replacing crushed coral wiht sand, pics intense

[mr pink floyd]

this is my tank before i decided to start taking otu the crushed coral:

this is it 15 minutes after, i am monitoring all levels, becasue i haev 4 fish, and 3 kinds of corals, xenia, yellow plyps, and shrooms

this is it:

i am happy thoguh, becasue right after i took the picture, my xenia opened up, now i know they will be ok.

tomorrow i will suck all my water and rocks out into a 40 gallon rubbermaid bucket, and take soem of the water, mix it vigorously with sand for a few hours, then pour sand in tank, im using southdown, so it is very fine. THis is to help reduve the cloud, i will then mix 15 gallons of salt waer, pour that in, the slowly add the other 15 gallons, trying to make as little dust as possible. i will then try to re aquascape it to what it was before if ican see enough, otherwise i will find some way to make it work.

stick with me i will post what goes on tomorrow, i will start at 1, est, and take lots of pics.


i plan for a 3 inch bed, and i will try not to lose tankmates in the process, i have thought it through, and if sometihing goes wrong, i have a QT tank for fish (10 gallons, only for 1 day maybe) and i can go to my frineds house to keep my corals safe in his 20 gallon reef.


~mike

 

[Dave 32]

you are very brave :eek1:

 

[mr pink floyd]

yea ive se nthis happen before, i had a friend who dumped 200 lbs of sandinot a 135 gallon tank, and all his corals and 2 fish came out alive,

i jus tdid an ammonia check and nitrate/trite its allgood, abotu 1/2 hour afetr, and i can see the back fairly clearly, its clearing up very fast

 

[mr pink floyd]

plus, its lie ka hurricane or storm on a reef, stuff gets kicked up im not worried really, ive seen this before

 

[Dave 32]

I don't think it's that crazy you just need some balls to start it. How deep was your sand bed and how low was it running

 

[mr pink floyd]

it was crushed coral, it was originally when it was a FOWLR 3 inches deep, when i was dumb, the i turned it to reef, and it was abotu 1 inch or less, almost an hour after, adn i can make out the design on my background, but im gonan get an all black one to compliment my corals once i get more money, i turned on my 2 filters, each one with an aded sponge, all my fish are alive and well, ill keep postin till i go to sleep.

im goning to use 50 lbs of southdown, for a 3 inch bed, then wiht the CTARS i will try to seed it, but i am leaving some detrius, adn crushed coral in, (very little) to help get he bilogical part started faster for the sand, even though it wil lget to know some water very well haha

 

[rdmpe]

I set up a 180 and had about 100 lbs of LR in it. Got the LR from another reefer so it was very full of life, tons of hitchikers, coraline, xenia, kenya tree, live clams, etc.

I dumped 450 lbs of southdown in there and it took a solid week or more to clear up. Everything seemed to make it through the mess just fine.

Let's see some more pictures... Here's mine after 12 hours or so

 

[XxDutchxX]

I did that with mine abour 2 years ago and I am glad that I did. IMO the sand looks better then crushed coral and all my levels are perfect.

 

[mr pink floyd]

ywea little over an hour after, i can see my whole back wall, ill post a pic in a sec

 

[mr pink floyd]

about an hour and a half after, all pumps now running, xenia, and yellow plyps all opened up

this real problem might be tomorrow wiht the sand

i will suck otu all the water put it in 40 gallon bucket, lie ki said befoere, put in sand, oput ni 15 galons fake water, put in abotu 14-15 gallons old water, adn let settle, wiht my corals, and possibly fish in the 40 rubbermaid wiht 15 gallons, probably a pump, heater deifnetly, let it clear for a few ours, put them in.. then enjoy

haha

 

[BigReefing]

do you rinse the sand before you put it in, or do you not do that. I am thinking of going to sand. I have a bare bottom and hate it.

 

[mr pink floyd]

what iwas told to do was, do a watwer change, siphon the water into a bucket with the sand. mix the sand up vigorously with the water, put some rubble in there too, do this for a few hours, then whe nthe dust cloud dissapears, put the sand in the tank, but because im puling al lthe water out, im only gonan stir it up, let is sit, then dump the sand in, hoping it wont flow like crazy, ubt because it is very fine it probably will anyways. im going to put a bowl down, to pour the water inot, hoefully diffusing the spray of the water, making the sand get kicked up less, then hopefully in a few hours it will be really clear, but even if its not, they will still be ok, ill post lots of pics tomorrow so you can see BigReefing

 

[mr pink floyd]

coral bedtime, the tank is xclear to the back, you cvan almost see all the way through fro mthe side, you can make out the shape ofthe powerhead

 

[paulpp187]

just taggin

 

[rdmpe]

So today you are putting the southdown in? I predict you'll have a milkshake for a few days But no big deal, mine came through that just fine.
Then you'll have to blow off your LR, more cloudiness.
Then you'll have to blow off your LR, more cloudiness.
Then you'll have to blow off your LR, more cloudiness.
Then you'll have to blow off your LR, more cloudiness.
Then your tank will probably be pretty clear.
Then you'll have to blow off your LR, more cloudiness.

 

[Trigeek]

You could cut down on the sand storm if you find a piece of large diameter PVC and funnel it through the PVC to the bottom of the tank. It may be more time consuming initially but should allow the tank to clear rather quickly and you won't have to deal with blowing sand off your corals and rock later on.

 

[Dubbin1]

Heres the trick to keep from getting a sandstorm. Lay a trash bag on top of the sand before adding the water.

This picture was taken while the water was going in.

This picture was taken later that same day

 

[mr pink floyd]

yea i am going to go with dubbins idea, also what i posted earlier about what AGU aaid, so its double safe, thing thing abotu my corals is, i only have a like corals, xenia, and tyellow polyps, i fdont have much light, so i only do softies shrooms and zoos soon, my shrroms, wee you cant kill those things anyway


this post is mainly a bump, becasue its 10 am and thwe sand doesnt go in until about 130

if this starts to go down, someone please bump, after 1 it qwill be all good, i pick up sand at one, and 40 gallon bucket, siphon 90 percent ater out, put LR in tub, catch my fish, hopefulyl not stressign them otu too bad!, while doign this im mixing sand with soem WC water, pour all the sand in, pour in 15 gallons fresh saltwater, let is it, pour in more water from bucket (i dont have a CL yet so i cant pump it in) put fish and lr in, finish getting water in, mix up another 5 2-3 gall if needed!

 

[mr pink floyd]

bump

 

[mr pink floyd]

my tank looks liek operation desert storm, now my dads a mart guy, but not to listening. i told him id put water in gallon by gallon over the garbagse bag, i walked away for 2 seconds, he was a 5 gallon full dumping intot he tank, now im behind a little on my plans


i also blew up my heater, i unplugged it, but i left it resting pn the strip, it fell back in a little, must have made conact, then it started to smoke so i knew i had to blow it up in the water, so i filled up the sink dipped it in, ducked and covered, but this give me an excuse to go get a heater where ican choose the exact temp!


ill try to post pics later