Removing Oolite Sand

[aquaman3680]

TLDR; Does anyone have any suggestions on a way to remove just the super fine sand? Or will it eventually all settle to the bottom?

I had been out of the hobby for awhile and when I purchased my new tank it had sand already in it. I wanted to add a bit more sand for the fish I had planned. At the LFS the only live sand they had was oolite sand. I had forgotten just how fine that stuff is until I had already opened the bag and started dumping it in. There is now about 90lbs of aragonite sand in the tank and only 20lbs of oolite in my 75 gallon tank.

Fast forward a bit and I have a blue spot jawfish and a diamond sifter goby. They both move the sand around a ton and kick up the oolite like crazy, so I end up with it all over the rocks and up in the water column. I'm now looking at adding more corals and I know the fine sand settling on the corals is going to cause problems.

Is there a way that I can remove the oolite sand without removing the aragonite sand, or do you think that over time the oolite sand will all find its way to the bottom of the tank where it's not disturbed too much? Also, would it be problematic to disturb the sand bed trying to remove the oolite?

Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated!

Photo of one of the main offenders for interest

 

[vtecintegra]

If you really want to remove it, I think you will have to remove all of it and start over. You'll lose all of the bacteria and anything else in the sand that's live though.

 

[Airwolf]

Can you siphon it out with a gravel vacuum during water changes? Will probably take some effort to find the flow to suck up the oolite and not the desired substrate.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

If the tank is still young I would give it time. I have oolite sand in my sting ray tank. He is always stirring stuff up but most of the super fine stuff that clouds the tank ended up in the sump or skimmer.

 

[aquaman3680]

If you really want to remove it, I think you will have to remove all of it and start over. You'll lose all of the bacteria and anything else in the sand that's live though.

That's definitely what I'm trying to avoid.

 

[aquaman3680]

Can you siphon it out with a gravel vacuum during water changes? Will probably take some effort to find the flow to suck up the oolite and not the desired substrate.

I'll have to give it a try and see if I can get just the fine sand. How much bacteria am I going to remove by siphoning the sand on a reef tank? Never really siphoned sand on my personal tanks, only the tanks I maintained to sell fish out of at the LFSs I worked in.