From gravel to sand:With fish in tank

[jmccalip]

I am changing from rainbow colored gravel to PFS witht the fish in the tank.

BEFORE:
I'll have you know, this color of gravel wasn't my choice. :?

Ok, first step is to wash the new sand:

You see how dirty it is? Always wash it out. Stick the hose(without nozzle) down into the sand to stir it up, and then once the bucket's full, dump the water out. Keep on doing this till your water is clear.

Better:

Done:

Me

Ok, now put the sand in a large bucket and stick it inside for the night. You have to let the room bring it up(or down) to room temp.

Now you take all the rocks and plants out of your tank. You should be left with just gravel, take that out with a small plastic shovel. Be carefull of the fish. Done alreay?

Good, we can go on to the next step:

TURN OFF YOUR FILTERS RIGHT NOW! THE SAND FLOATING AROUND COULD RUIN THEM!!!
Alrighty, get at least a 2L bucket(I used a 3L tea container with pour spout), and fill it with sand. SLOWLY lower it into your tank. Once it's under water just start slowly pouring out the sand:

Don't stop now, work fast.

Ok, once you have half the sand it, put all your biggest rocks in. After that, put the rest of the sand in, and then all your other stuff. Wait 30min after putting everything back in to turn the filters back on.

Done:

 

[Bloo]

WoW what a major improvement and how lovely it looks now !
Well done

 

[Maxim_Storm]

That was really interesting thanks for sharing Hun

I love sand it makes such a huge difference to a tank. Your tank looks absolutely gorgeous now. Have you found that the fish like it more? Might sound daft but our Parrot fish looked so much happier when we changed to sand substrate from gravel

 

[Barracuda518]

Yet another reason why Im going to sand...

Looks Good

 

[k3vin2k3]

Radical dude.

 

[Barracuda518]

What kind of sand did you use?

 

[Angry_Platy]

The tanks looks so much better now.

(says me who is about to switch away from sand and BACK to gravel to help her plants)

 

[boxman]

I'm guessing you've used inert sand? Looks better than mine. My mollys poop all over it after a few hours.

 

[jmccalip]

Thanks. I used Pool filter sand from Homedepot($5.00 for 50lbs). I have noticed that my mollies and plecos seem happier, one of the mollies was sifting through it with his mouth.

 

[Barracuda518]

Thanks. I used Pool filter sand from Homedepot($5.00 for 50lbs). I have noticed that my mollies and plecos seem happier, one of the mollies was sifting through it with his mouth.

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Sounds good. I gotta wait on mine due to my recent Nitrite problem

 

[SnowyzMom]

Trust me, we won't blame you for the neon gravel. I inherited some insane colours when I got my 25 gallon from my daughter. I've since gone au naturel with sand, river rocks and natural brown pebbles. Much better too and the coreys love snuffling through the sand with their whiskers. They play in it, I swear they do.

I was staring at the VERY brightly coloured gravels on sale at the LFS the other day and trying like mad to think of ANY fish they'd compliment. I suppose if you had pure white fish, like those silvery white sailfin mollies or pure black fish, they'd at least show up as contrast. Honestly, does anyone out there use the red gravel? Just wondering what it would go with. Mind you it would be great for a goth theme tank...red gravel, black fish...black rocks...uh huh.

Meantime, GREAT tank improvement! I just did the same rinsing of sand myself, talk about a way to get mucky. PlaySand from Walmart, 40 lb. on sale for $2.47. I hurt myself lifting that bag into the shopping cart, it was WET sand. But the fish love it, so the hernia was worth their fishy smiles.