sand!!

sharkbait09

sharkbait09

Member
hi i am new to swf.com
and i just have a quick question can you change from crushed coral substrate to live sand? i have liverock coral and two clownfish
p.s. my tank is 25 gallons
thankyou very much in advance!!
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
You certainly can. However I would not use live sand, I would use dry aragonite. It will populate with bacteria very quickly and it avoids the risk of having an ammonia spike from any nastiness in the live sand.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by sharkbait09
http:///forum/post/3037412
thank you very much do you have any tip or tricks on how to go about this?
If yo uare wanting to remove your crushed coral...I have read in many posts that people use a shop vac and suck it up
BUT..You must be very careful NOT TO stir stuff up...you will release bacterias into your water and that can cause ammonia to spike and kill your fish
I have also read that they do not remove all the cc..you will want to keep some so you new sand get populated with the bacterias already living in it
You can go to search and type in sand change...sand removal...and see what comes up too
 
sk8shorty01

sk8shorty01

Active Member
You should be able to remove all of the crushed coral because the bacteria and critters on your rock should propogate the sand in the same manner. I would just get it all out if you can.
Remember to wash and rinse your new sand before you put it in so that it doesn't cloud the tank up with dust for a week.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Large I.D. vinyl hose. Start a siphon and use the hose to vacuum up the crused coral. Treat it as a water change. Do about 5 gallons of water at a time. Wait about 4 days and do it again. Do this until all the crushed coral is out. Then like shorty said make sure you rinse the new sand well, put it in the tank in either of two ways.
Use a pc. of PVC pipe and pour the sand down the pipe to the area that you want it to go to.
Use a ziplock bag. Fill the bag with the sand, put the bag in the water on the bottom, open it and move the sand out slowly.
Either way your tank will get some cloudiness but run your filters and it should take care of it in a short time.
 
sharkbait09

sharkbait09

Member
lol when i set up my tank at first i forgot to rinse the crushed coral!!!
that was a long 100% water change

thankyou
 
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