I want to remove ALL my sand..

[OCDP]

I have the siphon ready to go... my only real concern is the fact that I'm remocing "all" the sand, so I am figuring that I will disrupt something.. at the same time I just cleaned my entire sandbed a week or so ago, so it's pretty gunk-free.

Will it hurt anything if I remove all my sand in one shot? I just know that my SPS will look and do better without all the nutrients in my tank.

TIA. :biggrin:

[muck]

How much sand? depth?

[OCDP]

Hmm.. definitely not a DSB. I'd say no more than a 2" sandbed .. probably closer to 1 and a half or so.

[muck]

How old is the sandbed and when you say you cleaned it last week, what does that include?

[OCDP]

How old is the sandbed and when you say you cleaned it last week, what does that include?

Sandbed is approx. a year and a half old. I cleaned the sandbed with large air tubing (siphon) .. worked incredibly well. But seeing what came out of the sand just made me want to get rid of it. Pretty nasty stuff.

[andrewsk]

IMHO I would just pull it and be done. 1-1.5 inches is not enough to act as much of a bilogical filter in any way. It is just a nutrient sink.

Keith

[muck]

I don't have first hand experience with removing a sandbed from an existing tank but I would at the very least run LOTS of carbon.

Maybe someone with more hands on knowledge will chime in.

[muck]

IMO if you are upgrading your tank in the near future like you keep saying, I would wait till then and do it all at once. :wink:

[OCDP]

IMO if you are upgrading your tank in the near future like you keep saying, I would wait till then and do it all at once. :wink:


Thanks Keith and Ryan. I know, I know.. like 4 months of saying "gunna upgrade" ... pretty pathetic... I know! School is starting now, and I fear an upgrade is not looking so hot at the moment... we'll see how things play out.

[Delphinus]

Well if it helps make you feel any better, I bought my 280 gallon tank to "upgrade" to in February 2005, and it is still empty. To be honest, I've even toyed with the idea of selling it because I'm not really happy with the simplistic overflow design I got talked into accepting by the builder, when I should have insisted I wanted a coast to coast overflow. Now I kinda look at my corner overflow on the empty 6' tank and wonder if it's really going to make me happy. But this was the tank to end all tanks, I don't feel like hauling it up the stairs and hauling another one down. I'm thinking if it's still waterless at the 2 year mark then I might as well sell it though. We'll see what the fall brings.

As for the sand, we're talking about a 20gal, right? How much sand can there be in there, one bag's worth maybe (20-30lbs)? I'd just siphon it out if that's what you wanted. Run carbon and do a water change to be safe.

[albert_dao]

You could just get rid of it over several sessions if you're concerned about impacting the water quality.

Anyway, BB scores yet another victory over the evils of sand.

[Chin_Lee]

There seems to be different experiences when removing a sandbed. Some people have no problems at all but there have been many reports that their tank goes through a slump right after or shortly after a sandbed removal. I went through a slump after removing a very very thin level sand bed and in the future, I would do the following:

1) prepare enough preheated saltwater for a 100% water change. when you remove the sandbed, you will be removing lots of water and prepare for sand volume replacment.

2) run carbon right after

3) run phosphate remover right after

4) try to take it out in one shot although I found it quite impossible to do so.

5) if you have a sump, run the drain into a micron filter bag

6) make sure your skimmer is clean and set it to wet skim if you are able to adjust the skim mate consistency


hope that helps

[Chin_Lee]

actually i think sand is like the angel of death. It looks so nice but it hides so much of the evils within :biggrin:

You could just get rid of it over several sessions if you're concerned about impacting the water quality.

Anyway, BB scores yet another victory over the evils of sand.

[OCDP]

Haha, Tony... no where near the 2 mark for me :razz: .. I dunno why it's such a hard thing to get done really... I guess it's finding the time and money for me... as it would have to be done in one day as the tank would be in the same spot... bah,, It WILL get done one day soon...

Chin, thanks for your tips and suggestions.. the tank is 20g so removing all of it shouldn't be too hard at all. My main problem is that the tube siphons so fast that it drains out my water so quickly... so it makes it quite a PITA to do..

I will do it all in one shot.. I have plenty of carbon to run and I always skim heavy in my tank.

I am either going to empty it tonight or tomorrow, so I'll post before and after shots and what not...

Thanks again all... :)

[Joe Reefer]

IMO, the tank tank being just 20 gal.... I would just find another 20 gal and swap everthing but the sand.

[Quagmire]

IMO, the tank tank being just 20 gal.... I would just find another 20 gal and swap everthing but the sand.

Or put everything into buckets,clean the tank right out and use new water.

[Beverly]

I'd do what Quagmire suggested. That way if there is any problem of toxins released from the sandbed, it all goes out with the old water and you won't need extra skimming or carbon.

[OCDP]

Yeah.. that makes the most sense I guess.. just make up some SW and change everything out.

[Joe Reefer]

Or put everything into buckets,clean the tank right out and use new water.
Thats a better idear.

[Chad]

When I removed my SB from a 20gal tank, I removed as much water as I could first, as well as everything else except the sand. All I was left with was the sand and about 1/2 inch of water... took it outside.. tipped the tank and slopped it into buckets.. washed it out.. put everything into the new 50 gal tank. Put in the old water and topped up with new water.. worked like a charm. No deaths and everyone was happy.