Best way to change substrate?

[AquaFlow]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has only been running for about 4 months. Current livestock includes 1 tomato clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, and a small CUC consisting of some hermits, Naserias, other snails. Also 3 pieces of live rock. Substrate is currently coarse crushed coral which was left from when I had a cichlid tank. I was just told today by my LFS that I should think about changing to live sand to allow me more variety of sand-dwelling creatures and to aid the CUC in being able to turn over the substrate. What would be the best way for me to accomplish this?

 

[ZoWhat]

Drain tank down to 2ins

Unfortunately use this until you get a blister



.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Removing the crushed coral will have to be done with a net or a cup. It's too large to syphon out during a water change. Removal should be done in small sections at a time over the course of a couple of weeks. This will aide in allowing denitrification to adjust.

New sand will have "fines" or dust in it. Regardless of "live" or dry. It's best to rinse the new sand to remove the dust before placing it in a running system. Using a pvc pipe, dumping sand into it to allow the sand to settle on the bottom. This will minimize any dust storms once in the tank.

 

[AquaFlow]

I'm assuming that I can remove it during a water change before adding in the replacement water. I also want to make sure that my livestock won't be adversely affected during this process.

Removing the crushed coral will have to be done with a net or a cup. It's too large to syphon out during a water change. Removal should be done in small sections at a time over the course of a couple of weeks. This will aide in allowing denitrification to adjust.

New sand will have "fines" or dust in it. Regardless of "live" or dry. It's best to rinse the new sand to remove the dust before placing it in a running system. Using a pvc pipe, dumping sand into it to allow the sand to settle on the bottom. This will minimize any dust storms once in the tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes, there will be detritus that will be kicked up from the removal. A water change can help.

 

[AquaFlow]

I have started to remove the crushed coral substrate to replace it with live sand and this is what my tank currently looks like. I did remove about 15gals of water from my 55 gallon tank prior to scooping out the substrate and then replaced it with saltwater. I'm just concerned for my livestock at this point. Should I be worried?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

The livestock should be ok, make sure plenty of flow to keep oxygen up and let it settle.if you have a sump a filter sock or pad to catch the particles can’t hurt.

Not sure if you got it all out, if not

I just went thru same thing on my 180. I was able to do it with little cloud issues. What I did was first have salt water ready mixed to temp and salinity. I took a 3/4 inch hose, big enough to suck up the gravel. I vacuumed the gravel slowly into buckets with the water. I did that as much as I could before the water got lower than the fresh salt I had ready. The rest I removed with a fish net. I had already vacuumed out over 3/4 so there was not much left to scoop out.

I had also rinsed the heck out of my sand I put in. See @brandon429 thread for sand rinsing. I got the sand so clean I just scooped it into a cup and put the cup at the bottom of the tank and poured. The sand was clean enough even lifting it up and dropping it did not creat a cloud.

This is what my water looked like that came out with the gravel I vacuumed.

 

[Flippers4pups]

The livestock should be ok, make sure plenty of flow to keep oxygen up and let it settle.if you have a sump a filter sock or pad to catch the particles can’t hurt.

Not sure if you got it all out, if not

I just went thru same thing on my 180. I was able to do it with little cloud issues. What I did was first have salt water ready mixed to temp and salinity. I took a 3/4 inch hose, big enough to suck up the gravel. I vacuumed the gravel slowly into buckets with the water. I did that as much as I could before the water got lower than the fresh salt I had ready. The rest I removed with a fish net. I had already vacuumed out over 3/4 so there was not much left to scoop out.

I had also rinsed the heck out of my sand I put in. See @brandon429 thread for sand rinsing. I got the sand so clean I just scooped it into a cup and put the cup at the bottom of the tank and poured. The sand was clean enough even lifting it up and dropping it did not creat a cloud.

This is what my water looked like that came out with the gravel I vacuumed.

It's amazing what the sand will hold, isn't?

 

[Mariette]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has only been running for about 4 months. Current livestock includes 1 tomato clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, and a small CUC consisting of some hermits, Naserias, other snails. Also 3 pieces of live rock. Substrate is currently coarse crushed coral which was left from when I had a cichlid tank. I was just told today by my LFS that I should think about changing to live sand to allow me more variety of sand-dwelling creatures and to aid the CUC in being able to turn over the substrate. What would be the best way for me to accomplish this?

What’s wrong w crushed coral substrate? Fine sand is a different animal. Don’t do the switch until you research the difference in care.

 

[AquaFlow]

My crushed coral is way too coarse for any sand-burrowing livestock, such as Nasseri snails, gobies, some wrasses, etc. I was told that it would limit the type of livestock I would be able to have. So far I've only removed some in a small area of the tank. Are you saying I should just work with what I've got?

 

[Fudsey]

I would remove it regardless. Sand isn't as bad as some might think. I have had sand bottom tanks for 25 years and never had major issues with it. As long as you do it a little at time and not all at once, you'll be fine. You can also use a 2" piece of PVC to dump the new, rinsed sand into to get it to the bottom with less cloudiness too.

 

[Flippers4pups]

My crushed coral is way too coarse for any sand-burrowing livestock, such as Nasseri snails, gobies, some wrasses, etc. I was told that it would limit the type of livestock I would be able to have. So far I've only removed some in a small area of the tank. Are you saying I should just work with what I've got?

Definitely if wrasses are your thing. "Special grade" is the largest size I'd use. It's the sand I'm going to place back in my tank.

 

[Mariette]

My crushed coral is way too coarse for any sand-burrowing livestock, such as Nasseri snails, gobies, some wrasses, etc. I was told that it would limit the type of livestock I would be able to have. So far I've only removed some in a small area of the tank. Are you saying I should just work with what I've got?

Not necessarily. It’s just that fine sand and coarse crushed coral are very different. I’d hate for you to go through the work and cost of swapping your substrate only to find that sand isn’t what you were expecting. Does that make sense?

 

[RJinPV]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has only been running for about 4 months. Current livestock includes 1 tomato clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, and a small CUC consisting of some hermits, Naserias, other snails. Also 3 pieces of live rock. Substrate is currently coarse crushed coral which was left from when I had a cichlid tank. I was just told today by my LFS that I should think about changing to live sand to allow me more variety of sand-dwelling creatures and to aid the CUC in being able to turn over the substrate. What would be the best way for me to accomplish this?

I did this with my 55 gallon less than a year after I set it up. Is the live rock on top of the sand or the tank bottom? If on the sand the rock will settle as you remove the crushed coral. Watch for that. What I did was siphon my old coarse sand out with a 1/2" diameter vinyl tubing into a 5 gallon bucket. When the water level got too low to keep the circulating pumps on (flow = oxygen), I siphoned the excess water back into the sump through the filter sock to capture detritus. Since the tank is young there shouldn't be too much. I repeated the process until the old sand was out (~90-95%). Then, with the tank drained to as low a level as reasonable I added the new sand by poring it through a large diameter tube (~2" dia) to minimize the water clouding. I did not rinse the new live sand first. I then refilled the tank with some of the old water and about a 20% new. The clouding was pretty high but it mostly cleared up overnight. My fish and coral were still in the tank and all made it through fine.

 

[AquaFlow]

After reading thru all these replies, I have decided to just stick with what I have and work on finding livestock that will work with my current substrate. I appreciate all the advice.