changing sand bed in tank??

[dazztee]

Hi iv just started a 75g with bit of live rock just finished cycling got a couple of damsels doing there bit, and my sand bed is 1inch deep arogonite stuff like crushed coral an shells an stuff but i got this idea i might wanna change it to the fine stuff for creatin live sand bed, so question is can i change things now with out causing problems etc an if so hows best to go about it,ive already changed the rock work s..t loadsa times an i wanna change it again cos i still aint happy.

[Scuba]

if you change out the sand your tank will have to cycle agien, depending on how much LR you have in the tank it may take less time.
How much LR do you have?

[dazztee]

hi i have about 20lbs at the moment but i want 20 more, wish i got it to start with but im gonna get it whatever i think, how should i go about this

[Jason McKenzie]

First What bit are the Damsels doing? It sound as thought your cycle has just completed. If you want to add more LR or change our your sand bed, best to do it now.
Do you just have the Damsels. If so you may want to take them back or make a holding tank for them.
Remove all your rock and some water (to put the rock in) add a Power head and a heater to the LR and water. Then start scooping out the CC. After the CC bed is out, your water maybe very cloudy. You may want to run a filter with only filter floss in it to help clear the water. add your new sand media and LR. I would strongly suggest you add enough LR and sand that you will be happy with it, as they are not thinks you can add later easily.

Check your Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites every couple of days until zero Ammonia and nitrite is achieved.

Good luck and keep us updated.
Jason

[Craig Manoukian]

Jakets covered all the important suff here. *It's more expensive but if you add Live Sand it will seed even faster with your Live Rock.

My situation is a little different, but here is what I just did this weekend when I broke down my 29 gallon fish only with live rock tank to a 20 gallon so I can convert the 29 gallon to a sump/refugium.

I turned off all skimmers, filters and equipment. *Then I syphoned all my water into buckets, lots of buckets, and filled the buckets with the Live Rock. *I got four plastic bags from the LFS, and using the tank water, put my damsels, snails, and crabs up in temporary quarters.

After removing all of the things I wanted to keep I removed all the coral gravel from my 29 gallon and cleaned the tank with regular tap water to suspend some of the remaing gunk and then syphoned it off and put it down the drain.

In the 20 gallon I placed a 1" layer of dry araginite sand wuith bacteria added, right. *I then added a little of my stored tank water to wet it down, just to the level of the sand. *I then added an inch of the live sand.

On the live sand I placed my rocks in the aquascaping patern I wanted and then started adding the tank water back to the tank. *Once all of the sand and rock was set with the water, I added the euipment and reestablished my circulation. *Then the fish, crabs, and snails went back into the tank and voila, new tank finished because my LR was already cured and needed no additional cure time. *The sand bed will seed over time and then provide the denitrification benefits of the DSB.

In your situation, if you are going to add LR, 75 to 125 lbs is what you need for a full reef tank, you will need to have it cure in your tank as Jakets said and not a nice thing to do to your damsels so return them to the LFS until your tank is ready, maybe 8 to ten weeks depending on the amount of LR you add.

Good luck and keep us posted. *Hope I didn't confuse you!

[dazztee]

ok cheers thanks for your help im gonna get sum in the next couple of days and il keep u posted

You may want to add a small cheap power head behind the LR to keep water moving in the back of the aquarium maybe 2 if you have a big tank.

[Craig Manoukian]

Dave,

It's a 75 gallon just FYI.