substrate?

[piccasotrigger]

im moving in about a month and i was wondering right now i have a 40 gallon tank with Lr and ugly brown sand i was wondering if i can take the bnrown sand out and replace it with white with out my fish dieing i will have the fish in one of the 8 5 gallon jugs i will have filled with the original water. Then i will dumb the brown sand out put in the white put the water in than the lr than the fish would this be ok.

 

[thomas712]

I think the most important thing would be to save whatever bacteria is in your filter media, ie your filter floss or your live rock not just the water. You could perhaps save some of your sand by placing it in nylons and making balls out of them and placing them on top of your new sandbed in order to seed it with the bacteria that remains in the old sandbed. Just place some of these nylon balls in each bucket and use the top most sand for these balls.
I'm sure some better ideas will pop up but thats just my suggestion.
Thomas

 

[nm reef]

Just fish...no corals?
You could easily remove the sand and replace it...what are you replacing it with?
If the current sand is relatively young I'd see no problem with your plan...make the change as quick as possible and maybe use some type of mechanical filtration to help clear the water after the new sand is added. Best of luck and let us know how the transition ghoes.