Getting Rid Of My Sand Bed

[cshouston]

When I put together my tank several months ago, I debated going bare bottom since I’m going for an SPS-dominant system, but settled on a shallow Fiji Pink sand bed (1”) for the aesthetics. I regret that decision now because my flow has caused an unending dust storm of tiny silt and sand particles.

Right now, since my fish are all in QT anyway while the DT goes fallow, I thought about siphoning it all out and replacing it with special grade reef sand instead, but since my rockwork is built on flat foundation pieces, I may just go entirely bare bottom. That way, I don’t have to worry about cranking the flow at all. Also, it would help with the fallow period by potentially siphoning out any ich trophonts that might be in the bed.

I’ve seen recommendations for removing small patches at a time during water changes, but since my system is relatively young (4 mos.) and any coral in the tank is just on a frag rack, is there any reason I can’t just take it all out in one go? I know it will destabilize things, but the tank isn’t perfectly stable yet to begin with. Doing so with a big water change would also give me the opportunity to scrub off some cyano that just started to pop up.

Thanks in advance.

 

[brandon429]

we can do every system all at once, not just some of them. we have a massive sand removal thread/5 yrs running and we just rip em out

the live rock left is always enough. if your setup has much less lr than normal that may be of issue, but we dont see many like that. most of us overdo the alternate surface area other than the sand, by orders over

nobody runs low on surface area in reefing, its why we get away with full instant removals on any reef. BRS did it once, but they used a different method than we do.

after ripping the sand out, must re ramp lighting for a week don keep same intensity as when it had all the organics in tow

the relationship to alkalinity organics and light bleaching was already known but it applies in sandbed rips and swaps as well.

post pics of your reef lets see the ratios of sand to rock or alternate surface area minus sand

 

[j.falk]

I'm taking mine out too. Just siphoned out half of it this morning. Sand beds = nothing but trouble for me. Every time I put sand in my tanks, I always end up with dinos. I'm going back to bare bottom where things are much easier to deal with.

 

[cshouston]

we can do every system all at once, not just some of them. we have a massive sand removal thread/5 yrs running and we just rip em out

the live rock left is always enough. if your setup has much less lr than normal that may be of issue, but we dont see many like that. most of us overdo the alternate surface area other than the sand, by orders over

nobody runs low on surface area in reefing, its why we get away with full instant removals on any reef. BRS did it once, but they used a different method than we do.

after ripping the sand out, must re ramp lighting for a week don keep same intensity as when it had all the organics in tow

the relationship to alkalinity organics and light bleaching was already known but it applies in sandbed rips and swaps as well.

post pics of your reef lets see the ratios of sand to rock or alternate surface area minus sand

 

[cshouston]

we can do every system all at once, not just some of them. we have a massive sand removal thread/5 yrs running and we just rip em out

the live rock left is always enough. if your setup has much less lr than normal that may be of issue, but we dont see many like that. most of us overdo the alternate surface area other than the sand, by orders over

nobody runs low on surface area in reefing, its why we get away with full instant removals on any reef. BRS did it once, but they used a different method than we do.

after ripping the sand out, must re ramp lighting for a week don keep same intensity as when it had all the organics in tow

the relationship to alkalinity organics and light bleaching was already known but it applies in sandbed rips and swaps as well.

post pics of your reef lets see the ratios of sand to rock or alternate surface area minus sand

As you can see in the photo above, I have very minimal sand to begin with. All my fish are in QT as well, so when the fallow period ends, I’ll be adding them back in slowly, one at a time, over a period of weeks.

 

[brandon429]

thats a big job! not a small tank. 100% enough live rock. we could remove 80% of your live rock, all the sand, any sump filtration, add more fish on setup and it would still skip cycle. thats a lot of filtration area rock
nice one

we could be meaner than your original plan and it would still not need its sandbed bacteria, they're just extra loading. not required, in any reef. we all once thought they were though, myself included.

the lucky way we found out they werent needed was when people with mindstream ammonia readers ripped out full sandbeds in the presence of 20 fish, and base nh3 rates did not budge from ppm conversion rates, digitally confirmed not as a color guess kit. nh3 levels should have raised massively, if we needed sand.

not in any reef

 

[Midrats]

Just siphon it right out with a couple of water changes. Done it many times, even on much more mature tanks with no problems. It does look nice I will say, and you will lose the reflective quality of the white sand on the undersides of your SPS.

 

[jda]

...just something to consider since you mentioned that you had fish disease issues, or at least I inferred it when I read the word fallow. A sandbed teeming with biodiversity and life is the best way to keep your fish healthy from diseases that leave the fish to complete the life cycle - ich. One of the reasons that I will never be without a sandbed is that almost pity any ich that falls off of my fish and heads to the substrate to fight for it's live among all of that stuff that is looking for a meal... almost. A few pieces of real live rock or a scoop of diverse sand from a friend can get all of this going.

Sand settles down when it gets bacteria on it - this can take some time. If you are blowing around mature, diverse sand, then you have too much flow. I keep nothing but acropora (no MBP&S) in my larger tanks and I have PLENTY of flow without moving the sand around. I have all of this in my rebuild thread.

 

[SMSREEF]

When I started my 60 Cube, I used a fine sand which looked fantastic. But it blew all over the place. Drove me nuts!

I replaced with special grade, and did it all at once. I even had fish in the tank at the time and it cause no issues. But this is a young tank with relatively thin sandbed (1-2”)
I don’t think you go wrong siphoning out to bare bottom or switching to special grade all on same day.