help with sand bed

[zreefs]

hey guys whats up. i have a beautiful 75 gallon reef going for about 7 months now with about 100 lbs of live rock. when i started the tank i made a dumb choice and put black live sand in. cant stand it it hold way to much detritus and scratches the glass when i clean it. it just dosent look natural to me. how do i got about changing the sand bed or can i cover it with new sand. i want to use the fiji pink sand. should i use dead or alive sand? thanks guys for the input.

 

[Palting]

What type live black sand? I have Arag Alive Hawaiian black sand in my 3+ yo tank and love it. It's medium grain, and coralline can actually grow on it, and some softie coral even use it as an anchor. You can click on my avatar and go to my homepage to see my 3 1/2 y.o black substrate tank.

Anyway, I would not recommend just putting another layer of sand. The granules will just mix in, and you may end up with a sand bed deeper than ideal, unless you want and can care for a DSB. I would remove a section of it at a time, maybe 2-3 weeks apart, until it's all gone. Then replace it.

One option is to just stir the top layer with a stick weekly to bring that gorgeous black back and suspend the detritus into the water column to be processed by your filters.

 

[Palting]

What type live black sand? I have Arag Alive Hawaiian black sand in my 3+ yo tank and love it. It's medium grain, and coralline can actually grow on it, and some softie coral even use it as an anchor. You can click on my avatar and go to my homepage to see my 3 1/2 y.o black substrate tank.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I would not recommend just putting another layer of sand. The granules will just mix in, and you may end up with a sand bed deeper than ideal, unless you want and can care for a DSB. I would remove a section of it at a time, maybe 2-3 weeks apart, until it's all gone. Then replace it.<br>
<br>
One option is to just stir the top layer with a stick weekly to bring that gorgeous black back and suspend the detritus into the water column to be processed by your filters.

 

[mclevenger10]

just be careful not to dig to deep, you can release trapped nitrates i believe.

 

[jonny]

Deleted my post..Palting explained it much better lol

 

[zreefs]

Alright thanks for the info guys. i need to take my rock out and scrub it as well have a hair algae problem and have been killing slowly. seems like the black sand hold alot more then my white sand did. hair algae is such a pain any good info on how to get rid if this stuff?