fish destroying dsb need advice

[spscrazy]

my damsels started moving sand from under my LR a few months ago at first it was just under one large rock there were 3 damsels 2 started chasing 1 damsel & finally managed to kick him right out of the tank I thought they were breeding & would stop once they got it arranged the way they wanted. but then they started picking up a mouth full of sand & going in front of a powerhead letting it go & every one would look for food now in the last 2 weeks the maroon clown has started going to where it's dumped & wallows in it till it's a snow storm in there have no idea what that is about in 4 years has never done this I hooked up my nextreef MR1 and added floss & carbon to try & keep the water cleaner also about that time in my reef octopus the bio pellets started clumping making alot of mulm I took it down & reduced the amount of pellets a few days later had to reduce the pellets again yesterday they are clumping again even tho there are only maybe 1/2 C pellets in there now. now of course I'm getting more & more diatom algae
so they are destroying any benefit that I had from the sand there is probably close to 200 lbs of sand in a 95 g I have alot of sps & they are not happy about this & now losing color so the sand has to go which is under 125 or so lbs of coral encrusted live rock what are the best options of getting it out I think there is some sulphur related issue with removing live sand should I just remove what I can from the front of the tank where there isn't any rock & do a water change & repeat this process as they move the sand forward to the front where it is easier to get out? really don't want to have to take everything out because I finally just got the sps to do good & I know this will result in breaking them up the live rock was put in before the sand so at least it isn't sitting on top of the sand any suggestion on how to handle

 

[Murfman]

How deep is the sand bed? If it is less than 4-5", you don't have a deep sand bed. If you really want to get the sand out, use a wet dry vac and suck it out, a little at a time. Mine suck about 15 gallons of water in 20 seconds.

 

[spscrazy]

it was just a little over 6" deep until of course they started moving it around

 

[spscrazy]

anyone have any other suggestions? altho the shop vac thing would work I think 15g in 20 seconds is too scary for me to try

 

[Devonjevon]

The smallest shopvac I bought at lowes. Does about 2 gallons in 15 sec. I would buy a large 1 inch hose and siphone out a little with each weekly water change. With your sps I would take my time. Remember nothing in this hobby can be good going fast. Do maybe 1/5 to 1/6th a week. Don't remove all at once!

 

[Saltgator]

If your wanting to remove the sand, I'd use a common gravel siphon that you can find at just about any lfs. Kinda like doing a water change and sand removal all-in-one! GL