Jallen
Fishaholic
So there always seems to be a few threads on how to switch to sand, and things, I thought since I picked up some nice small grain gravel (and have sand in my main tank) for my little room temperature tank, I'd make a guide with pictures on how to do all this stuff.
The guide will go through the process of switching substrate and includes clear images, resized to save your bandwidth, but clear and large enough for you to find them helpful.
First, an image of my 25G planted tank so that you don't flip out and leave when you see my little tank I'm doing this guide on and think I'm a complete noob in the subject.
Equipment required to follow this guide exactly:
2 Buckets
Hose with a jet extension (or just press down with thumb)
Bin bags (if you have a big tank)
First of all, the excellent deal of 99p for a 2kg bag of hermit crab black sand / gravel (they had it in ALL of the tropical tanks at the LFS (southern aquatics) because it looks so good, my little tank doesn't do it justice). So here it is.
So go ahead and cut it open (probably with a knife not as stylish as mine) and pour it into a big bucket. Only wash 1/3 buckets of gravel at a time, so only fill up the bucket by 1/3 with your gravel or sand.
This is why we wash it. The dust will float around and make the water look terrible.
Next, get a jet style hose extension and spray it until about 2-3 inches of water are seen above the gravel. It will probably be very cloudy and discusting. (bonus picture of water cress and sweet flag growing in the bucket on the left)
Pour away the water.
Do it again and try and stir up the gravel with the jet hose as much as possible. A jet extension for your hose might set you back £3 at most.
Repeat until the water is pretty clear. Clear enough that you would be happy with it to be that colour in your aquarium for the next day or so, and clear enough that you think the floating dust won't kill your fish or your filter.
Now your gravel or sand is clean. If you are switching the sand of a big tank, you will still want to clean all of the gravel before you start messing with your tank. I recommend putting it in black bin bags after washing it if this is the case (doubled up) so that you can then easily transport it and empty it into your tank when the time comes. If 1/3 of a bucket is enough gravel or sand for your tank, just keep it in the bucket.
Try to calculate how much sand or gravel will be required in your tank. The chances are you will over calculate and clean too much, but that's better than cleaning too little. Remember if you have plants, you will want a reasonably thick layer, perhaps 1.5 inches to allow the roots to spread stop the plants from floating around and stuff.
The next part of this guide will deal with the removal of the gravel or sand in your tank and replacement of it.
So my little room temperature tank looks like this before the operation:
Drain the water into the second bucket to a level at which there is enough water for the fish to breath in both the tank and the bucket and go ahead and take out all ornaments and plants and place them in there. Plants can be left to float there. This can provide shelter to reduce stress on the fish.
Now catch the fish and put them in there. (currently for me this is 1 guppy and 1 small CAE, will be placed in a larger tank soon)
And take all your old substrate out. You can decide what to do with it...
Now put your new gravel in.
Put a cup on its side and pour water onto it. This prevents the gravel from getting all stirred up, which makes it keep its shape better and reduce dusting.
Place ornaments and plants back in.
TIP: For plants, surround the root gently with your fingers and push it into the gravel or sand. Let your fingers take the pressure of the substrate and NOT the root. Put the substrate from side to side and slowly wiggle the root into the substrate. Once it is deep enough, use your other fingers to push surrounding gravel which had been displaced over the root again.
Once you have placed everything in there, turn on your filter, and heater if you have one. Let it sit for 5 minutes to allow dechlorinator to do its magic and for the remaining small amount of dust to settle slightly.
Finally, put your fish back in there. You can either catch them (let them swim into your net, don't chase them! One thing that I find works for bottom dwellers is to just dig up the substrate they are sat on and just take them and the chunk of earth they are sat on) or lower the water level in the bucket and pour them in. I've never tried the latter however.
So that's your substrate change done.
Here are some pictures of how my little tank turned out.
If you found this helpful or if you have any suggestions for addition, go ahead and post.
Thanks for reading.
Good luck!
The guide will go through the process of switching substrate and includes clear images, resized to save your bandwidth, but clear and large enough for you to find them helpful.
First, an image of my 25G planted tank so that you don't flip out and leave when you see my little tank I'm doing this guide on and think I'm a complete noob in the subject.
Equipment required to follow this guide exactly:
2 Buckets
Hose with a jet extension (or just press down with thumb)
Bin bags (if you have a big tank)
First of all, the excellent deal of 99p for a 2kg bag of hermit crab black sand / gravel (they had it in ALL of the tropical tanks at the LFS (southern aquatics) because it looks so good, my little tank doesn't do it justice). So here it is.
So go ahead and cut it open (probably with a knife not as stylish as mine) and pour it into a big bucket. Only wash 1/3 buckets of gravel at a time, so only fill up the bucket by 1/3 with your gravel or sand.
This is why we wash it. The dust will float around and make the water look terrible.
Next, get a jet style hose extension and spray it until about 2-3 inches of water are seen above the gravel. It will probably be very cloudy and discusting. (bonus picture of water cress and sweet flag growing in the bucket on the left)
Pour away the water.
Do it again and try and stir up the gravel with the jet hose as much as possible. A jet extension for your hose might set you back £3 at most.
Repeat until the water is pretty clear. Clear enough that you would be happy with it to be that colour in your aquarium for the next day or so, and clear enough that you think the floating dust won't kill your fish or your filter.
Now your gravel or sand is clean. If you are switching the sand of a big tank, you will still want to clean all of the gravel before you start messing with your tank. I recommend putting it in black bin bags after washing it if this is the case (doubled up) so that you can then easily transport it and empty it into your tank when the time comes. If 1/3 of a bucket is enough gravel or sand for your tank, just keep it in the bucket.
Try to calculate how much sand or gravel will be required in your tank. The chances are you will over calculate and clean too much, but that's better than cleaning too little. Remember if you have plants, you will want a reasonably thick layer, perhaps 1.5 inches to allow the roots to spread stop the plants from floating around and stuff.
The next part of this guide will deal with the removal of the gravel or sand in your tank and replacement of it.
So my little room temperature tank looks like this before the operation:
Drain the water into the second bucket to a level at which there is enough water for the fish to breath in both the tank and the bucket and go ahead and take out all ornaments and plants and place them in there. Plants can be left to float there. This can provide shelter to reduce stress on the fish.
Now catch the fish and put them in there. (currently for me this is 1 guppy and 1 small CAE, will be placed in a larger tank soon)
And take all your old substrate out. You can decide what to do with it...
Now put your new gravel in.
Put a cup on its side and pour water onto it. This prevents the gravel from getting all stirred up, which makes it keep its shape better and reduce dusting.
Place ornaments and plants back in.
TIP: For plants, surround the root gently with your fingers and push it into the gravel or sand. Let your fingers take the pressure of the substrate and NOT the root. Put the substrate from side to side and slowly wiggle the root into the substrate. Once it is deep enough, use your other fingers to push surrounding gravel which had been displaced over the root again.
Once you have placed everything in there, turn on your filter, and heater if you have one. Let it sit for 5 minutes to allow dechlorinator to do its magic and for the remaining small amount of dust to settle slightly.
Finally, put your fish back in there. You can either catch them (let them swim into your net, don't chase them! One thing that I find works for bottom dwellers is to just dig up the substrate they are sat on and just take them and the chunk of earth they are sat on) or lower the water level in the bucket and pour them in. I've never tried the latter however.
So that's your substrate change done.
Here are some pictures of how my little tank turned out.
If you found this helpful or if you have any suggestions for addition, go ahead and post.
Thanks for reading.
Good luck!
