Removing sand

[JLight]

Hey everyone, this has probably been answered before but here it goes... In my 20 long I have sugar fine sand that I HATE and I want it out! It blows all over the place and just doesn't look good. So my question to you guys is if I remove half of the sand bed one week and the other half the next will it cause my tank to go into a cycle? Or should I be alright remove it? The tank is only a couple months old and the sand has been blown around the whole time so it hasn't been settled much. So let me know!
Thanks ahead of time!

 

[Shrimpfuzz]

I have Oolight super fine sand and I do not have that issue with 5 fans. Sounds like you should re-direct your fans a bit.

If you want to remove the sand, I suggest slowly doing it with a gravel vac/water changes. The sand bed can have a lot of dead stuff in it which can cause a tank spike.

You can always just add larger-corse sand on top of the fine sand.

 

[JLight]

Well it's a 20 long so it's pretty shallow. But it's been blown around a lot so I don't think much has settled in it. But I plan on getting rid of it with a 5 gallon water change this week and another next week. I'm just not how much I should/can remove.

 

[JLight]

Anyone?

 

[Pete polyp]

How deep is the sand bed? You should probably remove all of it at once because you will have die off that could cause a huge spike in nutrients. If its only 1" or so there should not be much bacteria. If its over 2" you will be in an anaerobic zone that will die if you remove half.

 

[grumpy-crab]

What's your current live stock? Also how deep is your bed?

 

[JLight]

Well in some spots it's bare glass other places 2 or 3 inches but it hasn't always been like that. It's always moving around. So I don't think there will be any places that are anaerobic but I have one clown one pseudo chromis and some inverts

 

[grumpy-crab]

I would remove it all at once. Then do a 50% water change a day or two later just to be sure. Just IMO.

 

[JLight]

I would remove it all at once. Then do a 50% water change a day or two later just to be sure. Just IMO.

Should I take all livestock out?

 

[grumpy-crab]

You shouldn't have to if you use a gravel vac to remove the bed.

 

[WhoKnew]

I did this a month ago. I used the sand vac, and removed it over 2wks. I did not remove anything and did several water changes. I proceeded with placing the new sand with a piece of PVC piping.

 

[fishroomlady]

I think your plan of half and half is fine. I would do a water change in between, not super big maybe 15-20%.

 

[JLight]

I ended up taking out half of the water and saving it. Then sucking out what sand I could with the remaining water. Then got all the sand out when the tank was empty then replaced the ten gallons I took out and added 10 gals of new water. Everything seems to be doing great and I'm loving the bare bottom. Being able to add the flow helps a ton.