Switching substrates

[Buckeye1]

I'd like to switch substrates in my 75 gallon. What are the do's and don'ts of doing this? I was thinking I would only do half the tank for a couple of weeks and then switch out the other half later. Any suggestions?

 

[H2OBUM]

what's your exsisting? what are you switching to?

 

[szwab]

Couple of things to take into consideration? What is the thickness of your current sand bed? How much live rock do you have? What critters do you have in the tank? Did you place the rock on the sand or on the tank bottom, then add sand?

 

[Buckeye1]

I'd like to switch from crushed coral to sand. I have about 100lbs of live rock and the crushed coral is between 1 to 2 inches. I probably have 20 hermit crabs, dozen snails, and tons of little stars and "medusa worms" in the crushed coral.

 

[szwab]

with it being 1-2 inches you probably could switch it out all at once with out fear of releasing any gasses from the sand. A 50/50 switch out would benifit in seeding the new bed. What do you have as far as fish and corals? If your overall bioload is high I'd opt for a 50/50 change out with a water change a few days after and with close monitoring of your water parameters. Another option an ugly one is to pull all the crushed coral out replace it with sand then place the crushed coral back either in a mesh bag or contained in fiberglass screen to help seed the new sand bed. Leave it in for a week or so.

 

[Buckeye1]

Thanks Szwab. I think I'll try the 50/50 thing. I have a pretty large bioload and I want to keep as many of the beneficial creepy crawlys as I can.

 

[sammie]

How are you planning on removing the substrate? siphon it out with a water change is a good way just don't collapse your rockwork and that way it will seed your new stuff as you put it back in.

 

[H2OBUM]

What I did was siphon an area of crushed coral really really good. The water that was being siphoned was going through a 1 micron filter into a bucket. After the area was siphoned I scooped it out with a net. After this I dumped the surprisingly clear water back into the tank and repeated the proccess. I did 50% then another 50%

 

[AcroSteve]

Definitely siphon it out.

 

[lakee911]

I did this. CC to silica sand. I did 50% at a time. Siphoning wasn't going well, so I had to scoop it out. Made a mess. I ran carbon and filter sock for a while to help clean the water. Was fine after a day or two. I waited about 5 weeks, I think, between the two changes.

Jason