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Advice? Sand

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by avratney, Feb 23, 2017.

  1. avratney

    115
    Aurora
    Ratings:
    +29 / 0 / -0
    So I was at Bronsons this week that place has really come a long way since fall festival but anyways he had a blue light on Blue gravel and it looked really good so I went online and found Blue sand can i swap out my sand for the blue and if so what would be the best way to go about doing so
     
  2. Chief Reef Well-Known ReefKeeper GIRS Member

    445
    Cedar Rapids
    Ratings:
    +123 / 0 / -0
    I removed all of my sand about a month ago with no problems, but it was a little bit easier for me since i only have a 10 gallon display tank. The way i went about removing it was putting all of the livestock in 5 gallon buckets and saving as much water as i could since i was going to remove all of the sand at once, which would also be removing beneficial bacteria. removed the sand (crushed coral) using a half gallon bucket with ease since i didn't have to worry about nutrient sinks, or cloudy water killing livestock (be careful of bristle worms tho!). Replaced the tank water and livestock and i only had to add about a gallon of water. The entire process only took a few hours and i moved at a snail's pace ;).

    If you have a bigger tank and you are not able to move everything out easily then remove the sand slowly when you do your water changes weekly or biweekly with a siphon tube. The big thing here is to do it slowly over the course of a month or so. This way you make sure not to stress anything out by adding a tsunami of nutrients to your water column.

    As far as adding the new sand into an already established system i am not too sure. Is it live sand or dry? I would let it cure for the month or more that you are taking the current sand bed out. This is to not cause cloudiness when you add the new sand. I wouldn't think adding the new sand in all at once would cause any problems but it wouldn't hurt to do that slowly as well!Please correct me if i am wrong, however.

    interested to see how this turns out, if you could post pictures of the blue sand bed when it is settled that would be cool! Good luck to you.

    -Andrew
     
  3. xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    I wouldnt

    That type of sand is meant for freshwater systems, not saltwater.
     
  4. avratney

    115
    Aurora
    Ratings:
    +29 / 0 / -0
    That's what I was wondering if the sand just wouldn't work for saltwater my plan was to soak it for a month changing the water frequently then putting it in a fine mesh bag in the sump while slowly taking the sand out of the display (a 110 tall) when empty move the sand up
     
  5. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    After soaking also be sure to test the water you used for soaking for silicates.
     

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