My Sand Change

[rdd1952]

Well, my switch to Tahitian Moon Sand is complete and I am snail-free (that was the main reason for the switch - to get rid of a trumpet snail population explosion). The whole process took about 4 hours and went rather well with no major problems. I also didn't make any big messes so I'm not in trouble with the wife (always a good thing). Here is how I did it.

First, I unplugged the filters and heater and removed all plants and decorations. I siphoned about 10 gallon into a 15 gallon tub and then about 10 more gallon out (sand included) just to get the water level down to where I could net the fish. I had considered just sucking the sand out with the siphon hose (vacuum end removed) and leaving the fish in but the shrimp were darting around every where and I was afraid of sucking one up. Trust me, with the suction that the hose alone has, you could definitely do it. It sucked a piece of anacharis (about 8" long) in and clogged the hose. That took a while to remove. I also sucked up 2 lead plant weights that were small enough to go through. It definitely has suction.

Once I had the water level down, I used 2 nets to catch the fish, one to catch with and the other to herd them in. That went pretty well with the shrimp being the hardest to catch. Once the fish were safely out of the tank, I finished siphoning the last of the water and sand out. By using the hose alone, I was able to remove all of the sand (snails included) at the same time as the water. I only had to put about 5 gallon back in to get it all out.

I then scrubbed the tank walls good to remove some algae that was in places I couldn't get to before, rinsed the tank out good with clean water, added a new blue background to the back (used Vaseline and that works great) and washed and added the new sand. I took a bucket of very hot water and rinsed the plants that I had taken from the tank. I made sure there were no snails left on them and added most back to the tank. I added 5 gallon of tap water with dechlorinator and then 1/2 to 3/4 of the water from the tub the fish were in.

At this point, I started netting the fish and shrimp and moving them back into the tank with about 10 to 12 gallon of water in it. Once they were all back in, I added the rest of the old tank water back. This was mainly to keep the pH as stable as possible since the old tank water was lower that the tap water. I then proceeded to add another 5 gallon of water (roughly 15 more gallon) every 30 minutes till the tank was full.

All fish and shrimp appear to be fine although I can't see really well since I have left the lights off to relieve the stress on them. I can't wait until tomorrow morning so I can see the end result of the change. I just hope there aren't any problems over night. It is a lot of work but I think it will be well worth it.

 

[Luke_e]

So this was a sand to sand change...
Cool, glad it went well, i may be changing from gravel to sand in the next few months or so, but i'll have to stick with gravel for now.
Can i ask, when you put your fish in the tub out of the tank, did you take your heater from your tank and then put it into the tub?
Thanks.

 

[emma12321]

Hi rdd,

Glad it all went well, shrimp are a nightmare to catch and they jump around in the net and jump out of the net as i found out then they look like blobs of jelly when they land on the carpet , when i moved house it was the shrimp and the khuli loaches that took the longest to catch.

Luke,

If you do decide to convert to sand, get the childrens play sand from Argos £2.50 a bag, it looks great and is a lot cheaper than sand from the LFS. This is what i have in all my tanks.

Emma

 

[rdd1952]

Can i ask, when you put your fish in the tub out of the tank, did you take your heater from your tank and then put it into the tub?

I didn't but I would if I had it to do over again. I checked the water temp in the tub before I started putting them back in the tank and it was 74.5 so it did drop about 4 degrees during the change. That's probably because it was sitting on the floor and you know the old "hot air rises" thing. I guess the cool air from the AC is nearer the floor.

All fish and shrimp still appear to be fine this morning although lights won't come on (on timer) for another 15 minutes.

 

[Luke_e]

Luke,

If you do decide to convert to sand, get the childrens play sand from Argos £2.50 a bag, it looks great and is a lot cheaper than sand from the LFS. This is what i have in all my tanks.

Emma

Thanks Emma, did you prewash yours, and how long roughly does it take? I have a 125ltr tank and its
width =81 cm
depth = 36 cm
height = 50 cm

Thanks.

Also, rdd, thanks for reply.. i just wondered thats all.
Congratts on getting your tank set up with sand.

 

[Bloo]

Well done for getting rid of those pesky snails I know you dislike them as much as I do

 

[emma12321]

Hi Luke,

I just used one bag for the 180 litre and had some spare to do my frog tank. It will need to be washed as it's a bit dusty and it took me about an hour to wash it. I filled a clean (fish only, no detergents ever been in it) 10 litre bucket about a quarter of the way with sand, then filled the bucket with water and let it overflow while stirring the sand until the water runs clear, i did this in the kitchen sink and sand got every where. Then put the sand in the tank and moved onto the next lot. There were no fish in the tank at the time. If i had to do it again i think it would be best to use a hose in the garden. Your cory will love you for it, corys like to live in groups of 3 plus and are much more entertaining when they have friends, they also come out more.

Emma

 

[Luke_e]

Lol at the sand incident, knowing me that will happen. Don't currently have a garden hose to do it, so i will probably use the sink method.
So a £2.50 bag is enough for a 180ltr, so i should have plenty left (well i'd need room for mistakes, i.e loss of sand lol), not bad for £2.50 then.

Thanks for the info, you've helped me on this and the kritter keepers, i appreciate your help.

 

[rdd1952]

Be careful using the sink as you will have a lot of fine granules and some lorger stuff go down the drain. It can clog it if you get too much. The play sand works great but is much harder to clean. That's actually what I had in my tank and would have left it had it not been for the snails. I changed to th Tahitian Moon Sand simply because I love the look of black sand (now have it in all 5 tanks). It is also much easier to clean. If you do go with the play sand, wash small amounts at a time. It's much easier to wash 50 lb in 5 increments of 10 lb each than to try to wash 50 lb all at once. That will take forever.

Just an update on everything now that I have seen the tank with the lights on. It looks great, fish and shrimp are doing fine and still no ammonia or nitrite showing even though I expected a mini cylce.

 

[SarahBravo]

Yep, those shrimps are little devils - can't believe how they can jump!!

A word of advice for potential sand people - the finer the sand the more difficult it is to wash, the more it compacts and the more difficult it is to clean. I got some play sand from Wickes and it is so fine that when I try to suck fish poop off the surface I end up sucking more sand up than poop as the sand is so finely grained. It also needs a lot of stirring as it settles into an almost solid mass - think very VERY sticky smooth peanut butter and you've got the same texture under water.

The black tahitian moon sand, and some sand I've got from the LFS are coarser, and have ended up much more manageable.

Oh, and RDD...... we want pix please!!!!

 

[rdd1952]

General rule of thumb on sand: the cheaper the price the harder it is to wash. I have heard of people that had good results with pool filter sand which I believe is a little more expensive that play sand but much easier to wash (just what I've heard, never used it myself).

I will get pics. Having a problem with my camera but will have soon (also got to get pics of new betta too).

 

[Luke_e]

Maybe if i put a fine mesh over the plug hole to stop it clogging, and just allow the water to pass through?

Be careful using the sink as you will have a lot of fine granules and some lorger stuff go down the drain. It can clog it if you get too much. The play sand works great but is much harder to clean. That's actually what I had in my tank and would have left it had it not been for the snails. I changed to th Tahitian Moon Sand simply because I love the look of black sand (now have it in all 5 tanks). It is also much easier to clean. If you do go with the play sand, wash small amounts at a time. It's much easier to wash 50 lb in 5 increments of 10 lb each than to try to wash 50 lb all at once. That will take forever.

Just an update on everything now that I have seen the tank with the lights on. It looks great, fish and shrimp are doing fine and still no ammonia or nitrite showing even though I expected a mini cylce.

 

[rdd1952]

I just wanted to give a final update on this tank. It has been 48 hours now and still I have had no sign of ammonia or nitrite. All fish and shrimp are doing well (one shrimp molted last night) except for a serpae tetra that some how jumped from the tank. I won't go into that. The details are in this thread. Anyway, as I said, everyone else is very happy and healthy.

I have come to the conclusion that very little of the nitrifying bacteria actually live in the substrate, on the walls of the tank or on plants since I removed ALL the old sand and completely scrubbed the tank walls to remove any algae and scum. I also did a pretty good cleaning on all plants (rubbing the leaves between my fingers in very hot water) and only put about 1/2 the plants back in (more to go in tomorrow).

As I said, I'm not finished with it yet. There will be more plants to go back and probably a small piece of driftwood but here are a couple of pics.

The air bubbles in the background are from where I used vaseline to attach it and the bubbles formed. I did not see them when I was setting it back up. I am trying to figure out how to remove them now.

 

[Luke_e]

That looks really nice, good job. Maybe try a black background, will go well, or do you think it will be too dark with the subtrate?

 

[rdd1952]

I was afraid the black background would be too dark (that one is black on the back). I could have waited until the sand was in the tank but I wanted to put it on while it was empty so it wouldn't be so hard to do. Hard to get the the back of the tank when it's only 2" from the wall.