Changing sand question.

[Greg B.]

When I started this tank over a year and a half ago I started with the caribbean sea live sand. It is in a 40 gal breeder. Problem that I have is sand being blown all over everything from my goby. Would I be able to change out the sand with out disturbing the benificial bacteria in the sand? I was hoping to go with something a bit more course to help...

 

[kvansloo]

How deep is the sand bed?
I use Caribbean Sea Fuji Pink and don't have issues with it. The goby is going to move sand around, and he buries himself in it some times that is the nature of a goby. If you go too coarse with the sand it will hurt the goby. Best option would be rehome the goby.

 

[Greg B.]

How deep is the sand bed?
I use Caribbean Sea Fuji Pink and don't have issues with it. The goby is going to move sand around, and he buries himself in it some times that is the nature of a goby. If you go too coarse with the sand it will hurt the goby. Best option would be rehome the goby.

1.5-2 inches deep

 

[kvansloo]

1.5-2 inches deep

Then you will wont to remove all live stock before removing the sand. There will be stuff in the sand that could kill your fish and other live stock once in the water column. Don't worry about the Bio in the sand as long as you are using live sand.

 

[exnisstech]

Special grade is more coarse. I use it on a clay pot for my wrasse and have read it's OK for gobies. But a sand sifting goby is gonna do what they do. Any bacteria in the sand is going to come out with the sand but I'm not sure if sand holds enough that it will matter so maybe someone else will chime in. I'm all barebottom now. Maybe you could do it half at a time?

EDIT : I've removed sand with no issues to livestock. Just suck it up with a hose into a bucket or if you want to reuse the water into an old filter sock. As long as you don't stir the sand you should be fine. I've swapped sand in running tanks before and I didn't use live sand. Just rinse the new sand well. I used a pvc pipe with a funnel to get the sand to the bottom without making a big mess. It's easier if you have a helper to pour the sand into the funnel.

 

[Greg B.]

Maybe what I will do is just hold out until I get my 125 up and running and just switch to the special grade when I set it up so I don't have this fine sand problem anymore.

 

[Greg B.]

Then you will wont to remove all live stock before removing the sand. There will be stuff in the sand that could kill your fish and other live stock once in the water column. Don't worry about the Bio in the sand as long as you are using live sand.

Just for future reference. Would that be remove all livestock including coral. Change the sand out and then just filter everything out or would it need a huge water change too?

 

[kvansloo]

Yes, remove all live stock corals included put in bins with saltwater or QT tank if you have one. Make sure you have a clean filter sock in place. Clean the new sand and remove the old sand install new sand then replace every thing and change filter out do 30% water change.

 

[Uncle99]

Remove sand = less bacteria.

 

[kvansloo]

Remove sand = less bacteria.

He wants to change the sand.

 

[Dburr1014]

Removing the sand will not kill fish, coral, inverts. That's just bad information.

 

[Uncle99]

He wants to change the sand.

Correct, the sand is too fine for him.
Sand has a ton of surface area for bacteria, so if he exchanges for a courser grade so it don’t get blown around, he will lose that bacteria on sand.

Is that an issue? Can be!
If you pull all the sand at once, that would likely destabilize the system at least for a short period.

I replaced mine in small sections over a month, with no change in parameters, corals and fish remained totally unaffected.

Why toss diversity?

That stuff is what keeps my rocks clean and sand white and corals fed.

 

[Greg B.]

Correct, the sand is too fine for him.
Sand has a ton of surface area for bacteria, so if he exchanges for a courser grade so it don’t get blown around, he will lose that bacteria on sand.

Is that an issue? Can be!
If you pull all the sand at once, that would likely destabilize the system at least for a short period.

I replaced mine in small sections over a month, with no change in parameters, corals and fish remained totally unaffected.

Why toss diversity?

That stuff is what keeps my rocks clean and sand white and corals fed.

What if I took all the sand out and put into a fine mesh bag and placed it in the sump? Would I still have the benefit of it?

 

[Uncle99]

What if I took all the sand out and put into a fine mesh bag and placed it in the sump? Would I still have the benefit of it?

Yup, great, if it’s wet, it’s good.
It’s only until your new sand matures up a bit.
Then you can remove.

 

[brandon429]

one of ~ 230 searchable sand replacement threads:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/substrate-change.851745/
it doesn't matter what kind of sand you put back in, make sure you pre-rinse it first as we did there.