Changing a sandbed

So with things starting to build up, I am gonna take a few hours and do a total tank overhaul. I will be pulling out the rock that has Red Bubble Algae on it and taking it to the power washer and blasting that stuff to hell! I will then be sucking out every last bit of sand that is in the tank and replacing it with new live sand.

Here is what I am going to do:

1)Take out all corals and fish and rock. Place them in buckets with some flow.

2) Try to keep at least 75% of the old water to put back in.

3) With a few inches of water left in the bottom, I am going to stir the living crap out of the old sand.

4) Scoop it all out and suck the remaining water out and discard.

5) Place a 1/2 inch of Utah Sand in and then cover that with caribsea live sand. It will not be sugar sized sand this time. I hate the stuff! I will probably add about an inch of that.

6) Start adding water back into the tank and then add the rock and corals.

7) Put fish back in

8) Call it a day and let the tank stabilize

So does anyone have any other advice or think I could kill my whole tank doing this?

thanks!

That will work.

It's possible that the Cyano found a niche and nothing else has been able to outcompete. If you are looking to do something else before this project, I would replace portions of the current sand with a combination of Utah Oolitic on the bottom and some LS from a good healthy tank that has no Cyano problem. There may be an organism in the new LS that can overtake the Cyano.

 

As I see it, there is no advantage to using CaribSea packaged LS. It only has some bacteria in it and because of storage in the bag, the amount of bacteria still available in the bag is no more than that existing in a few cups of LS from a good healthy tank.

 

When we first started using Utah Oolitic, we would place some CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand on top of the Oolitic. After a while I noticed that Oolitic actually sticks together unless blown by a very strong current. Now I recommend making water streams shoot up to the surface instead of down or horizontal. This seems to do the job in most situations and improves pH and tank health as well as reducing Cyano. I've also become more vocal when I see a tank with very of its little sand bed open to water circulation, meaning covered by rock and frags. Clearing the sand bed for water to flow unobstructed across it, was all it took for a recent hobbyist to see Cyano disappearing.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to call to discuss.

 

Red Slime, RBTA's, Want a Tomato Clown, there seems to be a recurring thyme here.