Can I Do This....

[Matthew Lee Newell]

basicaly, im going to change my gravel for sand......
however, im going to do this without removing my fish..... the reason being because i dont want to cause them any stress...
i no its best to remove them but its sometimes too much

well, if i remove all the plants and rocks, then remove the majority of the gravel...
then very gently put sand into the tank, will this be okay?
put the sand over a fine layer of gravel??

cheers

 

[shelaghfishface]

yeah course you can, but bear in mind that it will mix up eventually and be sure to give the sand a very good rinse before adding it

i used a small net to scoop up the sand then placed it on the bottom of the tank and tipped it out

 

[Bebobb]

It seems like the sand would sink under the gravel, why don't you just take out all of the gravel? Yeah you can do it without removing the fish, just rinse the sand, or you tank will be like cloud 9.

 

[yvez9]

when you remove the gravel, your water will become extremely dirty
any chance you can put the fish in a bucket?

when i did this a few years ago, i just put the fish in a bucket full of tank water and saved as much water as possible in buckets, then removed all gravel and rinsed tank as there's gonna be a mess in there.

it takes an hour or so to do so fish are fine in a bucket.

otherwise, the gravel you can't remove will just sit with the sand so no worries.

 

[Bebobb]

I agree it would be much better to remove the fish. It would almost be the same amount of stress in the tank as it would be in a bucket.

 

[Matthew Lee Newell]

my only problem is, i have a couple of fish that are an absolute nightmare to catch
and i cant bare to put them under that much again in fear of loosing them, i intend to do everything slowly and carefully to not make alot of mess.
i suppose we shall just have to see how it goes eh

 

[Bebobb]

Have fun I hope all goes well with the sand. You will love it I promise. Just don't make a layer too thick.