Going back to sand from BB

[reefman77]

My tank has been BB for almost two years now and i am considering changing back to sand. the main problem is the amount of maintenance required. I am going off to college next year and my parents will be resonsible for the tank. I have to siphon the bottom three times a week to keep it looking nice and i know that no matter what i say, my prarents will not be able to do this much maintenance on the tank. Now that i think about it, the original reason I switched to BB was to lower the amount of algae and nutrients in my system and the tank dosent realy look any better than it did with the sand.

Has anyone switched back to sand from BB? how difficult will it be and do you think i should do it?

The tank is a 120 gallon with 20 gallon sump

[crvz]

Just add sand, not too much to it. But the whole reason you lost the sand in the first place will resurface. If you struggle to keep detritus from the tank now, adding sand won't help. If you're just worried about aesthetics, I'd leave the sand out. Your folks or you can just siphon whatevers collected between water changes (doenst have to be 3 times a week).

[reefman77]

bump

[sherm71tank]

Can you add more flow to keep the detritus suspended from the bottom? How often will be able to check in on the tank? Realistically will water changes get done? Filter's checked and replaced? What about calcium and alkalinity? Maybe you would be better off (and the tank inhabitants) just taking it down until your ready again?