Don’t like my sand anymore help

[Reefing_addiction]

Ok. I’ve decided I don’t like the look of my sand.

In fact I’m not happy with my rocks either. Guess I didn’t really put enough thought into it. I think I want a little more rocks going up. I like having three cave like places at the bottom.

But the sand is the bigger issue.

My thoughts

If I take the fish out. And the corals on my next water change could I drain all the water out and set it aside, with the exception of the last inch or so about the sand.

Then remove a All the sand. I’m gonna grab another bag of live sand from my LFS and just start over. Oh and pick up a few new rocks.

I’m thinking maybe I should cycle my rocks or think one of my LFS has cycled rocks . I need to find that out.


Oh another thing to add is I would be putting some of my old sand in my fuge that I’m getting. It’s a hang on back of tank fuge.

 

[lazycouch]

not a good idea to remove all sand at once, i’d say take a cup of sand out (depending on sz of tank) every day or so and dump it in your fuge.

 

[amazongb]

I didn't like my sand, and I've been slowly removing it in little by little with each water change.. Currently, the front of my tank looks bare bottom, while the back has about 1/2" of sand. No noticeable nutrient issues while doing it this way.. I would go slow. I have read posts and watched videos where folks change it out all at once, but since I didn't go that route, I don't have an opinion on whether or not it's a good idea, but some googling might help.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

I swapped all my sand out a long time ago there right a little at a time just suck it up with your water change once a week

 

[ApoIsland]

No need to buy new sand. Just rinse the stuff you have really well with a hose and tap water. Make sure it is completely clean before putting it back in. I have moved tanks a few times over the years and give the sand bed a good rinsing each time. There is not much benefit to a sand bed in terms of nitrifying bacteria.

I would drain as much water as you can without disturbing anything. Once you start clouding the water with that waste from the sand bed you don't want to reuse any of that water. Personally i never use more than 20 or 30% of the old water. I like to give everything a good batch of new water. I use the old water to really swish the rocks around and knock off as much waste posible out of the crevices.

Basically just do a tank reset every time I move. Never lost a coral and everything looks better than ever in that new water and clean sand.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Can my high nitrates be due to my sand bed being too thick it’s probably 2 1/2 to 3 inches

 

[reefwiser]

The problem is you will be doing a tank reset. You can do it but there will be a time when you will have loses as the system regains balance. It’s a big job I did this once due to Aptasia getting in the sand. It was tough day had to clean the tank totally out and remove all the sand and clean the tank completely and then set it all back up in one day. It was not fun.

 

[jcolliii]

I completely removed all of my sand via siphoning over the course of just two days. I closely monitored my NO3 every single day for the past couple weeks, and there was no increase in nitrate at all (between 5-10ppm every day with good Salifert kit; fluctuations probably due to my color reading abilities). I went with black starboard for the bottom. Even being very careful to siphon all of the sand out, a lot of it was stuck to the bottom of my rock structure, so I have been sucking out the couple of grains that I find here and there every day.

BUT... your mileage may vary. My tank was well seeded with multiple bacterial additives, and I have close to a liter of Seachem matrix in one of the intake chambers. Not sure if I get denitrification from this or not, but going to add the same amount in a filter bag to the other intake chamber when my other floss holder arrives. I also change my filter floss every other day so crud doesn't get much of a chance. My sand bed was also superficial - just for looks - was only 3/4" deep or so. Oh, I also stirred my sand bed every other day or so and did so right from the start to keep it clean. Once algae started growing on it, I decided I wanted a cleaner look, and the black starboard really makes the corals and fish POP! Anyhow, another option to think about. More details in my build thread in the AIO section if you're interested.