Adding Live Sand to an established Tank.

[SaltyDawg]

I'm new to this forum, and I am amazed at the quality of information that I have seen so far.

First let me describe my tank. I have a 54 gallon corner tank that has been established for 2 years. I currently have about 3 to 4 inches of crushed shells and coral as a substrait. I also have about 35 pounds of live rock. My filtration is a Magnum 350 with a carbon cartridge in it. I also have a Backpac protien skimmer. All levels are fine except my Nitrates are about 30ppm. This is a Fish with live rock tank. I have read all about the benifits of live sand and my question is this. How can I go about adding live sand to my tank? Should I take the substrait out and replace with live sand? A person I talked to who has been into reef tanks for 13 years recommended just putting the sand on top. If this is the case how do I go about doing it? Do I remove the fish and other livestock and put the sand in returning them once the tank clears? This is something I really want to do, but I am concerned with taking the established substrait out of the tank and what adverse reactions that might cause. Any and all suggestion will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[Telco Guy]

First of all, :welcome: to Coral Forum.

Just placing the LS on the crushed coral substrate would work, but the the sand will fall through the crushed shells. But, on the other hand, if you try to remove the existing substrate you run the risk of the tank going though a small cycle.

IMO, you get much more benefit out of an all sand substrate because of the increased surface area for bacteria and critters to grow on, but in your case it may be better to just add the LS to the top of the existing substrate.

[SaltyDawg]

Thanks Nick,
How would you suggest going about adding the sand? Should I remove all the livestock and then add the sand? Would it be alright to remove say 1/3 of the original substrait in one area and then add sand in that spot? Then over time slowly replace the rest. I'm sorry if I have so many questions, I just don't want to mess up what I have going. I love this hobby and am looking to start a 150 gallon reef tank in the near future. That is once I find a place to put it in my house. LOL. Believe it or not, my wife would rather have the reef tank over a large flat screen HDTV. I'm so glad I married her, I can't believe how blessed I am.
Thank you,
Wayne

[Telco Guy]

Well, removing the rock will stir up a lot of detritus and may cause a mini cycle. You could try removing some of the original substrate and replacing it with the LS, but again, be careful of stiring things up.

Don't ever be sorry for asking questions. Because you will be sorry if you don't later. :wink:

I think that if I were you I'd wait on the LS until you can start the 150. You can then move everything to the 150 and then rebuild your existing tank using LS and new LR.

Basically, what I am saying is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." How often do you do water changes? Do you use RO water for your make-up and top-off water? You could also look in to adding a H.O.B. Refugium (http://www.cpraquatic.com/products/citr.html) if you have the room for it. This way you could put your LS in there. I installed the large size one on my 40Gal tank because I wanted to increase the overall water and LS volume. I also wanted a large area to grow pods to replenish my main tank.

[SaltyDawg]

Nick,
I like your suggestion of waiting until the 150 is set up or going with the Refugium. I will have to check on the distance my tank is from the wall as to wether the refugium will work. I'm pretty sure it will since I have a bacPak on already and I think they are about the same width.

As to the maintenance of the tank I do about a 30% water change then 3 weeks later I change the carbon in the Magnum followed by another water change 3 weeks later and just alternate this way. I started the tank with ordinary Tap water but have recently switched to RO water that I get from a LFS (that my wife happens to be the manager of). I really like the RO water and of course I know it's better for the tank, but stupid me it took a long time to get with the program. About every other water change I will vacume the substrait where the live rock does not sit. I really try to limit that because it seems to stress the fish out. I also TO the tank with RO.

When I first started this tank I had a real hard time with the dreaded ick. I lost everything and it took a month of treatments and leaving the light on 24/7 to kill the ick, but since that time I have had no trouble with ick.

On the other hand, my wife thought that it would be pretty to add some of this new colored fake coral that the store got to the tank to "Brighten it up". I was totally against it and of course you know who won that one. Needless to say it was a bad bad mistake. Within days my fish started dieing off and I ended up losing everything except 1 pajama cardinal which we managed to treat in my sick tank. The others were too far gone to save. I lost 2 false perculas, 1 foxface, and 1 Maroon clown. Come to find out the fake coral was treated with a fire retardent chemical while it was being stored at the manufactures warehouse. Well she knows better than put anything in my tank now.

The tank is now populated with a Maroon Clown, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 Firefish Goby, the surviving Pajama Cardinal, and I'm not sure what the other fish is. I think it's called as Rock Skipper Goby. It looks sort of like a Mandirine Goby but black and white. Also a Rose Bubble Tip Anemone. So far everything has been going well and all the levels are normal except for the Nitrates which I can't seem to get below 30ppm, but I think that has a lot to do with the carbon cannister on the Magnum 350.

Thanks again for your help. :)
Wayne

[Telco Guy]

Sorry to hear about your losses. :( That is one reason I am very leary of putting anything unnatural in my tank.

That "Rock Skipper Goby" is probably a Scooter Blenny (Synchiropus ocellatus) (http://www.reefsource.com/Species%20Database/Images/Fish/scooter.JPG). Very cool! 8) I love those little guys. But, you need to make sure that they have enough to eat. Most of those dragonets will only eat pods that they find on the rocks. This would be another very good reason to add the Refugium since this will help replenish the pod population.

I have a Firefish, a Lemonpeel Angel and a Yellow Watchman Goby. I had a Ranfordi Goby but he didn't make it. I think my pod population was not enough to sustain him. :(

[SaltyDawg]

Yeah Nick that's what he is. A scooter blenny, should have known since my wife calls him Scooter. Brain Fade I guess. She has named all of my uh I mean her fish. This was my tank, a Christmas present 2 years ago, but I have no fish that I originally wanted. The one fish I had was a Black Neon Damsel which was so cool to look at. I got him when he was about the size of a nickel. She made me trade him in after 18 months because he ruled the tank and she wanted to put other fish in there. He was huge for a damsel, around 5 inches long. People who see him at the store want to know what I was feeding him since they couldn't get one that big. I just said he eats his portion and everybody else's in the tank. LOL
Thank you for your input, you have been very helpful. I'm trying to decide whether to spend my money on a refugium or powercompak retrofit kit. It's hard to find a light that will fit a corner tank and still have the light needed to keep a healthy tank. I'm leaning towards the lights since getting the Rose bubble tip anemone. Everything I have read says they need a good light source.
Thanks again,
Wayne
Wayne

[SaltyDawg]

If I were to get a refugium and put the live sand in there will this cause a cycle in my tank? Thanks.

[Telco Guy]

I wouldn't expect that, but you should keep an eye on it just in case and do a 10-20% water change if you see the levels going up.

[SaltyDawg]

Thanks again Nick. Looking to do that maybe this weekend.

[Telco Guy]

ok, keep us posted.