Another sand removal question

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

The tank was set up in march 2011. Transferred almost everything to other tank in march this year, left the lr sand, a couple soft corals and a cuc. The eel stirred up all the sand/gravel under every piece of lr which is why I want to get it out. the eel is gone, no fish now.

I was planning on removing most of the water to a tub for the rocks and removing the sand. If I can reuse some sand great but it's not required. I'm just hoping to cause minimal disruption.

Ugh Doug, you said patience....

You should be fine as your keeping the rock in water.. Just give it a good swish in the tank before you put it in the bin.

people sometimes get in trouble reusing sand. I've reused sand, but wash the heck out of it.. Which means it needs to cycle again.. But new sand needs to cycle too:

[Coralgurl]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

You should be fine as your keeping the rock in water.. Just give it a good swish in the tank before you put it in the bin.

people sometimes get in trouble reusing sand. I've reused sand, but wash the heck out of it.. Which means it needs to cycle again.. But new sand needs to cycle too:

Dam, I just lost the debate based on this post....I didn't think new sand would cause a cycle, good to know. I have a new bag of dry sand to use, needs to be rinsed. Don't think I want to chance reusing the current sand, just enough to reseed.

[gregzz4]

I wouldn't risk reusing the old sand to reseed the new
You're asking for trouble if you put disturbed, unwashed sand back into the tank

I like the idea of you not removing the LR and siphoning out some of the bed a bit at a time - say with 3 or 4 WCs or something

Once it's all out you can then be sure your LR is all the way down and add your new sand

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Dam, I just lost the debate based on this post....I didn't think new sand would cause a cycle, good to know. I have a new bag of dry sand to use, needs to be rinsed. Don't think I want to chance reusing the current sand, just enough to reseed.

New sand won't really cause a cycle as it should be pretty lifeless and inert, but it does need to cycle to become "alive". It's all the "live" in your old sand that's going to die once disturbed that causes problems.

[Coralgurl]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to start this morning.....as soon as I get motivated and finish my timmies.....

[daniella3d]

I just removed all the sand in my nano 15 gallons and replaced it by brand new sugar size white sand. I did not have any cycle. I have 2 small clownfish and a small leopard wrasse.

I did not have a lot of sand though in a 15 gallons, so maybe in a larger tank the sand bed play a bigger role in the bio filtration.

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Dam, I just lost the debate based on this post....I didn't think new sand would cause a cycle, good to know. I have a new bag of dry sand to use, needs to be rinsed. Don't think I want to chance reusing the current sand, just enough to reseed.

[Coralgurl]

Well, I started to remove the sand and by the time I removed 15 gls of water, I barely made a dent. Plus the gravel kept clogging up the hose so I decided I would let the tank cycle again, removed the rock to bins with water and a heater and removed it all today. The glass was a mess so I scrubbed it as I went along as well. Easier to do with no water swishing about everywhere. Tank is still cloudy from new sand, I added back as much of the clean tank water as I could, plus added in new water. I can't see anything ATM and will test starting tomorrow. at least there's no more ugly gravel and pink rocks everywhere....