wablondie98664

crcoachm

Member
Hi
I read in a post that you switched from crushed coral to live sand.
I am getting ready to buy a establishe tank with crushed coral.
I want to switch to sand
Did you have any problems
did you empty the whole tank
or how did you go about doing it
thanks for any help
:D
 

marvida

Member
Switching is a royal pain. Everything comes out, everything gets stressed and will, at the very least, trigger a mini-cycle. I do think that LS is the way to go. If you're thinking about switching, it only gets more difficult with time. Don't put it off, there will be more stuff in your tank to deal with later.
Good Luck!
 

kelldog4

Member
Crcoach:
I made the switch this summer and I didn't have any trouble at all.
I have a 60 gal with close to 50lbs of live rock.
I bought a couple of rubbermaid 30gal trash cans and a few 5 gallon buckets and some mesh bags that you use to wash delicates in the washing machine.
1. I pumped all of my tank water out into the various buckets.
2. I removed my liverock and placed them in one bucket, I put inverts in another bucket and then I put my fish in another bucket with a battery powered airator(sp?)
3. Then I scooped out some of my CC into the mesh bags and placed them into one of the buckets. I sooped out the rest and threw it in the flowerbeds.
4. Then I added 3 bags of pure carribean aragonite to my tank and sculpted it the way I wanted it to look
5. I cut out a piece of heavy plastic ( you can get it at any hardware store where the dropcloths are sold) and placed it over the sand
6. I then began to pump the tank water back into the tank. When about 1/2 full I removed the plastic ( it floats to the top) and then started to add my live rock
7. I pumped in the rest of the water and added my critters. There was no cloudiness because of the plastic covering the sand.
No Problem and it took less than 2 hours. I didn't notice any mini cycle and all my critters seemed to take it fine. I don't have any real fragile critters though.
anyway, that's my 2 cents.
 

marvida

Member
Remember to mix up some new water & let it age a day or so.
Try to estimate how much you'll need & then mix up twice as much.
 

kelldog4

Member
cool - congrats - Oh yeah, I didn't really explain the mesh bags but maybye you caught on. I left a mesh bag with the CC in my tank for about 2 weeks to seed the dead sand that I added.
 
Top