Stage 2

[Fishman703]

HI , the jouney continues, my first salt water tank has been running for 6 months now, pretty happy - decided it was time to spend more some money on the hobby. Finally bought a RO/DI , the plan is to do my normal 4 gallon water change ( 3 times a week ). Every week the water quailty will be better.
Decided to buy some more live rock - 25lbs , its current siting in its own tank cycling. SO then I was thinking -- the crushed coral -- just bugs me, thinking about replacing it with sand.

So ,
Any good reason to keep some crushed corel in the tank , and put teh sand on top?
or
Take as much os posible of the crushed coral out , and slowing add sand-
Or
sould i pund the sand with the new live rock and have it cycle?


SO basically - whats teh best way to change out coral with sand? ( And I assume sand needs to cycle -- is this true? )

Thanks in advance.

[roka64]

The CC will end up on the top regardless. I had the CC/sand combo and it was a pain getting the CC out once I decided it was not what I wanted.
I used a plastic strainer to separate the CC from the sand in the tank....with fish!

[jessicasmarine]

If it is truly live sand then it should be cycled but most likely its not "live" , nor ever was. What kind of sand is it.

[HN1]

I agree with Scott... get the CC out. It will do nothing but create issues eventually. If you're concerned about removing bacteria with it, hang some in a filter sock.

[roka64]

I did mine 1/3 or 1/4 (can't remember which) of the tank at a time over a 3 or 4 week period.

[Fishman703]

I was planning/thinking of getting 90lbs of Aragamax Sand. I do liek the filter sock idea. If I removed 1/3 of the CC at a time -- do I replace it with sand? Or after 3 weeks when its all out , add sand back 1/3 at a time?

MY local lfs woudl give me some seed sand if i asked.

And thanks for all the replies - the cc is coming out -- why wait.....

[roka64]

I took out 1/3 at a time and added 1/3 sand. That gave the bacteria and critters time to propagate move.

[Fishman703]

Ty -- Last question ( maybe ) -- Does the sand I want cycle? ( getting it from a certain online dr.... )

[roka64]

Just go with teh dry sand, rinse well and add. I wouldn't spend any extra on the "live" stuff..