Sand

[machota]

Here is my dilema I got a 200 gallon tank from a friend. The Tank had crushed corral for substrate. I have now learned that it is highly recomended to use a sand substrate for a reef aquarium. My problum is I have already put my fish into the big tank and got rid of the small tank. How do I go about switching to sand without killing my live stock?

 

[tinmanny]

I thought it was the other way around the sand is not as good as the crushed coral or argonite because as it desolves slowly over time the coral releases calcium and that is a very important mineral for a reef tank
Good luck
Manny

 

[alix2.0]

cc is horrible. waiit i think i recently saw a thread similar to this ill try to get link. anyways i guess if you have it your nitrates go crazy, but i have no experience with it so hopefully someone else will chime in.
EDIT// heres one but i know i saw another one about switching over somewhere, in the meantime, post #6 might be helpful.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/284499/adding-cc-or-ls

 

[frankthetank]

This is VERY doable!! I have done it.
Just get one or two or as many as you need plastic tubs from target or walmart. Put everything into them including water with a heater and some flow to keep them alive. They'll do just fine without light for a couple or three days.
Then empty the tank and cc. Get it all clean and add your sand. Start adding water... it's ok to add some new water. Just think of it as a big water change. If you have a LFS, they may have some water for sale that is a little more aged (that's what I did). Then add everything back into the tank. Now you have a brand new sand bed and everything will be fine! As long as your LR is cycled and mature, you will not have a re cycle. I swear by it. I have done it twice without a re cycle.

 

[machota]

Thanks for the help. All my live rock is mature and cycled so hopefully I wont have a problum

 

[frankthetank]

One more thing... if you are like me, you'll have a little bit of a sand storm initially. I run my canister filter for 24 hours before I added anything back in the tank. I also made sure the temp was right and then I acclimated everything as usual.
To my knowledge I didn't lose anything.
I lose more turbos from swf.com because they ship them with no water!!!

 

[bsmith219]

just siphion out old sand, you dont have to empty tank. then just top off with new water i just did it last week. i left all my fish in and three big pieces of rock. worked fine for and i put my coral back in maybe hour after putting new sand in. its better to siphion out because then you take out all the deturis in the sand i went from cc to arag

 

[frankthetank]

He has crushed coral... he can't siphon that out. Not too mention under rocks and stuff. And I don't know about siphoning it out... that would really stir up and release alot detrius and stuff into the water. I'd rather be safe than sorry and watch my tank crash.

 

[nothing]

Is it really necessary to have a heater in the tubs? I can imagine if the ambient air temp is low but when your ambient temp in the house is 76 degrees or so.... is this really an issue?

 

[frankthetank]

Originally Posted by nothing
Is it really necessary to have a heater in the tubs? I can imagine if the ambient air temp is low but when your ambient temp in the house is 76 degrees or so.... is this really an issue?
Sorry... I just used my heater to make sure the temp didn't fluctuate too much from night and day. Of course my project occured over a two day span.

 

[machota]

Now I was thinking of getting the black "moon" sand can I just use that or should I get enough acctuall live sand for a 1 inch bed on top of the black sand?