Anyone do full tank cleanings anymore?

[mal211]

Considering doing a full tank cleaning in my 72g fish only. Tank is established about 4 years and I would like to switch from crushed coral to a form of live sand (if not crushed coral absolutely needs to be washed). My plan is to temporarily house my fish in a smaller established tank until I have performed enough water tests to ensure the fish will be safe.

I know their is some debate in the saltwater community about the potentially detrimental effects of removing sediment from established tanks (ie. effects on bacteria). I also know that full tank cleanings can really hurt your tank if done improperly.

My plan right now is to drain the tank and store the water in buckets. I want to remove the live rock and gravel, replace the gravel with pre-washed live sand, add water and live rock then wait until I feel comfortable that the water levels are appropriate.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[leebca]

There is no harm when done properly, which you seem to understand. If you don't like your substrate, then switching it out properly is your choice. Technically, your current substrate IS alive, so the change over is for a 'living' substrate but to please what you want.

If you want how to 'properly' make the change over, it can be provided by others, but the goal is to not make any single huge change, but to make the change over slowly. . .very slowly (if you want the system to support the current marine life), or move out the marine life and start over.

[Reefing Madness]

Clean out your bathtub and store what you can in there. Space saver. Throw the rest in 45-50 rubbermade containers fron homedepot. This will allow you to keep all your water and house you LR. Put your powerheads in and you now have all the time you need. Remeber that the ocean reefs get turned over by storms, its actually good to clean out your system every few years.

[mal211]

Quick update...ended up doing a bit more research and talking to a few people in the hobby and here is what I did.

I used a 20 gallon cooler to house my eel and puffer equipped with airstone, heater and a 150w MH suspended above with about 10lbs of liverock. Ended up removing the entire sand bed and rinsing it in sea water (first time in about four years doing a full rinse) and kept the extra water in a few coolers. Put the original sand bed back in and added a small layer of additional live sand. I put the liverock, water and equipment back in and waited overnight. Did a full water test, everything checked out, reintroduced the the puffer and eel and everything went great! (So far) Tank looks amazing too!

Not sure if this was the most effective way to do things but it was great to see everything work out. Took about 8 hours total.

Thanks for the responses!