cleaning a sandbed

[KafudaFish]

Howdy do!
My Southdown sand is about 2 years old and I have about 50# in my 95. The other day I was using a turkey baster to blow my rocks and I sucked up some sand. I knew there was detritus built up and when I smelled it I coud tell that some of the sand has become anaerobic maybe anoxic.
I would like to remove most of my sand maybe 40# and reseed with new sand but am concerned over how to do this without releasing hydrogen sulfide or something else. Any ideas?

For the last 2 days I have been removing a 16 oz. dixie cup worth of sand and water and just trashing it. Is this a good idea or am I setting myself up for a disaster?

 

[EvilMel]

I would go as slow as you possibly can in removing it. I don't have specific experience in doing that but Joe Wall told me a long time ago that if you took little bits of it out at a time and let it settle down a bit after that that you'd be ok.

 

[KafudaFish]

Ok that is what I was thinking as far as the dixie cup worth each day. It will take a very long time but that is not always a bad thing.
I am moving the tank maybe next weekend. Again. So I could remove a large amount of the sand all at once but that raises the same issues as before.

 

[tangboy]

Along the same lines... if you have about 1-1.5 inches of sand do you use a gravel syphon on it or just let it go and not disturb it?

 

[Runner]

Try to save the top 1/2 of sand to keep a bunch of the good critters.

A couple of years ago I removed most of the sand from my main tank with a siphon during gravel changes. You can put sand back and minimize clouding by using a piece of PVC and pouring down it to the bottom.

 

[fishdoc11]

Can't remember what size your tank is but the way I did it was to remove all the water I could first without mucking it up. Then placed all the critters and rock into the water containers. Then took the sandbed out with a shop vac and replaced everything. I didn't loose anything or even really skip a beat when I did it that way.
Chris

 

[KafudaFish]

Ok Chris. That is an idea especially if I am breaking it all down to move it about 15 feet to the original spot I had it. Huummph.

 

[fishdoc11]

I should have added I didn't add sand back.
You might try removing some of the top slowly to keep some critters and keeping it in an aerated bucket/small tank before you do the changeover as well.
Chris