Replacing my sandbed
- Thread starter wocka
- Start date
organism
Member
once again... you can remove the cloudiness and keep your live sand, as opposed to buying new sand and switching it. you can stir the sand a bit and suck out the cloudiness, or simply rinse the sand like people stated before, I feel like you keep posting the same thread to get an answer you wanna hear... out of curiousity, how old is your sand? if it's less than a few years, you really shouldn't need to change it. what's your cleaning crew like? maybe you should get something that will eat the detritus before it settles into the sand like it's currently doing... it seems like even if you switch your sand and it's not too old, you're going to have the same problems you're having now, if your detritus is building up you need to deal with that first, as opposed to the dealing with the end result of the cloudy sand, in my opinion
just my 2 cents...
just my 2 cents...
wocka
Active Member
not southdown, i dont remember the name. its about 1 year old and its not that fine, maybe the size of a poppy seed. i doesnt have any algae on it but it doesnt seem clean white like it used to be..
when i switch my tank, can i take out 90% of the water, then stir up the sand ALOT and make the rest of the water really cloudy and then siphon the 10% out ?
when i switch my tank, can i take out 90% of the water, then stir up the sand ALOT and make the rest of the water really cloudy and then siphon the 10% out ?
organism
Member
well, if it's not fine enough it could be trapping detritus just like a cc base, as opposed to letting it be removed by the cleaning crew and current, so you may wanna look into switching it if that's the case, is there an lfs in your area that sells dry aragonite sand? if so you may wanna compare the size and see if yours is much larger. out of curiousiyt, what kind of cleaning crew do you have? can you get a pic of the sand?
also, the sand won't always stay clean white, the colour will get slightly darker after a while, but if it's trapping detritus like cc then that's a problem...
also, the sand won't always stay clean white, the colour will get slightly darker after a while, but if it's trapping detritus like cc then that's a problem...
wocka
Active Member
i dont have algae on my sand, its just turning darker. i have 6 blue leg hermit crabs, 2 cleaner shrimp, and like 5-7 snails.
my sand is about the size of 1 centimeter
also, do u have a screen name? would be easier to instant message imo
EDIT: i looked at some pics with detritus, and thats what i have
ive had my sand for about a year and it doesnt seem live becuase it isnt eating this stuff! so i geuss im just gonna replace it
my sand is about the size of 1 centimeter
also, do u have a screen name? would be easier to instant message imo
EDIT: i looked at some pics with detritus, and thats what i have
ive had my sand for about a year and it doesnt seem live becuase it isnt eating this stuff! so i geuss im just gonna replace it
buzz
Active Member
Are you saying that you want to replace your sand bed because it isn't white anymore? Come on...
Sand will change color in your tank...there is no getting around it as your sandbed matures.
As to adding bagged live sand such as Aragalive, It will not throw your tank into a cycle, as it has a good beneficial bacteria population. It does not however contain any pods or other life outside of bacteria. More importantly however, I do not see a need to add this. If you want to add critters, etc., to your sand bed, go to the LFS and buy real live sand from their tank. Most sell it by the pound. Buy a pound or two to seed your existing bed.
The thing that will throw your tank into a cycle is removing the existing bed and stirring things around. That will release nitrates, ammonia, etc. into the water in high amounts. Don't do this.
Leave your sand bed alone, unless you have a better reason than "it isn't white anymore" to do so.
Sand will change color in your tank...there is no getting around it as your sandbed matures.
As to adding bagged live sand such as Aragalive, It will not throw your tank into a cycle, as it has a good beneficial bacteria population. It does not however contain any pods or other life outside of bacteria. More importantly however, I do not see a need to add this. If you want to add critters, etc., to your sand bed, go to the LFS and buy real live sand from their tank. Most sell it by the pound. Buy a pound or two to seed your existing bed.
The thing that will throw your tank into a cycle is removing the existing bed and stirring things around. That will release nitrates, ammonia, etc. into the water in high amounts. Don't do this.
Leave your sand bed alone, unless you have a better reason than "it isn't white anymore" to do so.
wocka
Active Member
i looked at some pics and i have come to the conclusion that is has ditritus in it.. and its not going away becuase my sand bed isnt live. i dont see any "critters" crawling in it all.if i bought a pound of live sand from my fish store can i just add that sand as a layer over my old sand
wocka
Active Member
i got 6 blue leg hermits.
so let me get this right. i will be moving my tank in about 2 weeks this will be the process i will take tell me if im good to go
1. buy some live sand from my fish store
2. take out water,fish,coral,live rock
3. take out rest of water
4. move tank about 6ft
5. then put the live sand from fish store over my current sand when no water is in tank
5. arrange rocks
6. fill take back up with water and add livestock
so let me get this right. i will be moving my tank in about 2 weeks this will be the process i will take tell me if im good to go
1. buy some live sand from my fish store
2. take out water,fish,coral,live rock
3. take out rest of water
4. move tank about 6ft
5. then put the live sand from fish store over my current sand when no water is in tank
5. arrange rocks
6. fill take back up with water and add livestock
organism
Member
Originally posted by wocka
my sand is about the size of 1 centimeter
what do you mean? that it's 1 cm deep?
also, what kind of snails do you have? blue leg hermits will consume leftover food and algae, but not necessarily the built up detritus, some nassarius and cerinth snails will eat detritus though, perhaps you're overfeeding?
also, once again, live sand means there's bacteria in it, not critters, your current sand is live, if you want critters in your sand make sure you buy reef sand with critters in it, or just buy some critters for your current live sand, since all you need to do is get rid of the detritus, not necessarily the sand itself...
my sand is about the size of 1 centimeter
what do you mean? that it's 1 cm deep?
also, what kind of snails do you have? blue leg hermits will consume leftover food and algae, but not necessarily the built up detritus, some nassarius and cerinth snails will eat detritus though, perhaps you're overfeeding?
also, once again, live sand means there's bacteria in it, not critters, your current sand is live, if you want critters in your sand make sure you buy reef sand with critters in it, or just buy some critters for your current live sand, since all you need to do is get rid of the detritus, not necessarily the sand itself...
himandher
Member
when we switched our tank over we rinsed all the sand and it was also dirty. If you sand hasnt been regularly sifted by inhabitants or you, then you will definately get dirty sand. We rinsed all of our sand before putting it in the new tank. We syphoned it out into 5 gallon buckets and then filled it half way up with sand the rest with water, we then hand rinsed it, and then dumped out the dirty water, and then put the clean sand in the new tank. it took awhile, but we have over 100 lbs of live sand.
And just a note, we have a live sand and I have never seen anything visible crawling around in it. But that is just me. Cleaning it is work, but worth it. When we put it in the new tank, we added a serious clean up crew. And we have a watchman goby that keeps the sand nice and neat.
And just a note, we have a live sand and I have never seen anything visible crawling around in it. But that is just me. Cleaning it is work, but worth it. When we put it in the new tank, we added a serious clean up crew. And we have a watchman goby that keeps the sand nice and neat.