reefers i need your help

[feixjai]

ok well i let my brother take care of my tank for awhile and he goes out and adds a ton of fish to my 24 :scared: not all at one time but one almost every few weeks. nothing bad has gone wrong yet because i have been doing water changes now that i have taken over again. well i have 12 fish in my 24 and now i want to start the thing over. so this is my plan. take out all the corals and live rock and put it in a tub with lights. the fish i want to keep (only 2 of them) will also go into the tub. then the other fish is probably going to the lfs or my friend. and then i put back all my live rock and let the tank settle. probably do a 5 gallon water change. let the tank clear and add back all my corals. would this work out or should i not do it. i also wanted to clean the sand a bit because i got these big pebbles in them so i might barrow my friends sand scoop and scoop out all the pebbles in the sand and maybe dirty stuff also. i will probably let my live stock stay in the tub for probably a few days but not pass a week. what do you reefers think? i want to do this fast because i dont want my tank to crash with all the corals and fish i have. the point of this is because i want to get rid of all the fish and tearing down the rockwork because its easier to catch the fish. thanks in advance.

 

[farmboy]

Be mindful of water temp for the coral/fish tub and water movement.
I wouldn't "stir" the sand if I didn't have to. Maybe cleaning another day would be more prudent. Is this a Deep Sand Bed?
How about a fish trap? I've never used one. I sympathize with you on trying to net a fish around the rock! Frustrating.
Good luck!

 

[jobob]

i would take out all the rock and catch the fish, leave the sand alone, then put the rock and fish back in. in a 24 gal maybe 2hours, u mite cause more problems than its worth by messing with the sand.

 

[feixjai]

thanks for your replies. i will definately not spir up the sand if that is going to cause problems. yes i will be sure to add a heater and a powerhead in the tub. nope this isnt a deep sand bed just about an inch of live sand. thanks again

 

[farmboy]

There can be some bad stuff "breaking down" in your sand. If it gets disturbed, it gets into the water all at once, instead of going through the natural process of decomposure. (I think that is the long and short of it.)
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[devaji108]

ok I have to move a tank I am buying so what is the best way to move sand?
sorry don't mean to take over the thread

 

[farmboy]

I've never had to move much sand. You may want to troll for some other threads about this.
I would play it safe, however. Take a small amount and keep it alive. Maybe 5% or so. Just enough to re-seed the other sand. Then I would rinse the other sand before putting it into the new system. This will hopefully remove any of the BAD stuff at the bottom of the sand. Even if you only move it from one tank to another, the stirring effect could release spike causing "funk".
Anyone else?