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lilalove
06/28/2009, 09:27 PM
I've decided to purchase a shrimp/goby pair and would therefore like to increase the depth of my sand bed. It is about 1 inch to an inch and a half at its deepest. What is the safest and easiest way to add more sand? A little at a time, while stirring? I don't want to suffocate any critters already in the sand. Any input would be appeciated. Thanks.

Maxxumless
06/28/2009, 09:33 PM
What I do is give the sand a good cleaning in RO water until the milkiness is gone, then I scoop up a 1/3 of a cup of sand and shake it lightly in the tank near the sand bed. It gets mucky for a few hours then it's gone. I also turn off all the pumps while I'm doing it and leave them off for 10 minutes then crank them back on. This keeps the grit from getting into the impellers and clogging the filter sock.

Crazed
06/28/2009, 09:52 PM
I just put all my sand in to a new tank today, and I found the easiest method to handle large qualities of sand was to use a PVC pipe cut to provide easy access to the bottom of the tank, then using a funnel to pour the sand down. It also makes it easy to reach hard spots and is great for precision-placing sand. :) If you have some spare PVC around, I'd definitely try it that way, unless it really stirs the sand up for you.

Granted, I don't know how any method would fare with livestock already in the tank. I did it all at once, and therefore, it got very cloudy, but if you're not adding a whole lot, and rinse it out thoroughly in water like Maxxumless suggested, I imagine you could avoid a lot of the consequences. Definitely keep your powerheads off throughout the whole process, though. Good luck!

Toddrtrex
06/28/2009, 11:52 PM
I recently add about 20 lbs of sand to my existing 75, which had (( about )) an 1.5" sandbed.

I rinsed the heck out of the dry sand (( did a little at a time, and rinsed in a bucket in the bath tube. )).

Then transferred that patch to a big ziplock bag, sunk it to the bottom and released the sand. (( though "Crazed" PVC idea sounds good )). I did this over two days -- 10 lbs each. Did it that way mainly because I am lazy. ;) The tank only stayed cloudy for an hour or two. The fish, SPS, clam and anemones didn't care.

lilalove
06/29/2009, 09:49 PM
Thanks for the input guys, those are two really great ideas. I will be adding 40 lbs over 2 days so not to upset too much in one day...and then a water change. Should I mix the existing sand with the new sand? I'm concerned about the critters in the old sandbed. I have a bunch of stomatellas and pods and worms. Thanks for all your help.

gaucho30
07/08/2009, 12:05 AM
Well I havent had to add new sand to tank with inhabitants so to speak I have had to move my 40g tank 2 times in the past 2 months. I would drain most of the water and take all the rock out but leave all the sand and this created quite a sandstorm. I only have a small trumpet coral and 4 fish but they were all fine. My tank was cloudy for a couple hours but honestly the fish seemed back to normal after a day or so. I would say that if you could just add it all in one day so you dont go multiple days of hours of cloudiness. Just my 2 cents.