[orion25]

I've decided to replace my CC with SD and want to see if my plan of attack is a good one.

First remove LR to another container (along with clean up crew) of saltwater from the tank and yellow tang to the 10 gal hospital tank that has a kole tang in it. This tank has been treated with copper.

Next remove all but about an inch of CC.

Add SD Sand and allow silt to settle for a day and replace LR and fill tank. Turn pumps and ph's on.

Run until clear and add fish and begin building my reef.

BTW, how much sand will I need for a 55gal.

Thanks,
Ryan

[chromis]

I got 3 bags in my 55 but you can go to http://reefcentral.com/calc/SandBed.htm to find out how much you need.
Andrew

[djheywood]

Hi Ryan, I just did the same thing to my 26 reef with the exception that my tank had been up and running for about 1 year already. First, I would NOT place the live rock in the tank that has been treated with copper. The copper can stay in your live rock, and the copper will maike you live rock dead rock. Use a clean container and just siphon water from your main tank into it, and place in the LR, and the tang. I would remove ALL (A few pebbles here and there is fine) your existing sandbed and replace it with all Southdown sand. Just leave some water in the bottom of the tank. Once your tank is empty except for the water pur in your sand. You want at least a 3 inch and preferrable a 4 inch sandbed. Fill your tank back up and put your rock in. I left my fish and corals in buckets overnight until the water cleared. The rock is fine in the haze. It will take several days to a week or more for your tank to become totally clear again. Don't forget to put a heater and powerhead in the buckets for your tang overnight.

Good Luck. I think it was the best change I could have made to my tank.

Brian

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http://www.ssaland.com/reefpages/reefhome.htm

[orion25]

How much does SD weigh per cubic foot?

Don't worry the copper tank has two small pieces of LR that are for it only. It helps the fish stress levels.

[This message has been edited by orion25 (edited 05-08-2001).]

[djheywood]

I just looked if your tank ios 36 X 18 you need 135 lbs for a 4 inch bed. If it is 48 X 13 you need about the same. If it is a 55 tall 36 X 15 you need about 110 lbs. I always use the standard 90 lb per cubic foot they select.

Good luck.

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http://www.ssaland.com/reefpages/reefhome.htm

[orion25]

On my way to Home Depot!!

[Biomanjcs72]

We just did this on Napolean's 55G tank. That's pretty much what we did, but we threw the brittlestar and the crabs immediately back in after we got the rock and water back in the tank. WE put the only piscine inhabitant (an Ocellaris) in his ten (minireef) I'll have to ask him about how long it took to clear up, but I think only a couple of days. [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

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JCS
"Take one and pass it back, just like your IQ's were normal."
-Professor Hathaway in the movie"Real Genius"

[orion25]

Well I just returned from Home Depot and there was no sand named southdown to be found. They did have some stuff called Bonsal play sand. It was made of crystalline silica (sp?). Is this the same stuff? If it will work I'm on my way back to HD because it rained here today and it was damp. This might help with silt in the tank.

[djheywood]

I'm not sure about the stuff you saw but people seem pretty adamant on only buying the Southdown tropical playsand from the carribean. It says this on the bag. Reefland.com sells some, but it's pretty expensive if you live in LA like I do.

Good luck.

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http://www.ssaland.com/reefpages/reefhome.htm

[icemark]

some stuff called Bonsal play sand. It was made of crystalline silica (sp?). Is this the same stuff?

nope, not the same as southdown...

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Mark

Play Well

[Ninong]

Originally posted by orion25:

Next remove all but about an inch of CC.

You should remove ALL of the crushed coral. Every bit of it. Otherwise it will eventually work its way back to the top and cause problems. Crushed coral is too large to be any good in a properly constructed deep sand bed. If you leave 1" of crushed coral, you would have approximately 25% crushed coral in your new sand bed. I suggest that you limit the crushed coral to <1%.

If you think that there is some life in the crushed coral that you would like to save, you can do so by placing a small amount of the crushed coral in a shallow basin with saltwater and swirling it around to get some of the wormy critters out. Most of the life that thrives in a crushed coral bed will not even survive in a fine sand bed anyway. Crushed coral is much too large and too abrasive for the type of infauna that you need in a deep sand bed. You should use 100% Southdown Tropical Play Sand from the Caribbean.

Here is some highly recommended reading: http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a.../1/default.asp

Good luck with your project but get rid of ALL of the crushed coral unless you want to have to do this all over again next year.

Ninong [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

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Irrational Exuberance!

[Ninong]

Orion, if you want to use a fine grain quartz sand, you could. I, personally, would not even consider it, but some folks do. There are other advantages to using CaCO3 sand vs. SiO2 sand besides the fact that they can both support a diverse population of sand bed meio- and infauna. If you use quartz sand, it should be the fine grain masonry type; but again, I don't recommend it.

The Southdown Tropical Play Sand from the Caribbean is not found in any of the stores where you live. It is only found in a few Home Depots along the east coast near the PA/NY/NJ area and sometimes in Ohio. You can purchase it online or you can order ESV oolitic aragonite sand online directly from ESV. Shipping is expensive but it still works out cheaper than buying the name brand stuff from the LFS.

Ninong [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

P.S. - Still more sand bed reading: http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ek_090698.html

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Irrational Exuberance!

[orion25]

I've been to two Home Depots in the last hour and neither has any SD Sand. Checked Lowes also and no luck. Reefland has it on backorder. Does anyone know where I can get some sand. Is there a HD in the southeast that has it or is there anyother brand that will work? Frustration is starting to set in.

[SPasse]

Hi All,

Here are my four “recipes” in order of preference:

#1 60% ESV “Fine Grade Oolitic” (<0.5mm) Product #140 (50lb Bucket) ESV ships direct.
30% CaribSea Oolitic Select, product #932 (~0.5mm) (30 lb Bag)(This was formerly called “Sugar Size Select”
10% CaribSea “Sea Flor Special Grade Reef Sand” (~2.0mm)Product #50 (44lb Bag)

#2 90% SouthDown Tropical Play Sand From The Caribbean”
10% CaribSea “Sea Flor Special Grade Reef Sand” (~2.0mm)Product #50 (44lb Bag)

#3 100% SouthDown Tropical Play Sand From The Caribbean”

#4 100% Aragamax Grand Bahama Sand Product # 931 (30lb Bag)

Depth of the sand should be 4 to 6”. (6” is even better, and will have more de-nitrating capacity.)

The practical difference between 1,2 & 3 is small. #4 is probably alright too.

You need just a few pounds of live sand(s) as a seed culture(s). The sand bed should be seeded with as many different sources of live sand as is practical for you. I used live sand starter kit from Indo Pacific Sea Farms, Inland Aquatics, and two local sources. Bio-diversity is a good thing. Then you begin feeding the bed and the fauna community that it contains grows into a complete ecosystem that is uniquely suited to your particular tank environment.

But make it as deep as you can, I attribute much of my system's low nitrate (<0.2ppm) to my 6” DSB

The bottom line is that:

1 Course sands are not conducive to supporting the proper sand bed fauna community.

2 Course sands tend to become a detritus trap with time, this is related to #1 above also.

3 A deep fine bed is necessary to create the required anoxic conditions for efficient de-nitrification.

Here are some published articles on this issue.

1 http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a.../1/default.asp

2 http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

I consider myself rather a DSB “evangelist”, so please visit my WEB site and I will also be happy to answer any E-mails on the subject.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[Reinhold]

I did the same conversion awhile ago in my 55 gallon tank. I used 120 pounds of aragonite sand. It cost me $14 per 20 lb bag for 3 bags of regular aragonite and $24 per 20 lb bag for the bacteria-seeded aragonite. I think you could even go with 140 pounds, and I will probably add 20 pounds more to my tank.

I agree with the others, don't leave any crushed coral at all. If you have a Magnum canister and a Micron filter, you can suck out all of the detritus left when you remove the CC. It will also help you clear your water quicker.

[orion25]

Thanks for all the Help!!