I am tearing down my sandbed

[Sandy]

After years of having a 8" sandbed (5 to be exact), I am going to take it down to 2" in the next couple of weeks. I have spent countless hours reading on this from different post. I am feeling that I am on the verge of a total meltdown. Corals, fish are still doing great and growing.

155 gal running with a 60 gal refugium, Vho lighting. My sand bed does not have worm trails in it, I have seeded and re-seeded from my other 200 gal system. I have red cyano, bryopsis for the last 3 months, I siphoned some areas of the sand bed and the dark yellow brown junk that came out was unbelievable. For the first few years things were great. I replenished yearly with new stock for the bed.

Over the last 4 months my alk falls constantly to 6, I am thinking that the existing bed is using big time oxygen causing lower alk and lower PH. I am not a chemist. Have air bubbles coming up periodically from the bed. Calcium anywhere from 250 to 350, salinity 1.025, 26. Have used buffer, Kalkswasser automatic topoff, am using two part to get things back up weekly. I do a 40 gal water change once a month using ro/di water. Tropic Marin Salt. I have aptaisia and mojano. Plan on doing a kalk paste on them when I take the rock out to remove the sand down to 2" a section at a time. Where those came from I have no clue. For years the tank was pest free. I have already taken a 5 gal bucket out with syphoning over the last 4 months. I have a lot of water flow with an Iwaki, great skimmer that is pulling tons of dark junk out usually get 1/2 gallon every two weeks. Feed the equivalent of 1 1/2 cubes of mixed frozen food daily.

Various sps, lps, acros, gorgonians, 1 purple long tentacle (5 years old), 1 flame hawk, 1 redsea sailfin tang, 1 redheaded fairy wrass, 1 14 year old oscillarus. I put a bag of phossorb in the sump area. I know that I am dealing with nutrients. Anyone have some thoughts? I don't think I will be able to catch the fish. I have a lot of rock in three different stacks in the tank.

Sandy

[karsco]

Sandy,

Well you sure gave plenty of information! I just removed my 5" sand bed from my 60 gallon tank. Although I did not have as many problems with nuisence algae that you had listed.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things with your water changes, refugium etc. In my opinion If you remove your DSB I would take out everything (rocks & livestock) before disturbing your sand bed. You could get a buch of large rubber maid containers or I have even seen people use kiddie pools for a temporary home for your tank's inhabitants.

I went down to a 1" (new) sand bed seeded with some of my old DSB sand. Everything is looking great so far in my tank. One last set of questions what kind of skimmer are you running and what were the readings of your nitrate and phospate?

Where are you at in Iowa, I live in Omaha maybe would could trade some frags down the road? Well good luck!

[Sandy]

Karsco,

Am running a EV150 with an Iwaki 30 on this particular system.

My 135 with an 80 gal refugium is using the newer EV 250 or what ever the number, can't remember right this minute as I am away from home. This is supposed to be a fish only system, but have thrown some things from the main tank into it.

Live in Central Iowa 35 miles East of DesMoines.

I quit buying the nitrate and phosphate salifert test kits a few years ago as the readings were always nil. With the 40 gal water changes done monthly everything should be fine. I know that the bed is the culprit with all of those years of detritus buildup, etc.

Sandy

[Casey]

Sandy the sink hole has finally filled I took mine out a couple weeks ago,Like Karsco said best thing is to get some containers to hold rock and corals and fish in I kept all my water to then get all of that sand out and redo the rock work put the stuff back in and fire it up keep the skimmer clean and working good .hths

[Hommeworks]

I'm in the process of doing the same. I got some rubbermade containers from Wal-Mart for under $7. Used some eggcrate and watch the water parameters while I work on main display.

My question is, what to do with the old sand. Is this safe to mix in the soil of a vegitable garden. Will I get toxic tomatos?

[Sandy]

Hommeworks,

It wouldn't be any more toxic than the horse manure I put on my gardens and flowerbeds.

By the time spring rolls around the rains, snow, etc. will have washed it clean.

Sandy

[Sandy]

Casey,

Did you go with a complete bare tank in the main display and just keep sand in the refugium?

A large container for the corals that you can get off the rocks, one for the rocks, one for the fish, heaters powerheads. Oh boy, what fun.

Sandy

[karsco]

Sandy,

You are correct about the fun part! Is is a lot of work to keep everything on life support while you are working on taking out the DSB. However, I think you will be happy about the amount of real estate you will gain by removing the DSB and in my opinion it looks nicer and is easier to keep clean.

[Casey]

Sandy yes I got a bare bottom complety at first I had 3 rubbermaid garbage cans for the rocks and 3 containers for the coral when I was done I put just a small amount of new sand on the bottom maybe 1.5 in for looks everything is doing great I wish you luck you will be glad you did it,heres a pic after the removal.

[tkjeffrey]

I am wondering why bare bottom is better than having sand? I look at my sand and there are little creepy crawlies everywhere!! Isn't that good? From what I have read all these organisms you want but then people are going to bare bottoms.....I am so confused

[karsco]

Jeffrey,

Your right it is confusing! Some reefers are finding (not all of them, for the DSB supporters out there) that the DSB's become nutrient sinks after a few years. In turn this creates hair algae and cyano outbreaks. Some people have chosen shallower 1-2 inch sand beds to be able to clean out detritus and such. You are right the worms, pods etc. add to the bio-diversity of your tank as food and scavangers. There are many different methods and ideas of the right way to keep your tank, I guess you just need to chose your own path.

[tkjeffrey]

Hey Karsco!! I grew up in Lincoln!! Just moved to Colorado about a year and a half ago.

I like the look of sand in my tank. So I will keep it. The ones without sand look like a modern art masterpiece in my opinion (not natural)

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Sandy
Over the last 4 months my alk falls constantly to 6, I am thinking that the existing bed is using big time oxygen causing lower alk and lower PH.

Sandy, organics are driving your alk down.

[karsco]

Jeffrey,

How do you like Colorado? I lived in Colorado Springs for about 4 years, boy do I miss the skiing! Off the subject, what do you think about the Husker soap opera?

[tkjeffrey]

Oh man, really I think Solich shouldnt of got fired. What that all boiled down to is the alumni which sinks money into the program was mad, so they fired him. I like colorado more than nebraska but have nobody out here so kinda lonely.