changing Sand Bed

[Labman48076]

well my tank has been up for 2 years I have decided that I don't really like my sand bed it's 3-4 deep I want to go to 1-2 I have been looking at the Grey Coast sand because of the high magnisium but it's so fine I am worried my fish will cause sand storms mainly my Blue Jaw trigger. so I am looking at the Onyx sand and Gravel or posibly Fiji Pink any advice on changing it am I going to get a major nitrate spike. should I remove my fish and should I keep them out for a period of time. I am also thinking of removing some of the sand and adding some as not to remove all the biolife in my sand bed.

[KyleO]

I say remove it very slowly if you don't want to move the fish out. Keep in mind that the nitrifying bacteria down just 1.5" is anaerobic and will die en mass when exposed to oxygen. I learned this one the hard way and lost quite a few fish.

I have a diamond goby that is constantly digging up the sand bed is spots so I am not experiencing any noticeable spiking.........

Hope that helps

[billsreef]

I'd go with removing no more than 25% at a time, and giving it a week or so in between. Leave a bit in so that some of your sand critters will stay in the tank, than slowly add in your new sand at a rate of around 1/4" depth at a time, again giving it about a week between additions to let the critters adjust. You will get some dust storms in the process, but they won't hurt anything so long as your only doing a little bit at a time. The Grey Coast is fairly fine, but shouldn't be a problem once it's settled in.

[smy168]

better safe than sorry, I removed 3 inches of sand from my 120 (started with 7 inches), i took everything(fish/corals) out before making that move. my water got bad when I was moving out the sand and the stress of a smaller tank for my inhabitants was probably safer than the spike my 120 went through when making a change.

i agree with bill though, if you plan on keeping the inhabs in the system, I would do it piece by piece as well and spread it out over the course of a month and have the skimmer rolling heavy, i would do a slight (20%) water change with every batch of sand you remove.

Grey Coast tends to get pretty cloudy at first but settles nicely over 3-4 days (provided your system is strong) know that Grey Coast sand dosen't (IMO) harvest bio life as well as say the fiji pink, what granular size are you planning on going with?

[Labman48076]

I was thinking the onyx sand or gravel I also like the fiji my maiun reason for thinking this switch is Magnisium has been the only tough issue in my tank seachem and onyx are both rich in this I was thinking of leaving a inch of the orginal sand. and coating it with the seachem or posibley the fiji.. I do think the corals will show up nice on the contrasting grey coast or onyx but I am concerned about the bio life

[smy168]

I experimented with darker shades of sand in thepast (not onyx) but the results have been mixed. here's are some thoughts on this.

a coral requires complete spectrum of light, even beneath it. for example, my monti caps grew in layers in my main system using Fiji Pink, so the lighting I used (MH and PC) would reflect enough light off the sandbed to shine underneath the monti caps and encourage more growth. When I placed the same monti caps into a tank with darker sand (Grey Coast) i found some slight bleaching on the bottom of the outer rings of my cap. The growth side was stunted a little.

I think there is a thread somewhere about the benefits of using white sand compared to darker or black sand. the colors of the corals and fish would absolutely stand out but...fish and corals requires very specific light spectrums as well as intensity. i know that sand gobies would not do well in black sand because it's not in their nature to be able to camouflage to that shade. Jawfish and sifter gobies are not able to get the bio life from onyx sand because the density and the scales of the sand have a higher degree of mag. and vitamin coating found in onyx or grey.

I'm no pro and quite frankly I may even be wrong on the base composition of Grey and Onyx sand varieties but I feel like I have a good grasp of fundemental reef systems and sometimes sticking to the basics creates a better suited environment for you fish and corals.

best of luck, if I can find any extra info, I'll PM it to you.

[J. Montgomery]

I have the Fiji Pink sand and I like it alot. As you change out small sections of the sand, I'd suggest waiting two or three weeks between successive changes to allow the inhabitants of the sand to adjust.

[stony_corals]

Go slow, really slow, I'd do water changes to remove the top layer every couple days. DSBs have lots of life in them, some may be harmful to your fish (different virus for example).

I'm just curious you keep referring to the sand magnesium content, are you thinking that this will maintain your MG levels? If so, it won't..... Fiji Pink is nice...

[mojoreason]

you should go with the pink! and if i were you - i would take it out over a period of a couple of days to be less of a shock to your system.

definitely the pink. black sand looks sweet too - but heard it's harder to keep clean.