Changing out sand?

[buffcole]

I have a question. I have had my 125 G salt water tank for about 7-8 years and lately it has had some phosphates and I'm not sure why. I took my water to LFS and it was tested there and was off the charts so I did a 35% WC a week ago now it is down to 2. I tested my water filter and it was putting out 1ppm of phosphates so I got a new one today. All other water parameters are fine. I have changed out my floss and added purigen, poly filter and phos guard. A question was raised that it may be old tank syndrome and to take all my water out and scoop up the sand and replace it with new sand and put the same water back in. In a week after I have done that replace my old rock with new live rock 1/3 at a time. I'm wondering if this will cause my tank to crash? :confused2: I don't have any coral in there yet, it is in 2 of my QT's for about a month (20G).

I also could add new sand on top of the old sand and increase my sand bed due to siphoning sand a couple of years ago when I had cyano.

What is the right way to do this so my tank does not crash?

 

[snowmansnow]

what you'll want to do is just change a little with each water change when you syphon out the water just suck up the sand too. after the bucket is filled the replace that much sand (give or take). Then put the missing water back in.
This process will help keep you from having a weird displacement issue.
Over the period of a few months you can probably replace most of it.

Another option is to just vac it until its clean... again not all at once.
Position a filter bag in the sump... grab a hose and start a syphon with the end in the bag and just go all over the sand bag with the end of the hose dumping into the filter sock. just watch it to make sure your sump level doesn't rise too quickly. This way you can clean out gunk without even doing a water change

Just some food for thought!
Reef on.

 

[buffcole]

That sounds like a plan. What about changing rock out? 1/3 at a time until replaced? I want different rock and clean rock. I think it's leaching phosphates.

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[snowmansnow]

buffcole;1102876 wrote: That sounds like a plan. What about changing rock out? 1/3 at a time until replaced? I want different rock and clean rock. I think it's leaching phosphates.

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IMO chances are your phosphates are coming from somewhere else.
you could change out your rock... but i wouldn't do it all at once.. .although I definitely have done that haha

 

[jennm]

Old tank syndrome only happens when consistent and adequate maintenance isn't done over the years.

If you are siphoning out the sand, I would NOT put that water back. The act of disturbing the sand puts all the crap in it, back into that water.

What I'd do - what I have done on tanks suffering from the same problem... strip the tank down by giving all the rock a rinse in clean saltwater. Get a Brute can with 20 or so gallons of new saltwater, (You'll probably need 40 or 50 gallons of new saltwater at the ready). Pull out each rock one by one and give it a good swirly in the can of water, and you can even scrub it with a brush to get settled detritus out.

If you're going to change out all or some of your sand, do it at this time too. The water in the tank will become scary turbid at this time - that's expected. You can give it a dose of Seachem Prime if you have concerns about unleashing some nitrate or whatnot. Siphon the sand - all or part, and discard all that.

Push the remaining sand, if any, to the front. Restack the rock - on the glass, not on the sand, then when you've replaced the rock you can 'fluff' the sand around it.

If you have corals, when you're removing the rock to swish it, you can place the corals in a separate vessel with clean saltwater while you're doing that - you may want to give their substrate a swishy in the wash water too. The idea is to get rid of as much detritus as possible.

The fish will hang out in the turbid water - they'll be fine if you've used some Prime.

Change out your mechanical media - socks/filter pad etc. and let it all settle. Once the water clears change out the mechanical media, you may also want to change the chemical media (carbon, Phosguard etc.), and if crud has settled on the top of the sand or rocks you might want to carefully siphon that off.

After that you will need to do a good series of small but frequent water changes to correct any other parameter issues, and going forward, monitor for problems and nip them in the bud before they become problematic.

I've tended tanks that were 15+ years old - some were in trouble when I started with them, but once I did what I've described above, they were fine and no 'crash' or total reset was necessary.

Jenn

 

[buffcole]

JennM;1103031 wrote: Old tank syndrome only happens when consistent and adequate maintenance isn't done over the years.

If you are siphoning out the sand, I would NOT put that water back. The act of disturbing the sand puts all the crap in it, back into that water.

What I'd do - what I have done on tanks suffering from the same problem... strip the tank down by giving all the rock a rinse in clean saltwater. Get a Brute can with 20 or so gallons of new saltwater, (You'll probably need 40 or 50 gallons of new saltwater at the ready). Pull out each rock one by one and give it a good swirly in the can of water, and you can even scrub it with a brush to get settled detritus out.

If you're going to change out all or some of your sand, do it at this time too. The water in the tank will become scary turbid at this time - that's expected. You can give it a dose of Seachem Prime if you have concerns about unleashing some nitrate or whatnot. Siphon the sand - all or part, and discard all that.

Push the remaining sand, if any, to the front. Restack the rock - on the glass, not on the sand, then when you've replaced the rock you can 'fluff' the sand around it.

If you have corals, when you're removing the rock to swish it, you can place the corals in a separate vessel with clean saltwater while you're doing that - you may want to give their substrate a swishy in the wash water too. The idea is to get rid of as much detritus as possible.

The fish will hang out in the turbid water - they'll be fine if you've used some Prime.

Change out your mechanical media - socks/filter pad etc. and let it all settle. Once the water clears change out the mechanical media, you may also want to change the chemical media (carbon, Phosguard etc.), and if crud has settled on the top of the sand or rocks you might want to carefully siphon that off.

After that you will need to do a good series of small but frequent water changes to correct any other parameter issues, and going forward, monitor for problems and nip them in the bud before they become problematic.

I've tended tanks that were 15+ years old - some were in trouble when I started with them, but once I did what I've described above, they were fine and no 'crash' or total reset was necessary.

Jenn

Jenn thank you so much!!

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