Removing and adding new substrate to reef display

[reefknight]

I have had to vacuum and remove part of my substrate( fine crushed coral & sand) over the two years that it has been set up due to cyano removal or just standard maintenance to remove organics. I know have a very patchy, thin sand bed. To be clear mine it was only 0.75" - 1" to begin with. Now in the front area and on the front corners it is really low and the glass can be seen in some areas.

To remove some organic wastes and others (urchin needles, large particles that have fused together, etc.) I'd like to remove the top layer of substrate (where there is some) and then put down some more. I'm not removing my rock or the layer of sand underneath it, so there will still be plenty of biological filtration in the display. I have considered a thourough washing of a bucket of sand that I removed from a secondary tank that I had up for about 8 months or so. After I broke it down I put the substrate in a bucket and had intended on using it right away. Power went out one night and the pump that I had circulating water in it died. So that idea got put aside.

Let me hear your thoughts folks!

 

[Reefing Madness]

Your cool doing it the way you thought, should be quite fine. Sounds like a plan to me anyways.

 

[reefknight]

I wanted to throw the idea out there to see if someone had had a negative result in their experience, lol.

It's always nice to learn from others mistakes!

 

[Reefing Madness]

Sounds like you have most of the mistake out of the way, removing the substrate is the toughest to do without throwing the tank into a cycle.