Replacing sand after a year? Hm hard to deside

Hi guys!

Got my system running for about a year, got THIS setup going. I got about two inches of two sizesand. And I want to replace that with a finer sugarsize white zand. Not thinking of getting a "Wet bag" that contains bacteria etc. Just a dry white sand. I´m thinking of just using a hose and sucking it all up at once, that might drain like half the water but I´ll replace it with new right away.

So should I atempt it? or do I risk my snails, hermits, seastars and fish? Got a nice refugium going and a large skimmer.

Any thoughts are apreciated!

Dave

 

Wow. That sound wild. I have never heard of anyone doing that but I certainly have not heard everything. Why do you want to change the sand? I would be a bit worried about stirring up all the stuff in the sand. I did that once a long time ago in a different tank and had terrible trouble afterward. The other thing that crossed my mind while reading your post was that if I attempted that Much of my LR would topple. My concern there would be in injuring coral. I have the very fine Bahama OO OO in my tank. I have had the sand you mention as well in a different tank. Once all is in place, I haven't thought much about the difference. Takes a lot to get things stable and running nicely. IMHO I think it may not be a great idea. Let us know what you're going to do.

 

Definitely don't do it all at once. If I were doing it, I would only change about a cup at a time. You don't want to stir everything up or remove all of the beneficial bacteria and pods from your sand. If you do it slowly enough you should also be able to avoid another tank cycle.

 

hey! I want to change it because its two sizes and the bigger one just disturbes my picture... I know, it´s fruity but I want to have alot more sand that I have now and a finer size grain. Adding would just bring the bigger size up to the surface. But If I risk my animals and the LR, Im not touching it! When it comes to disturbing the sand I got two sandliving seastars, one byno goby and a special kind of hermit crab that moves the sand around, mabye to much?

thanks for the replies guys!

Dave

 

If you just want to get rid of the larger pieces, try a cat litter scoop or a slotted kitchen spoon. Just scoop them out and the smaller pieces will fall through. You will still disturb the sand some but at least you won't be removing as many of the beneficial sand critters.

 

Good idea! I have problems with the bigger pieces (sometimes even shells) coming to the top and getting algae on them. Looks ugly imo. The finer sand never gets algae on it. Thanks for the good idea!

 

what about taking care of the algae problem?

 

Allright, decided to keep the sand for now, rearranged the rockwork and made a rockpile to the left and a reef to the right. But if I get ride of the sand I´ll do it slowly, suck up some of it when changing water every two weeks. And then when its all gone replace it with new sand, still keeping some though, to keep the bacteria and pods. But I will need alot of sand to cover 122cm by 65 by 5 cm...

Dave