Just Switched To Sand

[debiasir]

Just switched my tropical tank from gravel tp pure white sand. bloody hell its stressfull. i hate netting my fish and holding them in big buckets of tank water. taken me around an hour as the sand is pre wash but i gave it a rinse and it is fine

thanks to The_wolf for the sticky on switching to sand.


looks loads better and sure my fish with prefer it as well asbeing easy to clean.

pics to come later

 

[rdd1952]

Glad to hear that it worked out. I will be switching my 29 gallon over later today.

 

[debiasir]

just hope my fish make it through. I could imagine it was stressful even though i tried hardest to make it as stressless as possible

 

[rdd1952]

The netting is the worst part. I have seen people use 2 nets and kind of herd them in rather than chasing them around the tank. I worry more about the shrimp than the fish though. They're fast little buggers. With what I learned last night about sucking out the sand, I am now pretty sure I will just suck the sand out with the hose and not take the fish out. It will still be stressfull but hopefully not as bad.

 

[debiasir]

i used a big net and a small net to heard them in.

 

[Luke & Penny]

So whats the benefits then of sand over gravel as i have gravel at the moment in my rio 240 and wouldnt mind changing to sand, will i have to do any water changes or do i just clear out the gravel?

thanks
Luke

 

[Barracuda518]

I switched to sand about a 1-1/2 months ago, and like you said, it wasnt fun netting all my fish, especially the danios. They are incredibly fast. I just held the net in front of them and let them swim into the net. I put the fish in a big rubbermaid container with the filter, heater, and all thier hiding places. They all survived and are much more active and seem more healthy with the sand.

 

[rdd1952]

I just finished switching my 29 gallon about 30 minutes ago. It was about a 4 hour process. Netting the fish wasn't too bad but netting shrimp is a different story. They are quick. All fish and shrimp appear to be doing just fine. I haven't had the lights on though. I left the tank dark so they could recover from the stress of the change.

 

[Luke_e]

After it was finished, did you turn the filters back on and did the sand clear?
Also, did you remove the filter sponges and place them in tank water so your bacteria didnt die?

 

[debiasir]

yep my filter was in the bucket and the sand didnt kick up at all so there was no cloudyness.

 

[Barracuda518]

If you rinse the sand enough before putting it in the tank, then the water probably wont ever get cloudy, mine never did

 

[kris-b-]

has anyone got any pics of their tank with sand as opposed to gravel so I can see the difference please!

 

[Luke_e]

yep my filter was in the bucket and the sand didnt kick up at all so there was no cloudyness.

So you took your filter out and put it in the bucket with the fish, was it on?

 

[Barracuda518]

When I changed over, I put all the fish in a big rubbermaid container with the tank water, the filter running, and the heater on with all the hiding places. I took out what was left of the tank water and gravel, put the gravel in a mesh bag so that I could put it back in the tank after the sand was in to allow the benefical bacteria to get back into the tank. When I put the sand in with a little bit of water in the tank to allow it to settle. Then I slowly added the tank water in the rubbermaid container back to the tank until I could put the filter and heater back in. I topped it off with fresh water. Then put the plants and hiding places in, along with the fish and the bag with the gravel and it looked great. I followed the pinned article on how to switch over very closely.

Hope This Helps

 

[Inchworm]

I've found that in the long run, switching to sand was well worth the effort. It not only looks nicer, but is much easier to maintain.

On the downside, it used to be so satisfying to see the dirt getting sucked out into the siphon hose, during tank cleanings. It used to make me feel like I was doing a good thing for the fish by cleaning it up. Now all that work in unnecessary since it breaks down and gets sucked up by the filter.