Removing Sand Bed advice

[rhodan]

<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">For my Christmas vacation I'm going to tear down and cleanup the tank. The sandbed is over 2 years old and I would like to remove it before it crashes on me and kills everything in my tank. I have several rubbermaid containers and small submersible pumps to keep the water moving....Does anyone have any last minute advice for me before I take on this lovey adventure?</span></span>

-Matt D.
180 gallon display
120 gallon sump

 

[mvm]

I would remove the rocks and put them on the containers, siphon most of the water into the containers, then catch the fish and put them in. All you need to keep them alive is a powerhead and a heater. They will be OK for several day. I would trash and replace the sand.

 

[fener103]

Matt I would let others chime in here but not sure if its a great idea to pull it all out at one time. Depending on your inhabitants it might make a large swing in your tanks biological system. Perhaps 25% at a time might be a better option. As slow as usually almost always the way to go

 

[jumplittlechloe]

I just did this on my 2yr old tank. I removed all coral, fish, and rock. I drained the tank, removed the sand, replaced sand and added all new live rock (manmade rock from fishheads). I put all coral, snails, and fish back in. I did 3 water changes a week for 1 week and did have a diatom bloom. To date I lost no livestock and the tank looks better than ever.

 

[mvm]

fener103;708893 wrote: Matt I would let others chime in here but not sure if its a great idea to pull it all out at one time. Depending on your inhabitants it might make a large swing in your tanks biological system. Perhaps 25% at a time might be a better option. As slow as usually almost always the way to go

The sand bed has minimal biological functions, so removing it in it's entirety after removing water, livestock and rocks will have zero negative impact....

 

[rhodan]

Awesome....you have all been very helpful....I'm hoping it is going to be "better than ever".

-Matt D.
180 gallon display
120 gallon sump