How to change my sand?

[Asonitez]

I hate my Sand. Anything so much as a fart thrown at the tank causes it to blow around.
Its messing with my scolys and keeps getting all over stuff from my sand sifting goby. Its just too light I think.

My Sand is the ocean direct live sand. It has some nice stuff in it like shells and the like but its honestly light.

I'm running a Mixed SPS/LPS/Softie tank with a heavy emphasis on SPS.

Right now I've been fighting nitrates (doubtful if its caused by my sand bed) but either way still using NoPox to reduce it.


I want to switch my tank over to Tropic Eden ReefFlakes. My sand bed is approximately about 1" all around and other than the sand UNDER the rocks which I probably won't really touch... could I simply scoop a bunch of sand out and replace it with the reef-flakes? or maybe LAY a layer of reef flakes OVER the existing sand.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

If you have another good source of bio filtration, I.e decent amount of live rock/ marine pure/ or something similar you should be able to scoop and replace without a problem.

If your worried about it from a biological standpoint though, just replace sections at a time.

 

[Asonitez]

Here’s what I’m working with

 

[Asonitez]

Except. NO corals on sand bed anymore

 

[Curlew_Coral]

remove the sand slowly. Do it in 1/4 section a week or so .. pulling all the sand out at 1 time will Prob throw you bacterial Load outta wack id think It kinda happen to me when i wanted to go bare bottom. I took too much sand out at 1 time

 

[Asonitez]

Do you guys think I can solve my problem by just "adding" a few more lbs of sand OVER top of my existing bed? Like only extract 1/2 of my existing sand and then add the tropic eden on top of it.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

You probably can. I normally siphon and sift my sand every week during my water change so that would mix the two together.

If you never touch your sand, I dont see why you couldnt do it that way though.