Substrate Change

Question
QUESTION: I was reading through some of your answers and came across a subject on changing sand/substrate in a saltwater aquarium. I have crushed coral in my tank and don't like it much at all. I've been wanting to change to something finer and brighter looking. Would it be harmful to my system to do a complete substrate change?

ANSWER: Hello Ashlee,

Well,that depends on the tank and how you approach it...

If your tank is small, and you think you can pull out the rocks and the fish and put them in buckets, and Rubbermaid containers and whatever else, then you can pull it all out at once...

Put power heads and whatever else you need into the containers with the livestock...

If you want to try to do this while your livestock is not pulled out, then it might be more difficualt and maybe best to do in stages...  That is take out 1/3, then let the tank settle down for a few days or week,then do another 1/3, and repeat...  till it is allout...

So, depending on you and your tank and what you have in your tank...


If you care to post a little info about your tank and maybe a picture, then I might have a better reccomendation...


thanks and good luck


bill



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My tank is very small, I have a 14 gallon biocube with about 2 inches of crushed coral. I've taken all rocks and livestock out of my tank before and it wasn't too much of a hassle. In your other post you recommended putting an entire bag of sand into the aquarium and then cutting and pulling the bag out, would you say the same for my tank? I would send you a picture but I don't have a camera right now. Thank you!

Answer
Hello,

This is how i would go about swapping the substrate

1. get some plastic and roll it out on the floor, get some towels and put that on top of the plastic.  get some buckets, and a rubbermaid or two... (not sure if you have corals or not... buckets are ok, but rubbermaid will let you put more corals into the same container and that way you can use less power heads and heaters..)  and get some salt water, at least 14 gallons.  I would have extra, as in double...

2. take out the corals if you ahve any, and put them into the rubbermaid, and get hte powerheads running and make sure the tank dont get too hot or cold..

3. take out the rocks, carefully, try to not stir up the crushed coral or any detritus.  Put them into buckets or tubbermaid.  If you want, you can kind of clean the rocks now... do not 'over clean'.  Just swish swish in a bucket of water... change the water if it gets too dirty... cant see thru it kinda dirty.

4.  Take out fish and critters and put them into buckets.  Fill buckets only half full or so.  Fish that dont normally jump might jump, so buckets with lids..

5. Take out any left over equipment. and clean and prep them..

6.  Syphon out the old tank water and put that into buckets... You will want this to put back into the tank after you swap out the substrate.. at least 25%-50%

7.  Take out the crushed coral and dispose of properly...  

8, clean the tank completly...and rinse well.

9.  Put sand into tank.  You dont have to worry about stirring up the water, since there wont be water inthe tank... that 'trick' is for when you are replacing the substrate and you left the water and fish etc. into the tank... so slipping the bag off the sand is less 'dusty'/mucky then dumping the sand thru the water.

10. Place the plastic bag the sand came in, on top of the sand... then place a plate or saucer on top of the plastic bag, then put some of the water back in... do not over fill... when you put the rocks back in, the water level will rise and if you have too much water in now, you will have to take some out later on...  better to add later..

11.  Take out the plate and plastic, and start your aquascape.  place and rearrange the rock work a half dozen times, and if you have a bf, then ask him... ''honey, does my tank look fat with the rocks on this side?""

after you think you have the rocks wher eyou like them, put the rest of the water in...

12. while you are adding water to the tank, you should be acclimating your fish and corals... as you add water to the tank, add some to the containers the fish and corals are in...

13. Prior to putting the livestock into the tank, preform the basic water tests, salinity, pH, maybe nitrate and ammonia...  but dont focus on teh ammonia / nitrate too much, as it might be a bit higher then normal as you did just stir up a ton of crap!@%$#@@#

14.  Perform the basic test on the water the livestock is in... dont bother doing ammonia an dnitrate test on the storage containers...

15.  if the tests are real close then go ahead and put it all back together, if the test results are different, by a more then a bit, then acclimate the fish some more until all the water in the container is the same as the water in thhe tank...

anyways, good luck and please let me know how things worked out for yo uin the move...

btw, i am moving my 180g tank next week or so... I had a flood in my condo, not reef related and         moving day is looming closer and closer...

I actualy sold a bunch of corals today. and a bunch of tock too...

good luck  and ttyl

b