Changing live sand

[dherrera83]

Hi,

Before i actually change my live sand i would like to know what would be the best way to do this without hurting my tank. I now have some blackish sand and i would like to change it to fiji pink but dont want to end up messing everything up... lol I have a few ideas but would like to hear other suggestions and experiences.

i have a 30g tank, 10g sump, ~40lbs of live rock, 4 fishes, and a few softies. Tank has been running for ~1 year.

 

[shaun11423]

a lot of people don?t recommend doing this because it will cause a spike in your water parameters and might cause a complete wipe out of your system. One other factor to remember is your depth of your sand bed. If you have a deep sand bed then it will be more destructive than a few inches of sand. Now either way it will cause problems. To get around this I would recommend removing your live stock and taking the sand out and replacing it, when doing so make sure to check your levels when done. This will cause the tank to have a mini cycle. Also you must do some water changes to get your parameters correct. Now if you don?t have a qt to put your live stock in, i suggest removing very small portions of the sand, over a long period of time, in theory this will not cause a whip out and your system should be able to handle the change in water parameters. This method can be tricky. This is just my view and opinion you must do research to find your best solution to your problem because each one of our marine systems is different.

 

[Wesley]

I used 1" diameter host to siphon the sand out. The flow is fast enough to suck out whatever underneath the sand along with the water around it. Nothing get a chance to get into the water column outside. However, with that rate of flow, you most likely can only have time to remove small potion of the area at a time before the water all ran out.

 

[kalapnath]

you'd be better off just adding the new sand to cover up the old one that way you wont get any spikes and as shaun said if you do decide to do the removal of the old sand you will have to take out all your livestock acclimate them to the new tank and also you'd have to match water parameters (temp,ph,salinity etc) for the sake of the livestock.

 

[dherrera83]

thanks for the info everyone. I was thinking the same since i dont have a qt tank.

if i remove the sand bed slowly (within a months time) do you still think i would need to remove my livestock? I would be still using the same water, same live rock, and some of the old sand bed in my sump. Then add the new sand bed but still keeping the old sand bed in the sump till everything balances out. Thoughts?

Oh and i would be using a hose to syphon out the old sand (~1inch).

 

[shaun11423]

thanks for the info everyone. I was thinking the same since i dont have a qt tank.

if i remove the sand bed slowly (within a months time) do you still think i would need to remove my livestock? I would be still using the same water, same live rock, and some of the old sand bed in my sump. Then add the new sand bed but still keeping the old sand bed in the sump till everything balances out. Thoughts?

Oh and i would be using a hose to syphon out the old sand (~1inch).

how deep is your sand bad

 

[Imbarrie]

I switched from crushed coral to sand with no problems in my 75 gallon. I left all my livestock in place.
I siphoned out the sand in 4 sections over a month.

I wouldn't just cover your sand with new. It won't look right and you could bury detritus.

 

[dherrera83]

It's only a 1inch bed... I wanna put a 3inch bed of fiji pink.

 

[shaun11423]

It's only a 1inch bed... I wanna put a 3inch bed of fiji pink.

what type of animals do you have in your sand bed and also do you have any animals that turn the sand around. Also do you have gas bubbles on the sand, to tell move a little bit of the top surface.

 

[piranhapat]

I did that 4 months ago and didn't lose one SPS and not one fish. I took out everything from my 34 gallon tank. Put all my SPS and Clam in 20 gal and my two clowns with the water from 34 gal. Empty the rest of water and removed sand. I went BB no more sand this time. I made 30 gals new water let it run for a few days and added my LR and added stablity from seachem. I added the SPS and FISH. All is well in my phophates free tank. To me sand is nice and does have its good points. But I decided to give it a try. To me sand is a trap for phophates to stay. SPS meaning (FRAGS) are doing better and Clam I thought I was going to lose now attached to LR and is looking great. One thing LR is over 10yrs which I think had a big roll in this..

 

[dherrera83]

Only have 3 snails 1 shrimp and 2small crabs...

 

[dherrera83]

Good idea but I like having the sand in my tank... Thanks for the suggestion..