Going to gravel to sand

[Jediagh]

I currenlty have medium size gravel rocks in my 10g tank.

See images here

I have 4 corry catfish in the tank right now. 2 of them have been in there for about 2 months now and the other 2 just got placed into the tank a few days ago.

I've read a lot about the people using sand and others using gravel and the pros and cons for both. So if I wanted to do the switch between gravel and sand how hard would it be now that I have a cycled tank with gravel?


***Changing gravel to sand***
Should I do the sand change a segment at a time? Say 1/4 of the tank every week so that my tank's bacteria does not die?

Or should I not worry about it and when I eventually get a new tank start off with sand in that one.

***Filters***
Currenlty I have 2 filters in my tank.
Filter 1 - Top Fin 10 Power Filter

Filter 2 - Aqua Clear 100

Do I need to worry about sand getting into the motors of the filters? If yes, what do people recommend? Another filter type or perhaps a sponge on the filter intake tube?

***Cleaning***
With gravel I noticed that somethings the corries don't eat all the food from their pellets before it gets stuck far into the gravel. As such when I use my gravel vac to clean the gravel the corrys go HOG CRAZY! As soon as I move the vac to some other part of the tank the part I just moved around the corries are all over it!

With sand would I still need to do a gravel clean? The way I see it food won't fall into the sand but stay on the top of it, right? So do I need to do a "sand" cleaning and move around all that sand? Would that note disturb the sand, thus making it go all over the place, get into my filter, cloud my tank, and not be good for the corries.

Thanks all

 

[clutterydrawer]

Hello

I think most people do it by moving their fish to a small temporary tank to keep them warm, clean, and less stressed while they tear apart the main tank. This is what I did a while ago to my tank and it worked brilliantly. I changed all the substrate at once but i left some of the gravel tied up in an old pair of tights inside the tank, to minimise effects of taking out all the gravel at once. it would be wise to test your water daily after doing it though.

I'm not sure how those filters work but in mine, just to be on the safe side, I added some extra-fine filter media above teh regular filter media to stop any stray bits of sand getting near the impeller. It hasn't really been an issue cos i washed the sand super-well before i put it in, to get rid of any small floaty bits.

To clean sand you "hover" above it with the siphon, this sucks up bits of food and dirt, but not the sand, which is heavier. It takes a bit of practise but it's not too hard. The dirt sits on top of the sand unlike on gravel, so you can tell when it needs cleaning. Ive found if I disturb the sand it jst falls right down again, it doesn't float around and cloud the tank.

If you decide to do it it will be a hard day's work, lots of bucket lifting, but in my case it has been worth it. My cories were not unhappy as such before, but i love to see them digging int he sand and filtering it through their gills. I think it makes the tank look nicer too. Its your choice.

Here are a couple of relevant threads:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=58874&hl=

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=59432&hl=

 

[Jediagh]

Thanks.. Lots like this will be a weekend job. =)