tiffbritty
Member
switched from c/c to dsb, used southdown tropical play sand . about how long for the tank to clear? 
tank looks like milk
- Thread starter tiffbritty
- Start date
tiffbritty
Member
i put my live rock and fish in another tank which was only a 10 gal. it all i had.vacumed and scoped out the c/c by then the tank was already a mess. then added the sand. i'm going to pick up 20 lb bag of live sand today to help seed it. when i was scoping out the c/c i found some live worm it it was small long red stringy hairs.dont know what it was but i saved it.im glade it over.all fish so far seem to be doing ok
wrassecal
Active Member
I know it's kind of scary right now but it will be worth it! the live sand will help settle it down. Once it clears up it will look like baby powder all over everything but we just waited a few days for bacteria to start bonding with the sand and then it would settle to the bottom. I used a turkey baster to blow it out of some rock areas but I waited about 5 days to do that so it wouldn't stir back up.
tiffbritty
Member
i'm sure it would be worth it , i just hope my fish make it through this huge change.
wrassecal
Active Member
I would advise you to put your live rock back in now even though you can't see and you don't have that much, it will help, you can re-arrange it later. Keep your fish in the 10 gal until the water is more of a haze and you can see good enough to know the rocks won't slide on them. The only fish loss I had was from a rock slide that trapped my tang in the back and I couldn't see it. I put them back in the milk vat, but that part didn't affect the fish or the inverts at all.
lnarobbins
Member
I'm going to make the "change" soon. at my lfs the guy said that buying "live sand" is a waste of money, because the sand has been in a closed package for 2-3 months, and all of the live is now dead because of lack of O2, what do you guys think of this idea
thanx
alan
thanx
alan
tiffbritty
Member
the live sand i got said on the bag it had a shelf live of 1 year . the bag i got had an exp.date of 8/2003. i also think something is better than nothing. plus everyone here said to seed it with live sand too. alot of people on this site has helped me out and they have great advice.so i would say get some live sand but make sure its not to close to the exp. date.hope this helps you too inarobbins.
tiffbritty
Member
getting a little better been rinsing the filter pads every few hours, everyone is still alive and i think my lunar wrasse love's it the most i see him the most because he swims at the front of the tank out of the fog/milk seems like he dives into to sand must like how it feels,he couldn't do that when i had c/c.
lnarobbins
Member
I never have actualy looked at a bag of live sand if you say their is a expiration date then I might try a bag or to when I make the swich
thanx
Alan
thanx
Alan
tiffbritty
Member
everyone is alive and counted for thismorning,water still foggy but alot better.
ed r
Member
When most people recommend the use of live sand, I believe that most are NOT talking about the pre-packaged sand that has the live bacteria. True live sand has bacteria and a variety of desirable creatures that will be helpful in your sand bed. The pre-packaged sand only gives you a head start with the nitrifying bacteria. That would shorten the initial cycle a little in a new tank. If you are converting from a CC substrate, your live rock will have more and better bacteria than those expensive bags of sand. Put in dead sand and either top with some true live sand, or make some baseball sized bags from your crushed coral bed using panty hose material. Place these balls on your new sand and push them in an inch or so. Leave them in for a week, then remove one every couple days. The idea is that all of the little creatures in your CC bed will come out of these balls and move into your new sand. This dramatically speeds up the transition from new dead sand to live sand.
When I changed my CC out a week ago, I did not rinse the sand, leaving in the very fine sediments. I also did not use any mechanical filter. My water was very cloudy for four days and was truely clear only after a week. I put my live rock back in the first day, using the braille method because I could not see what I was doing. I figured I could rearrange it later, if necessary. I left my corals out for three days because of the extent of the cloudiness. I had them in a large rubbermaid tub with a heater and powerhead. The snails, brittle star, and conchs I put back in following the rock. As Debi said, the sand does settle on the rock, corals, everything. Use a turkey baster to gently blow it off. Of course the water gets cloudy again, but it clears more quickly each time. As she mentioned, the bacteria or some factors of the bed will eventually cause the sand to stay in place unless something significant moves it around. Good luck with it.
When I changed my CC out a week ago, I did not rinse the sand, leaving in the very fine sediments. I also did not use any mechanical filter. My water was very cloudy for four days and was truely clear only after a week. I put my live rock back in the first day, using the braille method because I could not see what I was doing. I figured I could rearrange it later, if necessary. I left my corals out for three days because of the extent of the cloudiness. I had them in a large rubbermaid tub with a heater and powerhead. The snails, brittle star, and conchs I put back in following the rock. As Debi said, the sand does settle on the rock, corals, everything. Use a turkey baster to gently blow it off. Of course the water gets cloudy again, but it clears more quickly each time. As she mentioned, the bacteria or some factors of the bed will eventually cause the sand to stay in place unless something significant moves it around. Good luck with it.