Question.....

[imported_June]

My friend has a tank and would like some opinions/ideas......this is what he wrote..

"I've had the tank running for over 6 years now. Over that time the crushed coral and live sand mix that was originally put in isn't as clean as it was, neither is the live rock. I was wondering am I able to scoop up the sand and coral I have now and replace it with new stuff. I also wanted to take the live rock and give it a brush scrub with some tank water.

Is this a smart thing to do? Can it be done?

Would I have to remove the fish from the tank for this?

Will replacing the old sand mess with my readings?

Thank you in advance"

[ December 10, 2004, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: June ]

 

[Justin_NY]

not a good thing. it will interupt the bacteria that live in the sand. i bet his ammonia will go high if he replace the sand. what do u mean by not clean as before? is it because of the food waste, fish waste? tell us more

 

[marrone]

It should be a problem taking out the LR and cleaning it with tank water. Removing or cleaing the sand and coral is another thing.

If he hasn't clean the sand or coral gravel in the past and he could hit pockets of ammonia or other bad things when he goes and moves it. This could be fatal to everything in the tank

If he has clean the sand and coral gravel in the past, say with a python or move the sand around, then removing the top layer and replacing it with new sand wouldn't be a problem.

Since this is a fish tank the algae, that is growing on the rocks, sand and other part of the tank, helps covert ammonia and nitrites into nitrates and the algae uses the nitrates. So removing all of the algae could also cause problems in the tank. So it's best to do this slowly and not all at once and really shock the tank and the biological filter which could cause everything to die.

Michael


Michael

 

[House of Laughter]

NOT A GOOD IDEA EVER! putting new sand on top to "lighten" it up a bit and mixing it easily is what I used to do to "freshen" it up.

If you're going to remove, you really should start from scratch and redo the tank.

Just my .02

House

 

[marrone]

The problem some people have is that they look at their tank and see the algae growth, on the rock, sand and cured coral and think that it looks dirty or ugly. They then take everything out and clean it off, not realizing that the algae is playing a part in the tank biology setup.

I know a # of people, who have fish tank with cured coral, and have actually taken out the coral and re-bleached them to get them white again. Then they lost all of their fish or a good # of them and didn't know why.

 

[pecan2phat]

If he's running a traditional trickle filter with bio-ball media, then I would say he can do this. Say if he was running a wet/dry, then his main biological bed is unaffected from the cleaning or re-bleaching of dead corals. Of course I would do half the tank at a time. I had gone this route for about 18 yrs when my tank was a fish only with a tankfull of dead coral decorations with no adverse effect.