removing crushed coral

[swatskee]

Hello,
I currently have about 40# CC in my 55G tank and i also have 20# LS as the top layer. I'm wanting to remover the CC & add 40# more LS in it's place. Anyone see any problems besides for the pain of actually removing the CC??? I have it layer so i think i may be abloe to get most of it out by scraping it to one side then the other.
thanks in advance.
oh yeah, the tank is ony 1 month in and the cycle is finished.
Swat

 

[sato]

It might screw up your tank since a good chunk of your biological filter is being removed, if there are no fish or inverts then it should be fine.

 

[oceana]

you can do this one of two ways with no problem. i'm sure there are more ways but i know these work
you can devide your tank into two or three sections and remove one section at a time.
revmove one section and replace it with the sand you want to use. wait a week and then do the next section. do this until its all gone. i did this to avoid removing all the good stuff in the CC at once and also allow time for it to seed the new stuff a little bit at a time.
you can also remove ALL the CC at one time replace it with sand and then put the CC in old stocking and float them in your sump. this way you still have all the benicicail bactiria in the cc in your tank and it will also be helping to seed your new sand. over time you would then begin to remove the old CC. i would say over a few week period.
but like said above if you have nothing in the tank and the sand your adding is already live sand i think i would just remove the old and dump in the new.
be sure to turn off your power heads while you do this so that sand does not get sucked up into them and mess up your impellers

 

[binhzino]

are you even suppose to have CC and LS together? does it work? i have CC in my tank right now, i want LS but didn't have a choice because it was an established tank when i got it

 

[oceana]

it really does not matter other then IMO CC traps alot of bad stuff but i think the jury is still out.
the CC will always rise to the top of the sand anyhow so its really not a great idea to mix them