Can I change my sand out? Without hurting my fish

[hawk82]

I wanna change my sand to Fiji Pink, Ive had Ocean Direct sand for the past 2 years, and never really been happy with it. Seen some tanks in person with Fiji Pink, want to change my sand to that. I can just suck out my sand, and put the new in? Will that hurt anything?

 

[blaxsun]

It depends on how often you've siphoned your sand bed, how long you've had it, how dirty it is, etc. Generally speaking though, there's a lot of harmful stuff you could potentially dredge up by disturbing the sand bed. The safest bet would probably be to temporarily remove the fish first.

 

[vtecintegra]

A lot of people will predict doom and gloom. I've pulled the sand several times when it's got nasty or like now in a war with dinos. The water that comes with the sand is usually nasty and I top off the tank with new water instead of trying to put the dirty water back in.

 

[Jilly92]

I just pulled the sand from mine and from that experience I would definitely recommend putting fish corals rock etc in a different bin along with most of the water, then start pulling it out. That stuff is GROSS and releases alot of nasty in the water and you do t want to be stressing everything out. After you get all the sand out and clean up tank put in the new sand, if it's not live sand rinse it well so you won't have cloudy water. When you have the new sand in, place one of the liverock pieces in and slowly pour the water on top of the liverock, you won't kick up as much sand this way and your tank won't be so cloudy.

 

[bruno3047]

If you have a water polishing filter, like this Marineland, https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...and-magnum-polishing-internal-canister-filter that would certainly help. I agree with the previous posters who say put the animals in a different location. Less stress for you and for them.

 

[polyppal]

2yo sand bed, you might be asking for trouble if you try to do it quick. Don't want to stir it up unless its been well maintained...

I would do the pull a little/replace a little method. Use a strong vac to suck out a portion, replace with the new sand, and progressively just work though the tank over a few weeks