Changing my sandbed...

[dcrabb80]

Hey guys! New to the page! Thanks to the LivingReef's big flash sale last sunday, I decided to join. I have a 32g Biocube mixed reef. Had it up and running for about a year though the tank has been running about 8 years (bought it off a guy). Its doing great, parameters are all good. When I bought it off the fella he had barely any sand left in it so I added some live sand during the move. I added the super fine grade......TERRIBLE MISTAKE.....if there was one thing I could have done different it would have been that. That crap blows around, sand dust covers my rocks and coral, my clowns kick it all over, pistol shrimp shoots it all over like hes spray painting a house...I hate it and I wanna change it for the special grade thicker stuff. The past 2 months I have slowly been sucking it out little by little with my water changes and I am getting to the point where I think I can suck the rest out in a month or so and add the new. I see mixed reviews about adding beneficial bacteria, rinsing the new live sand off since the live rock already has bacteria on it ect ect ect so looking for some advice. Of course I would prefer not to tick anything off lol.

This is my little slice of heaven. MY BTA just split a day ago.

 

[brandon429]

here is the only method ever shown to work infinitely without killing anyones tank:

apply your pics when done

don't skip the tap rinse portion, don't skip 1 straight hour of study and reading work examples before you go/you have money on the line don't improvise. copy exactly and you'll have a skip cycle reef and we'll have #300 ish completed.

-dont use bottle bac

-dont do in sections, we never did any of that in the thread. do it all at once, as we do, for years.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

it's not possible to spend 1-2 hours study in prep there and come away not already knowing how your tank will do. see any set of jobs there, they're all rinsing in tap water. 100% of the time. they are pre verifying their rinsed sand in a large clear glass with water in it, to prove no clouding.

we do cloudless work there, it's the rule for a reason = no recycles.

you can clearly see in every link: the disassembly, the holding of rocks and corals and fish in containers, covered for jumpers, the absolute deep cleaning of the tank down to empty glass, the prep for all new sand (heart of the thread=tap rinse no bottle bac)

then you see the cloudless skip cycle reassembly in 60 pages of work over and over, it works.

**you can drain off most of your current water for re-use, that's a lucky aspect of your specific job. the rest who are doing waste remediation were mixing up all new water.

 

[dcrabb80]

here is the only method ever shown to work infinitely without killing anyones tank:

apply your pics when done

don't skip the tap rinse portion, don't skip 1 straight hour of study and reading work examples before you go/you have money on the line don't improvise. copy exactly and you'll have a skip cycle reef and we'll have #300 ish completed.

-dont use bottle bac

-dont do in sections, we never did any of that in the thread. do it all at once, as we do, for years.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

it's not possible to spend 1-2 hours study in prep there and come away not already knowing how your tank will do. see any set of jobs there, they're all rinsing in tap water. 100% of the time. they are pre verifying their rinsed sand in a large clear glass with water in it, to prove no clouding.

we do cloudless work there, it's the rule for a reason = no recycles.

you can clearly see in every link: the disassembly, the holding of rocks and corals and fish in containers, covered for jumpers, the absolute deep cleaning of the tank down to empty glass, the prep for all new sand (heart of the thread=tap rinse no bottle bac)

then you see the cloudless skip cycle reassembly in 60 pages of work over and over, it works.

**you can drain off most of your current water for re-use, that's a lucky aspect of your specific job. the rest who are doing waste remediation were mixing up all new water.

this is great stuff!! Thanks man!!!! I read a few posts that said something to the effect of "ask Brandon429" so I was hoping you would see this! I didnt think you would be the first to reply. Thanks and I will review and follow this method!

 

[Freenow54]

Hey guys! New to the page! Thanks to the LivingReef's big flash sale last sunday, I decided to join. I have a 32g Biocube mixed reef. Had it up and running for about a year though the tank has been running about 8 years (bought it off a guy). Its doing great, parameters are all good. When I bought it off the fella he had barely any sand left in it so I added some live sand during the move. I added the super fine grade......TERRIBLE MISTAKE.....if there was one thing I could have done different it would have been that. That crap blows around, sand dust covers my rocks and coral, my clowns kick it all over, pistol shrimp shoots it all over like hes spray painting a house...I hate it and I wanna change it for the special grade thicker stuff. The past 2 months I have slowly been sucking it out little by little with my water changes and I am getting to the point where I think I can suck the rest out in a month or so and add the new. I see mixed reviews about adding beneficial bacteria, rinsing the new live sand off since the live rock already has bacteria on it ect ect ect so looking for some advice. Of course I would prefer not to tick anything off lol.

This is my little slice of heaven. MY BTA just split a day ago.

I did the same thing. I cant clean it because is lighter than the algae Unfortunately my drill pump would get destroyed if I tried to suck it out. I am taking it out slowly with a net, and have way courser stuff ready

 

[brandon429]

Hey nice to meet you thanks for for new work opportunity

The truth is people have done it in sections, and it’s been ok.

and among those, some losses are posted on page one. Variation is involved with doing partial swap jobs. Some folks skip the initial rinse in tap because it sounds so horrible…a few long term clouding events are noted from skipped pre rinsers on post #1
the majority of no pre rinse jobs are cloudy for two days then resolve, variation results from skipped pre rinse jobs.

the one method that doesn’t have any outliers is change it all at once and pre rinse the sand. Gemlike tank results, every time we’d love to have your outcome pics it’s always a race to see who can assemble a reef so clean the tank looks devoid of water. Fish floating / those after pics are see above. Can’t wait to see yours


if I could just choose one single job that directly matches your nano work procedure it’s this short read with pics. And gemlike reassembly with a new sandbed in a nano with great coral health preserved.

EMERGENCY - Substrate change

Hi all, I’m really confused and need advice. I currently have crushed coral in my flu all evo 13.5g which due to a month in hospital the sand bed got so badly stained I can’t clean it and it looks gross. It’s a mixed tank with a clown, fire fish and 2 cardinals. I’ve ordered caribsea live pink...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

Why we don’t use bottle bac:

it is a crime to use bottle bac in my rip clean threads

 

[Tcook]

No reason not to rinse, even the bagged "live" sand. Otherwise you will have white powder everywhere. Put it all in at once. No bacteria needed. Get a proper cuc including nassarius snails.

 

[brandon429]

Your clean prep works documented TC have helped us tremendously.

 

[dcrabb80]

ok so Ive been reading through the threads and there is lots of good stuff there, great results, and even a few oopsies that are of course important to share as well so as we can learn from our mistakes. What I havent been able to find was an actual step by step outline of this whole process? Its probably me. I mean, I can like a comment on facebook and all, but these pages and pages of threads and stuff....not my cup of tea lol.

So as I have been reading, here are the steps I have gathered....

-break down the tank, fish and rock in separate containers
-drain tank down trying no to disrupt the sand, then remove the sand
-add the tap water rinsed sand only after hours of rinsing (last rinse in RO) until the glass cup test passes and there is no cloudiness
-put rinsed sand in, then replace rocks and fish

That almost sounds too easy? And I am going to be replacing my sand rather then re-using it as I want the larger diameter grains which is my whole reason to do this in the first place. Also thinking I can rinse the sand and get it ready long before I remove anything from the tank so that nothing is living in containers to long.

Am I on the right track here? What is the best way to actually rinse? a strainer? a bucket that you let the water spill over while swishing the sand until clear? Also I have no RODI unit so the last rinse with RODI? How much will I go through to remove the tap water residues?

 

[brandon429]

EMERGENCY - Substrate change

Hi all, I’m really confused and need advice. I currently have crushed coral in my flu all evo 13.5g which due to a month in hospital the sand bed got so badly stained I can’t clean it and it looks gross. It’s a mixed tank with a clown, fire fish and 2 cardinals. I’ve ordered caribsea live pink...

www.reef2reef.com

that one is step by step w pics

 

[brandon429]

summary:

take out fish and rocks and corals carefully without clouding, hold them in clean water elsewhere covered for jumpers


drain off and catch most of the clean water for reuse.


toss old sand

have your new sand prepped, don't under rinse. don't do all this work only to partially rinse; doing a full bag or two should take 3 straight hours of rinsing, hard work. it's that filthy. do a section test in a large clear glass with water/stirred up to make sure it's truly cloud free.

once it is, fill everything right back up and nothing clouds. rinse your rocks off in the clean saltwater by twisting them/swishing them to get off detritus before you set them back in the reset tank. all their bacteria stuck in place; we use no bottle bac for this reason.

then just refill and put all the fish and coral back and you're done.

post us pics along the way of each step pls so we can link back for others to copy

your tank doesn't have a lot of the same loss risks the wrecked tank has, your issue is mainly no fish jumpers during holding. you will rinse in tap water literally hours...put the sand in sections in a bucket and be outside with the hose mixing and pouring, over and over, each section till all your new sand is clean.

final rinse of it all in RO water, to evacuate tap, this is a rip clean. your tank does not cycle because all the needed bacteria remain on the rocks, we don't need the other bacteria from the current sand, we show.


don't run any ammonia tests, you'll get a positive nh4 reading (which we expect) and this causes people to reactively add things and veer off course, best not to run any tests, we show for eight years.

B

 

[brandon429]

can’t wait to see rip cleans

 

[dcrabb80]

alright. I'm starting the rip clean! I started rinsing my new sand today for about 2 hours using two buckets,my garden hose, and a small strainer. I'll resume tomorrow morning and do the final in RO to evac the tap.

after the sand is ready I'll remove the rocks and fish in separate buckets along with the coral all in tank water, toss the old sand, wipe down everything, swish live rocks to remove detritus, and replace everything.

I'll keep up with the progress and document things for future rip cleaners!

 

[brandon429]

what a nice surprise for today to watch!

 

[CoralB]

If you can remove the inhabitants. Remove old sand , put new in without rinsing then run a diatom filter for a hour or so til clear . Put inhabitants back in and it’s all good . I’ve personally have done this years ago and it was fantastic .the rinsing with tap water kills and or removes the bacteria and you still get cloudy water . You have to clean and change out the diatomaceous earth a couple of times but you end up with crystal clear water without stripping the bacteria in the sand .

 

[brandon429]

@dcrabb80

Continue with the way we rinse it above, you will have a laser clear cloudless tank

Can't wait to see your job completed

 

[brandon429]

by reading the included links we can see cloudless clarity results from rinsing, don't change up the method at all for the perfect win

If you'll rinse to total perfection and assemble another cloudless reef i can use your example pics in several different example threads

This is why we pre rinse:

When tanks can't control ammonia the water clouds up as things start to die from it. If there is initial sand clouding from non rinsing we can't see the indicator warning of a slow cloud developing from a problem in the re assembly skip cycle. We rinse so that clarity of water can be the proof of a skip cycle reassembly.

We pre rinse because that sand has been tested already and found nonfunctional for filtration bacteria out of the bag, there's no bacteria to worry about.

Lastly, we pre rinse because sandbed bacteria even in matured systems aren't required, they're merely tolerated extra bioloading in the tank competing for systemic oxygen and resources.


bare bottom tanks or freshly- rinsed sandbed tanks have lower chemical and biological oxygen demand than loaded up sandbeds, to have fewer bacteria competing for resource is better for reef tanks vs packing in as much bacteria as we can beyond the filtration needs of the system, which is the greater public habit. Zero benefit is gained from skipping the final rinse.

 

[dcrabb80]

Post in thread 'Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/post-10271613