Sand bed issues.

[Tkey3425]

I set up my 180 gallon tank (6ftx2ftx2ft) approx 2 years ago. I used caribsea oolite sugar sand and now that ive decided to go reef i am getting more annoyed by the sand being blown across the bottom of the tank. its just the front center and it will go a couple weeks until i can see the bare bottom then ill move the sand to cover it back up. Ive never switched a sand bed out with tank inhabitants and only have a 30 gallon QT tank. My 55 gallon has aggressive fish in it so that isnt an option either. I was told at one time to just put some Fiji pink on top of my existing sand bed but im not sure how that will affect my parameters. I have some nassarius snails in the tank and i believe i still have a sand sifter star in the sand bed somewhere. What is the best route to take on the tank? I have both returns angled up as far as im comfortable with and all four of my powerheads are angled toward the top of the tank. I use 4 koralia 1500s set up on the koralia wave maker. So left side runs for 15 seconds and then the right side runs 15 seconds. ive played with the timeing and only two powerheads but it seems the return is the culprit. I run a 1200GPH mag12 Im thinking sugar sand was a terrible idea haha.
Tank inhabitants:
1 Foxface
1 Flame fin tomini tang
3 PJ cardinals
1 Banggai Cardinal
2 Ocellaris clowns
2 Black saddle back clowns
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 ORA mandarin
2 Large skunk cleaner shrimp
5 peppermint shrimp
1 Large Coral banded shrimp
Condylactis anemone
Zoas, micromussa, hammers, and a wellso brain
CUC with blue leg hermits
Also a clown trigger that is on his way to another owner this week hes only here because he was from my friends tank that went downhill and has been in there for two weeks but is a model citizen surprisingly (so basically a rescue situation) Hasn't even eaten my shrimp....yet

 

[JonathanG]

I had a similar issue in my 150 and re-arranged the rock a bit to cut the flow to my problem area.

 

[Tkey3425]

I have 225 lbs of rock in my tank so I'll just live with the sand if that's the solution haha

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

Go buy some live sand that is bigger in size, wash it good so you won't cause ammonia followed by nitrites and nitrates! Mix it in with your fine sand, that's all there's to it, WASH IT A COUPLE IF TIMES!!!!!

 

[Tkey3425]

Go buy some live sand that is bigger in size, wash it good so you won't cause ammonia followed by nitrites and nitrates! Mix it in with your fine sand, that's all there's to it, WASH IT A COUPLE IF TIMES!!!!!

Ok ill try that. That was my plan but I didn't know if it was ok to do that.

 

[JonathanG]

I would say if your going to wash it then don't spend the extra on live sand since everything alive in it will be washed away.

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

I would say if your going to wash it then don't spend the extra on live sand since everything alive in it will be washed away.

If it comes wet in the bag, then no washing

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

If its not wet it's not live!