when can i change to live sand

[jstrong]

hello, im a newbie. i have had a 125 gallon tank for about a month. cycling is going good. i have crushe coral, but now i want to change to live sand. when and how should i go about it. TIA

 

[wrassecal]

What all do you have in the tank currently? If it is just lr and cc you can take the lr out and put into a bucket of water from the tank. Then scoop out all your cc and add your sand, then continue to cycle. It may or may not set your cycle back a little but better to do it now than later. Once cycled you can add live sand to the top layer of the sand and you are good to go. That's what I would do anyway. I had a fully stocked tank when I did it and it was and awful pain with several days of worry over my livestock while the tank was first a milk vat, then cloudy...which by the way will happen in yours. HTH

 

[jstrong]

i only have about 20lbs. of live rock. i have damsel, blue tang, 2 clown fish arrow crab, scooter blennie, couple of snails. i now know these are not good starter fish. i was stupid and listened to the fish store people. nothing has died yet. thankfully.

 

[wrassecal]

Well, you are right, those fish shouldn't be in there yet. How far through the cycle are you? How long have the fish been in there? It may be best to leave it be until fully cycled, don't add anything else and then do it, unless you have a safe place for the fish. 20lbs of lr is not much for cycling but maybe the fish helped out with the cycle. Did your ammonia peak? What are your water readings on amm, nitrites and nitrates?

 

[jstrong]

my amonia is at .25, nitrites at 2.0 and nitrates at 15... im starting to get nervous. do you think i should add more live rock now or just see what happens oh and the fish have been in there since day 4. its been about a month now.