replacing sand

mielikkishunt · 03-12-2008, 09:12 PM

Ok, i've had an off and on problem with nitrates, the tank came with a fine dust of well, crap I guess, from the former owner feeding only one fish and with the bristle worms i'm thinking of pulling all sand and replacing it or cleaning it if that's possible

I have a 55 gallon, and am worried about the cycle, of course. .is it feasible to pull the sand out and rinse it free of stuff and then replace it? I'm thinking of doing that, and then helping with a bag of this
http://www.petco.com/product/15439/N...Substrate.aspx

If it's not feasible to clean it, would 50 lbs of regular marine sand and a 10 lb bag of that listed above be ok? I'm worried about screwing the entire cycle up.

My thoughts are to create an entire new batch of RO water and put it in my 50 gallon garbage can I use for cleaning and or/making the ro water, setting it up with a heater and a water pump, place all the rocks in it(may take both my garbage cans, ick, so much water LOL), pull all the sand out and rinse it real well(or throw it out if I can't rinse it). Put a powerhead down low in the tank to keep all particles circulating so the skimmer can work on it and let that run for 24 hrs, blast the rocks to get any residual stuff of of it, and then put it back together.

How's that sound?

know-it-all · 03-12-2008, 09:18 PM

sounds like a recipe for cooking rocks

mielikkishunt · 03-12-2008, 09:50 PM

I don't want to cook rocks and destroy all the bristle stars and stuff that are living in them.

mg · 03-12-2008, 09:57 PM

I would just replace the sand. Rinsing it will not remove organics bound to the sand. It will only get rid of ditritus that may be trapped. If you have plenty of established live rock and not a really heavy biolad then you will be fine replacing the sand bed with dead sand and let the rock seed it.

mielikkishunt · 03-12-2008, 10:04 PM

I've got a brittle star, a tiger star, a sand sifter, don't know how many hermits, a bunch of snails, three chromis, a hawk fish, two clowns, a coral beauty, watchman goby and a royal gamma basslet. it's a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks, I'll do that then

Just to be safe, i'll seed it with that other stuff too

mg · 03-12-2008, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mielikkishunt

I've got a brittle star, a tiger star, a sand sifter, don't know how many hermits, a bunch of snails, three chromis, a hawk fish, two clowns, a coral beauty, watchman goby and a royal gamma basslet. it's a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks, I'll do that then

Just to be safe, i'll seed it with that other stuff too

If you can, I would seed it with a cup of sand from a few different local reefers if you know any. Might get more than a little bacteria that way.

Fly Guy · 03-12-2008, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mielikkishunt

I don't want to cook rocks and destroy all the bristle stars and stuff that are living in them.

cooking your rocks doesnt kill all the little life forms. Just most of the photosynthetic ones

Loverotties · 03-13-2008, 09:18 AM

I agree with FLY GUY!

mielikkishunt · 03-13-2008, 10:23 AM

Well, it's a last resort effort, I really don't want to do it if I don't haev to. .

<,If you can, I would seed it with a cup of sand from a few different local reefers if you know any. Might get more than a little bacteria that way.>>

I don't know any reefers ni the area,

DarthOcellaris · 03-13-2008, 10:50 AM

Ask a LFS for a cupful of live sand. Any store worth their weight in decency shouldn't have a problem.

Regarding cooking...you cannot IMAGINE the benefits unless you've done it

I'm cooking some now, going on 6 months, and the corraline is still present, still have some bristle worms, still have my small feather dusters, still have some fragments of zoas and polyps all over the place ( from where they grew onto the rocks on their own ) and they are in no danger. I'm telling ya...you can't go wrong by cooking rock

mielikkishunt · 03-14-2008, 01:49 PM

well, learned today have to change the sand out, for my poor little star fish. . so stopping no the way home and picking up the sand. .two bags of that argonite and some 'dead' sand. . .and seed the sand for the starfish. . i'm goign to hate my fish tank when this is over with LOL

DarthOcellaris · 03-14-2008, 03:50 PM

Normally, I'd advise against buying two entire bags of live sand simply because of the cost but you have a sand sifting star, right? He'll enjoy the food in the LS ( at least for a little while )

mielikkishunt · 03-14-2008, 09:42 PM

i'm concerned putting 'dead' sand in there. . that part still has me confoozled (if it's safe in an established tankLOL). . . I just 'injected' the current sand bed with bloodworms for mr sand sifter lol