Considering changing the sand in reef tank

[tcampbell23]

Hey all,

I have been contemplating swapping out the sand in my reef tank for a while now and as of late, I am a little more apt to do it. I currently have black sand in my tank and it was really cool at first but, it makes the tank seem really dark and drab. The corals do pop off of the black but the tank overall is sort of dark and gloomy. Depending on the feedback I get, I will look into putting white sand or crushed coral in.

My concerns:
1. Nutrients. The tank has been up for about 8 months. I have never really siphoned the sand consistently so I am sure there is detritus and other uglies trapped in the sand bed. How can I go about removing the sand without causing a major spike in NO2,NO3, and PO4.

2. I set this tank up in a hurry as I was moving and the timing didn't allow for careful planning. In doing so, I set my rocks up on the sand bed instead of the bottom glass. I would like to go back and put eggcrate under the rock structures to aid stability.

Many of my rock structures do not have a lot of sand under them and if I can remember properly, I tried to push the rocks through the sand to the glass as much as possible but, I can't be certain.

My plan of action:

Over the course of weeks (6-8 weeks) I will siphon out sand in sections as I do my water changes until there is not much left. Then, over the next 6-8 weeks I will add new sand to the tank. As i go, I will attempt to lift the rocks just enough to wiggle some egg crate under each structure to add stability.

I am not 100% sold on doing this as the black sand isn't ruining the tank for me but, it's a novelty that I have lost interest in and would love to go back to the bright and beautiful white sand. I want to hear opinions on this as I could go either way.

Thanks guys and gals.

 

[popsbjd]

For me, I would net the fish out and put in buckets. Try to siphon off as much water as possible (>50% and closer to 75 if I could). Store rocks and coral and fish in the water then work on removing the sand. I would discard all the water that was left over in the process. Put rock back in (with or without eggcrate), put new substrate in. Add in water/corals/fish. Then top off with new water. I'd have plenty of extra water available and do several small water changes in the following days (or large if parameters are getting out of whack).

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[jennm]

Either method will work. I'd skip the eggcrate under rocks that is just going to make pockets for crap to accumulate in. As you work through it put the rock right on the glass.

Jenn

 

[project1004]

I personally have changed out subtrate in my old and new tabk many times with out a issues. I loved my balck sad in 120 but when ive decieded to bare bottom, i took out the sand in little amount at a time using vinyl tube which helps alot on making sure not much is disturbed. If you never cleaned your sand, it will be clumped together and will be dirty dirty. Take yor time and go slow and you shouldnt have any issues. Have extra salt water made in case for hick ups~. Good luck. I took my white sand in my new tank and i am staying bare bottom.

 

[picoreefguy]

i've found the easiest way to remove sand without causing a spike in nutrients is to simply shiphon it all out at once. while the siphon is going it should suck up any junk trapped in the sand as well as the sand itself so you shouldnt have any problems, just make sure that you pull off the large diameter vacume thing at the end of the tube and just use the tube itself. you will lose a lot of water doing this so its a good idea to do it in chunks if you have a large tank. maybe do 1/3 to 1/2 one day and replace the lost water with new water and repeat after a few days