Changing out reef bed

[hbubley]

Hey all,
So when I put together my tank, I made the mistake of doing pebbles and crushed coral. I put a layer of sand on top months ago but now all the pebbles are showing again.
What’s the best way to get this to be a sand bed? Should I just try to scoop up as much of the rock I can and do another layer of sand? The tank has been going for 7 months and there’s currently 2 clowns, a target dragonet, and a ruby red dragonet. All eating frozen.
I bought another bag of Carib sea and a pvc pipe to place the sand with. Open to any and all advice

 

[blaxsun]

You could just remove all the sand and replace it. I'd probably (temporarily) remove any fish, inverts and rocks and change any filtration out after if you go this route.

 

[hbubley]

I’m now debating if it’s worth changing at this point… it’s been running great for the past 7months and I just added new fish. Maybe I should just store the sand I bought for now and hold off until there’s been reason to change it. Focusing too much on the cosmetics I think.

 

[vtecintegra]

If you decide to remove it, I've always used a 1" diameter hose and siphoned it out.

 

[Stephen8169301]

I’m now debating if it’s worth changing at this point… it’s been running great for the past 7months and I just added new fish. Maybe I should just store the sand I bought for now and hold off until there’s been reason to change it. Focusing too much on the cosmetics I think.

During ever water change just work in segments of the tank do a 1/4 of the tank at a time remove and replace with new sand then next water change do the next 1/4

 

[hbubley]

During ever water change just work in segments of the tank do a 1/4 of the tank at a time remove and replace with new sand then next water change do the next 1/4

Ah! That's exactly how I'm going to do it. I'm happy for it to be a slow change, want to induce as little stress as possible.

 

[Stephen8169301]

Ah! That's exactly how I'm going to do it. I'm happy for it to be a slow change, want to induce as little stress as possible

Are you using live sand or dry sand

 

[hbubley]

Are you using live sand or dry sand

The caribsea live sand, got that along with some PVC pipe on BRS

 

[Stephen8169301]

The caribsea live sand, got that along with some PVC pipe on BRS

Since your tank is already established it’s probably better to do dry sand but make sure you do a rinse and you should be okay