Changing substrate

[Treasure]

Woot, my first official question, lol!

At the moment I have a 1-1.5" substrate of crushed coral and that "seashell looking stuff" that my LFS sold to me when I first started my tank.

I'd really like to change that out and replace it with aragonite, or something else to make a fine sand bed. I have about 40lbs of live rock, two "false" Perc. Clowns, a Yellow Tang, and a Royal Gramma, all housed in a 55ga. I have two skimmers, and an Ehiem Canister filter.

Within the upcomming year I'm going to start my 125 reef (complete with refuge, of course), but until then I'm just doing some "revamps" on the 55.

What I'm wondering is, is what would be the best way to switch out the old substrate for the new, and what would be a good substrate to use? I'd like to get a sand sifting star soon too, so what's the best substrate for that??

Thanks ahead for everyone's suggestions!!

 

[twilliard]

Siphon out the CC part by part and slowly add the sand.
It will look like a nasty mess but it does clear up in a day or two.

 

[Krish]

I agree...Don't move all of the crushed corals all one time because your system may rely on it to some degree for filtration (biological). As for which sand, I like the fiji pink. Nice looking sand and nice grain size

 

[Treasure]

Could I use a strainer and scoop out half of the CC and replace it with the sand half at a time?

Oh, and can someone possibly help me get my signature pic to work..??

 

[dnjan]

Siphoning is better. Using a strainer will just scatter the detritus throughout the tank.

 

[danno14]

Additionally, ifyou try to replace "half" you are going to be leaving in half of the larger substrate. Not a bad thing if that's what you want, but a mess if you want it all out = as it will have mixed with the new stuff.

I third the motion to siphon the old out if at all possible. Good luck! D