adding sand to established tank

[intemidator3]

I have a 55-gallon reef tank that has been up and running for about 2-years now and only have about 1" of sand in it,the question I have is if I want to make a deep sand bed and add around three more inches of sand will this start a recycle of the tank or harm it in any other way.
thanks for any input.
Intemidator3

 

[mad_dog]

I changed over from cc to dsb approx 4 months ago, the trick is from all the advise I got was to take it slow, about 1/3 of the tank at a time and one month apart. I start with 1/3 live sand and waited for it to cycle first ( you should already have this covered ) then added a bio-wheel to the sump to help eliminate any ammonia/nitrite build up. After that I did another 1/3 arroninte, one month later the last 1/3 arroninte. I have increased nitrates so it was necessary to make more frequent water changes during the process but it wasn't anything devasating or too far off the charts.
Good Luck

 

[cyn]

I am wondering if I can mix LS with some of the CC in my tank? Please be patient with me here.. I have about 3in of combination CC and large particle argonite now and from what I am reading, the CC should be replaced. (sure wish I knew about this board when I started) Any advice?

 

[fishfreek]

I may get slammed for this, but i took out about 1/2 of my cc (left about 1/2" average) in to leave some good seeded substrat and added about 2" of oolic sand on top of it. Some of the sand has settled to the bottom and very little cc has risen to the top of the DSB. I am happy with the overall preformance and looks of my sand bed. Nine months later nitrates are consistantly zero! If i started all over, i would naturally use 100% sand. That way, there is no chances of trapped debris in the would be cc. I know some others on this board have done the same with the same good results. If i were you, i would try to remove most (if not all) of the cc for the best results for the long run. HTH