Corrcting an error in my tank.

[wartooth1]

Hey all.
So, the bottom of my month and a half old tank is 3 inches of crushed coral sand. I've decided its better to get it out of my tank and replace it with normal live sand. The problem is I already have 4 fish and a multitude of inverts already living in the tank. I'm thinking the best way to do this is to fill 2 buckets with aquarium water, get the fishes into 1 bucket, and the inverts into the other, and begin scooping the crushed coral out and then pour in the sand.
Some things that does have me concerned though is I am sure doing this will make my aquarium cloudy for quite sometime. Would it be safe to return my livestock to the tank before the dust has settled or must they wait until the aquarium clears up (which could take a few hours)?
Also, would my hermits starve in the new live sand? I know they like to pick on the brown stuff that grows on the CCS grains.
Also, would replacing the CCS with live sand upset the chemical balance that is already establishing itself in the tank?
Thanks.

 

[1guydude]

hmmm idk but IMO id scoop out the crushed coral or at least wat u can. Leave ur livestock in and take a piece of PVC piping to add the new sand! Just aim the pipe where u want the sand and add the sand slowly via the pipe. Ur tank prob will be cloudy still for maybe a day or 12hrs depending on ur filter and how strong it is.... I dont think it will harm ur parameters to much. You may get another diatom bloom but it should go away in time as the silicates are deleted. As for ur hermits, u can get some crab pellets but dont feed em to much like maybe 2-4 pellets every 3dayz.....than stop...u want them to be cleaners not eaters! I feed my inverts the crab pellets as a treat every now and again...

 

[geoj]

Hey all.

So, the bottom of my month and a half old tank is 3 inches of crushed coral sand. I've decided its better to get it out of my tank and replace it with normal live sand. The problem is I already have 4 fish and a multitude of inverts already living in the tank. I'm thinking the best way to do this is to fill 2 buckets with aquarium water, get the fishes into 1 bucket, and the inverts into the other, and begin scooping the crushed coral out and then pour in the sand.

Some things that does have me concerned though is I am sure doing this will make my aquarium cloudy for quite sometime. Would it be safe to return my livestock to the tank before the dust has settled or must they wait until the aquarium clears up (which could take a few hours)?

Also, would my hermits starve in the new live sand? I know they like to pick on the brown stuff that grows on the CCS grains.

Also, would replacing the CCS with live sand upset the chemical balance that is already establishing itself in the tank?

Thanks.
I have kept tanks with CC and there is no reason to get rid of it, other than wanting to push how much you can stock higher. The other posts you have read have very good points for reasons to go with a finer live sand and their about stocking and the tank maintenance, things you control. So if you went with the CC because it was cheaper you can keep it for now and change any time you feel like it.

 

[wartooth1]

Well I got tired of my nitrate going up despite a 25% water change, bio ball washing, and filter pad washing over the weekend so the CC sand came out. I did it by placing my live rock and livestock in a 20 gallon plastic tub with the tanks heater and powerhead, and then scooped out all the CC with a plastic cup. Once the live sand was in I let the filter in the tank run for a few hours to suck up some of the dust and once the cloudyness went away a little bit, the fish and LR were carefully placed back in the tank.
I am pleased to report that none of my fish seemed freaked out by the day's crazyness lol.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wartooth1 http:///forum/thread/386333/corrcting-an-error-in-my-tank#post_3394263
Well I got tired of my nitrate going up despite a 25% water change, bio ball washing, and filter pad washing over the weekend so the CC sand came out. I did it by placing my live rock and livestock in a 20 gallon plastic tub with the tanks heater and powerhead, and then scooped out all the CC with a plastic cup. Once the live sand was in I let the filter in the tank run for a few hours to suck up some of the dust and once the cloudyness went away a little bit, the fish and LR were carefully placed back in the tank.
I am pleased to report that none of my fish seemed freaked out by the day's crazyness lol.
Hi,
You did lose some good bacteria when you removed the CC...If you used live sand, then you also replaced the bacteria and should have no issues.
What test kit did you use for reading your nitrates? I ask because I always had live sand...and for two solid years I battled nitrates. I went from a canister filter to adding a macoalgae basket and that not working. I then decided on an in tank refugium...still no good. I went to daily water changes and got rid of the canister filter and got a sump/refugium (a deep sand bed for the refugium)...still high nitrates, I began to dose vodka..my nitrates climbed, and I worried about vodka dosing so I got a denitrate filter...still the nitrates were reading 40+ to 80 the API test read 20 5 days after adding the filter, then jumped to 80 the next day.
Turns out I had an out of date (2008) API test kit, even the new one unopened was dated 2008. I purchased a Seachme multi kit...my nitrates were at 1, and day before yesterday 0.1...so it's steadly going down to 0 with the nitrate filter.