switching from rocks to sand - question

Ok, so I have a brackish tank (1.010) with rocks and fake plants. I have puffers in there. I wanna take eveything out and and switch over to the argonite(sp?) sand and also a bag of live sand. i also have some other coral rocks that I bought. Do I have to take the fish out while I do it and if so, do I need to keep them out of the tank for a certain period of time?

I understand that it'll kill off most of the good bacteria in the tank, but I don't have another tank to put them in and wait for it to establish itself again.

The reason that I am doing this is because I want to go full marine and for the fish to have a more natural enviroment. I will also be getting a skimmer and replacing the crappy filter that came with the tank. With advice from the guy at the local fish store, I will leave my biowheel Peguin filter on there though. As soon as I get the salinity where it needs to be; I will add live rock. I'm sure that the fish will love it, especially because I'm having a hard time keeping the PH up with the way the tank is set up.

I can't wait to see how it looks when I'm done. I'm just hoping that I can get some advice on making the transition.

Thanks in advance. I love this forum!

Pufferpunk said:

There is still a ton of good bacteria in your filter media & on decor in the tank, Just remove the old substrate & add the new. Don't buy live sand, it won't survive at that SG & then you'll deal with a die-off & your syctem will crash for sure.

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Cool Deal... Thanks! But what about the fish? Could I just leave them in there while I pour in the sand? I don't guess that it being cloudy for a day or two will effect them? I could maybe just put them in a bucket of water while I do it.:duh:

Pufferpunk said:

Either way will work. You'll want to do a WC after all is done. Add floss to your filter (changing out as it clogs) to "polish" the cloudy water.

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Thank you very much for your help!:clap: