NYfan78 October 11, 2012 Share October 11, 2012 Ok folks i have has my RSM 130 (34 gal) set up for little over a year now and its doing great! The san i got is bigger then most sand i see in tanks. How would i go about switching out the sand with out killing everything in the tank. I know if you stir up sand bed it can release gases. I have a deep sand bed btw. Here is a pic of the sand i have in it now. The main reason i want to change the sand to a finer sand is i want a sand sifting goby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 Anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 With a regular sand bed i always say remove 1/4 at a time and replace with new...do it over 4to weeks...but with a deep sand bed i dont know... i would be hesitant to replace it all...pluss if its for the fact yourgetting a goby maybe you could try only removing/replacing the top 1inch.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 Sounds like its not worth it just for a goby.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 If you do remove it I would suck it out during water changes so you can pull out whatever is trapped inside the sand bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 Scott, you want the new sand to "go live" while gradually removing the old media so there's not a sudden shock to the balance of the system. Remember, you're removing a part of your biological filtration and replacing it with new material that needs to be populated. One approach at replacement is to siphon out a 25% strip one week and replace it with new sand. The next week, take out the next 25% strip next to the first, replacing it as well. Continue doing this until you get through the whole bed. Undoubtedly you'll lose some benthic life this way, but hopefully there would be a good base of life migrating into the new sand as it becomes available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 How do you suck out a strip and then replace it with out it all mixing together. Plus isnt it high rick chance that my tank could crash? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 I would just suck out a 1/4 to 1/2 of it at a time during a water change until it is all gone. Then replace it with new sand and you will be fine. The rocks would provide the needed bacteria just like a tank with no sand at all functions just fine. As long as you siphon the sand out the nasty stuff trapped in the sand is removed from the system and the tank will not crash. Doing this with large water changes helps to keep the tank water fresh during the change over. Once the new sand is in place add a bottle of a bacteria booster to help setup the new sand faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 Looking at the size of the sand (as seen above in the pic) i dont think a syphon will be able to suck it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt LeBaron October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 With sand of that grain size I would not think you would have any build up of any kind of gas in your sand bed. All the research I did 3 years ago when I was setting up my 90G and decided to go with a DSB system seemed to indicate that you can get the gas from "dead" zones that get compacted in your DSB. This compaction is kind of reliant on small grained sand though so you should be fine. My recommendation would be to setup a QT tank just in case. After that try removing a small amount of your DSB all the way to the bottom of the tank. Just like a big scoop full of it and then wait a day or two and see if anything happens. If nothing happens after doing that 2-3 times from different areas of the tank, you'll probably be fine. I'd keep the QT tank running just in case you need to pull live stock out, which again I don't think will be an issue but better safe than sorry. Also, how deep is your DSB? The whole gas thing some people talk about is really rare as far as I was able to tell a couple years ago and usually only in systems that were REALLY deep 6+ inches. If you get a goby try and get one that will co-habitat with a pistol shrimp, I cannot express how much I love my two little gobies and their pistol shrimp friend. Really entertaining to watch them interact, even if I have to clean up damage from the pistol shrimps digging from time to time. Plus the pistol shrimp will really keep your sand bed stirred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 My DSB is 3" deep id have to say. Now i have moved some rocks around recently and ran my fingers through the sand to move it around the rocks and everything seems ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 Could I still get a goby with the sand i have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 I would just suck out a 1/4 to 1/2 of it at a time during a water change until it is all gone. Then replace it with new sand and you will be fine. The rocks would provide the needed bacteria just like a tank with no sand at all functions just fine. As long as you siphon the sand out the nasty stuff trapped in the sand is removed from the system and the tank will not crash. Doing this with large water changes helps to keep the tank water fresh during the change over. Once the new sand is in place add a bottle of a bacteria booster to help setup the new sand faster. Good advice. I hadn't thought about the rock taking up the slack. Key here is to take the sand out gradually to allow the bacteria on the rock to increase in population. Then, once it's gone, add the new sand. You'll definitely lose any benthic life that lives primarily in the sand this way. I don't know about the goby's requirements, but that sand you have looks pretty coarse from the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogtaxi October 12, 2012 Share October 12, 2012 I have an engineer goby with coarse sand and he seems to be fine for the past 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 October 12, 2012 Author Share October 12, 2012 BULLDOGTAXI --is your sand like mine in the pic above? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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