Removing large amount of sand

[leakyfaucet]

Hey guys.

After being constantly plagued with cyano and diatom problems, i've decided that it might help if i reduce the amount of sand I have for a sand bed. Currently, I have about 4 inches of fine sand as a DSB. But all it seems to do is get stirred up, which releases the diatom and other algae blooms into the water column. These in turn land on the rocks and spread like crazy. Has anyone ever done a major removal of sand before? What's the best way to do it? I was thinking using a rather large hose to just suck the bugger out, but do you think it would be better to do it with a major water change? (e.g. reducing water level to about 20 percent or so and just scooping the sand out.)

 

[reefman23]

If the sand is 4" deep, you may disturb a large amount of gases that have collected in the sand... this can be unhealthful for the corals to say the least. Check to see if any of the sand near the bottom as become compacted or dense...not the normal grainy consistancy. Also check to see if the sand near the bottom has turned black. If you notice either of these two signs, you arent going to want to disturb the sand bed with your corals/fish still in the tank. If you do disturb it, make sure to do a large water change afterwards.

Jesse

 

[Anonymous]

jesse is right you will make quite the disruption to your tank when you do this but i do believe you should anyway.......4" of sand without a plenum is too much.... especially if it is very fine grained sand 1/2 to 2 inches at most
i would put a good mechanical filter preferably somthing like a HOT MAG on the tank with carbon and scoop out the sand as best you can with a cup trying to stir up the tank as little as possible then after you have out what you want do a large water change and continue to run the filter for a few days. and as jesse said if you could set up a 10 gal for a day or two and move everything in there it would certainly make the job easier

 

[leakyfaucet]

I have a 2.5 gallon laying around. Unfortunately, I don't have much room for another ten gallon tank to use temporarily. I'll probably end up using the 2.5 gallon for a few days. It may be pushing its limits but at least it would probably be safer for my two fishes and the little bit of coral that i have. I'm hoping the stress won't be too great on the fishes. They're the ones i'm worried about most. My rocks, i can hold in a trash can with a bit of water. I do have streaks of black within the sandbed, so it looks like i may have to be extra cautious.

 

[sadielynn]

Leaky I have done full removals of sand beds in mine , while it is not recommended here is how I do it .....Get a tote bin to drain your water into to use a bit later power heads work well with tubing to pump it out you will have aprox 1 inch left in the bottom of the tank dont worry about that it is gone ... have 2xs the ammount of new salt water at the ready and airated
Ok here is how I do it
drain water of at least half the water into a holding bin keep it airated with a power head or such ... once you can do so remove the fish place into a holding tank with a filter (this prevents possible ammonia burns . Take the live rock out keep covered with water , place any corals into a sepate bit you could house with the fish but in a 2.5 that is quite a bit of water displacement ...... take the live rock scrub it off an electric tooth brush works well now remove a few ozs of live sand I would recommend anywhere from a cup to 2 cups as much off the top levels as possible .....empty the rest of the live sand out wash tank air dry.....place in new sand and the saved old sand to seed add some water just enough to cover your live rock that you can place that back into the tank after scrubbed and swooshed off in clean salt water ...aquascape a bit while the water is at a low point it makes it easier...... Now take the same power head with the tube on it and pump back aprox 1/2 the water volume to the tank and top off with fresh salt water ...... If you have access to biro spear get it and use it , It may take a day or two to clear but you should beable to place your fish back to thier home once you are done filling there tank ...Now that you have done all that watch the feedings and increase flow you should have it undercontroll in no time ......The one last thing that I will recommend is to run some phosguard in the tank filter to absorb any extra phosphates (run for a couple days at most ) I just had to do it again for mine becaue of the seahorse and the overfeeding :mrgreen: