dilemma.. need help

[Bogdan33]

:headwalls:Hello folks.. I am new to the hobby and i am hoping I can get a couple questions answered. I have a 30 gallon tank that I bought from somebody who obviously abused the tank by not doing regular water changes or cleaning.. I have a few fish but no corals.. The tank has a crushed coral bottom and some live rock.. I don't really care for the crushed coral look and no matter how many water changes I do it still just doesn't look that good.. I am thinking about putting live sand in my tank but I want to avoid starting a cycle again (the tank has been running for about a year and a half). I read up on some live sand that can be put in the aquarium and then you can add the fish right away without having to worry about an ammonia spike. Is that a good idea? And how should I go about doing the overhaul? Thank you in advance for all the help.

[bnumair]

u can safely remove 1/4 to 1/2 of the crushed coral and replace it with live sand once a week. keep a bottle of prime or amquel handy just in case and maybe some water in case u have to do water changes.

[Cymonous]

Shouldn't he not use "Live Sand" since this is an established tank with fish in the tank? The "Live Sand" in a bag is going to have more dead stuff than anything and you probably will have a cycle. If you want to replace the sand, I would get non-live sand. The new sand will eventually become live on its own and it is cheaper.

I would still follow the same instruction as above from bnumair by replacing only 1/4 to 1/2 at a time. Wait at least a couple days to a week at a time.

[Sk8r]

I did it with dry sand: I got an auto oil funnel, a length of 2" pvc. I washed the sand (to remove dust), let it dry, then relied on the sandbed (3" sandbed in my 20 gallon fuge) to carry the tank as I carefully scooped up a couple of cups every few days to remove the cursed sugar sand I hate with a passion beyond coherent expression---
When I finally had most of the old sand removed, and the tank still rock-steady because of the remote sandbed in the sump, I began using the funnel and pipe to deliver new sand exactly where I wanted it---in several neat piles I could trust the fish to disperse where they wanted it.
WOrked like a charm. Any crushed coral you have remaining will get dispersed through the new sand like stray shell.
Free advice: go for medium grade Caribsea aragonite, not the superfine sand. That wretched stuff cost me hundreds of dollars of corals, absolutely destroyed them.

[Bogdan33]

yeah but i do not have a refuge. Its just a basic set up. So should i use dry sand or live sand? Do only a little at a time with dry sand or can i just replace all of the crushed coral at once if im using live sand?

[bnumair]

i have always used dry sand and replaced it with dry sand. i have no experience with live sand and to me personally its a waste of money as ur paying for water and die off.

[E Rosewater]

i have always used dry sand and replaced it with dry sand. i have no experience with live sand and to me personally its a waste of money as ur paying for water and die off.

+1

Why pay extra for something you don't need or could cause a problem.

[Anthony55Gal]

Crushed Coral is ugly (IMO). Get rid of it, and the only difference between Live Sand and Dry Sand is the effect it has on your wallet. Go dry, with time, it'll turn live. Good luck :)

[nynick]

Live Sand = dead sand with a cup of water and some dormant bacteria sprayed on. If you are putting it into an existing system you will want to rinse it anyway so they will end up the same.

If you want to do it all in one go you can just take out all your water and liverock into a rubbermaid and replace the substrate...clean the bottom well btw.