Cc??
- Thread starter freeride7
- Start date
ackermsb
Member
Welcome to the Board.
First of all, please do not listen to your LFS. CC will never turn to sand. CC is okay however, you need to siphon it every month and the maintenance of it takes it toll.
If you are only 4 days into your cycle you might as well start over if you want a sand bed. Take the rock out, remove the Crushed Coral with some type of object (a mini shovel or dustpan will work (Make sure its clean and never been used before)) add the sand (live, aragonite, southdown/yardright (purchase this at home depot), add the rock back in and continue (or start) cycle. Throw in a raw shrimp or two that you get from the supermarket to jumpstart the ammonia process.
You dont have any fish in there right?
Good luck. I did it in an established 180G and it was a pain in the ass but i needed a QT tank to hold my fish. If your gonnna do the switch, do it now.
First of all, please do not listen to your LFS. CC will never turn to sand. CC is okay however, you need to siphon it every month and the maintenance of it takes it toll.
If you are only 4 days into your cycle you might as well start over if you want a sand bed. Take the rock out, remove the Crushed Coral with some type of object (a mini shovel or dustpan will work (Make sure its clean and never been used before)) add the sand (live, aragonite, southdown/yardright (purchase this at home depot), add the rock back in and continue (or start) cycle. Throw in a raw shrimp or two that you get from the supermarket to jumpstart the ammonia process.
You dont have any fish in there right?
Good luck. I did it in an established 180G and it was a pain in the ass but i needed a QT tank to hold my fish. If your gonnna do the switch, do it now.
T
thomas712
Guest
Not being a smart a** but Crushed coral will turn into sand, problem is we won't be alive to see it happen, but it has been happening in the reefs of the world for eons.
I agree you should replace the cc as soon as possible, sand being a far better filter with far more surface area than cc and far less maintanance.
Thomas
I agree you should replace the cc as soon as possible, sand being a far better filter with far more surface area than cc and far less maintanance.
Thomas
freeride7
Member
man, wish I would have known this....well off to buy a wack of sand I guess.....no fish yet so suppose now is the time.
Any filtering or washing to do before I place the sand?
Also, will my LR be alright sitting out of the water for an hour or so while I do this?
Thanks for the comments.
Any filtering or washing to do before I place the sand?
Also, will my LR be alright sitting out of the water for an hour or so while I do this?
Thanks for the comments.
guppy slayer
Member
Dude, SLOOOOOW DOOOOWN
don't mean to start a fire here but it sound like to me as if you want to have a reef tank tommorrow. won't happen.
LR will not survive out of water and now is not the time for fish.
Don't even think about fish for at least a month or more depending on which one you choose
don't mean to start a fire here but it sound like to me as if you want to have a reef tank tommorrow. won't happen.
LR will not survive out of water and now is not the time for fish.
Don't even think about fish for at least a month or more depending on which one you choose
bullshark
Member
OK, this is what I would do. Go to Home Depot and get a 44 gallon trash barrel. Fill it with your tank water, place all live rock in there. After this is all done, THEN scoop out the CC. Get your sand of choice (live sand from SWF.com is what I have) and if it is live sand then add directly to the tank. If you buy sand that is dry, it will cloud the tank badly for a few days, even if you rinse it very well. Some say not to rinse it at all. After this new sand is all in there, place the live rock where you want it then fill the tank back up slowly so not to disturb the sand and create a cloudy water column. Good Luck, it is well worth the switch, sand is way better.
wrassecal
Active Member
Originally posted by freeride7
man, wish I would have known this....well off to buy a wack of sand I guess.....no fish yet so suppose now is the time.
Any filtering or washing to do before I place the sand?
Also, will my LR be alright sitting out of the water for an hour or so while I do this?
Thanks for the comments.
Glad to hear you are not cycling with fish.
I don't know how big your tank is but you could syphon out your tank water into a bucket and put your live rock in it while you change the substrate from cc to sand. You need to keep your live rock in saltwater.
Filtering or washing the sand is not necessary if you buy arroganite sand of a fine grain. You will probably have quite a bit of "milky" or murky looking water while the sand bonds to bacteria on the live rock and settles down. The silt in it is actually good for your tank. If you can then get some quality live sand from someone or your lfs and spread on the top.
Good idea to do it now before you've already cycled. Like Thomas said cc will break down to sand but it would probably take hundreds of years (if not longer in a fish tank)
Welcome to the board, glad you found us before things got too far along. At least you learned early to aske here before buying or taking the lfs word for it.
