Can I add live sand after I've got a tank set up?

[kat 4]

I have a 30 gallon tank - with regular sand on bottom and cc on top of that. We have some fake coral as well as live rock, feather dusters, crabs, , brittle star,shrimps, anemone, and an angel fish and rabbitfish. I want to go to live sand but is it too late? I am attempting to add reef stuff slowly (want to add mushrooms, coral, etc) but think I should have ls, not cc. How can you do this if the tank is cycled and running great...or is it something I should just forget about as long as all is well. Any thoughts? If I can add ls, how do I do it without junking up the water?? Thanks for any input!

 

[lunchie]

First let me say I am by no way an expert! I have only been in the hobby for just over a year. However, I have a 75 gallon FOWLR tank and just got rid of my crushed coral bottom and went to Live Sand and Had no problems. This is how I did it:
Supplies
3 -- 35 Gallon Buckets
1 bucket I usued to make new water in (did this 1 week in advance)
3 -- Heaters (just cheap ones)
1-- air stone
1--power head
What I did:
1. Made my water 1 week in advance with powerhead in there and heater
2. I pumped 75% of the tank water into the 2 empty empty buckets
I put my fish in one bucket with the airstone and heater
I put my live rock in the bucket with just a heater
3. I then pumped the rest of tank water out and threw it away.
4. I cleaned all the CC out and completely cleaned the tank and all power heads, skimmer, filter etc.
5. I put the Live Sand in
6. Began pumping the water from the rock bucket back in to the tank and put the rock back in
7. Pumped the water from the fish bucket in and then put the fish in
8. Topped the tank off with the new water I had made
This all took about 2 hours! I had a very slight rise in Nitrates but other than that my tank has been great!
Hope that helps

 

[kat 4]

Thank you so much! I'm excited that I can possibly do this!! What about the inverts? They are kinda glued to everything on the bottom or hiding in little nooks of rocks, etc.. Thanks again

 

[lunchie]

I tried to make sure when I took my rock out that I got all the inverts with it. I know I lost a couple of hermit crabs but it was worth the loss. I was having so much trouble with water clarity because of the Crushed Coral.
I only have some mushrooms in my tank and they seemed to handle the change well. My fish, Foxface rabbitfish, Pink Spotted Goby, and Yellow Tang all handled it well. I used a container to remove the rabbitfish because you run a risk of him getting caught in a net.
Anyhow, all in all it went really well and my water clarity is 100 times better! Just plan ahead and have a check list of all items and it will go fine!
One thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep the water Temp the same during the process that is why it is important to have the heaters! I also had a thermometer in the bucket with the fish so I could watch it closely.
Good Luck

 

[ninjamini]

Kat here is another idea for you. Go get a new garbage can from home depot 10-20 dollars. :scared: Put saltwater in, the new rock in and a power head. Let it go for a week. You can put a light on if it you wish but you don't need to. Let it cycle for a few weeks. Then when ammonia levels drop off you have nicely aged rock and sand. scoop out all the CC with a cup and dump it. Put the live sand in the cup and move it to the tank. keep the live sand wet. put it in the tank and then turn over the cup. let it settle. and slowly remove the cup. repeat and put in the new rock.
All done.
:happyfish :happyfish :happyfish