View Full Version : Changing Crushed Coral to Sand Bed
Azazael13
03/20/2007, 06:11 AM
I currently have a 55 Gallon with crushed coral in it. I would like to switch it to a sand bed. However I do NOT want to take the tank down. First off is this possible? I had a couple of thoughts on how it might work, let me know if any of these would work.
1) Take a piece of plexi and make a divider and do the change in stages. Making sure to Rinse the sand very well with salt water
2) Get a 10 or 29 gallon, give it a sandbed and put water from my existing system in there. Let the system run for a week or so, move sand over, repeat 2-3 times.
3) Give up and live with the coral until I want to take the system down.
The follow up question to this, if it is possible I have seen a lot of people across many forums who say to only use the expensive sand from your LFS and others that say you can get normal sand from your Lowes and HD. Is it imperative that the normal sand pass a vinegar test?
Thanks for the help, this forum really is a life saver :)
Your idea of a moveable grid for doing it is good. You're going to have some problems around the rocks, but the main thing is to get rid of the majority of your cc, and the method you propose will do it. I think you could do about 1/4 of your tank at a time without provoking a serious cycle, but stand by for other opinions.
Azazael13
03/20/2007, 06:44 AM
Rock wouldn't be too big of an issue, as the pieces I have I could easily pick up or temporarily move to clear the CC.
Tang Salad
03/20/2007, 06:46 AM
I'm not sure why you see the need for the grid. I think you'd be fine siphoning out 1/5 of the CC and replacing it with sand. Continue this every few days until it's all replaced.
Azazael13
03/20/2007, 06:50 AM
the grid would just be there to help make sure none of the CC found its way to the sand and got mixed in.
MayoBoy
03/20/2007, 06:57 AM
I did the same thing a while ago. I got a hose and siphoned out 5 gallons at a time. I ended up with about a gallon of CC with each 5 gallon bucket. Then I'd replace it all with salt water. I continued until I was basiclly bare bottomed (overall about 2 weeks). Then I just dumped the sand in without rinsing or anything. The water cleared up within a couple of hours.
alan214
03/20/2007, 07:01 AM
The plan to do 1/5th the CC at a time is fine but I really see no reason to try to add the new sand until after the last of the CC is gone.
The 2nd tank and all that is probably unnecessary unless I'm missing something here. You can easily go without a substrate for a few weeks. Were you thinking about gradually"seeding" the new sand with the existing CC? If so, you could just add the new sand directly to the current tank. That would be the only justification I could see for doing it that way.
Staging the new sand in the 2nd tank still won't entirely prevent the mini-sandstorm you'll get in the existing tank but rinsing it first will certainly help.
Azazael13
03/20/2007, 07:21 AM
Ok so that all seems easy enough, about the follow up though.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9520698#post9520698 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Azazael13
The follow up question to this, if it is possible I have seen a lot of people across many forums who say to only use the expensive sand from your LFS and others that say you can get normal sand from your Lowes and HD. Is it imperative that the normal sand pass a vinegar test?
MayoBoy
03/20/2007, 07:27 AM
From what I've been reading lately, the sand doesn't really add any buffering capacity to the system. That leaves you two options - calcium and silica based sands. The big difference seems to be what you'll be cleaning off your glass. With calcium, you'll clean off green algae. With silica (Home Depot/Lowes) you'll be cleaning off diatoms. I use calcium based myself but know several people who use regular old Lowes type and they don't have any problems.
The other consideration is sand shape. Silica is sharp and calcium is rounder. If you have any sand sifting, fish, the silica might be rougher on them.
alan214
03/20/2007, 07:39 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9521091#post9521091 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MayoBoy
The other consideration is sand shape. Silica is sharp and calcium is rounder. If you have any sand sifting, fish, the silica might be rougher on them.
The sharpness of the silica sand will also play a factor in scratching your glass when you clean the part down where it meets the sand.
JFristoe
03/20/2007, 07:45 AM
I turned off all pumps and put a center divider in. I slowly swapped half one day and then a couple days later I swapped the other half. I was also going from crushed coral to sand. As long as you thoroughly wash the sand it won't be bad.
Azazael13
03/20/2007, 07:53 AM
thank you all very much for the replies. Seems like I have a project coming up :)
oh and part of my reasoning for doing it in stages was to let anything living in the crushed coral (a few worms I think among other stuff) a chance to move over.
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