tank maintenance

[Reef addict 01]

hey guys, I've been thinking about taking all the stuff out of my tank and redoing my substrate. I have a lot of crushed coral in there mixed in with some regular reef sand. I've got a buildup of detritus which I need to get rid of. My question is if I remove most of the crushed coral and replace it with just normal live sea sand will the bacteria flourish or will I be causing more harm than good. I'm looking to get just plain bright white live sand to add to my aquarium any brands you recommend? Thanks

 

[ValorG]

Replacing your cc with sand is fine. It wont cause any harm if you do it slowly so you dont deplete the bacteria in your tank all of a sudden and get spikes in ammonia.

 

[wrfreeman]

I'm actually in the process of doing this exact oposite thing. I vacuumed out all the sand in one corner down to the glass and refilled with very well washed cc (to eliminate all the dust). That was about 2 months ago. I plan to do some more within the next week or so. I'm not sure you have to go this slow, but better slow than fast. I will probably not remove all the sand because coral like my orange plate prefer to be on a sandy bottom. I guess I'll end up with a mixed substrate when I'm done.

 

[Reef addict 01]

I'm actually in the process of doing this exact oposite thing. I vacuumed out all the sand in one corner down to the glass and refilled with very well washed cc (to eliminate all the dust). That was about 2 months ago. I plan to do some more within the next week or so. I'm not sure you have to go this slow, but better slow than fast. I will probably not remove all the sand because coral like my orange plate prefer to be on a sandy bottom. I guess I'll end up with a mixed substrate when I'm done.

that is what I have right now well half a tank is kind of mixed mostly crushed coral and the other half is sand. I had a sand sifting starfish in here for a while and I didn't know it but they like to feed on all that good bacteria that helps keep stuff cleaned. I'm kind of playing catch up now cuz I've got some brown sand and high nitrates, I've noticed the crushed coral tends to hold on to gunk so be careful

 

[wrfreeman]

Yeah I think I'll just keep it half and half and see how it does.

 

[Flameback Pair]

You're going at a good pace. You want the benthic (sand dwelling) animals to be able to move into the new substrate.

 

[ReefPiracy]

I use a vacuum on my sand when I do water changes. I do a quarter of the sand bed. I will change up the layout of coral as well.