Swapping out sand

I am destined to replace my tank unfortuately. The leak has sprouted a fifth time. I silly-coned it to buy time but the inevitible is near. Now.....I want to switch out my sand. I want aragonite. What is in there is just a fine sand.....I do not know what kind.....it actually came with the set up. My question is......will this affect my bacterial balance to the point where I will cycle again? I know I am risking it anyway by stirring up what is already there with the change over......, even if I bring it over in pie like sections and lay it down. I just want a few opinions before I go out and spend more money and affect the ecosystem. Thanks. John.

 

Anytime you move a tank, you risk a cycle. Its better to prepare for it and keep your fish and coral out of it until its over. Just set up a tank somewhere else wether it be a rubbermad tub, or glass tank. Get a cheap HOB filter rated for twice the water volume and you should be good to for a few weeks. Just make sure to keep an eye on parameters in the tub. At the LFS I worked at, we kept small fish in 5g tanks and did weekly water changes on them.

 

Im sorry that you have to go through that pita, but I think that Geek is right. Wish you luck and keep us updated. Luna

 

If you just use aragonite base sand and the LR you already have you shouldn't have a cycle as long as your LR isn't out of the water that long. Think about it, what would cause the cycle??? You might have a very minimal one from stirring detrius but how is that any different than coming home to a powerhead that has fallen in the sand or something similar?

I'd just set up the new tank, take half of your old water for the new tank, your live rock, and call it good...

 

i agree with koogle, i moved a fully stocked 40 gal over to a 60 gal in 4 hours corals and fish were bagged and placed in foam cooler to keep them heated, lr was placed in totes with power heads, placed some of the old sand in new tank (in pie slices) then added new sand not over it around it. filled the new tank with old tank water, then filled the rest up with new water, put the rocks in then the corals and then the fish all within 4 hours. i checked every day all parims, and never seen even the slightest spike in any levels. my corals actully looked better after the move.lol

no cloudiness or bacterial blooms ,nadda...


oh and place plastic wrap over the sand when you fill the tank up.

i aquascaped the tank the following days.

if your sand smells badly of eggs dont use that part. or disturb it .

if its deep sand and you fear that nitrification is taking place deep with in it. use just the top of the sand.

not saying this is def going to work for you, but it did for me with no harm done to anything.

 

if your getting rid of your current sand i would just replace it with the a piece of the plastic you find on boats(obviously it doesn't have to come from a boat lol). im gonna try to find a link to the guy that did this.
actually right now im going slowly through the process of removing my sand, im really considering using this

 

found it he used starboard Tank of the Month - March 2007 - Reefkeeping.com
and like he says sand beds tend to build up wastes over time.

matt rogers if your out there did you ever do this with your tank?

 

Are we talking SW or FW here?

 

Remember when I was moving the 75g to my house? I threw out the old mud/pebble/shell substrate that the established 1.5 year old tank had and added half agronite and half coral sand. I didn't place powerheads in the totes with the LR when I should have, and I think that is why I have lots of die off right now. Lots of dead spots in my tank too. But as for the new sand and extra cleaning during the move, everything went fine. I even forgot to was the new substrate off. I got lucky. I think you probably don't have anything to worry about if using live sand, since the bacteria are already established. I would just keep animals in seperate tank and check levels for a couple days until you are sure things look okay.