Changing Sand

B

beast99

When I had first started out on this hobby two months ago, I did not know about the live sand so I bought the really fine white sand for my saltwater tank. My tank has been up and running since the end of december of 2007 with a few fishes (yellow tang, gold trim tang, 3 clowns, a lawnmoer blemmy and a shrimp. Now I want to put in tan color live sand and take ou the white fine sand I had in there, will the fish die? I plan on draining the water into some large trash cans that I bought from Home Depot. Once the water has been drain, remove the white sand in the tank and put in the tan color live sand. Also, I will keep my livestock in a tank with some live rocks, skimmer and powerhead. Once the white sand has been replaced, put the live rocks and livestock back into the tank. Will this kill the fish?

Also, when I started out this hobby, I did not know about the sump/refugium so I bought 2405 Fluval which is still running in my tank. Lately, I had bought a 29 gallon tank and some acrylic sheets to make the sump. Since my tank is not drilled, I bough a CPR CS202 overflow box and a Quiet One 4000 pump. My question is that do I need to have some water in the sump/refugium before I start the siphon from the tank to the overflow box and then down to the sump? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
 
@beast99 wrote:
When I had first started out on this hobby two months ago said:
When changing sand you will more than likely cause it to cycle again. If it were me, I would slowly change it out over time. a few scoops at a time. I know this will cost more, but less likely to cause a major cycle.

Also said:
I would have a little bit of water in the fuge and then start the pump once you start to get a flow going. It is a timing issue, cause if you don't get the pump started quick enough you could cause a flood.

I would also run both the canister filter and the fuge for a few weeks while the sandbed in the fuge gets established.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Just my 2 cents, but you could always have the fish in a quarantine tank. Replace all the sand, adding your sump/fuge and let the original tank do it's cycle, checking your levels, then once it was back to normal slowly adding a fish or two at a time, letting your bioload catch up between adding them. Patience man! I know it is hard to wait things out. But that seems like allot of fish for how young the tank is. Remember that this is just my 2 cents and others on here are much more experienced.
 
another option is to just leave the current sand in there and add the new sand to it. deeper sand bed could be better anyways, and the sand in there is already in the process of becoming live anyways.

place a little new sand on top slowly over the next month and you will be fine. if you dont want to see the different color, just replace all against glass and leave the rest.

best option IMO as you will not have a new cycle and wont be as risky plus you could have a more beneficial sand bed in the long run.
 
Thanks everyone for the input I should have done more research when starting out in this hobby. This forum has help me a great deal. Some area of my tank, the top layer of my fine white sand, the color is turning green, looks like algae. I'm getting green algae on my rocks as well and I bought a lawnmoer blemmy, this fish has help a lot on the rocks. Anyone know how I can get rid of the green algae layer on top of my sand beside stiring up the sand?

Thanks
Michaael, Keller, TX
 
Another questions. I'm new to this hobby and got my sump/refugium together. It is a 29g all glass tank. My question is that do I need to have some water from my fish tank into the sump before I can start the siphon from my overflow box? I was going to get some helpl with this, but this guy wanted to charge me $80 to help get my sump/refugium going. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael, Keller, TX
 
the green algae is probably due to lack of flow, but could also be overfeeding/lighting. what are your schedules for both of these?

also, dont pay the 80 bucks, u can get help here. if you just feel like donating money to someone, hit up the club for a membership.
 
I feed the fish once a day combination of mysis and Nori. I have one powerhead Korelia 2 and two 405 fluval in my tank right now. Since my tank is 6 feet long, I think I would need to buy another power head on the other end of the tank?

I have been adding 3-4 gallon per week due to evaperation. I have not change the water as of yet. Did not think i need to because I have been adding new water in every week. Any advise would be great. Thanks.
 
As you can see the above picture, I have everything hanging off the tank from the back. Hoping to get my refugium up so I can remove/bring down the equipment to the refugium. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Again, I am in this hobby for only three months and if I had done my research or know about this forum, it would have been setup correctly in the first place.

Thank You,

Michael in Keller, TX
 
Even though you replace the evaporated water, a water change if for the removal of the bad things that build up and to replenish some of the good nutrients that are used by the fish, inverts, etc. The replacement evaporated water should be RO or RODI filtrated, the water change replacement water is the same kind, but with the salt mix added to the correct salinity, ph, temp, etc.
 
Also, I did wish to compliment the way the tank itself is looking, pretty good.

I don't know much about the plumbing so I can't help you there, but to me it seems as if the baffles in your sump are a little close together and I looking at it wrong?
 
Thank you Susan for the compliment of the tank. I thought that since the water evaporates and by adding more water into the tank, that should be good enought. I started out putting this tank together at the end of December of 2007 and still has a lot to learn.

You said the baffles are too close? Not sure what you mean. Thanks for your suggestions. Much is appreciated.
 
Thanks Wes for taking the time to stop by my house last night to help me out with the overflow box and the sump. You had clear up a lot of things for me. Thanks again.
 
Based on my tank in the picture above, what is the gph powerheads I would need for efficient flow? I currently have 1 Hydor Koralia 2 which has the flow rate of 600gph. I plan on getting two more, but not sure which ones I should get. Should I get 2 more Hydor Koralia 3 and put it at each end of the tank and the Hydor Koralia 2 I currently have put it in the middle of the tank? The Hydor Koralia 3 has about 850gph rate. Please keep in mind that my tank is 6 feet long.

Thank You,
Michael
 
I am so glad you found this sight. When I was first starting off I got so much information and help from the members on here.

What I meant by the baffles being too close, (keep in mind it may just be the angle that I am seeing it in the picture) the partitions in the sump are called baffles, in the pic it looks like they are really close to one another, like there are three in a row almost touching.

Hopefully, this is a redundant issue after the help you got from one of the other members...
 
2's or 3's will probably be ok, although it kind of depends on what corals you plan on keeping. i would porbably go ahead with the 3's and put one on each eand with your 2 in the center.
 
Thanks Wes. I will order some today online. The water in the refugium is still very cloudy when I had left this morning. Hopefully it will clear up by the time I get home.

Thanks,
Michael
 
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