Replacing Substrate

[jgraz]

Well im finally tired of the black course sand in my nano. It has been collecting detritus like crazy and is a PIA to keep clean. What is the best way to replace? Is removing all fish, coral, and rock the best way to go? Store everything in buckets, and do the swap. Also once the swap has been made how long should I wait before putting everything back. That is my biggest concern? Any thoughts/ideas are more then welcomed. Thanks in advance

Also, any suggestion on a sand that will hold up to a mp-10 in a 20H tank?

 

[SHLUZER]

1) Let new sand cycle. Put your new sand in a container with same saltwater as in your tank, add heater. Check parameters to see if cycle is over. Time ?
2) Move fish, coral, rock to temp container. Time 1 hr.
3) Put in new cycled sand. Time 1 hr.
4) put fish, coral , rock back. Time 1 hr.

This way your livestock is out of tank for very short time.
I think any other way will cause the cycle in your tank and will kill everything.

 

[NikkiT]

As an alternative to cycling sand, you can also buy live sand. A small bag should work fine for a shallow sand bed, a medium bag for a deeper sand bed, depending on the measurements of your tank. Buying live sand for a 20g high shouldn't be prohibitively expensive.

I like Fiji pink. It did fine with an MP10 in my 20g high.

Changing out sand can be done pretty quickly, as Schluzer said. I have done this every time I moved my tanks, and I have lived in 4 places in 4 years. I do something very similar to what Schluzer suggested, only I don't cycle the sand (skipping this step will only work if you buy live sand). I syphon off 1/2 to 2/3 of the water from the tank, being careful not to disturb the sandbed. Then I remove the rock, putting it into a container with saltwater, then I catch the animals in the tank, and I usually put the inverts in with the rock, and the fish into a separate covered container, then I remove the rest of the water and discard, remove the sand, briefly take advantage of being able to get into hard to reach corners to get rid of any yucky algae, and start again.

I would suggest that you have a good 5-7 g of extra waters available for yourself, I always seem to go though a whole bunch, and if the water gets cloudy after you add the sand (which I find that it always does) wait until it is at least mostly clear before adding the critters back in. If you pour in over a bowl, that helps a lot.

Good luck with the swap!

 

[TanksNStuff]

Couldn't have offered any better advice than Nikki did.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[jgraz]

Thanks everyone for the tips. The black sand is nice for a few months, then not so much. Should have heeded the warnings.

 

[Fish Brain]

I have found that, after you put the new sand into the tank, place the bag the sand came in on top of the sand. Use a pump and hose to add water to the tank and keep the hose pointed at the center of the bag. Just keep the water slow and steady and after there is a few inches of water in the tank, stick the hose inside the bag and flush the sand out of the bag that you would have normally just thrown away.

I've done it this way and had almost no cloudiness in the water every time.

 

[greybolt03]

I have found that, after you put the new sand into the tank, place the bag the sand came in on top of the sand. Use a pump and hose to add water to the tank and keep the hose pointed at the center of the bag. Just keep the water slow and steady and after there is a few inches of water in the tank, stick the hose inside the bag and flush the sand out of the bag that you would have normally just thrown away.

I've done it this way and had almost no cloudiness in the water every time.

+1 was going to say I do this too And it works great

 

[jgraz]

Well everything went well. Seems like everything made it unscathed except my JF setosa. Some how it got crushed in the change. Hopefully it pulls through.
Here's a pic of before

And after

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[greybolt03]

Good deal looks great!! I love the look of brand new clean sand beds...

 

[downbeach]

Sorry to hear about the Setosa, but it's a very hardy coral. I would make sure the remaining pieces are attached to something, i.e. plug, or rock.

 

[jgraz]

Gonna do that today.