Switching to Bare Bottom?

[skaterzero22]

I have about 3 inches of silica sand in my 55g reef. its been kinda just chilling lately. got one fish in it, some Xenia, Green Zooanrthids and some GSP. the sand just gets nasty and im afraid its holding alot of detritus.. the tank has been up for a year and the nitrates are at 20ppm. i def have phosphates cause im fighting some algae. do you think taking the sand out would help bring nitrates and phosphates down. also. how would i go about taking it out? siphon?

[JustinReef]

I removed mine a few months back with a siphon. Very easy. I then replaced it two weeks later because I hated the look :D

[skaterzero22]

did u have a spike in your tank after replacing the sand? hows the lagoon doing btw?

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13617486#post13617486 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skaterzero22
did u have a spike in your tank after replacing the sand? hows the lagoon doing btw?

No spike. It all went really well. Just a very cloudy tank.

Have you considered a bit more flow to keep stuff from settling on the bottom? Unless you really like the BB look. I do like it on some tanks but it just did not look right for mine.

A bunch of my stuff died in a move :(

I have a softie tank now and am in the middle of setting up another smaller lagoon tank (red house). This one will be even more like a lagoon than the last because there will be no puffers so I can keep a lot more inverts.

Good luck with whatever you do!

[skaterzero22]

hmm i have thought about more flow. but i also think the silica sand isnt helping the problem. the reason i asked about the spike is because im thinking of switching to LS. im really indecisive right now lol..

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13617639#post13617639 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skaterzero22
hmm i have thought about more flow. but i also think the silica sand isnt helping the problem. the reason i asked about the spike is because im thinking of switching to LS. im really indecisive right now lol..

Yeah maybe switching is a good thing.

[crvz]

I definitely wouldnt buy live sand to replace it. I would remove it, and if you chose to replace just buy dry aragonite. It will become live over time, and it will eliminate the risk of any cycle that you have with livesand. Personally, I think the packaged live sand stuff is a waste.

[skaterzero22]

hmm thanks crvz. thats a good point. i am currently upgrading my fuge from about 10g to 20-25g. so hopefully this will help as well..