Changing To Sand

[Ben M]

hi, i have a 4 foot community tank, and i am thinking of changing to sand from 6mm pea gravel. but would i have to empty the tank to do so?
cheers

 

[aly_starh]

Ideally yes, if the substrate change is done while the fish are in the tank, there is a great danger of them swallowing or inhaling the sand. You can move them over to a bucket and pop the heater & filter in there till its done. I'd wait a day (or even less) then put them back in. Cloudiness will go within 3 days.

 

[Truck]

Emptying the tank would make life a lot easier, you could put the fish in a storage box with, just make sure the filter remains wet.

Then add the rinsed sand, argos play sand is popular, but I prefer Toysrus sand as it is a nicer colour, and your fish won't dull their colours as much as they would with the argos stuff, and to top it off, the toysrus sand doesn't need washing.

 

[Ben M]

i've just looked on the toysrus website but i can't find any play sand
do they just have it in the shop?
and how much do you think i should use for 120cm by 40cm?
cheers

 

[Truck]

2 bags, they have pallets full of it in the shop, its something like £4 per bag

 

[Ben M]

thanks, i'm going into hull tomorrow, i'll have a look.

 

[OldMan47]

If you want play sand try your local home improvement center, a place like Loews, Menard's, Homebase or the Home Depot will often carry play sand along with other kinds of sand. Around here, the stuff they call play sand is almost a silt it is so fine, but other sands in the store are a good grain size for fish.

 

[Ben M]

erm so what type of sand do you think?

 

[mini_matt]

play sand from toys r us one bag (25kg) has done my 80 x 35 and my 45 x 33 the smaller does have gravel undernieth so is not as thick but the bigger tank has a couple inches with a big mound in the corner so one bag will give you about an inch to two inches