Switching out my sandbed, how to not kill my fish?

[Jib]

So I made the mistake of using CaribSea Fiji Pink in my nano. It's pretty small, so the return pump blows it around and it goes everywhere during maintenance. I'm going to replace it with CaribSea Special Grade. The only things in my tank at this point are a Clownfish and Fighting Conch. No corals yet.

My plan was to empty about 2 gallons of water into a 5 gallon bucket with heater and PVC pipe for the fish to hide. Remove as much sand as possible, and replace with the Special Grade. Refill with a fresh 2 gallons of slatwater. Was going to then put in my filter sock and turn the return pump to max for a while to try and remove as much sediment as possible before putting the fish back in.

Without water movement, how long can my clown survive in that bucket? Since fish are commonly overnighted in a small bag, I'm assuming he would be good for 3-4 hours while i make the switch and let the tank clear up.

Since sand holds beneficial bacteria, am I at risk of ammonia building up in the tank? I am going to use their live sand, but will be rinsing (not sure if this removes any bacteria). I do have some bio balls in my filter compartment and 8-10 lbs of rock.

I dosed some of the Purple Helix, and am just starting to see some Coralline algae starting to grow. How long can this algae and the bacteria on my rocks be out of the water for? I'm assuming I can make the switch pretty quickly, but likely be out of water for 20-30 minutes.

Thank you for taking the time to read a long post.

-Jib

 

[dank reefer]

Have you thought about just adding special grade on top of what you currently have?

 

[TriggerFinger]

I can’t advise on the fish in the bucket part but you will definitely want to rinse that sand. It was very silty and dirty. The dry sand was easier to rinse.

 

[Jib]

Have you thought about just adding special grade on top of what you currently have?

I have, since my tank is only 14G, 10lbs of sand created a sandbed depth of 1" to 1.5" trhoughout the tank. I don't really want a sandbed twice that deep. Also concerned if I mix some I still have the blowing problems.

 

[DungSl1nger]

I did a whole rip clean of my 54 gallon (8 hrs of work and 5 different water rock holding vessels) if you have a power head use it or use an air pump ($10 at petco). If that’s not possible just agitate the water by hand. I don’t think the short amount of time you will have it broken down will be enough to cause damage to the fish

 

[Miller535]

I have done this. Whatever water is still in there after you disturb the sand MUST be dumped and NOT reused. In such a small tank. I would take out as much water as you want to save. Then take out your livestock. .Then remove the sand. Then put your aquascape back in and then the new sand. With new water to fil the rest of the way. Let the tank settle down then re-acclimate your fish and put them back in.

If you don't want to do that, you can remove a little bit with each water change, and then when maybe half of it is gone, top it off with a top layer of the bigger sand to hold it down.

 

[Jib]

Whatever water is still in there after you disturb the sand MUST be dumped and NOT reused.

I really appreciate the advice. It won't be that difficult to remove all of the water. Just out of curiosity, is there fear of something coming out of the distrubed sand that will harm the fish?

 

[Jib]

I did a whole rip clean of my 54 gallon (8 hrs of work and 5 different water rock holding vessels) if you have a power head use it or use a air pump ($10). If that’s not possible just agitate the water by hand. I don’t think the short amount of time you will have it broken down will be enough to cause damage to the fish

I dont have a powerhead yet (sand blows too much as it is). But could get an airpump.

 

[DungSl1nger]

I dont have a powerhead yet (sand blows too much as it is). But could get an airpump.

It is worth it to have for emergency situations and for qt tanks.

 

[Miller535]

I really appreciate the advice. It won't be that difficult to remove all of the water. Just out of curiosity, is there fear of something coming out of the distrubed sand that will harm the fish?

Yes, there are several things in the sand that while undisturbed are fine, and slowly gas off. When disturbed CAN potentially harm the fish.

 

[brandon429]

pre rinse all your new sand in tap until its clear.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

fifty pages of it
if bacteria were harmed it would be a 1 page thread w dead tanks and no participants

that's the safest way there is, no other method even has a 1 page work thread. take the tank down, clean it, fill it all back up with new water and rinsed sand, done. do not change or modify any aspect of our workflow and you'll be all set. if you modify any of it, have popcorn ready

 

[Jib]

pre rinse all your new sand in tap until its clear.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

fifty pages of it
if bacteria were harmed it would be a 1 page thread w dead tanks and no participants

that's the safest way there is, no other method even has a 1 page work thread. take the tank down, clean it, fill it all back up with new water and rinsed sand, done. do not change or modify any aspect of our workflow and you'll be all set. if you modify any of it, have popcorn ready

Sometimes it's hard to know what questions to ask, when you don't know what you're doing. This is a spectacular thread, and in my brief read answered questions i didn't know I had. Thank you so much for chiming in with this information!

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Sometimes it's hard to know what questions to ask, when you don't know what you're doing. This is a spectacular thread, and in my brief read answered questions i didn't know I had. Thank you so much for chiming in with this information!

I have followed @brandon429 advice twice on rip cleans or sand replacements and have never had a loss. Blow off your rocks before attempting all of this!

 

[Miller535]

Sometimes it's hard to know what questions to ask, when you don't know what you're doing. This is a spectacular thread, and in my brief read answered questions i didn't know I had. Thank you so much for chiming in with this information!

That's the beauty of this forum.

I also just noticed that you are from Pa. I am aslo, pittsburgh area. If you live in or are near the area, you should check out our club, 3RMAS.

 

[brandon429]

pls take progression pics we really need the patterns in there for sure, others will copy it over and over and we can tune out little performance details along the way. dropping down light intensity in the new tank for a week/ramping back up like new lighting we found offsets any rare bleaching events for corals.

we think stripping an entire system of its organic reserves immediately, and harshly, means way less lighting till things catch up

*you can technically drain off and catch 2/3 of your current water for reuse if its clean etc

just dont input any form of clouding and it'll work great. it will feel strange when rinsing your new sand in tap water lol, do it anyway till snowglobe clean. this is my 15 year old system getting tap rinsed, corals sitting on the counter are piled right back in after cleaning. the system was taken apart, cleaned, put back new skip cycle #10 times so far

the final rinse was in saltwater, to evacuate all the tap.

<---pure cloudless condition. snowglobe grains clean. hit an unrinsed bed that hard and the cloud remains for 16 days + things die

 

[Jib]

I also just noticed that you are from Pa. I am aslo, pittsburgh area. If you live in or are near the area, you should check out our club, 3RMAS

I was looking for a reef club, but I'm over in York.

 

[Miller535]

I was looking for a reef club, but I'm over in York.

Maybe this one then?

Are you looking for a reef club in Harrisburg/Hershey/Lancaster/York PA?

Check out Mason Dixon Reef Club at Mason Dixon Reef Club - Mason Dixon Reef Club Home Monthly meetings at various members houses ranging from Harrisburg/Hershey area down to northern MD. Frag trading, group buys, group growouts, selling, raffles, good food and great conversations. Also check...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jib]

pls take progression pics we really need the patterns in there for sure, others will copy it over and over and we can tune out little performance details along the way. dropping down light intensity in the new tank for a week/ramping back up like new lighting we found offsets any rare bleaching events for corals.

Absolutly, I'll be sure to do that. Appreciate all of the advice. I was definitely going to use a bunch of RO trying to rinse my sand. Using my hose and tap water will make it SO much easier. Glad thats an option.

 

[Jib]

Maybe this one then?

Are you looking for a reef club in Harrisburg/Hershey/Lancaster/York PA?

Check out Mason Dixon Reef Club at Mason Dixon Reef Club - Mason Dixon Reef Club Home Monthly meetings at various members houses ranging from Harrisburg/Hershey area down to northern MD. Frag trading, group buys, group growouts, selling, raffles, good food and great conversations. Also check...

www.reef2reef.com

When I checked out their Website it seems pretty dead...was thinking of looking for something in Philly once COVID is over