Changing the sand

[M3d1C]

When I have the opportunity, I'm going to change out the fine white sand I started my tank with back in February with Aragonite. I like the look of it better and I don't think it will blow around my tank as easy as the fine white stuff. My questions are...

1. With how young the tank is, can I just pull my rocks out, put them in a bucket of tank water, vacuum out the sand and put them back in without some form of massive destabilization?

2. Will the aragonite cause a massive shift in chemistry that could harm/kill my corals and fish?

3. If I rinse the aragonite with tap water to clean it first, will the chlorine from my tap water still be in it when it goes in the tank?

Just for clarity, I have a 7 gallon that I started with live rock and mature bio media back in February. Have 2 clowns, a neon goby, cleaner shrimp and a few hermits and snails.

Also, this won't be happening for a while due to circumstances with my work. More of a looking forward project.

 

[M3d1C]

I guess my hope is that since my sand bed is still so young/new and my bio load being fairly small, I can just suck it up and put the aragonite in without any damage.

 

[m_t_r_86]

I'm currently going through something similar. I have aragonite and want to go bare bottom. I've gotten a lot of mixed input from some saying don't do it to do it slowly to never do it all at once to one guy that did it overnight. What I gathered from everyone's mixed input was what works for one won't work for all and one's mistake may not be your mistake.

 

[James Starr]

I guess it depends on where your from but personally I wouldn't rinse anything that goes in the tank with anything but RODI water. Wouldn't want to risk contamination

 

[brandon429]

we have attained 100% safety in swaps in the thread below, take 30 mins to read here/solved:

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

*pls take pics of your swap. if you read the last three pages of that 33 page thread of sand swaps, you'll have the major questions handled plus see five work examples from this week.

 

[M3d1C]

I'm currently going through something similar. I have aragonite and want to go bare bottom. I've gotten a lot of mixed input from some saying don't do it to do it slowly to never do it all at once to one guy that did it overnight. What I gathered from everyone's mixed input was what works for one won't work for all and one's mistake may not be your mistake.

No truer statement has ever been made in this hobby.

 

[brandon429]

we have 300 out of 300 successful sand swaps. they're easy to make consistently.

 

[M3d1C]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

*pls take pics of your swap. if you read the last three pages of that 33 page thread of sand swaps, you'll have the major questions handled plus see five work examples from this week.

Oh awesome! Thanks!

 

[Phycodurus]

1. yes you can just pull the rocks out, put them in a bucket of tank water, vacuum out the sand and put them back in. do the swap as quickly as possible. ** have some premixed fresh saltwater handy for lost spillage.

2. aragonite buffers the water chemistry better than fine white sand. i wouldn’t expect any change.

3. i expect chlorine’s effect to be minimal so i wouldn’t worry about it. you can wash/rinse the aragonite a day ahead of the swap.

 

[brandon429]

agreed. just rinse in old tank water after the rinse or ro water too, for quick use.