hockeyplyr
Member
I want to Change from CC to Sand I was told to do it slowly and let CC culture sand. My question is. Do I keep My Under Gravel Filter with the sand. And if not What do I do with Power Heads.
CC to Sand Substrate ?
- Thread starter hockeyplyr
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hockeyplyr
Member
Originally posted by fshhub:
<strong>if possible, i would remove the ugf, and as for the powerheads, you can with most, hang them on the galss and use them for circulation(good circulation is very important), which i would have anyhow
HTH</strong><hr></blockquote>
thanks do you have a reason. Is i detrimental to tank because I always though it helped cycle water over substrate helping it make contact with bacteria
<strong>if possible, i would remove the ugf, and as for the powerheads, you can with most, hang them on the galss and use them for circulation(good circulation is very important), which i would have anyhow
HTH</strong><hr></blockquote>
thanks do you have a reason. Is i detrimental to tank because I always though it helped cycle water over substrate helping it make contact with bacteria
fshhub
Active Member
cc does house some bacteria, but unfortunately not as near as much as sand of equal depth, the sand houses much more, and if it is a dsb, then it will also have areas very low or free of oxygen, whihc is where you sill find your denitrifying bacteria, and fr a third reason, the cc can also trap detritus, which will not completly break dwon(liike in a dsb) and can contribute to a nitrate problem in the future
HTH
HTH
drummerboy
Member
Hey, I just did this, so I thought I'd tell you what I did. I got enough bags of just plain argonite to get the desired depth, and then I got a bag of the carbi-sea with the bacteria in it. I took ten gallons of my tank water and put it in a quaritine tank, then put my fish in there, and put the rest of my water and live rocks in rubbermaid tub with a heater. I syphoned the last bit of water out of the coral and dumped it. Then I took out all my cc, and after rinsing the sand I put that in. Then I put the carbi-sea sand on top of that. I put my live rock in, and then put the water from the tub back in using a plate to deflect the flow. There was absolutly no clouding, so I put my fish in and put the water from that tank back in, and topped it off with fresh saltwater.
It's worked great, my live rock has already seeded the sand, and I haven't seen a spike in ammonia, nitrite, and my nitrates dropped a little. I do have a bak-pak skimmer with bio bale, and a filter with bio media in it, it wouldn't have worked with out those, because that's what was holding most of my bacteria.
But if you do have some way of keeping the bacteria, and you have live rock, I would really suggest doing it all at once. It's worked great for me, and now I have a dsb without all the hassle of trying to do it slowly.
Sorry for the long post, but I had the same questions, and IMO if you have some way of keeping the bacteria, this is the best way to go. I don't know what you have for a tank though, so it may not be. It's just a lot easier than trying to do it slowly.
It's worked great, my live rock has already seeded the sand, and I haven't seen a spike in ammonia, nitrite, and my nitrates dropped a little. I do have a bak-pak skimmer with bio bale, and a filter with bio media in it, it wouldn't have worked with out those, because that's what was holding most of my bacteria.
But if you do have some way of keeping the bacteria, and you have live rock, I would really suggest doing it all at once. It's worked great for me, and now I have a dsb without all the hassle of trying to do it slowly.
Sorry for the long post, but I had the same questions, and IMO if you have some way of keeping the bacteria, this is the best way to go. I don't know what you have for a tank though, so it may not be. It's just a lot easier than trying to do it slowly.