Changing sand and adding dry rock?

[Ryde]

If I changed 90% of my sand bed and added dry rock to an established system could it mess things up?

First, I'd like to change my sand. It's roughly 2 years old but I for whatever reason went with black sand. Seeing other tanks in person I truly prefer the "Fiji Pink" sand. If it would be safe to do what is a good way to do things?

Next, while I add the sand I was planning to finally scape a bit of rock and secure it for good. While I was planning to use my existing rock, I want to be safe and get some Marco Rock so I can create something I like.

Finally, in my opinion I feel like this might shake everything up. Would it be like a "mini" reset? Because if it does more harm than good I'll just hold out. Also in the event that I do this thing I was planning to add "Doctor Tim's One and Only" to help settle things back down. Would that be worth it? If not is there anything else that my help?

Sorry for the read and thank you in advance.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Yes it would and it will release all the ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates etc. from the sand bed causing them all to spike unless you drain the tank. If you are you should remove the fish. And just remove all the sand and rocks. Keeping the filter media and add bottled bacteria that way you won’t completely start over.

 

[Ryde]

Yes it would and it would release all the ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates from the sand bed causing them to spike.

I figured. I do occasionally mix my sand bed, while running an air stone. Would this change the outcome?

 

[AydenLincoln]

I figured. I do occasionally mix my sand bed, while running an air stone. Would this change the outcome?

Mixing the sandbed will always cause levels to spike temporarily but by removing it or really stirring it up it will be much more drastic. Why do you mix your sandbed?

 

[brandon429]

If you want to do the job we can

I have a fifty page thread of sandbed swaps. How serious are you about doing the job thorough...no vacuuming your sand with the tank setup, that releases bad.


but if you take your tank apart and hold the animals separate there’s a surgical way of pulling it off that works every time. Why would you add new white rock it’s guaranteed algae farm


if you want the job done we can run it live time right here start to finish, your tank won’t recycle even if you want to swap some rock. We have done this job already in our sand swap thread.


in your job I’d skip the new dry rock adding, but let’s do the sand swap I need more examples for page 53
you would not change 90%


you would change all the sand, exactly as we do using the disassembly method we use.

 

[Ryde]

Mixing the sandbed will always cause levels to spike temporarily but by removing it or really stirring it up it will be much more drastic. Why do you mix your sandbed?

Okay gotcha. I mostly mix it to aerate it. After I lost my Diamond Watchmen Goby I had no one to do it for me haha. I miss that dude.

 

[brandon429]

And the best part

wry smile

is the pre rinse of your new sandbed so that when you add it, it doesn’t turn your entire reef milk.


you’ll want to veer off from the rule six different times during the procedure, to customize. But you can’t it’s a federal crime to not comply with the prior guys rip clean on file. The first person to milk out their tank with an unrinsed bed will make us look bad, we pre rinse new sand in tap water for hours until it’s clean


then ro water, to evacuate the tap. For 53 pages. No, the bacteria don’t matter that’s veer attempt #4 we are heading off.


once you install 100% clean pre rinsed sand in a clean glass tank


you just set all your current rocks back in, and it’s a perfect skip cycle. Sandbed bacteria are absolutely not required in a reef tank, not even a ramp down of removal is required. A sandbed is the appendix of the reef tank, you just cut that rascal off anytime you want but it has to be done in a closely copied procedure to skip cycle, to prevent mass clouding. A stellar laser clean reef skip cycle results if you follow rules.

 

[Ryde]

If you want to do the job we can

I have a fifty page thread of sandbed swaps. How serious are you about doing the job thorough...no vacuuming your sand with the tank setup, that releases bad.


but if you take your tank apart and hold the animals separate there’s a surgical way of pulling it off that works every time. Why would you add new white rock it’s guaranteed algae farm


if you want the job done we can run it live time right here start to finish, your tank won’t recycle even if you want to swap some rock. We have done this job already in our sand swap thread.


in your job I’d skip the new dry rock adding, but let’s do the sand swap I need more examples for page 53
you would not change 90%


you would change all the sand, exactly as we do using the disassembly method we use.

And the best part

wry smile

is the pre rinse of your new sandbed so that when you add it, it doesn’t turn your entire reef milk.


you’ll want to veer off from the rule six different times during the procedure, to customize. But you can’t it’s a federal crime to not comply with the prior guys rip clean on file. The first person to milk out their tank with an unrinsed bed will make us look bad, we pre rinse new sand in tap water for hours until it’s clean


then ro water, to evacuate the tap. For 53 pages. No, the bacteria don’t matter that’s veer attempt #4 we are heading off.


once you install 100% clean pre rinsed sand in a clean glass tank


you just set all your current rocks back in, and it’s a perfect skip cycle. Sandbed bacteria are absolutely not required in a reef tank, not even a ramp down of removal is required. A sandbed is the appendix of the reef tank, you just cut that rascal off anytime you want.

Definitely seems like you have your fair share of experience. Thanks for the inputs. Would you mind dropping the link to the thread? Thanks.

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I need to to a tank swap out here in the next few weeks. same tank size just a full replacement. red sea 650P around 180ish gallons I have 2" of carib sea special grade my fav. sand. I plan to put the fish corals and LR in to a tank with HOB filter, flow heater and light for maybe (...

www.reef2reef.com

lets see a pic of your tank was curious to see the layout

 

[Ryde]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I need to to a tank swap out here in the next few weeks. same tank size just a full replacement. red sea 650P around 180ish gallons I have 2" of carib sea special grade my fav. sand. I plan to put the fish corals and LR in to a tank with HOB filter, flow heater and light for maybe (...

www.reef2reef.com

lets see a pic of your tank was curious to see the layout

Currently out of town, setting around a campfire, and was just thinking. I should be home tomorrow and if the tank is in too too shape I'll snap a few.

 

[brandon429]

100% of that thread including reefs as big as 275 gallon with twenty grand in corals is:

hold life in totes take apart reef

toss sandbed or tap rinse the current one depending on job wanted, all beds are tap rinsed. It’s the number one thing we do. Irony.


they then insert a totally clean bed on clean empty tank glass bottom

and set clean rocks back on top

fifty pages, no bottle bac used, natural skip cycles.


all life carried fine. We dont use api testing for ammonia whatsoever.


you can draw off most of your current water for re use. Make about 20% of it new that goes back into the new sand tank.

 

[Dan_P]

If I changed 90% of my sand bed and added dry rock to an established system could it mess things up?

First, I'd like to change my sand. It's roughly 2 years old but I for whatever reason went with black sand. Seeing other tanks in person I truly prefer the "Fiji Pink" sand. If it would be safe to do what is a good way to do things?

Next, while I add the sand I was planning to finally scape a bit of rock and secure it for good. While I was planning to use my existing rock, I want to be safe and get some Marco Rock so I can create something I like.

Finally, in my opinion I feel like this might shake everything up. Would it be like a "mini" reset? Because if it does more harm than good I'll just hold out. Also in the event that I do this thing I was planning to add "Doctor Tim's One and Only" to help settle things back down. Would that be worth it? If not is there anything else that my help?

Sorry for the read and thank you in advance.

There is a good chance that the changes you are planning would be like setting up a new aquarium, but so what?

 

[Ryde]

There is a good chance that the changes you are planning would be like setting up a new aquarium, but so what?

You are correct. I would totally just upgrade if it was feasible right now. Anyway, I just don't want to cause a reset, meaning my parameters get out of wack and start killing things.

 

[Ryde]

100% of that thread including reefs as big as 275 gallon with twenty grand in corals is:

hold life in totes take apart reef

toss sandbed or tap rinse the current one depending on job wanted, all beds are tap rinsed. It’s the number one thing we do. Irony.


they then insert a totally clean bed on clean empty tank glass bottom

and set clean rocks back on top

fifty pages, no bottle bac used, natural skip cycles.


all life carried fine. We dont use api testing for ammonia whatsoever.


you can draw off most of your current water for re use. Make about 20% of it new that goes back into the new sand tank.

Whoa twenty grand in corals!!! I can only hope haha. Also so your saying it would be alright to rinse the new sand with tap water??

 

[brandon429]

It’s required yep no joke. Select any job there and pattern out a few, see their updates see their tap rinsing

because if you don’t rinse, ten threads on page one show you the destruction. There isn’t enough ro water to do the whole rinse in ro, the thread is eight years running. Clearly we are onto something

if someone does a rip clean and they don’t rinse well, and they send a message showing a half milky rinse I don’t add to that thread, above is only for completely powerful rinsers who demand total clarity. If someone made an instructional video for a procedure, they’d only feature the individuals doing it the right way.

 

[Ryde]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I need to to a tank swap out here in the next few weeks. same tank size just a full replacement. red sea 650P around 180ish gallons I have 2" of carib sea special grade my fav. sand. I plan to put the fish corals and LR in to a tank with HOB filter, flow heater and light for maybe (...

www.reef2reef.com

lets see a pic of your tank was curious to see the layout

You ask you shall receive.

 

[billyocean]

I've read through all of his threads...its a pain the..but I see it work over and over again.

 

[brandon429]

Yep those are the exact jobs we like. That's a serious investment in corals you want to preserve. I would not use any other method after seeing the layout

Have more than enough fresh saltwater made

Drain off some of that water as you take the tank down you can re use it

Be catching fish and holding covered in totes, no jumpers

Rocks and corals are rinsed in saltwater so that no adhered detritus remains and held in totes for reassembly

Sand is rinsed as we show. Pre test rinse in clear glass before calling it done.

Set back up tank cloudless and keep light levels lower as ramp up for five days after reassembly

That's a skip cycle sandbed change

 

[brandon429]

Billy i couldn't agree more. This is a heinous waste of tap water coming up. I don't have a better way to attain cloudless because caribsea likes to play this game where they mark no rinse needed on the bag but you secretly need six hundred gallons of rinse water to not milk your tank for three days via skipping the prep rinse step.


Cloudless water is a sign of a skip cycle

We'll have a recently rip cleaned tank to monitor like a hospital patient

The last thing we need during the evaluation period is massive clouding from unrinsed sand shading everything

 

[billyocean]

When he says rinse the sand...when you're done...do it 10 more times..lol.