I want to change to sand

[Kyle]

I have this crushed coral substrate in my tank now but i want to change to sand. My fear is that if i get rid of all of it and do a 100% water change will it start a new cycle in my tank?
I don't have a place to keep my critters if they had to wait out another cycle.

[Bergy]

yea, that would definatley throw your tank sideways...

you can syphon out 'some' of the sand, each week, when you do waterchanges... until you have no mnore sand left... then you can add sand, about 1/2 bag at a time, (slowly), and wait a couple weeks, then add the other half of the bag, bi-weekly, until you get the right amount of sand...

keep in mind that in europe, everyone uses crushed coral...they cant understand why we use sand???

[Kyle]

Darn that's really not what i was hoping for haha. I don't think i will then. I will eventually take the plunge and start a new setup so i will wait till then.

[Bergy]

its not that bad...just suck out the sand when you do a water change...  just dont do all of it at once...  taking out the sand is much easier then putting it back in...  not that putting it back in is hard. it will just cloud the water up for an afternoon...

[Learner]

I put live sand into mine when I started up, but as Bergy said, in Europe, -Wales for me,- crushed coral seems to  be the norm' ???
I now have a mix of both. :-\
Tania.

[RandyFolds]

Why ditch the crushed coral? If I could get it as cheaply and easily as sand, I would use it in all my tanks.

[Kyle]

That's odd the only reason i use coral was because i got it cheaper then i could get sand haha.
I want to switch for two reasons.
1. I like the way sand looks better
2. It seems to be easier to find all sort of fish and critters that will clean the sand and not so much the case with the coral. But correst me if I'm wrong?

[Just_Greg]

the big problem with CC is that you need to vacuum it when you do WC's, not to mention that it's not so hot for burrowing critters.  i find that #3 aragonite gives you the best of both worlds:  it doesn't trap detritus and it's EZ on burrowing critters (fish and inverts alike).  it also "lays down" better than sugar fine/oolitic sand.