Crushed Coral to Live Sand

kazara

Member
I would like to switch from my Crushed Coral to Livev sand. My tank is now 2 1/2 years old not and have been reading how good the Live Sand. What is the best way to switch in a tank that is already running. thanks for help
 

dse

Member
live sand is best at the start of a tank set up. if i was you i would buy a small bag and buy big cheap sand (non live) but i think youll get problems in your tank unless you get rid of corals (if you have any) and your fish due to rise in ammonia nitrite and nitrate. what size is your cc? if its under 1mm thats good any larger then i don't blame you.
 

kazara

Member
I am not sure of the size...i put it in there over 2 yrs ago. I was thinking of doing what u said and doing it a bit at a time. It is only a fish tank and hardy fish in there.
 

dse

Member
have you got a a friend that can care for them with the switch? it's just if there is an ammonia spike then boom fish dead or do you have a QT tank?
i'm just thinking of your wallet and fish and you don't want to lose both things lol.
 

spanko

Active Member
Take the water and rocks from your tank and put them in the other tank with a heater.
In the meantime, remove the rest of the rocks and put them in a container with more of the tank water. Try to save as much tank water as you can.
Remove all of the crushed coral substrate and toss it. Put all of the rocks back in the tank laid out like you want it. Then put in the new sand. Don't buy live sand, just get dead, small particle sand. Sugar size aragonite is nice.
Once all of the rock and sand is in start to fill it back up with the tank water you saved, Have some newly mixed, same salinity, same Ph, same temp water on hand to top off the tank with.
Once the display is set back up with the new sand, old rocks, and as much old water as you can, let it run a couple of hours to stabilize a little.
IMO you will then be safe to re-acclimate your fish back into the newly setup tank.
Good luck with this and keep us posted with pics if you can.
 

kazara

Member
I now thinking i might add about 2lbs of sand a day very slowly and alow the rock to stay on the CC and remove the other CC. I will post some pics. thx
 

kazara

Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2754352
The larger particles of CC will always migrate to the top layer.
I am going to remove all of except what my rock is sitting on and if some does come i will remove as needed. I read in another post that someone was doing little at a time. I havent decided yet but i am leaing that way. thx
 

salt210

Active Member
it was my thread that you read. the one thing that I have ran into doing it in small increments is that the CC finds its way over to the sand. when I removed the CC I used a shop vac. this helped keep the detritus at bay. at least for me it did
 

kazara

Member
Originally Posted by salt210
http:///forum/post/2754398
it was my thread that you read. the one thing that I have ran into doing it in small increments is that the CC finds its way over to the sand. when I removed the CC I used a shop vac. this helped keep the detritus at bay. at least for me it did
Thanks for the advice... i will keep everyone posted and post pics if i can. peace
 

kazara

Member
I removed about 1/5 of it over the weekend and everything looks good so far. my nitrates are high...but lower then they were before. keep u posted. peace
 
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