Tank makeover

[fireman23]

Ok i think i found my nitrate problem. My sand in DT is hard. I can break it up with effort. I think its trapping gasses. The tank has been set up for over a year since ive had it. I bought tank stand canopy and sand from someone that had it set up for 2 years. I dont dose anything but original owner did. Im thinking about taking old sand out and replacing or going BB. Another option is cuc. Is there anything good that can break up sand?

 

[Singlefin]

It's probably trapping something if its hard and a year old. Did you rinse is when you got it? One worry is crashing your tank if you stir too much too fast. Maybe slowly break it up an vacuum during water changes.

 

[fireman23]

Im going to drain all the water and put coral and rocks and fish in seperate containers. Drain all the water i can to reuse then vaccum out sand and either buy new live sand or go bb then refill with water, make new saltwater for water loss and add coral and fish back.

 

[fireman23]

Anyone see problem with this? Will it work?

 

[Dowtish]

Most of the time sandbeds harden is because of alkalinity spike.

It will work. But be ready to make some decent water changes after everything is said and done. I would scoop a couple of cups of the old sand and use it to seed the new sand. And be ready for a mini cycle. So have your new water mixed and ready, and be ready to test a lot.

 

[pelagic]

I think that's what happened to my tank, I had to do 30 gallon water change daily for 10 days to slow it down.
I am siphoning the sand out slowly.

 

[gmoney243]

Phosphates locking up in ur sand can cause this as well i believe

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[fireman23]

Im gonna try to just slowly brwak up and vaccum out with water changes. My refugium on the other hand is a different story. My sump is 3 chambers. Skimmer section, return section, then fuge. My flow through fuge is low. I have macro algae abd sand in fuge. Sand in fuge is harder than dt. I think im going to stop flow to fuge and take all sand out. Will drain water from fuge down to sand and take macro algae out then vaccum sand out with shop vac then fill back up eith water snd put algae back in. Advice??