Changing sand plan... What do you think?

[sra_chipmunk]

I have a 40 breeder set up and has been running for about 3 months now. I put crushed coral substrate in and am now regretting it. I didn't thing the substrate throug enough and now have to go through this. I bought some live sand from my LFS and plan on changing out my current sand with it in 2 different phases I was thinking of sucking out half of the sand now and replacing it with the new sand and keeping the two sands separated by egg crate so they don't mix. Then a week later, changing out the other half of the sand and replacing it with the new sand. I'm doing it in 2 stages to try and avoid depleting the bennificial bacteria all a once. I hoping that this is decent plan. Any recommendations on this or whether I should do it in 3 stages instead of 2?

Thanks

 

[bycjoe]

As long as there's still rock in there I don't see it being an issue, I'd test for ammonia/nitrates/nitrites before the 2nd switch just to make sure everything's caught up, another consideration is kicking a bunch of junk into the water but if the tanks only 3 months old(assuming the current substrate was clean/dry when you originally added it) I wouldn't worry about it too much. Maybe someone who's actually done it before will chime in with more advice.

 

[kilralpine]

I feel your pain, my 75G reef had almost 3 inches of crushed coral substrate - big mistake. Its now a little over a year and a half old and its a complete ditritus trap; my eel only makes things worse. Prior to the eel kicking the detritus I attempted to remedy this by sucking it out with semi large water changes, this only seemed to make things worse. My suggestion would to be set up a quarantine tank if possible and move your livestock over long enough to change your sand, I would think you could keep your rock alive during this time as to prevent a cycle; everything done slow is the best way. My current solution literally meant ditch the tank and go ahead and upsize and get a reef ready while im at it.

Are you keeping coral?

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

kilralpine;865924 wrote: I feel your pain, my 75G reef had almost 3 inches of crushed coral substrate - big mistake. Its now a little over a year and a half old and its a complete ditritus trap; my eel only makes things worse. Prior to the eel kicking the detritus I attempted to remedy this by sucking it out with semi large water changes, this only seemed to make things worse. <span style="font-size: 13px">My suggestion would to be set up a quarantine tank if possible and move your livestock over long enough to change your sand, I would think you could keep your rock alive during this time as to prevent a cycle; everything done slow is the best way.</span> My current solution literally meant ditch the tank and go ahead and upsize and get a reef ready while im at it.

Are you keeping coral?

I agree with this method completely. I just recently did the same thing in moving from a 93 cube to a 180. It was the smartest thing I did relative to the upgrade. Then I introduced the fish slowly over a period of 2 weeks until all were moved in to the new tank. While you aren't changing tanks, the principle is still the same. Why take the risk?

 

[sra_chipmunk]

Thanks guys. I will be sucking out half the crunched coral tomorrow and replacing it with the new sand. This is what I get for not researching sand.

 

[sra_chipmunk]

Change of plane. After talking with a buddy of mine who had to do this, he recommended doing it in 5 gallon water change Increments during my regular water changes. Basically, suck out as much as I can before the bucket filled up. Once half is gone, slowly add new sand to once side of the tank. Rinse and repeat until crushed coral is out and new sand is in.

 

[fishdude]

I've been thinking about adding sand to an existing tank. Tank is about 5 years old. My plan was simply add it on top of the sand I've already got. I've heard that sand has a 3-5 year life expectancy (in the tank). Has anyone else ever heard that?

 

[jennm]

Fishdude;866031 wrote: I've been thinking about adding sand to an existing tank. Tank is about 5 years old. My plan was simply add it on top of the sand I've already got. I've heard that sand has a 3-5 year life expectancy (in the tank). Has anyone else ever heard that?

Deep sand bed, without any vacuuming, I'd agree on the 3-5 year thing, as it gets saturated with crap.

If it's a shallow sand bed that's vacuumed regularly as part of adequate maintenance, I don't see an "expiration" - we have tanks we've maintained for 10+ years with bi-weekly water changes and sand vacuuming that are thriving and chemically just fine. We do top up the sand periodically as some is inevitably lost in vacuuming from time to time. We use the live variety for that - not necessarily for the 'biological' benefit (which some believe is of no benefit) - but for the simple fact that it's already clean, washed, and can be added to a running system without any negative consequence, and any cloudiness usually clears up in an hour or so.

Jenn