Changing out sandbed for Tropic Eden reef flakes will it cause a cyle

[Buercky]

Hey all,

I'm going to be changing out a VERY old sand bed for some new Tropic Eden Live Reef Flakes. I am wondering if it will cause a cycle that I have to worry about. My setup:

Biocube 14G

guestimating 15 lbs of rock

BioBalls

Biocube Skimmer

 

1 3" clownfish

1 lawnmower blennie

a couple nassarius snails

a couple hermit crabs

Zoas and frogspawn

 

I don't have a QT tank so my plan is to syphon out most of the tank water to buckets/tub, take out the rock, fish, rest of the inhabitants. Strip the existing sand and crud. Give it a good cleaning/scrub, add new Reef Flakes replace the rock back in, tank water that was removed, fish and the rest of the crew.

 

Is there anything that I should have on hand in case it does cycle?

 

I'm very new to this I inherited this tank from a fellow coworker about 3 months ago and have been cleaning it up, GHA, Algae, etc.

 

Thanks in advance for all the help

 

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

 

I responded on both sites lol, that's the way above to change out sand and skip the new cycle

 

prime is good insurance, but given all detritus control a recycle isn't possible. a literal mistake in the steps or hardware would have to occur, the biology never fails for skip cycle work, or my tank would be dead long ago. regular cleaning on a Tuesday in my tank is what you are considering above, I rinse out my sandbed with hot tap water occasionally during the year for a perfect start, perfect control over all params and wastes and clouding etc.

 

all the live rock you have has excess bacteria able to handle loss of sand, it absolutely doesn't have to ramp up. if you decreased it by half, and removed the sand, still excess. live rock is that ammonia hungry and able.

 

your danger is simply failing to isolate your sensitive animals in a holding container before that messy sand is stirred up. if you will, all is safe be sure and see those big tank examples in the thread...a nano is easy comparatively.

 

if the rocks are as old, they might have detritus too...don't store with sensitives...hunting the detritus is the key detail, knowing where it will leak raw ammonia as it sits

 

its not that a cycle might occur, its that it will never occur under the right order of operations. what we do to tanks in that thread is fine proof, mine being parted out on the counter in the air for half an hour sand rinsed in hot tap then no recycle being a strong example lol and that was the tenth time so far (its old)

[Buercky]

I've heard that Tropic Eden will not cloud up straight out of the bag will I still need to rinse?

[brandon429]

id have to put a test handful into a cup of water to see, perhaps its pre rinsed or just not the type that settles into silt while on the shelf. even if you did pre rinse its not harmful either way, and the pre rinse step of the new sandbed is not tied to recycling so that's a good safety point to know. its only to optimize if needed the new display for future work, and quick good looks.

[blkhwkz]

I just did this a few weeks ago. Had to move my tank for the bigger one I was getting. I went from Caribsea sand to the Tropic Eden reef flakes. It was super clear with no rinsing, took no time at all to clear up. I used Prime and MB7 just to make sure there were no issues. Only thing I have noticed, this time after about 5-6 weeks I am having an ugly diatom outbreak. The two times I have redone this tank with the Arag-alive sand I did not. Nothing that should not clear on it's own soon enough (dosing a little MB7 since I am using that on the new tank that is cycling as well.) Was quite surprised I never had one previous in this tank.

[Buercky]

That's good to know thanks for the input

[Buercky]

Well, I did it, I stripped the sandbed and added new Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. Took about 3 hrs and so far everybody is alive and kicking I had read that Tropic Eden will not cloud up.......false. But by this morning its cleared up. Filter floss and skimmer took care of that. Ill keep an eye on all the water parameters.

 

I have to work on the rock scape a little yet but I can finally relax about all the gunk that was in the sand bed. THANKS to all that helped answer all my questions leading up to this, especially Brandon429 for the encouraging words and reassurance that I wasn't going to kill everything by doing this. Ill add a picture of when I took over the tank and now

[brandon429]

Absolutely good pics, before and after of eutrophication reversals

[reefist]

I love Tropic Eden substrates!