Sump tank swap over

[eww]

Tomorrow I am planning on swapping out our sump tank for a new one that fits our larger skimmer. The current one has a DSB about 3-4" deep with fine sugar sand with macro algae fuge. My question is do we just remove the macros, scoop all the old sand from the current fuge into the new fuge and then transplant the macros? Will this start a cycle again? We also have new unused sugar sand that we could put in the new sump and seed it with some of the current sand. What is our best course here with the least amount of impact to the system?

Thank you in advance for your input.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

the last use new sand and seed from old ypu can use the other sand and start another holding tank if you want to also or rinse and add to the system later. either way a mini cycle will probaly start nothing too bad though.

 

[eww]

Are there pods living in the current sand?

 

[thatguy559]

no they should be in your chaeto there might be a small amount just free swimming in there.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

SYPHON as much of the clear water out aka leave all the detrius on the bottom you can rinse in a old pillow case in the shower and add the same right back in the sump also. podss will re grow and if you need some I have some also lol I have some big plump juciy ones my six line can not keep up with them.

 

[vwmoneypit]

Yeah i agree I did a 55 gal with a 30 gallon sump swap to a 55 gal sump and a 125 tank. what i did is do the swap added the new sand in lightly rinsed the old sand dumped it in put a small pump in there till it cleared up the restarted the system. the more u can reuse with a light rinse the older sand the quicker the restart in that area will happen...how old is the setup? and how many pounds
of sand do u think is in there?

 

[eww]

It's a 30 gal sump that I'm swapping out for another 30 gal sump. There is about 30 lbs of sand in the current sump and I'm not sure if we will be able to fit 30 lbs in the new sump. The fuge got a little smaller because we had to make the skimmer area a little bigger for the larger new skimmer.