Putting in a sand substrate.

[grant778]

I currently have a crushed coral substrate that I vacuum every week but is constantly dirty. It has been in the back of my mind to replace it with sand and now that I am having some algae problems I think that changing the substrate might help remove some of the phosphates and such. How should I go about doing this? Should I use dry or live sand?

 

[zoidberg01]

I would recommend live sand but I would never EVER fare to put sand if there Is water in the tank

 

[grant778]

I have heard that putting in live sand would cause an ammonia spike. Is that true? I wouldn't do it all at once so it probably wouldn't cloud up the water too much. I think I would put the bag with the rinsed sand at the bottom of the tank and carefully spread it out after I had scooped out an area of crushed coral.

 

[silverado61]

It can be done. It's a long process but it can be done.

 

[zoidberg01]

I had never had a ammonia spike in 55 g with lots of fish and live sand but if you are going to do it get the fish out because they can get stressed out and by experience that is my number one cause of fish death

 

[grant778]

I think i will just get dry sand and put like half of it in tuesday. Next water change I will do the other half (which will be next sunday).

 

[grant778]

I will take out the clownfish for sure but I don't think I will be able to get the goby out. Should I take my mushroom coral out till the sand settles too or should I leave that in?

 

[zoidberg01]

I don't know about corals but do the best to get the fish out because dry or live sand will still cloud

 

[silverado61]

If you do it right, you can minimize the clouding. If not avoid it all together.

 

[grant778]

I plan on sinking the bag to the bottom and then slowly letting it out at the bottom of the tank.

 

[silverado61]

Do you have power heads, an hob filter, protein skimmer? Anything that stirs the water?

 

[zoidberg01]

They sell pads that are used to control the phosphate and it really takes the clouding of quickly

 

[grant778]

I have 2 powerheads. One is mediocre and the other is pretty bad. I also have a filter that creates some water movement. I will turn the powerheads off when I put in the sand.

 

[grant778]

I have a biocube skimmer too but it doesn't make much water movement.

 

[silverado61]

Change the gravel to sand in small sections. Don't change it all at once or even half and half. 6 inch areas at a time at most and wait a day or so between replacements, testing your parameters each time so you don't overload the system.

 

[silverado61]

If you leave a little gravel behind, its no biggie. Try using an empty soda bottle to replace the sand. I've seen it work with little or no cloudiness but it needs to be done with patience.

 

[grant778]

I will do a third of it today, a third next weekend, and a third the weekend after that. I have a shallow substrate so the rocks have most of the bacteria. The clownfish and goby are very small too so they don't make too much waste.

 

[grant778]

A third of the crushed coral was replaced with aragonite this afternoon. Most of the cloudiness came not from putting the sand in but from scooping out the crushed coral. That was done an hour and a half ago and the cloudiness in the tank is settling down. I did a 15-20 percent water change afterwards to help with the cloudiness and to get out any nitrites that I might have stirred up. My power heads are still off so as not to elongate the length of time the water is cloudy. I expect to be able to turn them back on about 9:00 tonight.

 

[grant778]

Should I cut back on the feeding and not feed the fish tomorrow so that the bacteria has a day to build up slightly?

 

[silverado61]

Changing some substrate will put a little stress on the fish so they won't be interested in eating anyway so yea, wait a couple of days before trying to feed. Then feed only half to see if they'll even eat. Just to make sure you don't end up fouling the tank up with food.