CC to Livesand

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 10:48 AM

I have been doing some reading and have come to find that the preferred bedding for a saltwater tank is Sand over Crushed Coral ( I have Crushed Coral, came with the existing tank I just bought). I am planning on changing this out this weekend. My question is do I have to get every last piece of CC out? Can I just leave my liverock and couple corals in the tank and scrape out as much as I can get and then just add the sand?
Is it really even worth doing this?
Thanks for the help!!

sassafrass · 07/09/2008, 11:09 AM

Yes it is worth doing, no you don't have to get it all ,you can siphon it out when you do water changes . Siphon an area then add sand where you siphoned ,repeat until all the CC is replaced.
Lee

Jandree22 · 07/09/2008, 11:13 AM

Itâ€™s not a big deal to have some left behind. The CC material itself is the same as the sandâ€¦ itâ€™s just that CC traps detritus easier than the finer particled sand. So just get as much as you can, there will be no harm with a few left over pieces

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 11:15 AM

Good plan....
How about under and behind the rocks? Can I just leave the cc there?
Thanks again....

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 11:19 AM

Thanks Joel. I'll move things around and get as much as I can. Is there a trick to adding Sand into a tank that is full of water? I would think that is going to make quite the dusty clowdy water....

Jandree22 · 07/09/2008, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shanet1975
Thanks Joel. I'll move things around and get as much as I can. Is there a trick to adding Sand into a tank that is full of water? I would think that is going to make quite the dusty clowdy water....

DONâ€™T pour from the surface, suicide mission. Rather get a cool whip container or similar, fill it nearly to the top with your sand, GENTLY submerse it below the water surface and GENTLY pour it on to the bottom. However youâ€™ll still get a snowstorm either way, and will continue to until it grows a nice concoction of bacteria goodness to help anchor it down.

svynx · 07/09/2008, 11:28 AM

I used a 1" piece of PVC with a funnel at the end. Pour the sand into the funnel and the pipe keeps the sand from being carried away by current, plus helps on keeping the clowdyness down.

fareforce · 07/09/2008, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shanet1975
Thanks Joel. I'll move things around and get as much as I can. Is there a trick to adding Sand into a tank that is full of water? I would think that is going to make quite the dusty clowdy water....

A few things I want to add on this. If the tank is already up and running, and cycled, you will want to change out your sandbed in stages. say 25% every few weeks. If you do it all at once you run the risk of crahing your tank because you are removing a good chunck of the biological filtration. Now thats out of the way, adding sand to an already filled tank can be really easy.

Basically what you want to do is pre-rinse the sand. You can do this by adding small amounts to a 5 gallon bucket, add some fresh water, and stir the heck out of it with your hands. Pour some water out, then repeat. Once the water is clear, put the sand in a trash bag. Once you have all of the sand in the trash bag, submerge the whole trash bag under water, and gently pour out the sand, or scoop it out, and place it where it needs to go.

Hope this helps some!

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 11:48 AM

OK. I'll do 1/4 of the bed over the weekend.
How thick is a decent amount of sand for the bottom of the tank?

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 01:02 PM

Would this be OK?
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...104&lpage=none

Jandree22 · 07/09/2008, 01:12 PM

Nope, unfortunately it seems that the days of buying uber-cheap aragonite based ("Southdown") sand at Lowes and HD are over, to my knowledge. Mostly they're silica based sand now which isn't what you want. Petsmart seems to have reasonably priced aragonite sand IME. I found it @ $20 for a 30lb bag, but YMMV.

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 01:15 PM

Thanks again. That's not bad....How much should I use? Should there be an inch of sand, or 3 or 5???
Thanks

Jandree22 · 07/09/2008, 01:22 PM

haha, talk about openning a can of worms

Some people (like me) keep a SSD (shallow sand bed) of 1" or 2". Others keep a DSB (deep sand bed) of 3"+ for denitrification purposes. Do a search on "DSB" and you'll get countless hits.

I'd personally recommend the SSB of 1" to 2" as there's less you need to worry about with the repurcussions of disturbing an established DSB. I'm going to venture a guess that 1lb per gallon is about what'll yeild 1" to 2", though might want to get a 2nd opinion on that figure.

shanet1975 · 07/09/2008, 03:54 PM

OK, well I removed all my liverock and the few coral I have and got rid of all the crushed coral (for the most part). I also got my 3 damsels out and they are now in another tank ready to go back to the store

I added my dry sand and put the rocks and coral back. What a clowdy mess......My guess is this will start another cycle. What do you think? Now there are no fish in the tank. Should there be something to keep things going?

07/09/2008, 10:48 AM	#1
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	CC to Livesand I have been doing some reading and have come to find that the preferred bedding for a saltwater tank is Sand over Crushed Coral ( I have Crushed Coral, came with the existing tank I just bought). I am planning on changing this out this weekend. My question is do I have to get every last piece of CC out? Can I just leave my liverock and couple corals in the tank and scrape out as much as I can get and then just add the sand? Is it really even worth doing this? Thanks for the help!!

07/09/2008, 11:13 AM	#3
Jandree22 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Middletown PA Posts: 762	Itâ€™s not a big deal to have some left behind. The CC material itself is the same as the sandâ€¦ itâ€™s just that CC traps detritus easier than the finer particled sand. So just get as much as you can, there will be no harm with a few left over pieces __________________ Tank Info: 120g

07/09/2008, 11:28 AM	#7
svynx Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Mt. Wolf, PA Posts: 974	I used a 1" piece of PVC with a funnel at the end. Pour the sand into the funnel and the pipe keeps the sand from being carried away by current, plus helps on keeping the clowdyness down. __________________ "What?!? Haven't you ever seen someone work on an engine with an axe before?" Mythbusters Current Tank Info: Biocube 29, Aurora puck LED

07/09/2008, 01:12 PM	#11
Jandree22 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Middletown PA Posts: 762	Nope, unfortunately it seems that the days of buying uber-cheap aragonite based ("Southdown") sand at Lowes and HD are over, to my knowledge. Mostly they're silica based sand now which isn't what you want. Petsmart seems to have reasonably priced aragonite sand IME. I found it @ $20 for a 30lb bag, but YMMV. __________________ Tank Info: 120g

07/09/2008, 01:22 PM	#13
Jandree22 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Middletown PA Posts: 762	haha, talk about openning a can of worms Some people (like me) keep a SSD (shallow sand bed) of 1" or 2". Others keep a DSB (deep sand bed) of 3"+ for denitrification purposes. Do a search on "DSB" and you'll get countless hits. I'd personally recommend the SSB of 1" to 2" as there's less you need to worry about with the repurcussions of disturbing an established DSB. I'm going to venture a guess that 1lb per gallon is about what'll yeild 1" to 2", though might want to get a 2nd opinion on that figure. __________________ Tank Info: 120g

07/09/2008, 11:09 AM	#2
sassafrass Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: capitola ca Posts: 1,729	Yes it is worth doing, no you don't have to get it all ,you can siphon it out when you do water changes . Siphon an area then add sand where you siphoned ,repeat until all the CC is replaced. Lee

07/09/2008, 11:15 AM	#4
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	Good plan.... How about under and behind the rocks? Can I just leave the cc there? Thanks again....

07/09/2008, 11:19 AM	#5
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	Thanks Joel. I'll move things around and get as much as I can. Is there a trick to adding Sand into a tank that is full of water? I would think that is going to make quite the dusty clowdy water....

07/09/2008, 11:48 AM	#9
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	OK. I'll do 1/4 of the bed over the weekend. How thick is a decent amount of sand for the bottom of the tank?

07/09/2008, 01:02 PM	#10
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	Would this be OK? http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...104&lpage=none

07/09/2008, 01:15 PM	#12
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	Thanks again. That's not bad....How much should I use? Should there be an inch of sand, or 3 or 5??? Thanks

07/09/2008, 03:54 PM	#14
shanet1975 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N Brookfield MA Posts: 154	OK, well I removed all my liverock and the few coral I have and got rid of all the crushed coral (for the most part). I also got my 3 damsels out and they are now in another tank ready to go back to the store I added my dry sand and put the rocks and coral back. What a clowdy mess......My guess is this will start another cycle. What do you think? Now there are no fish in the tank. Should there be something to keep things going?