quick q on sandbed conversion

[beerbaron]

hello all,
i am in the process in converting my cc to a finer medium(1-1.5" sandbed) and in order to retain as much fauna and bacteria as i can, i opted to do half of the tank at a time and allow whatever fauna is in the cc to migrate to the new media. my question is how long do you think it will take for the migration to take place? it has been a week since i removed and replaced the one half of the tanks substrate. i also have a 20 gal refugium which will be able to further seed the sandbed afterwords, but i am worried about the initial change.

thanx
BB

 

[2poor2reef]

Depends which medium the infauna prefer and where they are located in the existing substrate.

Amphipods, for example, would actually prefer the crushed coral so they are unlikely to migrate at all. Most polychetes will prefer the sand but the ones located far from the margin may never know it's there. Most polychetes don't get out much you know.

You don't need too many of these critters to re-populate as they are very prolific. But if you're worried about it, I would consider using another method in addition such as the old pantyhose trick.

 

[beerbaron]

how long do you think i should wait then?
is there any reason i should wait at all?

 

[2poor2reef]

Have you ever seeded with live sand in the past or are your critters the pods and bristlworms that come in on live rock? Do you have quite a bit of live rock in the system? Do you have any spaghetti (terebellid) worms?

If you just have the standard stuff then I would just wait a week. If you invested in live sand then I would wait longer, use pantyhose, or some other mechanism so as to preserve the greater diversity of polychetes that you likely have. Remember that your refugium will also re-populate your dsb except for those critters that never surface from the dsb. You can always swap sand between the refugium and your main tank to cover that situation.

 

[Anonymous]

If you're concerned with th critters why don't you take a 5 gallon bucket add some tank water and as you take out the CC rinse it in the bucket. after you're done removing/rinsing all the CC you should have a good ammount of the critters on the bottom of the bucket. add them back to the tank.

 

[beerbaron]

COOL, no i have never seeded the substrate with any kit, infact, i was planning on doing that after i expand my refugium. i will probably add a bit of the fauna in the kit to my tank also, but most of it will go into my fuge.

im not real sure what spagetti worms are, but i know i do have some crazy looking worms and such in there, including a couple strains of bristles.

 

[beerbaron]

JDM- thats a good idea ill have to try that out. it is gonna be hard to separate the critters from all that detritus the cc has accumulated over time. i sure am glad its not gonna be in there anymore. still not really sure why i used it in the 1st place.