First time water change.

[ddeans]

Wat type of fish do you have in there? just the damsels i agree with everyone else about that crushed coral i had a 29 gal tank when i first started and that cc was awful could not keep it clean for nothing if i was you i would change it before your tank gets any more mature as you will just have more work then i would just get a small tank put the fish in it with some tank water and a few handfulls of cc because its already seeded put your rocks in a rubber maid with tank water and filter drain the tank saving as much water as possible scoop out all the cc then replace with sand and your live rocks and old water later re aclimate your fish. like i said wait to long it will be more of a chore. i would go with the dry agronite sand.

That is the problem I am having, it looks messy and it's going to be a pain in the butt to vacuum all the time. I am heading out now to buy the dry aragonite. For 125 Gallon tank how much should I get? I was told to buy all dry and 2 bags of the live to put on the top so that it doesn't start my cycle over. The 2 wet bags they have were received this week, so it should be okay.. Right?

Also, I have a few fish in there. If you click on the tank thing under my name on the left you will see what I have.

Do you think I would be better to siphon out the cc? Or try to scoop it out? I am afraid of taking the fish and all out, but I will if I have to.

 

[divedeep1689]

you might be able to siphon but it might be to heavy and ya wont get it all prob and i would suggest 120 to 130 pounds of sand that wat i am doing when i set my new 125 up i still think it would be easier to take everything out like i said cause when you put the new sand in its going to cloud everything up and stress your fish out no to mention you already have to remove the rocks to get all the cc out anyways...

 

[ddeans]

I only have a 2.5 gallon aquarium that I can put them in... Will that be sufficient?

 

[ddeans]

Also, I was thinking about doing half and half like TC said.. Do I have to remove them to do that? Or is the best advice to do it all at one? I just want to make this as easy as possible for the fish, I don't want to lose any of them.

 

[thincat]

Your tank is so young that I would again recommend doing it in two steps and I don't think you have to remove your fish. If you wash your sand out in Saltwater before you put it in the tank the cloudiness will be at a min.
Your call...

 

[divedeep1689]

listen to tc he has done this lots more than me

 

[ddeans]

Okay, ill do half and half. I'm driving up now to the fish store to get the new sand.

Now, should I mix up fresh salt water to rinse it? Do they make strainers small enough that it won't go through? Probably my LFS would have something.

 

[thincat]

I would suck some water out of your fishtank and rinse the sand in that. All you want to do is stir the sand up to remove any dust and very small particules. That way it won't cloud your water up as much. Also wet sand is heavier and will sink to the bottom faster.

 

[ddeans]

Well I got 120lbs of it, and the bags all say #1 sand. However there is a lot of thicker sand, but it looks like most of it it crushed coral, much much smaller then what I have now. The snails and hermots will be able to get under that good too right?

 

[thincat]

That should be fine. Enjoy! More so your sand living worms and other animals can live in that sand too.

 

[ddeans]

Well I did it (5 hour long project), I did half, and the outcome was very very cloudy. I rinsed the sand, for about 35 minutes and below is how the tank is. Before the cloudy took over the whole thing I was able to get the fish out and put them into a small 2 gallon tank with a power head. but I don't know if I should keep them in there all night or not.

What is the quickest way to clear the tank? With the filter, skimmer, and power heads on? Or should everything be off?

What the fishes are hanging out in currently:

 

[thincat]

turn the power heads off, leave the filter and skimmer on. Looks like your fish should be okay for the night. They would more then likely be okay in the display tank. What are your readings in the DT? Keep the temp constant in the temp. tank for your fish.

 

[ddeans]

I let everything but the power head run last night, and the dust is starting to settle, but it is no where near clear.

Here it is as of 7:55am EST today:

 

[thincat]

Clean out the filter and the water should clear up quickly. Use the finest filter that you have. Some sort of micron filter to polish the water. Some of the haze may be on the glass.
Looking good..