So I want to go Barebottom...

[cracker]

I finally siphoned all the sand out of my 75. A little at a time over years. Just couldn't keep the Ha from growing all over it. I'm amazed how much detritus collects on the bottom. Now I know what was feeding the ha.
I only have 3 small fish!
as for the original question, You can siphon a lot of sand with just a little water. I will say though, getting the sand out of a 180 will take a good amount of water overall .

 

[DSC reef]

The thing is this will take a couple months if I do it once a week in a 5 gallon bucket so Im going to have to do a couple a week to make progress. Im thinking three times a week with a couple scoops of sand if I am able too. The whole sand bed wont be removed due to it being hard to get to the back of the rockwork.

I totally get that. Maybe try 20 gallons a week broken up like 10 gallons monday, 10 gallons saturday, etc.

 

[Richie27]

get a little Horse shoe crab they don’t get big leave all my coral alone and do a great job keeping sand clean and moving it around to the low spots

 

[Dilan Patel]

Yeah I figured taking sand out of the 180 would take lots of water. Im thinking of doing 5 gallon waterchanges about 3-4 times a week sometimes a day after eachother or a couple days after the last one. The thing that helps is that not all the sand will be able to get removed. Only the visible spots will be removed.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I just rather not have sand anymore due to me having lots of flow. this would also allow me to keep more corals such as acans,favias and chalices(mostly)

 

[lbacha]

I'm a huge barebottom fan now that I've gone that route. Now all I have to worry about when I crank up the flow is that I don't splash it over the sides of my rimless tank. I have monti's, chalices, some GSP's and an astreopora growing on the bottom. Anywhere there is no coral there is a ton of corraline on the bottom

Just a piece of advice make sure you glue your frags to the bottom as the current will push the frags around along with snails and other CUC. Even large pieces will move around when you crank up the flow.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Def will glue them down. I may put some montis on the back of the tank to make it look even more 3d

 

[DHill6]

Glue them to small pieces of rock, easy to move if you want to change up the look of your tank.

 

[BryanD]

When I removed mine, I siphoned a little out with each water change, which I try to do at least every 2 weeks. Now mine was a 60gl, I removed it over like 2 months and never had an issue.

 

[Rattzreef]

A few water changes to remove the sand bed certainly won't hurt your reef. I had to do this a few years back in my 75g.. Sand certainly has it's place in certain types of reefs.. if you're after a fuzzy stick SPS dominate reef then tons of flow and no sand is almost necessary.. if you're after a low energy lagoon with softies,and zooas then low flow and sand are a nice addition..

Like everyone suggested go slow and take out a little each time over a few weeks. I wouldn't recommend doing it within a few days.. the situations 8m water parameter could prove fatal to alot of your critters.. just my 2 cents.. good luck..

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

When I pulled the sand out of my 180g I used a 1in tube and sucked out as much sand as I could with a 33gal trash can replaced with fresh salt water and waited a week and did it again took 5 trash cans to get out all the sand 50lbs so basically 10lbs a shot was removed tank was over a year old. Bare bottom is the way to go. IMO

 

[Dilan Patel]

So I have been testing and for 13% waterchange my dkh went down.5 points throughout the 3 days I done it. I am going to wait a week now due to me getting a new coral and not wanting to kill it lol.

 

[BigJohnny]

get a little Horse shoe crab they don’t get big leave all my coral alone and do a great job keeping sand clean and moving it around to the low spots

Dont horseshoe crabs get like a foot long lol?

 

[srad750c]

ok so i will do waterchanges but how much is cometely safe? i know this is hard to answer but would 2.5 gallons be too much or too little?

just do 5 gallons, but be careful you can get a lot of sand with 5 gallons.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Hey guys here is a little update. As of now everything seems to be doing fine I am in the strage of just getting most of the light dusting of sand off the bottom of the tank. Im hoping to be done in the next week or two.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I am just gunna leave the sand that is behind the rock. Not gunna bother nothing.

 

[lbacha]

Hey guys here is a little update. As of now everything seems to be doing fine I am in the strage of just getting most of the light dusting of sand off the bottom of the tank. Im hoping to be done in the next week or two.

Welcome to the barebottom club, now you need to crank up the flow and watch everything thrive.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Actually I did my new tank BB and thats why I changed the old reef over lol. I love having my flow crazy but now I can still run it crazy without sand flying around. also I can clean my acrylic pannel of coraline algae easier.

 

[Dilan Patel]

So just a little update I started my waterchanges back uop. Goodnews is I am now in the phase that the left half of my tank is as empty as it will get and now the right side just has a light dusting. Im probs gunna do more than 20% waterchanges now due to me not really taking a big section of and anymore its really just a dusting. So it will basically be a waterchange ughhh I don;t do waterchanges lol. If you all would like to see the tank once finished I can post a pic. I hope to be done either by the end of this week or end of next week .