moving day is coming-tank transfer

[melonheadorion]

in about 5 weeks, i will be moving about 15 minutes away, in which i obviously have to break down my tank to move it, and since its close, i dont have to do a ton.

my thought and intent is to use new substrate, rinsed thoroughly, of course. My question comes down to the old sand. obviously before reusing, i should make sure its been rinsed, but is there a benefit of using the rinsed old sand over rinsed new sand in respect to the bacteria that it houses? rinsing with tap water, since tap water includes chlorine, theoretically would kill off any bacteria that was within it, during the rinse, right? the bio media i have in my sump and the tank rock should be enough as it is, but i was curious about the sand itself.

If i use new sand, i can prerinse before the move date so that it reduces the time i have to spend doing all this. i can literally add sand, water, rock, and fish right immediately without having to take time to rinse old sand

 

[LordofCinder]

If you rinse your old sand properly, it will become the exact same as new rinsed sand.

It just takes a long time to rinse and re-rinse over and over again. Depending what your motivation is, some people find it easier to just buy new sand.

 

[brandon429]

You’d simply pre rinse any sand used as stated in post #1

it’s bacteria doesn’t matter for the reasons listed. To see what unrinsed new sand does to a tank you hoped would be clean and ready day one, add a test handful of unrinsed new sand to a cup of water, it looks like a mud puddle, don’t do that to your new tank

rinse new or old sand until totally clear, will take hours, drop test a portion in a glass cup of water to ensure clarity, do a final rinse in ro water a couple of times, and transport the rinsed sand ready to go. have it done before you move so the reassembly goes fast and laser clean