Changing from Crush Coral to Sand

[iplayblues4u]

I want to change my tank over from crush coral to a sand bed. I've had my tank set up for about 4 months. I do not want to spend roughly $100 on live sand to give me a 2'' bed in the bottom. For all you pros, I was wondering if I could purchase sand at a local hardware store, clean it out, and put it in my tank say, 1/4 at a time, over a period of time. That way I would remove 1/4 crush coral and then add 1/4 sand. I thought this would give the sand time to become "live" sand and get the bacteria and what not that it needs. This way I would be putting all new in and spike my levels. I thought a little at a time would not be as hard on my inverts and fish as well. This is just a shot in the dark if this will work. If not, then I don't think I'll be changing over. Some people told me that it would work and to use "Southdowns" sand. Any advice would be great, because as far as I;m concerned, sand is sand.

 

[demosthenes]

IMO, use southdown. Get about 100 lbs and then about 20-40 lbs of LS. Don't go with a 2" sand bed, get 4-5" in sand to get the benefits of a DSB. You could place all of the sand, once the southdown is cleaned, in a holding container, a 10 gallon tank, and allow the sand to become live. This however, could take time. I just took out all of my CC, replaced it with the sand, put the LR back in, and I haven't had any problems since. What's the size of your tank? Amount of LR? I'm just asking becuase I wondered.

 

[iplayblues4u]

Sea Wraith~
Did you mix in any live sand with the "dead Sand?" How deep is your bed? If you could please respond with the procedure that you followed. Right now I have a 48 gal bow front, sand sifting starfish, a few hermit crabs, 15-20lbs live rock, a mandrin goby, and a darf lion. I just got these two fish the other day. I had a problem with a Daimsel that was the size of a bluegill in my tank that was killing everything. Needless to say he's gone now Thanks again.

 

[demosthenes]

What type of damsel was it?