Sand Delema

[eaglephot]

I am in a delema. I have a 55 gallon tank that is cycling with 30 pounds of LR. I have CC and am reading that you need sand. Or that it would be very helpful. How do I change the CC to sand? I have 45 pounds of LR coming on thursday. What do I do with all the LR? Is this going to screw up my water quality? Someone please help. I need to get the CC out ASAP.

 

[kdfrosty]

If your tank's still cycling I'll assume that there's no livestock. This will make it a bit easier for you.
First, remove all LR. Then just get a scoop (I made one from a 1g milk jug) and scoop out all the CC. Place all of the LR on the bare bottom of the tank, and then add LS. When adding the LS you might experience some pretty severe cloudiness, in which case you might try pouring the sand into the tank through a large diameter PVC pipe. Will reduce cloudiness.

 

[chipmaker]

Well since all you have right now is a tank of water with CC just remove the CC. Use a pice of PVC to allow sand to flow down to the tank bottom without having to travel excessively throught the water column and separate out, or just snip the corner of the bag it comes in and place in tank and allow it to flow out. I would put liverock in first then add sand. Odds are your gonna need a few buckets to take some water out until all rock and sand is in place to prevent an overflow.