Switching To A Sand Bed, What Do I Do?

demosthenes

demosthenes

Active Member
I've got 75 lbs of CC but I've been told to switch to a DSB but was wondering how to prepare it, e.g. place it in a 10 gal. with some LS and aerate it, add it with some LS directly to the tank, or what? How can I successfully make the change? Please Reply with a post or email me at Jtorma15@yahoo.com
 
salty rick

salty rick

Member
I did this four weeks ago. I hope you are ready for a long day. What worked for me was suggested on this site. Buy several large rubbermaid containers. I removed about half of my water from the tank into the rubermaid containers. I added additional salt water if I needed more. I out the corals and inverebrates in one container with a heater and powerhead. I put the live rock in the other containers. Then I scooped out the old substrate. This will cloud up the water. I had a canister filter running in the tank. I then added the sand. I placed the live rock back in. I had to feel around to set it up the best I could. I put the corals and inverts back in. I let the water clear abit and then arranged the LR and coral to my liking. It seemed with the canister filter the water cleared in 24 hours wbich has been better than others. Also, I washed the sand. Ithink this helped reduce the time the water stayed clouded. Good Luck!!
 
dsa_mom

dsa_mom

Member
I saw a suggestion to use a length of PVC pipe to "drop" the sand down at the base of the tank without so much clouding. Hope this helps!
 
kelly

kelly

Member
If you remove all the water, and then add your sand, you can cover it with plastic, putting some weights on it {a few of your rocks}, and then add your water over the plastic. You will have almost no clouding of the water at all. When done, simply remove the plastic.
I did this before, and it works well.
 
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