Much easier starting from scratch and built as wanted unless you can find something that heavily appeals. Kind of like buying a used car vs custom ordering.
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I don't know the antidote for hydrogen sulfide, or whatever other evil spirits are in there. A priest maybe
I have a gallon of Prime for some unforeseen ammonia spike
/chuckle
In my opinion, it’s not worth rinsing the old sand, but everyone is different. Personally, I would just have a smallish container and put like 2-3 ice machine scoops sized worth of the old sand, submerged in water and the lid sealed to just seed the tank.. and have all new sand washed and ready at the house. Put your old sand scoops in the tank first and the new sand on top of it.How would you recommend moving the sand to prevent an ammonia spike? Is it worth cleaning it or is it better to leave it undisturbed?
I got my first reef tank that way. It's a great way to get an insta-tank and now have to deal with any of the uglies or staring at bare rock for months while the tank gets established enough to add livestock. I hired a company to move the tank and livestock for me. One word of advice is I would definitely put in new sand. I ended up crashing my other tank by reusing the sand when I bought a new house.Hello all!
I’m curious if anyone has any advice or experience on buying used aquariums that are already fully established from the previous owner. I am interested in buying a used reef tank and numerous listings I’ve found include fully established setups with liverock, coral, refugiums, anemones, etc.. One listing in particular includes all of this and the tank is fully operational with no signs of sick livestock or corals. I’m curious if anyone has had any experience or recommendations for a situation like this. I know biosecurity could be an issue but since everything appears healthy (can’t know for sure) there is less of risk than sourcing from multiple vendors. I greatly appreciate anyone’s insight!
- Patrick
You may have a mini cycle after moving as there may be a little die off in the move. But assuming you start with new sand and use existing live rock, you should hit the ground running and be able to move the current inhabitants as well. Keeping the live rock completely submerged in saltwater will help avoid die off. Technically it just needs to be wet but to keep the bacteria alive but little critters will benefit from keeping it in water.Thank you all so much for the insight! It is great to hear of people’s experiences. If I pursue this, since the tank would be recreated in a similar way to before purchase (with the exception of mostly new sand), would it still have to be cycled like a new tank with waiting, testing, no lights, slow stock introduction, etc or would that be unnecessary?