Sand Change Important!

[Tyler6508]

Ok so i have a Blue Spot Shrimpgoby. a 55 gallon tank with about 35 lbs of live rock in it. I have very fine sand pretty much like play sand. it powders up horribly when disturbed and the shrimpgoby has become a master at it. so good that he actaully throws my tank back into a cycle. this last time was the worst. i was gettin brown and green algae and/ or diatoms and the sand is all clumpy. i decided to change the sand to a more course grained sand. i need to know 2 things.

1. Would changing the sand restart my entire cycle?

2. What is the best way to make the change?

 

[kobesan]

I believe changing your sand would not only restart the cycle but will cause you to have very cloudy water.

Best way is to put all the livestock along with water from the tank in a bucket during the change, be sure to have an air pump running in there as well. You would probably have some water left over inside the tank, then I would either add the new sand on top or remove the sand and add new sand and top off the water you took out. Let it cycle for a couple of days before you put any livestock back in.

 

[Tyler6508]

i need to add that i am doin the change from the regular old play sand (which had already cycled before over a 3 month period and turned into live sand) to bagged live sand. i am doing 10 pounds of it every couple of days.

i have 100 lbs now.. i have taken out 20 of the old and put 10lbs of the new coarser sand in. i did this by starting at one end of the tank and im working my way to the other end.

In the tank i have:

Fish:
1 Maroon Clown
1 Blue Spot Shrimpgoby
1 3 Striped Damsel
1 Blue Devil Damsel

Coral:
1 Frogspawn with 2 heads (very small)

 

[kobesan]

I wouldn't do the change with livestock still in the tank.

Also algae bloom after the tank has cycled is normal. Highly suggest you take out the fish before you change more sand, you should also add some snails as your cleanup crew after the change.