Changing my Substrate. I need your opinions.

I really need some help. I'm getting my reef sand tomorrow to replace my undergravel filter and gravel.
So I have this procedure partially figured out in my mind, but it's complicated and I'm very limited in water storage.

This is going to be long, but I need the help, so I really appreciate if you stick around and help me with some advice. Besides, my inexperience could mess things up in a blink.

The tank is 55 gallons.
I currently have: 2 small to medium tomato clowns, 1 small hippo tang, 1 bicolor dottyback (from hell), 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 plume coral, mushrooms, xenia, GSP or starbust pollyps, a frogspawn, a smal zoa frag. My clean up crew consist of approx, 25 blue legg hermits, 10 red leg hermits 2 chitons, 25 nerites snails, 75 dwarf ceriths, 20 florida ceriths, 4 small mithrax crab. I also have about 80 pounds of highly porous LR called Sun rock.

So the stuff I have available to carry or store water are: 5gallon buckets x2, a 30 gallon long tank (that is going to be my sump/fuge), a 20 tall (where I was thinking on transferring the fish while I'm in this process) and a 10 gallon tank that I was thinking of using to store some of my water as well.

As you can already tell, the first problem is the snails. They're all mixed up with the gravel, specially the dwarf ceriths, which are very small, so how do I get them from the gravel?

Second, I have all the live rock, so I was thinking of somehow packing it in the 30 long, and filling it with wather from my DT. The 10 gallon, or the 20 gallon would have the fish and some rock, and whatever rock I can store somewhere else I'll do it. I'm even planning to use a cooler.

My wather has been highly dosed with kick-ick (an ick medicine) and my nitrates are actually a little high now. So I wanted to do a good water change without freaking all my fish out. My LFS suggested 70% WC and most important, they will let me borrow some of their buckets to manage or transport water.

THE BREAK DOWN:

1st - removal of all Live rock and live stock (please help me with ideas on how to get all my dwarf ceriths on this one).

2nd - drain all water possible in the mentioned containers, even a trash cans if necessary.

3rd - scoop my gravel out, and if there's a way to save my brittle starfish and other borrower creatures from being disposed with the gravel, let me know as well, even though I doubt it.

4th - I'm epoxying my rocks and laying them in the clean bottom of my tank and try to design some decent aquascape (also completely new at that).

5th -Lay down 40 pounds of sand and spread it around. Then mix the remaining 30 pounds I have with the 20 pounds of live caribsea sand to seed bacteria on the top substrate.

6th - slowly pump 30% of my stored water back into the DT running it through a 200 micron filter to catch crap.

7th - complete the salt water to my desired level. This time I'm using Crystal Ocean salt mix.

8th - Drop by drop acclamation of the live stock for 30 minutes, and careful re-introduction to the display tank.

After all that is done, I'll start building my sump/refugium with the 30 long tank. I already have everything, including Overflow box, and return pumps. Still need to get the plumbing, but it should not be a problem.

I'm thinking this will take me a whole day, and I'll need to start super early.

Is there any advice, or anything you would do different?

How long could I possibly keep my fish and snails in the 29 tall tank while I'm in this process?

Please, don't hesitate in suggesting anything. I really feel I could be leaving too many loose ends and I would hate to stress my fish much more than needed.

Now... this is the start of a better life for my reef tank!
I'm excited and worried at the same time.

- Magnus.

 

It sound like you have a good handle on the situation.
clarification: So your tank is going to be completely empty at one point right? reason for asking is that the sand form your under gravel is going to release a lot of gas and crap into whatever water is left in the tank.

Getting all the little sand sifter out safely:
This is going to be hard. for the most part your going to lose a lot of your pods and other little things you just cant save when changing gravel. BUT if you use the scoop method i dont see why you should not be able to get your star and snails out. maybe use a net to get sand out.. And Crabs and snails are easy to grab and put into a bucket of water.

your steps 4-8 sound good. it sounds like your fish and corals are going to be sitting in a bucket for a long time while you set up your tank. I would add a heater and a HOB filter or at least an air driven carbon/floss filter. and also an air pump. and keep the bucket covered/dark and they should be ok. i would keep fish separate from corals tho. corals may release some nasties that cant be filtered out.

Do the best you can to minimize fines being blown into the water column when you start adding your new water. But when i changed my gravel (with the fish and corals in the tank!) i had sediment floating around for a day and everything lived and was fine.

Also do your best to keep LR under water during change over. there is probably all sorts of crabs, snails, ect... hiding in holes and wont fall out when you remove it from water. so keep them submerged while you work to keep everything alive.

i dont think i really added much but it looks like you will be good.
GL!!!

 

Thank you so much for the advice! I was unaware of gas release from the substrate. So I'll dump the last 3rd of water, just in case, unless I need it to cover the live rock, etc.

I'm also going to keep Corals and fish separated like you suggested. It's a good idea.

You mentioned the "Scoop method". Is this a technique for doing things or is it referring at my part of the plan where I scoop all that gravel out with one of the clear square containers?

If it's a method, can you elaborate on that?

I'll take advantage of my tank being empty, and I'll stick the black background on the backside glass. I've been wanting to do that for ages, but couldn't (didn't want to risk it) move the tank while fully loaded.

After i do this, I can get going on my sump build. Whole different, but equally complicated project.

Thanks again, and to anybody else that wishes to contribute. I certainly appreciate your experiences and heads ups since, like I said before, I have no experience on this.

- Magnus.

 

Sorry for my not so clear wording. my version of the scoop method would simply mean using a plastic cup to scoop out the sand and thus also collecting the little critters with it. you can also use a net for this and it will allow for the water to drain.
Sorry for late response but keep questions coming if you have any. hopefully someone else will confirm or add to what you or i have wrote.

 

oh wait. i see the issue in my advice. your trying to change out the sand and keep all of the pods and such so the scoop method will not work as youll be collecting the sand sorry. I guess im not sure if there is a way to save pods and other tiny sand dwellers.

 

I guess there is no way to save them. I'm going to dump the gravel in my bath tub with a little water and leave the lights off all day. Later tonight I'll try to see if anybody climbed on the tub walls and pick up any survivor snails or other animals. I don't think there's really a way to save everyone. Is too much gravel mixed with crushed coral... so I guess scooping the top portion of it and spreading it on the tub would be the best thing to do in this case. I'll have to clean the tub with water and vinegar in an effort to keep chemicals (body wash, shampoo) to a minimum. THey may not survive, but they will surely smell nice

Thanks for the help. I'm going ahead with the process now. I'll take pictures and update this thread when I'm done... or earlier than that if any problem comes up.

- Magnus.

 

IMHO it's a bad idea to remove all of the substrate at one time and I'm thinking youre going to have alot of loss. If it were my set up I would remove small (fist sized areas) over the next couple of months and cut out the areas of the UGF as I exposed them. I'd replace the areas with the new sand as I went along.
If you go ahead with your plan I suggest you test for ammonia at least daily (or 2X day), use plenty of carbon and change it weekly for the next couple months and have enough mixed/heated/aeriated water on hand at all times to do 50% water changes. my .02

 

Well... it's too late for that now. I've replaced all the gravel with the sand already. The fish are still in the qt tank, just hanging out there until my tank clears up better. I apologize about the pictures, I know I said I'll post them, but it was too much work and didn't have time to stop and take them.

Here's what I did:

1- Took all live rock out, put in the 30 long and fill with DT water.

2- Got all fish out into the QT tank with some LR and hiding spots.

3- Dug out as many snails as possible. This took me over 1 hr.

4- Drained the rest of the water and scooped crushed coral into a 5 gal bucket.

5- dumped the crushed coral in the bath tub (cleaned earlier with water and vinegar).

6- Took UGF out, scooped out all the gravel from the DT and disposed of it.

7- Cleaned DT inside and out with vinegar water and filled the base with 40 pounds of caribsea argonite dead reef sand, and mixed the other 40 pounds with 20 pounds of Caribsea premium argonite live sand and topped it off.

8- Filled 30% of DT with water (same water from DT that I drained and filtered 2 times)

9- Completed with freshly mixed SW. At this point also threw in heaters and turned bubbles to the max for aireation.

10- Still working on this, is designing some aquascape I can live with, that doesn't touch the glass anywhere so I can clean it easily. This is a complicated one.

11- Re-introduction of Fish and snails to the tank (they're still in the QT tank at this point while I take care of the aquascape. Any tips on this are very welcomed.

By the way, all LR, and Livestock always had a heater and power heads moving water at all times.

I hope I can finish this today, but sticking the rock together is going to be hard, specially underwater. Any tips about this is also very, VERY welcomed.

Thanks for sticking around!

- Magnus.

 

Magnus

reads to me like you have done this really well
aquascaping - I only use putty/ epoxy or glue for attaching corals , but for rockwork, I stack - checking each piece as I go to make sure it cannot pivot , thus cannot topple

fish - they are in 30 gallon QT at present using water from old set up

IMHO the way you have done this you should have avoided any major cycle issues
you got rid of the sand bed , which IMO would have given you the worse problems had you mixed that up/ tried to save it

once the tank is aquascaped , leave it a couple of hours and then perform ammonia and Nitrite tests - if both are clear
I would add the live stock back to the tank

I say this simply because when I did similar last June/ July - changed my tank
I did exactly what you did - including throwing away sand bed
and within 1 day. had all the fish, inverts , rock etc out - and back again
never had a parameter issue, tested every 24 hours ( you should do same )

(maybe the dottyback from hell might not go back to the new set up - this might be your best chance to exchange this fish?)

in addition check out the tank upgrades Horkn for example went from a 90 - 180 tank so thats double in water QTY and did the transfer in a single day, which is basically all you have done

you have transfered the stuff from your tank, to your tank and just left out bits you dont want anymore (crushed coral and UG filter)

let us know how it works out
test kits are your closest friend though at present , always a good idea to monitor those conditions (Ammonia and Nitrites)

Steve

 

I did the EXACT process you posted with my 29g almost a year ago. Never lost a thing in the tank, corals and all. I think you'll have the same success.