“Upgrading” rocks and sand?

[reefshawn]

I have a great tank and inhabitants, but I’m not wild about the sand and rock choices I’ve made. My tank is a little over a year old now and is stable.

Here’s my question... I’d like to swap out the rock I have in this tank with more attractive rock.

Regarding sand, I’d probably go with a lot more of it, and a lot heavier grain than what I currently have.

How would I go about this without spiking various bad metrics? Is there a way to do this without worrying about ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc.? Can quasisynthetic rock like Marcos be put right into the tank?

 

[Smarkow]

I actually did this over the past two years. I had a 2yr old stable tank that I wanted to turn to an all rock bottom (wanted to grow encrusting coral on the bottom), so I got one pack of marco 2x cuts and one pack of the 2LF “stax.” Both were great products. Basically I put all of the new rock in my sump the moment I got it. Each week afterwards I siphoned some of my sand out of the tank during water changes. As bare spots started to show, I moved a piece or two up from the sump to the display. As the sump started to get bare again I instead siphoned some of the sand from the display down to the sump so that I would maintain the established bacteria.

It worked fine for me. I did get one cyano outbreak which I treated. A year or so on and I am adding new sand back in because I set up a 2nd display and moved some of the rock to it. My wife really missed the look of the sand so adding some back.

Original sand:

Rocky bottom:

Sorry no recent photos on my phone of the sand returned

 

[reefshawn]

...

It worked fine for me. I did get one cyano outbreak which I treated. A year or so on and I am adding new sand back in because I set up a 2nd display and moved some of the rock to it. My wife really missed the look of the sand so adding some back.

Great info, thanks for your reply. I think your approach of moving slowly and starting the new pieces off in the sump is a good way to go.

I do wonder if adding new rock like this might spike any of my bad metrics; did you notice anything like this?

I jumped on a big trend a year ago where in my home town all the aquariums seem to be going with stacked shelf rock. The theory is it's easier to setup and you have tons of room to put corals on... but after a year I have to say I just don't like the way it looks. I think I can use most of the rocks to create little shelves here and there and will add more traditional rock shapes around and on top of it.