Advice on easiest way to remove and replace sand from DT

[Alexander1312]

I want to exchange approx 20 lbs of sand in my DT today. Is siphoning this out the best way to do this (quickly)?

 

[Turkeysammich]

Dust pan and a Togo soup container. Be careful not to disturb too much of the sand. Only remove about 10%-20% a week.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Why do you want to remove and replace? Want bigger or smaller sand grains?

 

[MichaelB]

Best way I found when I went from sand to bare bottom, was during a water change. If you take a sphion water change hose thing ( just the clear hose - not the plastic part) put thumb over part that water flows out off than repeated dip the other end into tank until the hose is full of water, put open end under water in tank and release thub - complex way of saying start a sphion without having to suck on the hose yuck. With only the hose it won't get clogged and easy to remove the sand. Just do it over a few water changes not all at once. This method won't cloud the water at all.

I did a water change a week and got it all out in a month. No negatives side effects.

 

[Alexander1312]

Why do you want to remove and replace? Want bigger or smaller sand grains?

Good question . I bought 20 lbs live sand from my ‘friends’ at Tampa Bay Saltwater and would like to replace the same amount of my current sand with it.

 

[MichaelB]

Good question . I bought 20 lbs live sand from my ‘friends’ at Tampa Bay Saltwater and would like to replace the same amount of my current sand with it.

I also saw a utube video while I was searching the subject take a wide piece of pcv 1in at least bigger even better. Place one end under water about inch above where you want it, use a funnel on the top end easy way to add new sand to existing tank, without getting sand on all your corals or clouding water.

 

[Coral reefer]

Siphon. Bigger the gauge the better

 

[fishy408]

What I did when I removed sand from my tank.

• Used a smaller siphon hose with about 5/8" opening. This would increase the pressure allowing sand to be sucked up easily.
• Empty the hose into a filter sock > Brute garbage can.
• Have a Utility pump return the water to the tank.
• Should take approximately 15 minutes for 20 lbs of sand, not including setup/clean-up time.

 

[RandyC]

If you have enough bio media and rock, you could siphon it all up and temporarily place 5-10lbs in the sump in a container that can be removed after a few weeks. I think there’s a minor risk, but I don’t think it’d be much of an issue - 20lbs isn’t a lot of sand in an IM150 Ext. I’d personally do it.

You could always seed the new sand in a separate container for a couple of weeks with existing biomedia, but I don’t think it’s worth the effort.

 

[Coral reefer]

Suck baby suck!