Switch substrate?

[Dylan7huskies]

I’ve had my 20 gallon tank running for about two weeks. The sand is getting blown around quite a bit and was wondering if anyone would recommend switching my substrate? and to what?

 

[MombasaLionfish]

Maybe lower the flow it will settle eventually.

 

[brandon429]

you can easily switch it to ocean direct if you want, or Fiji pink.

to switch: catch your rocks n stuff in a bucket leaving only sand/old

dump out, rinse clean whole tank and filters and lines pumps

fill back up all new water, and RINSED new sand where you made it cloudless by rinsing it under the sink/tap for an hour before use.

set all your rocks back and whatever else you have.
no it doesn't kill the bac on the sand, and you didn't need them even if it did. see the sand rinse thread for examples, above is a condensed version.

you will succeed if the new sand you put in was 10000% cloudless it was rinsed so well before you installed it.

you will hate your setup if you reinstall a massive cloud that does this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/so-i-didnt-rinse.592624/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sandbed-stirred-up.544852/#post-5723606

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/very-cloudy-water-after-sand-and-rock.559386/#post-5735864
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/question-about-vacuuming-sand-bed.616059/ https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-milky-cloudy.616519/

 

[Dylan7huskies]

you can easily switch it to ocean direct if you want, or Fiji pink.

to switch: catch your rocks n stuff in a bucket leaving only sand/old

dump out, rinse clean whole tank and filters and lines pumps

fill back up all new water, and RINSED new sand where you made it cloudless by rinsing it under the sink/tap for an hour before use.

set all your rocks back and whatever else you have.
no it doesn't kill the bac on the sand, and you didn't need them even if it did. see the sand rinse thread for examples, above is a condensed version.

you will succeed if the new sand you put in was 10000% cloudless it was rinsed so well before you installed it.

you will hate your setup if you reinstall a massive cloud that does this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/so-i-didnt-rinse.592624/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sandbed-stirred-up.544852/#post-5723606

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/very-cloudy-water-after-sand-and-rock.559386/#post-5735864
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/question-about-vacuuming-sand-bed.616059/ https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-milky-cloudy.616519/

I currently have two fish in the tank

 

[brandon429]

youd have to catch them/hold them elsewhere. its possible to use shop vacs or creative means to siphon out the bed full running but I never would, in our sand rinse thread we swap beds for 23 pages without a loss by doing full new water setups.

**you don't have to mix new water

you can catch your current clean water off into a brute and reload it back onto totally cleaned sand, fish live in the brute with it a while as the scrubbin' goes down.

 

[Jekyl]

What kind of powerheads are you running? Planning on having coral? Sounds like either too much flow or flow direction can solve the problem.

 

[Joel B.]

I'm a huge fan of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes for high flow tanks. It's a higher mm sand that doesn't get blown around nearly as much but it's still smaller than something like crushed coral and is fine enough that my leopard wrasses don't have any problems diving into it.

 

[Dylan7huskies]

What kind of powerheads are you running? Planning on having coral? Sounds like either too much flow or flow direction can solve the problem.

I just have one power head. Just a cheap $15 one. I do plan on having coral. I changed the direction around and it did nothing. I started taking half the sand out to replace with Fiji pink but will this take bacteria out of the tank?

 

[Dylan7huskies]

Current

 

[Dylan7huskies]

Currently

 

[Jekyl]

I just have one power head. Just a cheap $15 one. I do plan on having coral. I changed the direction around and it did nothing. I started taking half the sand out to replace with Fiji pink but will this take bacteria out of the tank?

What's the gph? With a 20 gallon you only need about 600pgh between all of your pumps

 

[brandon429]

switching beds never harms bac either, no risk of being too low. just pre rinse the new sand/it still brings in the bac if it showed up to you wet. the rock bacteria are the workhorses, the sandbeds can be ripped out totally, replaced, rinsed then replaced, doesn't matter. they're extra / incidental bac. non critical. extra oxygen consumers actually, not helpful to have tons extra this is why bare bottom tanks run fine.