Replacing Sand

[SENOREIDA]

Hello,

Currently I have white sand, white black lava rock ground up as the substrate. I bought the tank off of craigslist with the sand, and it isn't the most appealing thing possible, at least for me. Would it be possible to slowing replace the sand of the tank with a CaribSea Live Sand that I like, without having to break down the tank, and keep it running.

 

[Reeferdood]

It is possible, I did it a long time ago. However, it is a royal PITA to do if you have a lot of rock work.
How big of a tank are we talking about?

 

[SENOREIDA]

It is possible, I did it a long time ago. However, it is a royal PITA to do if you have a lot of rock work.
How big of a tank are we talking about?

75 Gallons. But rock’s are minimal. Going to need to buy probably 30 pounds in the future to make it look less bare.

 

[Reeferdood]

Might be easier to just remove the rock and some water to put the rock in, then remove the sand and replace it. Howeverou will get a small cycle from doing so.

 

[Clueless Reefer]

The biggest thing that I can think of here is that your sand has already established some microphauna in the tank and any drastic changes in many cases will have negative effects. If your unhappy I would recommend once a month doing a water change and just taking out an area at a time with your water vacuum and then replacing it. Another method that is probably more sensible is to put in the sand you want to add into a corner of the aquarium like a pile and then over time just start spreading it as you remove some... that way you give plenty of the new sand to equalize with the old sand and the changes are more gradual.