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Magnus... are you reading my mind? The crushed coral was what I had on hand when I first started this build and within a month had decided I'm going to switch it out for sand. Here's the game plan so as not to totally tear down and start over. I'm going to take about 1/4 of the coral bed out (scooping gently) at a time and replace with sand at about 2? week intervals untill I have it all changed. I'm thinking I'll wait untill I have the sump up and running first and I'll remove the two fish in the tank to a spare 20H or 29 I have while the 'dust' is fliing from the removal. whatcha think?

 

can I join in?

if your going to be having a sump in the near future
you could kill 2 birds with a single stone

remove the fish, remove the water, leaving the last inch or so and the CC
throw that away
re set the tank up, including new dry sand at the same time as you set the sump up

that way you do it all in 1 go, and avoid the potential disturbing the CC and nutrient spike issues

Steve

 

Steve,

So just temperarily put my live rock in the sump with salt water while i clear the cc? make it an all at once switcheroo? hmmm I'll probably loose my start of copepods or would they survive in the rock going out of the tank to the sump then back up to the tank?

Thanks for the reply... ya got me tinkin

Greybeard (aka Jim)

 

Also... I should mention the two fish in the tank are a rock blenny and a scooter blenny. others include a peppermint shrimp and a coral banded shrimp. 100 margarita snails, 20 astras and 40 tongan nassarius snails and (hopefully) copepods. One very tiny green star polyp..... I think i got everyone! LOL

 

they will survive or at least many of them would provided the rock does not dry out, IME so in a short journey between DT and sump I doubt the loses would be noticable.

Steve

 

Hmmmm... I was not sure if steve should join our little club here... but I'll allow it this time! ;D

Steve has a good point, greybeard. And that is what I did when I installed my sump. Let me find the thread and I'll link you to it. It was a few months ago and many suggestions were made. What you put on the table... changing substrate a little at a time was one of the suggested techniques. I'm sure it can work, but I didn't want to deal with the gravel and crushed coral mixing with the sand in this process. Please note that on this thread I'm linking you I forgot to mention the crushed coral I had on top of the gravel. Basically I was set up for a freshwater tank, with crushed coral on top... about 1 inch of it.
At the moment, my problem was where will I put all the water that I needed, and also I was having some problems with ich and my water was heavily dosed with an ich treatment that really didn't do anything in my opinion but make my water the nastiest gree/yellow color you could think off.
Take a look, your case may be different, but the principles and advices apply all the same.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/changing-my-substrate-i-need-your-opinions-84218.html#post841659

 

+1
Pods will get into holes in the rock that still have some water inside. Make sure you keep the water somewhat above 72 degrees and they won't die. Your fish need a different temp, but pods will find a way to hide. They do naturally hide during daytime... too easy of a snack for most fish.

 

Ha ha Magnus I'm glad i'm not the only one that was thinking of being a smart aleck to Steve joining.. it comes natural but I'm new so I'll be good

Steve seriously thanks for the imput I think that will work better than what I was thinking as long as I can get enough water put aside to get it all up to level when it's done... I'm thinking I'll put the rock in the 40 gal sump and fill it with water from the 55 as much as it will hold then the rest I have buckets enough to hold till the cc is out. the two fish I could put in a critter keeper and sink in my 6 gallon (so the damels don't pick) for the time it will take to do the change so I don't have to worry about temps for them... the cb shrimp and peppermint shrimp could probably go in there too for the day if I can put the CBS in a small critter keeper and sink it... hmmmm that's too much i'll just take an extra 10 gallon and set it up like a hospital tank with water from the 55 to hold them maybe? whatcha think? (my head is cramping lol)

 

is it me or is this turning into something besides saying hello? LOL oops maybe I should learn how to post to some other section?

 

sounds like a plan to me
if your going to fill the 40 sump with water from the 55
then you could add your rock and inverts and even fish in there ( using the keep idea so they are easier to remove again when your ready to) for the duration of the tank strip down

a standard household trash can lined with a black poly bag, makes an excellent temporary storage container for salt water, if you dont have acces to other large containers

Steve