Changing sand

[cdub]

with my upcoming move i've decided to change some of the sand in my tank. its a 95 gallon with about 80 pounds of live sand. i recently bought 40 pounds of aragalive. can i just swap out half of the old sand with new sand?

i was planning on putting the new sand in a qt tank for a few weeks to make sure nothing crazy is in the bag with it. also i was going to running it through a strainer to get any large hitchikers.

what else can i do?

 

[frewl]

What is your "best buy date"? Its just sand. The alive part is just the bacteria, that is the reason its bagged wet. I think its dated for a year. so you can figure out how long its been sitting in that bag on the shelf. What is your reason to switch out the sand?

 

[cameron]

If you already have live rock, I would just buy the dead stuff. Sand will seed from your live rock very quickly.

 

[cdub]

i am changing the sand b/c its about 2.5 years old and i'm moving so its a good time since everything will be out of the tank anyway.

i bought the aragalive b/c i really like the indopacific black color(black/white)

 

[frewl]

That sounds good. Just remember stirring up that sand bed is going to probably cause a cycle. How deep is your sand?

Oh this is off topic I know but what Tek T5's do you have was it a retro or a fixture?

 

[cdub]

yeah i was planning on a small cycle so my fish are going to sit in a 50 gallon tub for a day or two until things get back on track.

i have the tek 6x54 watt fixture.

 

[victor626nj]

well if your gonna change it keep the top layer of sand cause the stuff at the bottom is real nasty then just keep an eye on your par to make sure you didnt get any spikes good luck