thinking of removing substrate.

[MRICKEN1012]

So I have crushed coral as my substrate. It just gets too dirty. I'm thinking of removing it and using sand. I will prob only do the front half of my tank bc I don't want to remove my rock and coral.

Any ideas how to make this as painless as possible?

I was thinking of using a large tube when adding the sand to try and minimize any sandstorm I might have.

 

[tlsrcs]

correct me if i am wrong but i beleive if you disturb a sand bed it can cause a cycle....not sure if that is true for crushed coral but i would be cautious. Also i know if you remove that much of your bio filter to quickly you can really mess the balance up. if i were to do it i would go nice and slow maybe just a couple cups at a time intell i was confident i was not going to start a chain of unfortunate events. but that is just what i think.

 

[hurrafreak]

Just make a beer bong. Like you were saying, but the bottom of the tube on the bottom pane and pour sand into the funnel! Should help with the cloudiness.

 

[damontoy]

Some people like to take 2 to 3 weeks to do this. I took all crushed coral from my 135 and replaced with sand all the same day and never had a issue.

 

[MRICKEN1012]

Thanks guys. I think I will do the front half and maybe wait a week or 2 and then do the other side.

 

[MRICKEN1012]

Do you think I would need to buy live sand or would dry sand work ok?

 

[tlsrcs]

If you put live sand into your tank you risk die off starting a cycle. But you also don't have to wait for the bio filter to reastsblish. I am going to be adding dry sand to my new tank in hopes to minimise a cycle.

 

[Bajamike]

So I have crushed coral as my substrate. It just gets too dirty. I'm thinking of removing it and using sand. I will prob only do the front half of my tank bc I don't want to remove my rock and coral.

Any ideas how to make this as painless as possible?

I was thinking of using a large tube when adding the sand to try and minimize any sandstorm I might have.

I am also thinking the same.