[sgarron]

My plan was to take the sand from my 65 an put it in the fuge for my new 180. New sand in the 180 display and a couple cups of the old to seed. I have alot of people telling me not to use the old sand, if I disturb it it will release all kinds of bad stuff into the new tank. Some good advice is needed here. Also, if I can't reuse my old sand how do I get the nass snails out? They stay burried most of the time.

Help please, I don't want to screw up the 180.

[pogodzib]

It all depends on the depth of your existing sand and how long it was in your tank, and the depth of the new sand. First off, if the sand in your old tank is over 1-2 years old or if you feed heavy, I'd get rid off all of it except for a small portion scrapped off the top used to seed the new tank. If the old sand is in a tank with a DSB, you only want to use the top 2" and leave the bottom sand undisturbed so you don't have anaerobic gasses or bacteria into your new tank. If the old tank had a SSB and the sand is less than a 1 - 1 1/2 years old and doesn't have any smell to it and appears clean, you could use all of it UNDER the new sand in your 180. You only want a small portion of your old sand on top since that will be the dirties sand in your new tank and contain any nasties.. To get the snails out, once you get most of the water out, disturbing the sand will usually cause most snails to pop out of the sand and then you can pick them out by hand.

[e_baer]

or get a strainer and filter all the smaller rocks and snails out, shells, etc.

[glampka]

Steve - sent you PM.

[sgarron]

That's what I figured, guess I'm going hunting for some yardright tropical today. I want 3 inches in the display 72x 24 and 6 in the fuge 18x18, That's alot of sand.