substrate change

[digitalsteve]

hey guys , i have a 10 gallon nano reef going and i am not really happy with the sand bed , i think it might be too fine . every time i add something in there i notice a lot of particles floating around for awhile. i think this may be contributing to the ill health of one of my fish .
i found a product at jl for a replacement i noticed they use it at hidden reef for there frag tanks it looks pretty good . if i change the substrate , i will move my livestock and liverock into buckets with filers and heaters running but do i need to wait any length of time for the tank to cycle or once i add my new substrate can i place the rock and livestock back in using the existing water from the old sand based tank. ? the product i am going to use is reef base marine by redsea.

[G1GY]

I would keep all of the original water in buckets with the livestock ect. Then maybe wash the new substrate very well (with warm tap water.) and rinse it in some dechlorinated water, put everything back in the nano just as you planned and just go realy light on the feedings for the first two weeks. Regular testing of paramiters will let you know if you have a spike on the way, but I don't think you will have a problem.

I've done this with other tanks with no ill effects, but nothing that small. (The smallest I done this with was 33 gallon.

[digitalsteve]

thanks, i will do that .

[G1GY]

Maybe put the old substrate in some kind of container and place it in there for a few days. It might allow some benificial critters from the old substrate to escape and populate the new stuff. You can get rid of the container after a while.

Just a thought.