Sand bed replacement

[Volpone]

Hello reefer , im looking for some advice for changing my sand bed , im thinking to siphon the old one and replace it with new one and less deep .the exist one deep 5 cm with two lyer , gravel one 3 to 5 mm and top one fiji pink .
What do u recommend ? Live sand as new for establish reef tank , or dry sand ?

 

[Arcsenic]

Well man all your beneficial bacteria is in your sand bed it doesn't sound like a good idea to me but idk

 

[143MPCo]

I've done it, spike my system a bit and I even took it very slow, I mean like over 3 months and my sand bed was 4" deep. Had issues with cyano and dino, and PO4, took about the same time to knock it all back down to relatively normal. Replaced it with crushed aggregate, washed, not live... lost a few corals also. A year later removed the 75 and upgraded to 150, I will personally never do that again.

 

[Volpone]

My tank 100 G and i have plenty of like rock 60 + kg
The idea to replace it because i doubt it leaching nitrate , so i want to replace ir gradually and part the tank for few section and add the new one .
My question is more what to go dry sand or live one ?

 

[Volpone]

Any more suggestions ? Any one try yo replace sand bed by siphoning it ?

 

[Volpone]

Pump

 

[mc-cro]

I removed my DSB by siphoning it out over about a 4-6week time frame, had no problems. I took a large diameter hose and would stick in down in then sand, trying to eliminate any nasities from being stiirred up. best thing I ever did.

Now I run a very shallow sand bed, and completely replace it about once a year. This last time I removed the sand bed over about a weeks time, still no issues

 

[Volpone]

Thx mc cro

 

[FranklinDattein]

I did it a couple of times on different tanks.
It all depends on how much live is in the existing sand bed and what is going to be the new substrate.
If it is a mature DSB, go slowly, syphon 10%, wait and watch.
If it is fresh sandbed, you have the luxury to remove it faster.
In one occasion I have used a very thin sand, which caused sandstorms and was in a two weeks old tank. I did syphon it completely in about an hour, with no side effects.
The replacement sand was from previous tank, washed with fresh water and bleach. I have added this sand relatively fast, something like 10kg/day for 3 days.

Be mindful of what is going to replace it. I once used brand new aragonite, not washed it enough and added too much at once. Water turned white, stayed like this for a day and I lost some corals and fishes.

Also, use a PCV pipe to drive the new sand to the bottom and minimise small sand particles in the water column. Adding sponge or perlon to some pumps helps with particles.

Personally, I would never refill it with 100% live sand as it is likely it will cause a spike.

 

[kingclam52]

I would leave it alone if its` not broke don`t fix it

 

[c.poindexter]

I did a complete swap of my sand about a year ago. I had sugar sand and wanted to change up to arraganite. So what I did was I symphonies out all of the sand and added the new by using the PVC pipe method. Worked great and I was able to control where I wanted to place it better. I did mine over a period of 3 months as I did not want to risk any possible adverse effects on the coral. I did 25% of the sand every 3 weeks.

 

[Volpone]

My idea for changing the sand because i believe it trap for detritus and its cause leaching of nitrate which i cant control it till now , i try to siphone small part before couple of days and i collect a big amount of detritus from the back side of the tank, pic can tell .

 

[shlap]

I did it

I just did this. Had a two year old DSB made of sugar sand which was always getting blown around. I siphoned out all of the water and removed all fish and CUC from my 150 gal into brute trash cans. Scooped up all the sand I could and then vacuumed the rest with a shopvac. Put the new sand in with the fish, CUC, and water. The whole process took about 2 hrs.

That was about 2 weeks ago and every Acro in my SPS dominant tank is doing great. No losses. Be sure to run some phosphate remover like GFO afterwards.

 

[scardall]

My take on sand beds--make small changes over long period of time.

Run GFO and carbon in a reactor at ALL times. Nitrate will be easier to control. I have a bare bottom reef with alot of rock. Nitrate may spike to 3-5ppm when a do a major cleaning of trapped detritus.For me sand is for esthetics and for creatures that require it. Keep what you feel is needed and many here do have great idea's. My phosphate is .2 ppm and I can't remember when I have done a water change.

This pic was taken when I was using a skimmer and when I stopped using a skimmer and started to use a gfo and carbon reactors has improved greatly. yep and < .2ppm PO3 and 0 ppm nitrate. No phosphate = No Nitrate. Yes

Be Cool :smile:

 

[Volpone]

Thx guys for ur help , for sure i try many methods to control nitrate , bio pellets , vodka dosing , refugium , no3 po4 x, huge water change , algea scrubber , nothing work with nitrate and always hit 40 ppm