Changing A Gravel Tank To Sand...

[trout_pout]

I am considering changing the gravel in my tank to sand. Mainly because the gravel in my tank is getting pretty dirty.

What I am guessing you do is the following (tank still full with fish and water);

1) Take current rocks and ornaments out.
2) Take gravel out of tank
3) Do a water change
4) Drop the sand in
5) Wait for it to settle


I was going to do it this way, but I thought I should ask on here first..

I've always wanted sand at the bottom, I think it makes the tank look alot cleaner.

 

[afishdude]

lol don't add sand with water in the tank, it will splash every ware and can make your tank overfill

when i changed i just took all the fish and live plants out and put them in a bucket with an air stone. then i took all the water out, then i took the rocks out. scrubbed the algae good so i wouldn't have to do it later.
then i washed out the new sand for a half hour to make sure it was very clean. then added it and added 50% of the water. let it settle and netted what was suspended in the tank after 1hr with a brine shrimp net. then i took out 90% of the 50% and then filled the tank up. let it settle for another 45 minutes then turned on the filters. let the tank clear up for about 2 hrs ( it will be really cloudy) then added the fish. it took about 12hrs for the cloudiness to go away completely.

 

[PRW1988]

The way I did this was, first I unplugged everything (lights, heater, filter etc.), then I removed all the plants, decorations etc. I then got out some containers that held about 2 gallons of water each and seperated the fish into those containers. I did removed 60% of the water into a large container that held a maximum of 50gallons (the tank was a 29gallon tank), I removed the gravel, and placed it into an empty bucket, then I emptied the rest of the water into a couple of buckets, brought the tank to the shower and gave it a good wash.

After that, I realized I was an idiot, so added the 2gallon containers into the big container, place the heater in it and filter so the fish would be okay well I finished. I emptied the 2 buckets of water that I had remove, filled them up and let them adjust to room temperature.

After that, I soaked the sand in a couple of those 2 gallon containers and let the water overflow (about 1 gallon of sand, and the rest was water being poured in slowly to avoid losing a bunch of sand). Once the sand was clean I placed it into the tank and slowly added back the 2 buckets of new water (very slowly), and let the tank settle for about an hour, it was pretty clear so I began to add back the water from the tank after I removed the heater and filter and placed them back on the tank. I added the fish as I added the water and I didn't lose a single one. There are probably much easier ways to do this, but I figured I maswell take my time and make sure none of my fish die. You may have to end up topping off the tank as I did, I guess the sand absorbed some extra water.

 

[jakey]

lol don't add sand with water in the tank, it will splash every ware and can make your tank overfill

when i changed i just took all the fish and live plants out and put them in a bucket with an air stone. then i took all the water out, then i took the rocks out. scrubbed the algae good so i wouldn't have to do it later.
then i washed out the new sand for a half hour to make sure it was very clean. then added it and added 50% of the water. let it settle and netted what was suspended in the tank after 1hr with a brine shrimp net. then i took out 90% of the 50% and then filled the tank up. let it settle for another 45 minutes then turned on the filters. let the tank clear up for about 2 hrs ( it will be really cloudy) then added the fish. it took about 12hrs for the cloudiness to go away completely.

i am lookin to do the same but dont get what yoou mean took 90%of 50% of what

 

[toxik]

Using filter floss will help clear it up faster, without the need for water changes.

 

[ibbledibble]

i added sand with the tank 50% full of water. well washed the sand in small amounts in a bucket. the took handfuls of sand reached into the tank as low as possible and let go. as it was released under the water there was no splashing involved, and the damp sand just sank straight away. doing it this way meant the fish could stay in the tank too. got a tiny amount of cloudyness but not much. no mess no splashing and no worrying about fish in buckets.

 

[afishdude]

lol don't add sand with water in the tank, it will splash every ware and can make your tank overfill

when i changed i just took all the fish and live plants out and put them in a bucket with an air stone. then i took all the water out, then i took the rocks out. scrubbed the algae good so i wouldn't have to do it later.
then i washed out the new sand for a half hour to make sure it was very clean. then added it and added 50% of the water. let it settle and netted what was suspended in the tank after 1hr with a brine shrimp net. then i took out 90% of the 50% and then filled the tank up. let it settle for another 45 minutes then turned on the filters. let the tank clear up for about 2 hrs ( it will be really cloudy) then added the fish. it took about 12hrs for the cloudiness to go away completely.

i am lookin to do the same but dont get what yoou mean took 90%of 50% of what

the tank held 30g i believe. i took out all the water and everything then added the sand. filled it up half full (50%) then took out all but a little at the bottom to keep the sand compacted. ( took 90% of that 50%) then filled it back up.
hope that was a little clearer.

 

[trout_pout]

Ok, thanks for the replies guys.

So is sand easier to maintain than gravel? I'm guessing that you won't have to keep changing it...

My gravel has got algae growing on it now, does algae not grow on sand?

 

[Straydum]

its technically easier, but more demanding. you can to get poop off from time to time and stir up the sand once in a while to release any anaerobic air pockets which are kinda dangerous to your fishes.

 

[darkwolf29a]

I had sand in my Oscar tank. Honestly, it wasn't easier.

If you get too close while cleaning the sand, you'll suck some up. I ended up removing it and adding in gravel. My Oscar like it more, I think. I would do the flip stuff every week, and it still ended up getting brown and ugly in the end. In retrospect, I'm very glad I got rid of it.

It was easy to install though. I just used an ice cream container, filled it, and lowered it in. The container would allow for me to put sand, or gravel, exactly where I wanted it, water or not.

When I replaced the sand with gravel....I didn't even worry about removing the fish.

 

[adamgreen240]

just make sure you wash the sand good b4 putting it in

 

[BNyleen581]

If you get sand color sand, you know brownish, then it never really looks dirty. Sift it once and a while. I just dumped my sand in after cleaning it and it worked fine, the fish didn't even seem to care, they went about their business like usual. I just switched to sand after years of gravel and I will never go back! EVER!