of the current sand to seed it). My question is, should I just trash the water and make new water, or is there a benefit to keeping the existing water? Will I still have to cycle the tank either way I go?

Thanks for any advice, I've been taking pictures during the project and will post when It's complete! Back to building ... heh]



Edited By DamonH on 1091892200

 

[BigStun]

[there is a benefit from using the existing water, seeing how it is already cycled...but now that the nitrates are off the charts, I would use mostly new water. Use some of the water for cycling purposes.]

 

[reefgazer]

[When moved my tank, I took everything out. i kept 60% of existing water and top off with new water. My nitrate was a little high when the tank got set up running again. I got some spagetti algae and leave my skimmer on 24/7. Everything went in range with in 2 weeks. No casualty of live stock at all.]

 

[Nautilus]

[I would slowly change out the sand bed and use new water.
If you are doing water changes now then just keep doing that.
Are you using RO/DI water?
Is the bed LS or Crushed coral? :shifty:]

 

[DamonH]

[@Nautilus wrote:

Yes, will be buying RO/DI water, and the bed is LS. What about this: Move the tank, fill it halfway with new sand, then use the top layer of existing sand. Keep about 40% of the water and make 60% new water? I guess what I'm getting at is I've heard people battle nitrates forever after mucking with the sand, and I'm wondering if it would be better just to "start fresh" so to speak and go through a cycle rather then battle nitrates for 6 months.]

 

[cpalmist]

[Nursing a well-aged DSB (in your case, Devil's Sand Box, I am a Rev. so I know about these things) is like keeping a lit stick of dynamite for a nite lite. You prolly don't want to do that...
Since your DSB has already showed signs of being loaded to the max with nitrate, phospates and sulfur, it would be far cheaper to get rid of it now than trying to nurse it along for a while. Right now your tank is pretty lightly loaded - rock, sand, some hermits and crabs, nothing really expensive - so it's a great time to renew the DSB or did you think it would be more convenient and far less risk to renew it later?
I know you are in a hurry and want to get things up and going since I was when I was doing about the same thing - this is one of those times when you can do something cheaply now that will save far more on the other side later.

You can try saving off your DSB in buckets and washing the !@#%^%! out of it to remove the organics and dissolve what you can of the nitrates, phosphates and sulfurs - you could probably reuse your DSB that way. Personally, I thnk you would want to bake it at 500 degress for an hour or so to sterilize the sand and let whatever organics burn out/dryout/denature. You'll know it's done when you stick a toothpick in the top of it and it comes out clean...but you may want to just buy new sand instead....

Best wishes on your new endevour!]

 

[melev]

[I just moved a 280g tank with 1" of sand, and it was not disturbed. I then added 3 buckets of LS from another tank that was thoroughly rinsed with fresh water. I didn't have any measurable nitrates after that, and was able to add my livestock shortly after that.

If you want to re-use the sand, you need to rinse it out very well. Barry told me how, and it worked. Take a few cups worth of sand, and set it aside.

Take some of the rest of the LS, and pour/scoop that into a bucket. The bucket should only be about 1/4 full, then grab a garden hose and turn it on full strength. Using your arm, stir the sand well. Once the water is clear, remove the hose and drain the water until all you have is moist sand. That is ready to pour into your tank.

Repeat the process of rinsing a 1/4 bucket of 'dirty' LS, until it is all done. Once you've filled the tank with rinsed sand, smooth it out and add some tank water. (new or old, it doesn't matter. Pour your cups of LS on the surface of your clean sand bed. I usually try not to pour it evenly. Just make a mound here and a mound there. That way your live critters will not get swept away in the water, but stay in the sand. They will quietly breed and spread throughout the surface.

Put a large serving platter on the sand, and pump water into the tank. If you use newly mixed saltwater, you won't be adding nitrates to the tank like you would using the old water. The platter will protect the sand from blowing around. If that isn't sufficient, and you are indeed pumping the water into the tank, put a cup on the platter and pump the water into the cup. This will control the splashing, keeping it to a minimum.]

 

[DamonH]

[Just to update, I ended up doing as Marc suggested and "cleaned" my old LS. I kept 3 baggies full of LS, and rinsed the rest in a bucket. The tank is now in the wall, sand back in place and I put the LS in 3 mounds. I then went to the store, and got 30 gallons of RO/DI which filled the tank about halfway. I ran out of time and it sat this way for 2 days. I decided for giggles to test the water in both tanks. In my 40gallon where everything currently is, my nitrates have dissapeared (or at least come down to acceptable levels!)! Yeah! It definitely looks like the sandbed was the culprate. Now to the 65g in the wall, it looks like the tank is cycling. Ammonia was reading .50. I'm afraid to move the rock and cleanup crew over till it fully cycles, so I guess I might as well go ahead and fill it to the top and getting it churning with all new water. Anyone see anything I'm doing that is incorrect? Guess I've got two more weeks or so till I can put everything in the 65g.

BTW - I took pictures of most of the process of doing my inwall and didn't realize my lens had a smudge till just the other day! :cussing: Most pictures didn't come out so good. ]

 

[melev]

[Be sure to test for Phosphates. Mine were around 1.0, but I had some Kent's Phosphate Sponge (that I discovered in my garage two nights ago) that is running in a Magnum 350 for 48 hours. It'll bring them down to zero in no time. I'll be building a phosphate reactor (for Phosban) in the near future.]