Replacing Sand

[madhattertcm]

How safe is it to replace sand completely? I inherited a tank that originally looked really bad, but is now getting better. But the OCD in me is wanting much cleaner looking sand.

It started this bad:

and is now at this point:

I'm fearing it'll be more than a couple of months to get it cleaned out without changing out too much water.

So, is there harm in putting all the water/LR/fish in buckets and replacing the sand? Are there some steps to help me to NOT kill everything?

 

[Waddi]

If you want to replace the sand, I would suggest removing some while you do water changes, using a siphon, you will be able to suck up sand, while you suck up the water, which will remove the crap and detritus.
But I would suggest doing little at a time.
Then replace it with new clean sand.

 

[Jmck]

I would suggest getting your water quality 100% then siphoning the detrious off the sand. The new sand will get dirty again if you don't look after the tank first.