replacing my substrate

[eel88]

hello guys, new to the forum here
well i need some help with replacing my crush coral sand to just regular sand. i been reading a lot and its recommended to use dry sand so i bought a bag from my lfs. the reason that i want to replace the crushcoral substrate is because i been having high nitrates recently and it can be due to the crush coral substrate. how fast should i do this ? should i replace all the sand at once ? i don't want to have any spikes and kill my fish. i'm running a fish only tank btw. Should i replace half of the crush coral 1 day and in 2 weeks when i do my water change should i replace the other half ? or should i do it slower ? im just really worried about my live stock.
i have 3 small tangs in the tank right now and they're doing wonderful.
i been vinegar dosing for about 2 weeks now, should i stop dosing while i do this change ?
i want to solve this nitrate problem soon so i can upgrade to a 125G tank
thank you.

 

[bif24701]

hello guys, new to the forum here

well i need some help with replacing my crush coral sand to just regular sand. i been reading a lot and its recommended to use dry sand so i bought a bag from my lfs. the reason that i want to replace the crushcoral substrate is because i been having high nitrates recently and it can be due to the crush coral substrate. how fast should i do this ? should i replace all the sand at once ? i don't want to have any spikes and kill my fish. i'm running a fish only tank btw. Should i replace half of the crush coral 1 day and in 2 weeks when i do my water change should i replace the other half ? or should i do it slower ? im just really worried about my live stock.

i have 3 small tangs in the tank right now and they're doing wonderful.

i been vinegar dosing for about 2 weeks now, should i stop dosing while i do this change ?

i want to solve this nitrate problem soon so i can upgrade to a 125G tank

thank you.

Can you catch and place the fish in a temporary tank or tote for a day or two. Do not worry about cycle because you will place some of your rock in there for filtration and a pump or air stone. Then you can get to work. Replace the CC with sand. Put things back together, run it for a few hours and add the fish back. Run some GAC and mechanical filtration.


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[eel88]

Can you catch and place the fish in a temporary tank or tote for a day or two. Do not worry about cycle because you will place some of your rock in there for filtration and a pump or air stone. Then you can get to work. Replace the CC with sand. Put things back together, run it for a few hours and add the fish back. Run some GAC and mechanical filtration.


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remove my fish for a couple of days ? i dont think they will survive out of the my tank for that long. i was thinking maybe for a few hours

 

[bif24701]

replacing my substrate

remove my fish for a couple of days ? i dont think they will survive out of the my tank for that long. i was thinking maybe for a few hours

I was hoping you had a small tank around that you could set up.

That's fine, as long as you can get it done. Give yourself lots of time to start and finish it.


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[eel88]

I was hoping you had a small tank around that you could set up.

That's fine, as long as you can get it done. Give yourself lots of time to start and finish it.


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i just tested my nitrate and its reading about 10ppm-20ppm the vinegar dosing has worked for me i dont know if i should still replace the substrate now.

 

[j.falk]

If you have high nitrates the best way to lower them is to do a partial water change. You can also gravel vac the crushed coral to remove detritus...just don't do all of it at once or you will remove too much of your bacteria and potentially crash your tank. I've always recommended cleaning no more than 1/4 of the substrate per water change when it comes to saltwater aquariums using crushed coral.

 

[j.falk]

I also would not recommend changing out your substrate...you will take out all of the beneficial bacteria that is living in your crushed coral which you need to keep your aquarium stable. If you want sand wait until you set up the 125 and plan accordingly.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

Years ago I removed crushed coral and replace it with ESV fine grain in an established 75g reef. (This was back in the day when a DSB was all the rage.) I did it over a number of months using 4" high acrylic sheets to create 'compartments' in the substrate. I would then vacuum out a compartment and place the ESV sand into the compartment very slowly (pumps off). Before placing in the tank I would rinse the ESV sand in fresh water in an attempt to wash off the 'dust' and slowly lower the rinsed wet sand to the compartment until filled. I'd let that sit for a month to establish it's self and would repeat... Not sure how many months it took me but probably 6 months or so as I think i split the tank up into 6 compartments, removing 1/6 of the crushed coral a month.

 

[bif24701]

i just tested my nitrate and its reading about 10ppm-20ppm the vinegar dosing has worked for me i dont know if i should still replace the substrate now.

You should


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[AlSimmons]

If your still set on removing the CC just get yourself some vinyl hosing that's big enough in diameter to siphon the CC out. Maybe remove 25% one week, 25% the next week and so on and so forth until it's gone and then go ahead and add the sand. Make sure to rinse this thoroughly though. Piece of cake.

 

[Lsufan]

The best way would be to do as bif first mentioned if it is possible to catch the fish. Put some liverock in a small tank so u don't have to worry about ammonia as much. That way u can replace all thee cc at one time and get it over with. If it spikes your params your fish will be safe in another tank.

If that isn't possible then I would only remove a section at a time like al mentioned. Remove it over the span of about 4 weeks. U can eighther wait until u get all the cc out & put the new in at one time, or once u get about 1/2 the cc out u can go ahead & add that half of sand back. That way it can be getting seeded with beneficial bacteria while u slowly remove the rest of the cc.

If u have a correct amount of liverock it should have plenty of bacteria to handle your fish. What u have to be careful about is stirring up a bunch of the cc at one time because that can cause a spike