Gravel to Sand

[cation]

Changed it out last night. only took 3 hours (rinse that sand! and rinse it, and rinse it, and rinse it....) and $3. Looks great! The cloudiness settled overnight, and my fishies look happy - especially all my cories. A big job, but worth it.

 

[Puffer_freak]

Ooooh, I want piccies, before and after sort of thing.

Cool.

It takes ages to rise sand.

 

[chkltcow]

Changed it out last night. only took 3 hours (rinse that sand! and rinse it, and rinse it, and rinse it....) and $3. Looks great! The cloudiness settled overnight, and my fishies look happy - especially all my cories. A big job, but worth it.

I'm in the process of doing mine. I've done a part of the aquarium where I want to plant things in the next few days, but haven't gotten on to the rest yet.

So what's the secret for rinsing this stuff. The little bit I put in clouded the water like crazy! It settled in a little over a day, but GOD that stuff is a pain to use.

 

[cation]

Ooooh, I want piccies, before and after sort of thing.

Cool.

It takes ages to rise sand.

Well, I have no before pictures of the 20g, due to my lack of a digicam - however, my bf will bring the work one home from work this weekend - (I'm going to the betta show and am guessing I'll come home with one or two new bettas to show off, so I already told him to ) -I'll be sure to take some of the "after"! Also, I'm going to change my 6g to sand soon, and I _do_ have befores of that one!

And boy howdy, you aren't kidding. Rinsing sand is a pain!

 

[cation]

So what's the secret for rinsing this stuff. The little bit I put in clouded the water like crazy! It settled in a little over a day, but GOD that stuff is a pain to use.

No secret. Mine clouded up my water overnight, and I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed.

I rinsed a little bit (1-1.5 cups) in a lot (1g) of water. I agitated it each rinse with my hand - seems to work more effectively than a chopstick or spoon. I rinsed in hot water , agitated, waited about 4 seconds for the sand to settle, and poured out the dirty water. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Then a rinse in cold water, and into big ziplock bags with a couple of drops of dechlorinater, until I had two big gallon bags half full (left them open, though). Then I was able to lower them into the tank and release the sand close to the bottom of the tank.

So cloudy last night, but almost gone this morning. By tonight it'll be clear as a bell.

 

[Puffer_freak]

I know, I started my puffer tank on it - what a pain, rinsed it PROPERLY and like 10 times and it still took over aWEEK to clear!!!!!!!!!!!

But it I think you'll agree with me once it's done (whether your setting up or changing) it looks great!

What kind of rocks have you got? I have these white lava type things!!!

Yay, I'm going to get some piccietures!!!!

 

[lizard]

Yay! Don't the tanks look great with sand? And the Corys, especially, love it! I switched my tank from gravel to sand a few weeks ago.

I don't know if I have some different kind of sand than you guys, or what. It only took me about 20 minutes to wash enough for my 10 gallon tank and it didn't really cloud my water (at least not for very long, if it did - I don't remember). I put all the sand in a bucket, ran water on it, and stirred it with my hand. Once the water cleared up quickly after being agitated, I figured it was rinsed enough to put in the tank. I bought play sand at Menard's. I wonder what the difference is?

At any rate, enjoy watching your Corys in that sand!

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[cation]

Here's a before of the 6g a while ago - it's more heavily planted and has different fish now, but both of those tanks had the same gravel. More pics when the camera comes home!

 

[cation]

Yay! Don't the tanks look great with sand? And the Corys, especially, love it! I switched my tank from gravel to sand a few weeks ago.

I don't know if I have some different kind of sand than you guys, or what. It only took me about 20 minutes to wash enough for my 10 gallon tank and it didn't really cloud my water (at least not for very long, if it did - I don't remember). I put all the sand in a bucket, ran water on it, and stirred it with my hand. Once the water cleared up quickly after being agitated, I figured it was rinsed enough to put in the tank. I bought play sand at Menard's. I wonder what the difference is?

At any rate, enjoy watching your Corys in that sand!

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

Yes, I love it! The cories do too. I used Playsand - 50lb bag for $3.oo at Lowe's. The 3 hours included all the time to remove everything, clean the glass, put gravel in the stocking, replant and decorate, as well as the sand rinsing. I would say the rinsing part only took me about an hour or an hour and a half.


Having said that, it was not a particularly enjoyable hour, so perhaps that's why it seemed so long!

 

[abstract]

I used a 12 liter dishpan half full of sand and ran water through it stirring with my hand and emptying water after letting the sand settle for 3 seconds each fill.....the dishpan allowed me to have a lot of surface area which sped up the process...took me only 30minutes to wash enough for my 20 long....