Changing from gravel to sand.

[khs666]

Guys and gals

My 96l tank has been set up for about 6 months now (gosh is it that long? time flies when you're having fun ) and I think I made a mistake at the start - I used gravel.

Now I thought I liked gravel better when I started, but it's a devil to keep clean, and the tank suffers because it looks messy.

Now I've seen other Community tanks with Sand looking tidier and cleaner.

So, Any ideas on how to change over? I cannot take it down to bear bones because I haven't got anywhere else to store the fish, and I don't want to have to cycle again.

So, I was thinking of maybe 1/4 of the gravel taken out during a water change on a monthly basis, so that all that lovely bacteria can thrive. It'll take 4 months but I think it'll be worth it. It's a planted/semi planted tank (2 small, 2 large plants).

What do you think?

 

[noop]

i think i want to do it too

 

[jobysp]

Fantastic question... We want to change to sand in two of our tanks...

 

[spanair]

What I did on my aquarium is take a bit less than half about 1/3 of the gravel out and then add clean sand in, but this made my aqurium go into a mini cycle, but it didn't last to long as I used the same old water, except 30% of it was new, alot of plants and there was alot of old gravel, etc.

I really like sand, but it gets dirtier easier, as the crap does not go into it like the gravel does, so you can see alot of poop and other stuff in a matter of days, I will post a pic of how it is now, and how it's going to stay because I want java moss to be onto of the gravel and the sand clear of the moss.

just dont do the whole change at once, it'll be okay, and your water will probably go very very dirty when you take out the old gravel out, so take the fishes out into a bucket whilst you doit. mines took 2 days to settle, so I had them over in the other aquarium untill it was clean and ready and cycled!

 

[spanair]

here is a pic as promised,

sorry its a bit blurred, but you get the idea

 

[noop]

the half-and-half look looks pretty good even without the java moss

 

[spanair]

yup, cant wait for the java moss to grow over the gravel, it's done well in a week so far, only a couple of months before it covers most of the gravel

 

[DrOizo]

What do cories etc think of sand? They can't eat from it can they?

 

[jobysp]

My cories love their sand tank... They are forever digging in it looking for that holy grail of food

 

[thecichlidaddict]

If you have a good filter you can get away with changing the substrate in one go - I've done it before. Many people don't realize how much more bacteria ends up in the filter then the gravel because water is forced through it at a much higher rate. (Undergravel filtration excluded from this).

 

[noop]

What do cories etc think of sand? They can't eat from it can they?

this is one of the reasons i want sand! i just got some cories and the gravel i've got is too heavy for them to move around

 

[Cheese Specialist]

If you have a good filter you can get away with changing the substrate in one go - I've done it before. Many people don't realize how much more bacteria ends up in the filter then the gravel because water is forced through it at a much higher rate. (Undergravel filtration excluded from this).

I removed all of the decoration, used a dust pan to remove the gravel. Then I rinsed the sand really well and used a large cup to place it in without making a mess. Then a nice water change to clear things up, and that was it. All at once, and not too much fuss.

Ooooh that sounds good!

How big was the tank? I think I'd like to do that with both my smaller tanks.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I've done it a couple of times, once gravel to a different gravel in a 29 gallon, and the last time in a 33 gallon I switched from gravel to sand.

 

[Tolak]

I've switched gravel out for new gravel in 2 tanks, a 55 and a 10. If you get a larger diameter hose you can syphon out the gravel with some of the water, no mess in the water at all.

Tolak