is my sand suitable marine tank setup ?

[chercm]

pls advice

i have LS in my tank now , is it advisable to change sand now ?

[Kelmen]

if you want, you can do it. there's a thread past burying in somewhere here about how to change sand. basically is slowly (over a quite long time, like few weeks) and small portion.

if you old sand been living long time in the tank (1 year+-), you need to be more careful. some chemistry burying deep can be harmful to the LS if all surfaced at large quantity.

usually ppl do the small replacement when cleaning the sand bed (if they do that, not me )

another way is topup\add-on new layer of your sands. but if too deep, its likely gonna be DSB and you need more further research on this.

hth

[Panzz]

I think it would be better for you to change your sand, cos judging on your sand now, it doesn't look like it is sand and instead coral chips which without strong water flow, will collect lots of deritus and things like that and will be very harmful to your tank and because of these in your sand bed, it would be able to acheive denitration and will become a nitrate factory instead.

[Elune]

IMO, i would suggest u change sand. Ur tank is relatively young right? so I would say its still not too late to change. I agree with Panzz in his comments.

Ask the LFS for grade 0 or grade 1 sand (or a mixture), quite affordable.

The lower the numeric grade, the finer is the sand.

[nakazoru]

Judging from the pic, ur tank is probably with very low bioload or just cycled.

I replaced my sand the last time in less than 2-3 days.

1. Hold LR in pail temporary with same tank water.

2. Hold LS/Coral in QT temporary with same tank water.

3. Hold existing water in pail temporary.

4. Replace all sand w/o water.

5. Return all LR and fill with old water. (The water will cloud bcos of new sand.)

6. Run my spare canister with 100% carbon for 1 or 2 day till cloud clear. (Mine took about 8 hrs by doing this. The more water movement, the faster it clears.)

7. You may like to test the water when cloud clears. If good then everything can go back in.

Good luck.

[chercm]

thanks

[chercm]

if my ph is around 8.3, KH is around 12dKH , Nitrit is around 0.05 ppm and nitrat is around 5-10 ppm

can i add in the fishes ?

[KennethK]

Change ur sand 1st. Filter the water out for reuse into pails. Take out LR change ur sand. Put in LR wait for water to clear then add in ur LF. Ur tank still new so no problem cos ur LR have bacteria.

[chercm]

thanks for all the advices .

i have added the fishes .