I Know ; I know

well put

 

.

Oceansurf
the guy who owns the reef store is being cautious as he doesnt want to give you advice that may disrupt your system

but many people on this site have done exactly what your considering , without the predicted doom and gloom that the guy at the fish store indicates could occur

removing any established substrate , can cause issues
I prefer to remove everything around it (water, corals, rocks and fish) and then throw it away along with last inch or so of water , rinse the tank out and then put everything back together again

I did add new dry sand (not live) to my 5ft tank last June- and this was after all rocks and corals had been in it
I did this using a jug with spout and a PVC pipe, so I could pour the sand down the pipe and avoid getting it over the corals

with a 10 gallon set up its not a great deal IMO- to strip the tank down
remove the gravel, add new sand, (rinsed in RODI water until that water runs clear through it) then put your rocks and corals plus old water back in the tank - with a gallon or so of new water.

what is your nem anchored to ? if its the tank base or walls than thats a pain
if its a rock - then remove rock complete with nem and place in the large buckets of water that you remove from your tank

if its attached to tank base or walls there are 2 tricks you can try
1 - place an ice cube against its foot and it should release its hold
2 - direct one of your power heads at it from a distance and gradually bring closer - this again should cause it to loosen its grip so it can be removed

alternatively

as you are doing weekly water changes - are you using a gravel cleaner type syphon - which is a wide rigid tube that then decreases to the normal flexi tube and is designed to syphon up gravel, swirl it around, removing sediment

if you use one of them, once your gravel is properly cleaned, then removing it wont release the nasties that can be associated with removing established tank substrates
some recommend doing it in 3 stages - 1/3rd per week

hopefully someone will pick fault with anything said above thats incorrect or not a sensible method of dealing with situation

but I stripped down my tank June last year, set it back up, added a new sand bed a week or so later, and none of my corals where affected
and I never experienced any of the mini cycle ammonia / Nitrite peaks that these excercises can incur if you mess with an established substrate

Steve

 

Rinse the sand and follow steve wrights advice above.

Have you ever gone snorkeling/diving in the ocean during a heavy surf? The water is so clouded full of sand etc you can barely see farther than a foot or two in front of your face. Corals don't die in the wild when this happens because of the oceans flow. If you have good flow and/or give the corals a quick dust off once any remaining silt settles there shouldn't be any issues.

 

Very well put steve.

 

I think I'll go with a siphon & see how it works. I really don't have much of that fine gravel. Most of it is covered with rock. ( only a little patch in the front ) When I pour the dirty water down the sink, I'll hold a net under it so I don't get rid of any snails.