Replacing A Sand Bed

[OnTheEdge]

So when I started my tank I put in 10 pounds of live sand. Somewhere during the process I hated the little rocks I saw and took basically all of them out and also the heavier chunks of sand. Now I am dealing with sand being easily moved across the tank. Can I drain the water into a bin, transfer the fish and couple inverts, and then just replace the sand? I can probably get this done in under an hour. I have live rock in the tank. Would this disturb the tank? Would it start a new cycle? What is the safest way to do this?

 

[reefscape15]

Yes it will disturb the tank a lot, and most likely if you are putting brand new sand in, it'll cause another small cycle. The best way to switch out a sandbed is take a small amount out at a time, and oncd you have enough out, start adding a little at a time. Any way you go about it will disrupt the natural maturation and growth of your tank system. The question is, do it quickly and chance losing a little livestock/deal with the re-cycling, or do it slowly and reduce the risk of a re-cycling. I think that doing it slowly is the better option, but at the same time if you do it all at once the process of re-establishing your tank will begin sooner, it'll just have more work to get back to where it was

 

[OnTheEdge]

Yes it will disturb the tank a lot, and most likely if you are putting brand new sand in, it'll cause another small cycle. The best way to switch out a sandbed is take a small amount out at a time, and oncd you have enough out, start adding a little at a time. Any way you go about it will disrupt the natural maturation and growth of your tank system. The question is, do it quickly and chance losing a little livestock/deal with the re-cycling, or do it slowly and reduce the risk of a re-cycling. I think that doing it slowly is the better option, but at the same time if you do it all at once the process of re-establishing your tank will begin sooner, it'll just have more work to get back to where it was

I guess I'll go with the slow route just pump out sand and replace it weekly slowly. Wish I knew more earlier -.- . Thanks for the help!

 

[OnTheEdge]

Im actually debating of just putting the fish in a temporary tank and just replacing the whole sand bed hoping a new cycle doesn't start. What if I just do half old and half new sand....

 

[OnTheEdge]

bump