Changing Substrate

[gman0526]

OK... I've decided that is time for me to change my sustrate in one of my tanks. As of now it has 3.5" fine aragonite base but to tell you the truth it has been more trouble than anything for me.

I was thinking on replacing it with 1.5" of fine CC.

Any ideas as to how to do this w/o having my system going berserk? I'm planning on using the water from the tank once I'm done with the replacement, so all I would need to do is some top-off and hopefully not much cycling is gonna occur.

Any ideas are welcome.

[Puffy]

one question, whats wrong with the sand??

[gman0526]

In my opinion is too deep, and I think it might be the cause of why my nitrates readings on that tank are always high. Been battling it for over 5yrs. now and is time to give it a try.

[Puffy]

well i'm not sure, but why dont u take some out till you have about 1" of it?? then see where ur nitrates are, do u have a filter with sponges are bioballs??

[Jimbo]

give us the specs of your tank, perhaps there is another reason why your nitrates are high. IMO dsb's should not be used in FO tanks, especially cc as it traps deterius.

if you do plan to make the switch, know that disturbing the sand bed could cause disaster... empty as much water as you can before removing the sand bed... then remove the sand (saving a few cupfulls to seed the new bed), and discard the water left over.

[gman0526]

Thanx 4 ur replies guys. As of yesterday the change was done. All I did was empty the tank, kept the water that was in it an simply skimmed off 2 inches off the sustrate.
Also this DSB was not set up in a FO tank it was set up in a FOWLR and this rock is full of life, well it's been there for over 5 years so you can imagine. Anyway this morning b4 coming to work I did a test on the water and to my surprise:

Amonnia: .25
nitrates: 25
nitrites: 0

I was afraid a major cycle would start. So if this is the worst to come then I can live with that.

PS. I did did change because of my nitrites being high not nitrates, sorry for the typo.