Adding sand to existing substrate

My tank is about 2 years old. Originally I laid down a 1 1/2 inch crushed coral substrate which has turned purple with coraline algae. I would like to slowing add about 1 inch of live sand to the top of the crushed coral. I'd take the obvious precautions, doing small sections, removing any livestock from the area, placing the sand in a ziplock baggy to reduce clouding. It would be a very long term project. I'm not in a hurry. Ha sanyone attempted this? Is it advisable or are there major drawbacks?

 

Sounds like a good plan to me. The only thing you might want to watch out for is releasing any hydogen sulfide pockets in the sandbed. Going slow with the addition of the sand seems like it should be fine. IMO;D

 

I have added sand with a piece of PVC pipe and a funnel. Place the funnel inside a piece of pipe. stick the pipe in the tank close to the bottom. poor sand slowly into the funnel a little at the time. it will help minimize it clouding up.

 

Exactly what I was going to say. This method works great too. Also, don't use the "live sand," that's really just a bunch of BS IMO. Get some dry sand, rinse it in RO/DI water and add as per the above method. You can probably do the entire tank with no issues. Also, don't worry about moving the rocks, that will just cause trouble.

 

thanks for the great advice guys. i was reading about adding a layer of sand to crushed coral and the popular thought was that in time the cc would just work its way to the top and i'd be back where i started. was that you experience? the funnel idea sounds great!

 

J just added sand on top of sand. Sorry....I am sure someone else on here might be able to answer that.

 

You could always siphon out the CC from about 1/3rd of the tank, and replace with sand. Repeat twice.

 

i think thats what i'm going to have to do blackraven. my question is, how do i get a siphon strong enough to suck up the the crushed coral?

 

I think, you should take everything out of the tank and dump all the CC out. I'm doing the same thing with my tank. I do a 50% water change also and rearrange the rocks.