Sand bed replacement

[Volpone]

hello mate :
i'v got spike in nitrate every time and till now i dont know what source of nitrate in my tank , i have RO water system , i dont over feed my fish , i dont have big fishes and my tank reef with lPs and softies .
my big doubt that sand bed release nitrate because i get the tank as second hand , and i think they suck and alot of nitrate , even WC for 40% nothing do any slight different for nitrate reading which was around 30 ppm and now 80 ppm
i do water change weekly but also doesnt effect on nitrate , and i start running bio pellets reactor for 3 weeks and waiting the result .
so is it that risky to change the old sand bed with new one ?
what kind of problem i will get if i do t

 

[Palting]

It may be a source of nitrates, but that sand bed is also part of the biofiltration of ammonia to nitrate. You can vacuum that sandbed with each water change, and that over time should clean things up.

Whatever you do, whether it is replace the sandbed or heavily vacuum it, do it a section at a time. That way, your tank ecosystem can adjust.

 

[Planedoc]

What size tank are you talking about and how deep is the sand bed? When it was moved how much was disturbed and how long ago was it? That's just for starters. Best bet if you have a dirty sand bed is put your fish in a quarantine tank and remove live rock and put in a holding tank. Remove and discard 90% of sand. Next step clean tank (keep that 10% sand to seed new sand bed) set up new sand bed, add live rock. Watch parameters to make sure cycle is good. It should stabilize in less than 2 weeks and maybe in 5 days depending on what sand you buy. Once chemistry is ok put your live stock back in. I know it sucks and it's costly but it's really the cheapest way to rid your tank of all those nasties

 

[-Logzor]

You could siphon out the sandbed and go barebottom

 

[Lacktaters]

You could siphon out the sandbed and go barebottom

Be careful about doing this rapidly. I've known people to restart their ammonia cycle and kill all their SPS when doing this all at once. I've successfully removed about half of my 6" DSB over the last four months by siphoning out a cup or two of sand every few days. No ill effects so far. I plan on continuing to do this very slowly until I'm barebottom.