Hello folks.. I am new to the hobby and i am hoping I can get a couple questions answered. I have a 30 gallon tank that I bought from somebody who obviously abused the tank by not doing regular water changes or cleaning.. I have a few fish but no corals.. The tank has a crushed coral bottom and some live rock.. I don't really care for the crushed coral look and no matter how many water changes I do it still just doesn't look that good.. I am thinking about putting live sand in my tank but I want to avoid starting a cycle again (the tank has been running for about a year and a half). I read up on some live sand that can be put in the aquarium and then you can add the fish right away without having to worry about an ammonia spike. Is that a good idea? And how should I go about doing the overhaul? Thank you in advance for all the help.
New to the hobby
- Thread starter Bogdan33
- Start date
James77
Team RC
Welcome to Reef Central! :beer:
IMO live sand is a huge waste of money, since any sand will become live pretty quickly inside any tank with a bio load. What I would do in your case is siphon out a little of the crushed coral with each water change. You could replace it right away with regular rinsed sand, o wait until it is all sucked out and replace it all at once. By siphoning out slowly, you would prevent taking out too much beneficial bacteria that is colonized on the sand at once.
IMO live sand is a huge waste of money, since any sand will become live pretty quickly inside any tank with a bio load. What I would do in your case is siphon out a little of the crushed coral with each water change. You could replace it right away with regular rinsed sand, o wait until it is all sucked out and replace it all at once. By siphoning out slowly, you would prevent taking out too much beneficial bacteria that is colonized on the sand at once.
squishifishi
Hopelesly Addicted Member
I guess you could just put a thin layer of sand over top of the coral, and not worry about restarting the cycle. I don't know if that would work though so we'll see what others have to say!
