Looking for advice on changing crushed coral to DSB

J

jruthe82

New member
I want to trade out my crushed coral and replacing it with a deep sand bed in my Oceanic Biocube 29. I think I got it down. I am going to siphon off some of the water, remover the frags that are in the tank and place them in a bucket with some of the good water, then siphon down as much water as possible without disturbing anything, remove the live rock, remove the three fish and place them in a small bucket with some of the good water. Then once I have just about all the water out, I'm going to use the shop vac to get the rest of the water and crushed coral out. Next is to clean the bottom of the tank, then put the sand in. After that replace the live rock, coral and fish. Does anyone think this is a bad idea? I read up on a few people doing this without a problem. Next is the sand, thinking about using Nature's Ocean sand, it says in their website that you can add livestock the same day. If anyone has some insight, comments are welcome.
Thanks
 
Thanks for the reply. Do I have to use live sand or can I use other stuff like Home Depot Kolorscape? I read that people use that stuff some time. Maybe half and half using Nature's Ocean and Kolorscape? I am doing this in a Biocube 29 gallon and am going to use around 40 lbs of sand
 
No you don't have to use live sand because you have LR. I wouldn't recommend using that play sand stuff. You should set up a small QT tank to house the fish and corals temporally. Do as you planned cause that's a good sound plan. Add the sand let it settle and the LR and wait a day or so for parameters and temps to settle. You may experience a new tank cycle so this is why I said set up a temporary place for you fish and corals. I had a 5" sand bed in my BC29 it worked out nice. Thought I was going to get a jawfish never did. Lol!! good luck.
 
RedDevil.258 said:
You should set up a small QT tank to house the fish and corals temporally. Do as you planned cause that's a good sound plan. Add the sand let it settle and the LR and wait a day or so for parameters and temps to settle. You may experience a new tank cycle so this is why I said set up a temporary place for you fish and corals.
Click to expand...

This! You can use a cheapo 10 or 20 gallon from Meijer or Walmart (Meijer seems to be cheaper, Petco still having the $1/gallon sale?) or even maybe a Rubbermaid tub. The sand will need some time to settle and sink, it can be cloudy and miserable for a while due to the silt. There could be a small spike, it won't last long but you'll want to watch for it, you can move some coral-less rock back to help out. Then acclimate your rock, coral, fish back in.
If your bio load isn't insane you don't necessarily need live sand, but don't cheap out on playsand. Get something that will look nice and spend a few extra bucks as long as you're going through all this trouble.
 
Depends on what you like. If you're in a rush and don't want to order it, you can call around to the stores. For sand, there's probably a chance PetCo/PetSmart/Pet Supplies Plus are competitive, I'm not sure but it's worth calling. If you're not in a rush, I'm sure you can find some free around here by posting but there will be a longer wait for the cycle and there may be pests you don't want. I always like the grainier aragonite. None if it is cheap, but it's better than looking at your tank and all you can see is the sand you're not happy with if you're anal like me.
 
Actually, if you're not in a rush, you could just try to grab what you need now for free or cheap, and kill any pests, let it cycle whatever before you start the switch out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top