Changing substrate on a 3month old nano.

[Tynan Rasmus]

I was just wondering what the best way to go about this is. I started this tank with crushed coral, but over the months, its become pretty crappy lookin. I want to now change it to LS like I have in my other tank.

My question is, would I beable to just scoop out this crushed coral while the fish are still in the tank, and put in the sand as well? I dont think the sand would be a problem as its sold wet, and easy to place in the bottom of a water filled tank without much cloudiness. My bigger concern is what I may stir up while scooping out the coral, if anything after 3 months? Is there something I can use to suck it out?

[Wiskey]

Since it's a nano I would just take every thing out, drain the tank about half way (saving this water),.. Scoop out all the sand and drain the tank (throwing the rest of the water away) add the new live sand, then fill it back up with half old half new water and put everything back in.

Whiskey

[Loverotties]

I'd drain half the rest for rock and fish,clean it and put new in and put it all back plus some new water.

[Tynan Rasmus]

Thanks! ... This sounds like a good plan. I can put everything in my empty 10 gallon while I clean out the rest.