switching sand?

Hey, I'm really not happy with the sand that I have in my tank right now (it looks pretty bad) and I want to switch to a different type. Will this spike the ammonia or nitrate or have any bad effects?

 

Need more information please CG. Provide a complete description of your set up and livestock, ad how ong your tank has been up.. What sand/substrate are you currently using? What does "looks bad" mean? You can put the tank info. in your signature so it is handy information.

 

It could kill everything in the tank if not careful.
Give Craig all the info and he will direct you properly.

 

It's a 29 gallon tank, the sand is live argonite (the white and black kind) and i'd want to switch to a different kind of argonite. I've got a frogspawn, bubble, colt, hair mushrooms, blue mushrooms, clarkii clown, blue damsel, golden headed sleeper goby, mandarin goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 blood shrimp, a bunch of snails and hermits. protein skimmer, pc lighting, pengun filter, about 30 pounds of LR, think thats about it?

 

Why do you want to change, what is wrong with the sand? How long has your tank been up and running?

Here is an article that will be very helpful to you:

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/layton_mohr_toonen.html

 

How is your Mandarin doing? That's an awefully small tank for a Mandarin. Is it nice and fat and eating what you feed?

 

yeah the mandarin eats the blood shrimp, and i always see him picking at other stuff he's doing great. my tank has been up for almost 6 months now, i just don't like the way the sand looks.

 

from reading the link i could basically remove abot half my sand bed and dump the new stuff in? i'd think that might still cause a spike

 

What kind of sand are you wanting to use again?
Have a link to it?

 

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...roduct_Code=L-sand&Category_Code=Livesand

it's the same type of sand i have now, but its white instead of white with black pieces in it. i just think it would look better in my tank, strickly asthetic purpose, but if it's a risk i wouldnt do it