Moving to new tank. Need to do quick

I have to do this tomorrow in a 3 hour time span. Only time I have a helper.

I have 2 clowns that I am moving from a 12 gallon eclipse to a 15 gallon long acrylic tank. This will give them more room. I may even go with the 20 gallon glass, but that is not as long. I also have a 12 gallon aquapod that now has just a watchman goby. Going to move the goby to a 24 gallon with a pajama cardinal and cleaner shrimp. He will be happy there.

My question is:

How do I move the sand from the 2 tanks into the new tank. I have read so many different options and I am so confused. I will be able to use all the liverock from both tanks in the new one, and plan on moving crabs and stuff over too. I only have about 3 hours to do this, as that is the only time I will have a helper.

Do I just scoop all the sand and move it to new tank, then add liverock, etc? I know the sand will be dirty. I really don't want to knowingly kill off anything living in the sand. Is just moving it the best way? Or is there toxic stuff in the sand that is best left alone?

I plan on moving all liverock over (less some decorations that have been in there that aren't liverock). And I will have to use a new filter for them, as the eclipse has a different set up for filters. I thought I would put in a powerhead, and put in the old sponge and bioballs from 12 aquapod in to keep the tank from cycling, then slowly taking them out at a rate of one a month or so. I can even hide some of the bio balls behind rock.

Please help. I am so confused. I really don't want to keep the 12 aqua running as it is harder to maintain, and sits in middle of the room.

The only other option would be to tear down the 12 aqua, move it to other side of the room, put in clowns, and get rid of 12 eclipse. But I don't have room anywhere else for the all the liverock. Putting all of that rock in the 12 aqua will seriously drop the actual water volume.

Ugh

 

If the tank has been set up for a number of months just spend the money and get some new sand and seed it with a cup from the tank running currently.

Yes disturbing an existing sand that is not normally cleaned can release a lot of nasties and nuke a tank.

If you can not get new sand than you are going to have to really clean that sand with a siphon and rinse it well in SW.

 

Best to not disturb the old sand. Buy new sand. You can move the rock from the old tanks to the new tanks without issue. Get the new tanks ready to accept the rock from the old tanks by having at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the water volume in the new tank. Pull each piece out one by one and place in the new tank.

 

Great. I will plan on using new sand, or perhaps a bare bottom.

I can then move everything over and do a 10-15% water change daily for awhile to take care of any spikes.

I will use 1/2 the current water and the rest fresh. They are used to 50% water changes once a month, in addition to smaller ones. I will also move the sponges from the one tank and the bio balls to help out until I am certain all is okay.