Changing sand

[cshack5405]

Ok I'm really wanting to change my sand which is like beach sand to like the other crushed coral like sand. How exactly do I even begin to go about this lol. I attached a copy of my tank just so u can maybe give me better directions if you can see it.

 

[pcmc3]

Ui have never do this being that I'm new but I would think just suck it up when doing a water change


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[cshack5405]

Yea I thought about that but I'm really not as curious about getting the sand out as much as I am about putting the new in bc of the cycle time I'm not sure the processes I need to take to make it safe to put my stuff back into it. I don't want the nitrates and stuff from the new sand to hurt my corals and fish

Edit: I'm not new but I definitely don't know near enough lol and I don't think I ever will to not have questions lol

 

[pcmc3]

Well I added the sand that your talking about just ontop of my old Sand


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[korkus]

It looks like you don't have a very deep sand bed. Your rock probably has most of your beneficial bacteria. I think if you removed it in 2 phases. first phase do half. Wait 2 - 3 weeks then remove the rest.

Remember a lot of people have bare-bottom tanks. Sand is not needed, but you may have some bacteria there. I agree some caution is probably a good thing.

 

[cshack5405]

I'm also worried taking it out is gonna throw off the solidity of it bc of me topping it off after the sand is out. Then when I add it ill have to take some out so it doesn't overflow. Ugh this is gonna be rough I think lol

 

[jdavid]

Why are you going from fine sand to crushed coral? The fine sand is better. If it looks dirty, get a sand sifting startfish or goby to turn over the top layer.

 

[sra_chipmunk]

JDavid;866667 wrote: Why are you going from fine sand to crushed coral? The fine sand is better. If it looks dirty, get a sand sifting startfish or goby to turn over the top layer.

Agreed. I have the crushed coral sand and I hate it. I am in the process of changing my sand out right now to a finer sand. The crushed coral just retains to much gunk and isn't as forgiving as finer sands.

 

[cshack5405]

I have a purple algae problem only in my fine sand tank but in the other tank I have crushed coral and it never gets it. My sand sifter tries but he is a lazy star I think lol idk but what can I do? Are there other fish and animals I can get to keep it clean? It's a 29 cube

Edit: I have it it now a cardinal, two clowns, a cleaner shrimp, two peppermints, and a sand sifter. Also a bunch of coral

 

[cshack5405]

????? Anyone know anymore??

 

[ringo®]

How old is the tank? Try leaving a powerhead pointed in its direction overnight and see if that clears it up.

On second thought........are you talking about cyano or coralline?

 

[korkus]

I agree that if its cyano you may need more flow. I think it would be hard to get a fish for your size aquarium that will do much good. A diamond goby would starve out your sifting star. Not to mention with fine sand you could have sand storms a lot.

 

[kilralpine]

I like to disagree with the general concensus that flow = no cyano. Afterall, all the flow does is move the cyano out of sight; not defeat the inital problem; nutrients. Flow seems to help some, but its not directly as the increased flow helps with the removal of nutrients from the system by getting the water back to your filtration system more offen.

 

[ringo®]

Right.....it's just treating the symptom. If it Cyano, increasing the flow will just get rid of it temporarily. Excess nutrients are the problem, the question is where do they come from......overfeeding, type of food that's being fed, neglected sand bed cleaning, low flow, under skimming?

 

[jdavid]

First of all, in that picture the sand is pristine. I assume it is not current. A current picture would help determine what is going on. I'm pretty sure coralline algae doesn't usually grow over fine sand so we can rule that out.

Wha we suspect is cyanobacteria, which is not actually algae, but is sometimes referred to as 'red slime algae'. Basically what happens is you feed your fish and most of the nutrients are excreted or otherwise dissolved into the water. What you need to have is good bacteria to cycle the nutrients. With each pass through the cycle, there is less food for algae and bad bacteria like cyanobacteria. You need to have a deep sandbed with a fine grain where dissolved oxygen is not present. This is where anaerobic bacteria thrives. You need this bacteria to complete each cycle, as well as aerobic bacteria that lives on the surface of the sandbed and rocks. What will happen if you stir the sandbed is you will release even more nutrients into the water and the problem will be worse.
My cyano outbreak went away in a couple of weeks. I just increased water change frequency, effectively removing the dissolved nutrients the algae was feeding on.
This is a good read

 

[cshack5405]

I just used a fork as a rake about 30 min b4 that pic lol It is about a week ago and since I feed less and it's slowed down the process majorly

Edit: I'm pretty sure it is from the size of the shrimp in my frozen food they seem to only eat the smaller pieces and the big pieces settle and where they settle is where it's mostly all growing

 

[jdavid]

Well, I would feed my fish every day not so much but enough that they all get to eat for a couple minutes. Don't rake your sand.... A light vacuum is okay. All I can really say is do some research. You have to learn how things work in aquarium, and you won't learn from experience. Although, I have learned that rushing things equals breaking down a tank and starting over. Assuming you let your tank cycle, I would say you need to bump up your water changes. Do you own test kits? You need to reduce nitrate.
If you are using tap water, expect a lot of this algae and more undesirable algae to grow in your tank.

 

[cshack5405]

I mean it wasn't a ridiculous amount it was just from the extra food settling on the side where the flow is not near as strong but thx for all the advice and help

 

[jimmystephens]

Cyno is just waste basically in ur water. Over feeding would do it. I would feed only what they could eat. So 1/2 of what u do now. If u have extra in the tank get it out. Also get some snails that live in the sand. Forgot name (josh help lol) the snails will eat the waste. Also the million dollar question.... are u using rodi water?

Edit: Also dont mix up the sand to vet rid of the cyno. Syphon it out

 

[jdavid]

Nassarius snails!