Replacing sand bed

[Lance A. Lot]

Has anyone ever replace the entire sand bed in their tank?

I am taking out the black sand in my 75gl tank. Its just too rough on the fish. After a while crushed dead coral mixed in makes it look less appealing anyway. I can't keep burying wrasses or sand sifting gobies in it. The only thing that seems to be fine with the black sand is the snowflake eel.

The plan is to take out 1/5 per week over 5 weeks. I will also be replacing sand with Fiji pink that has been hanging out in buckets/bins sunk in the sump.

 

[Lance A. Lot]

 

[Grill]

For a 30gal in my office I've taken CaribSea live sand and mixed with an old bucket of sand I had in the garage. It only had a few corals and fish with no issues.

 

[carmodpg]

I have done a rip clean before with no adverse results, so replacing it with new sand should be the same concept. IMO, while its a pain, the best way to do it is to take everything out at once and then dump the sand in and replace everything...

 

[Lance A. Lot]

Halfway

 

[Keko21]

How did this go?

I Just bought all new sand for my tank as well. I was going to remove and replace all at once though and just dose MB7.

 

[Lance A. Lot]

It went fine but was probably more trouble than it was worth. I probably could have done this in 2-3 sessions instead of the 7 or so I did with the same results. I am also still struggling with the eel digging out more pockets of black sand, I couldn't get to, and mixing it with the white. I already need to scoop some out and add new white.