How Do I Change Gravel To Sand In A Heavily Planted Community Tank?

jonnyf84 · Jul 18, 2008

Hi all, well i am one very happy fella, i finally got my blood parrot (it's actually bright orange). I've been putting it off because i simply don't know the best way of doing it but i now need to remove my large gravel and replace it with sand, its a heavily planted tank, the back half is completely covered, the front half should be easy enough, how do i do this without,

a.) not stressing the fish out
b.) Not disturbing the root systems too much

Whilst i'm on the subject of parrot fish - I have some food specific to Parrots called super-vit red parrot flake food, they are bad feededrs, often waiting for the hussle and bussle of feeding time to die down until they come out too feed, by this point, at least in my tank (with the eating machine that is my female pearl gourami) all the food is gone, the parrot hasn't taken to the specific food yet but has eaten some catfish sinkers i put in, it also got lucky and managed to find some of the remaining brine shrimp. What do my fellow parrot owners feed there fish and how do you go about makeing sure they get sufficient food?

Tank mates are:

1 blood parrot
4 red wagtail platy's
2 blue/mickey mouse platy's
12 neon tetra's
1 female pearl gourami
1 betta

I think all of these fish would be fine with a sand substrate, do you agree?

Sorry for the long winded post, i'm just sooooo bloody excited :hyper:

bredler · Jul 18, 2008

My best guess would be:

Try to remove however much gravel you think is appropriate where there are no plants. Then just add sand. as long as you don't have crazy amounts of substrate in there already (crazy means 3.5-5"...which I guess is about 9-12 or 13cm) you should be fine.

My favorite is pool filter sand. It doesn't lock together, looks good, and doesn't affect water chemistry. Good Luck!

jonnyf84 · Jul 18, 2008

many thanks. Yeh i was keen to get rid of all the gravel but that would mean completely up-rooting the plantsso some is going to have to stay, besides it will contain vital nutrients so it's probably necessary to keep some of it, at least for the time been. Pool filter sand, where can i find this? What do you think about my current stock with sand?

tennis4you · Jul 18, 2008

jonnyf84 said:
many thanks. Yeh i was keen to get rid of all the gravel but that would mean completely up-rooting the plantsso some is going to have to stay, besides it will contain vital nutrients so it's probably necessary to keep some of it, at least for the time been. Pool filter sand, where can i find this? What do you think about my current stock with sand?

That is pretty wild, I just got pool filter sand today for the first time. I was looking to move from gravel to sand and the person who has always helped me online suggested the pool filter sand. I went to Walmart and found none. So, I went to a local pool supply place. He had a busted open bag and sold it to me for $2.00 for about 12 pounds of sand. I would have liked abou t15 pounds, and I can always buy more, but for $2.00, who can complain?

Anyways, just search pool supply stores. The stuff is too heavy to ship to you since the cost would be high.

I rinsed it out real good and I am pumped to put it in my tank. It is a lightly planted tank, not like yours, so my job should be easy. Do not forget to turn off your filters when you put the sand in!!!

jonnyf84 · Jul 18, 2008

great thanks, i will have a look round, is it a darker sand or more of a white colour? i was hopeing to change to a much lighter (white if pos) substrate, i think it would awesome in my set up. Yeh i think i will run the filter in a bucket of tank water 'cos i reckon this one is gonna take a while!

oh keep me posted on how the new sand goes...cheers.

tennis4you · Jul 18, 2008

jonnyf84 said:
great thanks, i will have a look round, is it a darker sand or more of a white colour? i was hopeing to change to a much lighter (white if pos) substrate, i think it would awesome in my set up. Yeh i think i will run the filter in a bucket of tank water 'cos i reckon this one is gonna take a while!

oh keep me posted on how the new sand goes...cheers.

It was a light tan.

I filled a 3 gallon bucket half full and ran a hose in it and let the smaller stuff and dust overflow down the driveway outside. I find that is a good way to clean the gravel and sand.