Old tank

Hi everyone,i recently inherited a 72 gallon bowfront,my sand question what should i do? I have 6 fish,several softies,blue legs ,snails and one sand sifting snail with a snorkle he is badd ass,but anyway the sand is about 3-5. Years old,its compacted and it has tube worms or little tunnles everywhere. I have been doing 25% water changes weekly scince i got it and have done some syphoning in small areas but its really nasty and leaves lots of mulm.any suggestions

 

Don't mess with the sandbed while the tank is populated...you'll release compounds best left in the substrate. It's OK to reuse substrate if it's well-cleaned, but you'd still need to remove it first.

I recommend siphoning out half of the substrate and replacing it with either the well-rinsed substrate you remove from the tank, or new, well-rinsed substrate. If you siphon it carefully, it should not make a mess in your tank. After a couple of weeks, siphon out the other half and repeat the process.

 

I went with a no sand system. Picked up and moved an established tank 3 hours away. I am happy to report very little/no problems with the move.

I moved a 70 gallon with sand and always had trouble with it.

I'd ditch the substrate entirely.

 

^^+1 this is a great way of doing it actually (1/2 and then 1/2). I would recommend you remove the old sand bed or take it out and rinse it really well.....how deep is the sand bed? Have you tested your parameters yet? I figured out that my tank's sand bed needed to be replaced because I think it was leeching out phosphate and nitrate - it was closer to 11 years old tho and I had done very poor husbandry on the tank when it was a fish only.

 

NItrate at 10. And i have been cyphoning out sand every time i do water change which is every week. Its really bad under the live rock but i have been very careful and everyone in tank appears to be ok,just installed phosban reactor and im planning on doing weekly water changes,at the fron of tank less than quarter inch of sand,itsalmost at glass.

 

If you decide to ditch it - you can fill a filter sock with it and leave it in the sump or tank for a while to help with the transition. I did this and didn't lose anything.

 

Thanks for advise,do you think that sand sifting starfish would help cleanup ?

 

No. I have not had luck keeping them alive. I was told they need big tanks to survive > 200 gallons. Mine lived for a few months and then limbs started coming off.

 

Agreed...they tend to starve in smaller systems, but they also deplete the sandbed of beneficial fauna.

 

Thanks guys,Very helpful and i dont feel totaly clueless .