Change CC to LS... HELP!

[kayak385]

I want to change out my 40lbs of CC to 60lbs of LS.
My 75 gallon tank has:
40lbs of CC
70-80lbs of LR
1 flame angel
2 green chromis
1 coral banded shrimp
1 scarlet hermit crab
1 Astraea Conehead Snail
5 Nerite Snail (not sure if they are or not)
1 kenya tree (1inch tall)
1 polyp of some sort on the Astraea's shell that is placed on top of the highest rock just in case it needs lots of light.
sea cucumber (came inside of a rock that i got for $9)
peanut worm (another hitchhiker on a rock that had sea squirts all over it)
about a half dozen of feather duster clusters that have about 1/8in diameter fan each.
All powered by the 2x65watt 50/50 bulbs
My sump has:
5lbs of refugium mud
10lbs of CC
4 mature mangroves(at least 4 leaves on each plant)
20 mangrove seedlings
1 chunk of chaeto (3x3x6in cubed)
All powered by the 20 watt 50/50 bulb
Now the question... What is the process of doing this with no stress on the fish and no LR death?
I was thinking of taking out about 30 of the 40lbs and just adding the sand to that.

 

[maeistero]

what do your bulbs or sump have to do with this?
why wouldn't you take all the cc out? you really want to mix that with your new plan for sand?
just make sure you keep everything underwater while taking all the cc out. watch your pumps to see that they don't get aired. maybe hang a spare hob to clear cloudiness.

 

[kayak385]

Originally Posted by maeistero

what do your bulbs or sump have to do with this?
why wouldn't you take all the cc out? you really want to mix that with your new plan for sand?
just make sure you keep everything underwater while taking all the cc out. watch your pumps to see that they don't get aired. maybe hang a spare hob to clear cloudiness.
I copied and pasted a old thread hence the bulbs and sump.
I don't know how hard it is to get all the cc out.
I don't know which sand I should get to replace the cc.
Do I take my fish out and put them into a tank with my lr until the main tank clears? (this would mean I would have to buy another tank and some type of filtration because all I have is a sump)
How long does the process take? (minimum-maximum estimates please)
Are there any tutorials on how to do this as painless as possible?

 

[volunteerg]

I did this last year on my 75 reef. I bought rubbermaid bins and moved all the rock, coral and fish into the bins with powerheads in them for circulation.
Then removed the cc and added the ls.
The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours...I lost no fish or coral and the result has been great!

 

[scubaguy]

My tank was not that big 35gal. but changing from CC to Sand is easy but time consuming. I lost nothing in my tank and everyone is happy

 

[kayak385]

Originally Posted by volunteerg
I did this last year on my 75 reef. I bought rubbermaid bins and moved all the rock, coral and fish into the bins with powerheads in them for circulation.
Then removed the cc and added the ls.
The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours...I lost no fish or coral and the result has been great!
I think I saw your post or someones post that used 3 rubbermaid bins.
How much sand did you use and how deep was your sand bed?
How do you clean fine sand?
I have no powerheads, just a magdrive 950gph coming from my refugium into my tank.
Does it have to be ls, or can it be dead sand? Is that running a risk?

 

[f14peter]

I think dead sand would be fine, the LR will eventually seed it, making it "live."
As for adding sand, if done carefully, then causing huge clouds of dust in the tank aren't a problem.
I added about 80lbs of dead sand and had virtually no dust clouds. I rinsed the sand thoroughly, then took a large plastic cup and scooped up some sand. I placed the cup upright in the tank until it was filled with water, then either lowered it and slowly poured, or poured it slowly down a tube to get it into the nooks-n-crannies and under the rock. All pumps and PHs were off, so there was no water movement in the tank and the grains of sand quickly fell to the bottom. The water in the cup made the sand pour quite easily.
Sure, it took a while, but there was minimal mess in the tank.

 

[kayak385]

Originally Posted by f14peter
I think dead sand would be fine, the LR will eventually seed it, making it "live."
As for adding sand, if done carefully, then causing huge clouds of dust in the tank aren't a problem.
I added about 80lbs of dead sand and had virtually no dust clouds. I rinsed the sand thoroughly, then took a large plastic cup and scooped up some sand. I placed the cup upright in the tank until it was filled with water, then either lowered it and slowly poured, or poured it slowly down a tube to get it into the nooks-n-crannies and under the rock. All pumps and PHs were off, so there was no water movement in the tank and the grains of sand quickly fell to the bottom. The water in the cup made the sand pour quite easily.
Sure, it took a while, but there was minimal mess in the tank.
so how do you take the cc out before putting that sand in?

 

[murph]

Try this
First make up some new water. You will probably need around 50 gals.
Get a length of hose 3/4 to an inch diameter around eight feet long. Start a siphon and stick the end down into the CC bed in your DT. The CC should rise up the tube with water, out of the tank and into your waste water container.
To get sand into the tank take a length of PVC pipe around two inch diameter and at least as long as your tank is high. Get a large funnel and if necessary cut off the bottom so that it just fits into the PVC. Take thoroughly rinsed sand and and pour it into the funnel and down the PVC to the bottom of your tank in the spot you have cleaned free of CC.
Do small areas each couple of days or so and top off the system with your new water. The process is much easier with an exta set of hands. Hopefully you have some one around to lend a hand.

 

[kayak385]

Originally Posted by Murph
Try this
First make up some new water. You will probably need around 50 gals.
Get a length of hose 3/4 to an inch diameter around eight feet long. Start a siphon and stick the end down into the CC bed in your DT. The CC should rise up the tube with water, out of the tank and into your waste water container.
To get sand into the tank take a length of PVC pipe around two inch diameter and at least as long as your tank is high. Get a large funnel and if necessary cut off the bottom so that it just fits into the PVC. Take thoroughly rinsed sand and and pour it into the funnel and down the PVC to the bottom of your tank in the spot you have cleaned free of CC.
Do small areas each couple of days or so and top off the system with your new water. The process is much easier with an exta set of hands. Hopefully you have some one around to lend a hand.
How do you clean the sand?

 

[sinner's g]

as far as removing cc, which is as far as I got. First, clean the heck out of one area, I mean vaccum it super good! Then remove a few nets full at a time from that area. The goal is not to stir too much crap up (trust me, there is tons of crap in the cc). Clean another area of cc super well, remove a few nets of cc. Continue till evil cc is gone. MAKE sure you clean the cc before removing if you keep your fish/invert in the tank during removal.
Remember to rinse and cure the sand before adding it!
Though, volunteerg's method sounds much easier than what I did. No clue why I did what I did, but I'm sure I asked here and did as I was told...
:notsure:
Now, cc was removed long ago, sand still sits in the bags under the tank... :help:

 

[kayak385]

but how do you clean the sand?

 

[sinner's g]

ah, give me a minute to find the post and I'll copy it here.
I belive it was just a matter of rinsing it with ro water till it ran clean. Then you do something, like add fish food to start curing it and stir it everyday...let me go search for the post....

 

[sinner's g]

I can't find the old post, which I also need. I'll search again tomorrow if I can if someone hasn't replied. Otherwise, I'll repost the question. Of all the info saved in my fish documents folder, this isn't

Someone posted they just used the water hose outside to rinse the sand clean, but when I asked if I could use tap water, I was told to use ro water, or treat the tap water.

You only clean dead, dry sand. if you're buying live sand (it'll be wet), you don't rinse that, you just add that to the tank.

 

[murph]

For dry/dead sand Get a five gallon bucket and dump your sand into it. Take a hose and fill up the bucket with water while stirring the sand by hand. You will see the water turns a milky color. Dump it out and repeat the process until the water stays clear.
After water starts staying clear fill the bucket up one last time and treat with amquel per bottle instructions. Stir that up well and wait ten minutes or so. Dump out that last batch of tap water and the sand is ready for the tank.
Eventually you will have to move your rock to areas that have been replaced with sand to remove the CC from those areas. Doing small areas every few days will limit stress to inhabitants. Some cloudiness to the water is likely but should clear up quickly.
Unless you plan on keeping something that requires a deep sand bed I would stay under an inch for sand depth in the DT. In your fuge/sump a mixer of vary fine sand and normal grade aragonite 4 inches or deeper will eventually function to process out nitrates. Give it a month to mature before expecting nitrate levels to start dropping. Provided enough area for this bed you can expect 0 to less than 5 for a nitrate reading provided the tank is not overstocked or over fed or under skimmed.
Plants, even mangroves, will have a limited effect as far as reduceing nitrates. They are good to have however to compete with nusience algea for any available phosphates. A deep sand bed in your sump/fuge will do much better and requires no lighting. Google "deep sand bed" for more info.
Hope this helps.