Changing out reef bed

hbubley · Apr 2, 2023

Hey all,
So when I put together my tank, I made the mistake of doing pebbles and crushed coral. I put a layer of sand on top months ago but now all the pebbles are showing again.
What’s the best way to get this to be a sand bed? Should I just try to scoop up as much of the rock I can and do another layer of sand? The tank has been going for 7 months and there’s currently 2 clowns, a target dragonet, and a ruby red dragonet. All eating frozen.
I bought another bag of Carib sea and a pvc pipe to place the sand with. Open to any and all advice

blaxsun · Apr 2, 2023

You could just remove all the sand and replace it. I'd probably (temporarily) remove any fish, inverts and rocks and change any filtration out after if you go this route.

hbubley · Apr 2, 2023

I’m now debating if it’s worth changing at this point… it’s been running great for the past 7months and I just added new fish. Maybe I should just store the sand I bought for now and hold off until there’s been reason to change it. Focusing too much on the cosmetics I think.

vtecintegra · Apr 2, 2023

If you decide to remove it, I've always used a 1" diameter hose and siphoned it out.

Stephen8169301 · Apr 2, 2023

hbubley said:
I’m now debating if it’s worth changing at this point… it’s been running great for the past 7months and I just added new fish. Maybe I should just store the sand I bought for now and hold off until there’s been reason to change it. Focusing too much on the cosmetics I think.

During ever water change just work in segments of the tank do a 1/4 of the tank at a time remove and replace with new sand then next water change do the next 1/4

hbubley · Apr 2, 2023

Stephen8169301 said:
During ever water change just work in segments of the tank do a 1/4 of the tank at a time remove and replace with new sand then next water change do the next 1/4

Ah! That's exactly how I'm going to do it. I'm happy for it to be a slow change, want to induce as little stress as possible.