100% water change?

[doodle1800]

I'm debating doing a 100% water change on my 1 1/2 year old 55 tank. 2 issues. One is sand. I'm getting annoyed at the consequences of sand. I have fish that like to move around at night stirring up all the sand onto the LR, making the LR look bad and the fish landscaping the terrain, pushing a lot of sand to the front of the tank. I'm leaning towards having a very thin substrate of either sand or very fine cc. I'd like opinions on this change of substrate idea.
Also - has anyone done a 100% water change, how did it go? Are you glad you did it? Did you clean the entire tank? Regrets?

 

[reefnut]

What's the purpose of the 100% water change?? If you want to change out the substrate, you could keep a good portion of the existing water to reuse.

 

[sleeri]

100% water change - not a good idea. I have the same question as ReefNut... why would you want to do this?

 

[doodle1800]

Well - I could save some water with the change and use that to help fill. I wanted to gut the tank of LS by emptying the entire tank.
and another thing..... I've lost all my soft corals in 10 months time, and my LR looks bland, when it used to look lively. My salinity was 17 instead of 22-23 for a long time, so I think my problem was that. But I'm not sure. So... I was thinking of starting the tank over.

 

[sleeri]

Well, if you're planning on completely starting over I guess you can go for it. Do you have anything left living (Fish, coral, etc.)?
Are you replacing the LS with CC? I would recommend against that. I started out my tank with CC and it was horrible. It traps all sorts of junk and ends up looking terrible after a few months unless you constantly clean it. Sand is 100% better in my opinion. Low maintance, benefical for the tank, and looks good.
PS - 17 salanity is way too low. I'm guessing that it played a role in the downfall of your tank.

 

[doodle1800]

I've been debating this so much over the past 9 months or so... LS over CC
All my fish are fine, so are my verts - haven't hads a death in a long time.. LR looks like eeegghhh... lots of sand being blown up on it from fish, brittle star. Tomato clown loves to burrow in it...
go to this link and tell me what you think of this post
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/127216/ls-vs-cc-again

 

[sleeri]

I'm sure you can have success with CC, but it's much more difficult to work with in my opinion. You're tank has to be perfectly maintained / balanced. If you lose control of your tank the CC becomes an algae producing machine. You'll have red slime cyno coating the CC in no time. Get ready to scrub the heck out of your CC if you go that route.
My own personal experience with CC has been filled with negatives. I have had two tanks with CC. My current tank has had sand in it for about a year now. Biggest difference is that I don't have algae spreading across my tank. I should add that I have also added a refuge to my system. So that may have helped. I've also gone with small weekly water changes.
As for the looks I guess that's just personal opinion. I think sand looks more natural and is more appealing to the eye. Plus, you can have "sand" loving fish and inverts in your tank if you so desire.
Bottom line... look at what the experts say. Not just amateurs on this site like me. I'm pretty sure most experts will tell you that sand is a must in reef.

 

[hookedonreefs]

If an expert - or anyone for that matter- tells you ANYTHING is a must in a tank (besides water) then don't listen to them.
The best thing about this hobby (IMO) is that things can and are done successfully in many different ways.
Sand is OK(ssb & dsb), so is BB, starboard, CC, rock. There are many different choices. Right now I'm working on an almost all rock bottom with sand "drifted" where the rocks meet. This will look natural and still have the benefit of being siphonable. My tanks have remote DSBs though. There's lots of different options. (and I'm no expert mind you)
To get back to your origonal question, I suggest against a full 100% change. Maybe take enough water out to keep the fish and inverts alive while you remove the substrate then put the fish, inverts and water back in and fill the remaining tank space with PREmixed water....

 

[sleeri]

Maybe "must" is too strong of a word. Yes, you can go with different options and succeed as I stated before, but like most things there is ussually a general concensous among professionals on the best opition and right now that is probably going to be DSB over CC.
Like I said before, don't just rely on this site for your info. You'll get a million different view points. Also keep in mind that many things can work in the short run. The real question is are they still working for people a year from now, two years from now, 5 years from now, and so on.

 

[thomas712]

Well you do have some options.
1. Get rid of the fish that cause the problem
2. Switch to the crushed coral
3. Keep the sand
4. Here is where I don't ever recommend this, however. To keep the biological filtration of the sand you might want to try this option. Place a layer of the fine crushed coral over the sand. This option depends on just how much your fish burrow into it. The con here is that you will need to vaccum that crushed coral in order to clean it. Sand and crushed coral normally can work against each other, the crushed coarl working against the sand, but a thin layer you might be able to better control. It might be more maintanence in the long run though.
5. The bare bottom has appeal to some.
I have done a few 100% water changes in my time when I had a 55 with 3 inches of crushed coral, I could never get it clean enough to keep the nitrates down for long. No real harm was done by them, in fact the water quality had to be improved from how bad it was. Just remember to keep your filter media wet.. As long as you also have live rock there will be bacteria on that as well. Just keep the rock wet as well.
Thomas

 

[reefnut]

If an expert - or anyone for that matter- tells you ANYTHING is a must in a tank (besides water) then don't listen to them.
Don't forget salt!!
IMO a bare bottom would be better than a very thin layer of sand or cc. A very thin layer will trap debris but not house the micro critters needed to process the debris.

 

[doodle1800]

Well... today was the day I was going to do the water change and substrate change. uuuggghhhh... I think what I'm going to do is keep the sand in this tank. A total tear out would disrupt a lot of life in the tank. Feather dusters buried in sand up their crowns, a live sand bed, etc..... I'll save my new substrate for the next tank. In the mean time I'll do a 25% water change and level out the sand, rearrange the LR and get a new look that way.