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Tank takedown question

PeetaJai

PeetaJai

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Hi
I am planning to take down a tank. Can anyone tell me how I can keep the sand and rock alive in a bucket?
Thank You

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General consensus is use new sand. Rock can be kept with heater and powerhead as stated above. Water changes may be necessary depending on how long you intend to keep it in the bucket.
 
Pluralize the word bucket there, put the rock in one bucket, the sand in another. If there's no corals on the rock, you probably can just get away with a pump thrown in there and note that putting a 50w pump into water is almost the same as having a 50w heater but you get some water movement. So the pumps will act like a heater. Sand is a bit more fickle, because chances are it's going to fill a bucket much deeper than it is in the tank, the net result is you'll basically choke off layers of aerobic bacteria ... but if the sand is old no way I'd keep it.
 
Thanks all, Really appreciated the fast reply. How do I keep the bacterial alive in sand for few days so I can put them in the new tank? Do I really need to replace all the old sand?

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Assuming that you're sand bed is no more than 1-2", I would distribute it at a similar depth in bucket or bin so that it doesn't become anaerobic as @sfsuphysics stated. If it's for just a few days, should be OK. Once a sandbed becomes deeper than 2", it will go anaerobic which is no bueno. You can also just use some of your old sand to innocculate some new sand, which is probably what I would do.
 
Maybe keep a tiny cup of sand. Clean or replace the rest.
The last thing you want is to start a new tank already loaded with detritus.
I have washed sand out in a bucket with a hose. As a bonus it gets rid of all the dusty fines.

The bacteria in bottles works well for restarting new tanks, just check expiration dates.
 
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