Sand On Top Of Gravel

[Shadders]

Would it be OK to put sand on top of the existing gravel, the reason being I just got 3 more tiny peppered corries to go with my existing 3, it will only be a temporary fix because as I will be getting my 60g set up soon so all fish will be transferred into that when its ready, my existing corries have had no problems on the gravel and all of their barbs are fine, but the new ones are so small and I'm a bit worried for them, especially when the majority of people say corries should be kept on sand

 

[techen]

You would be fine to do so but you'll find the gravel and sand will just mix and so you'll still have a issue with rocks for the corys.

 

[Shadders]

any idea how long it would take the gravel to come up through a couple of inches sand, hopefully will have the new tank running in about 6 weeks

 

[techen]

It would depend how fine your sand is and how much it's moved around. You'll get the odd stone or two at the start but overtime you'll get loads coming up.

 

[attibones]

In my tank I did twenty pounds of black small gravel and forty pounds of sand. There is one spot where the gravel is visible, probably due to me being unable to reach said spot with my short arms, but I placed my driftwood over it. Depending on the amount of gravel in your tank your ratio of gravel to sand could be 1:2 pounds or 1:3 pounds.

 

[Shadders]

ah OK, what if pushed gravel towards back of tank under and behind driftwood and laid sand on the front half of tank, would that be OK short term.

 

[attibones]

Perhaps for your short term, it would, but keep in mind that this would be a very high wall of gravel (assuming you have twenty pounds of gravel) at the back. One thing you could always do is do a large water change, take out some of the gravel and add more sand. You don't have to remove all the gravel, perhaps, but even a quarter of it would make adding the sand easier.

 

[Shadders]

Perhaps for your short term, it would, but keep in mind that this would be a very high wall of gravel (assuming you have twenty pounds of gravel) at the back. One thing you could always do is do a large water change, take out some of the gravel and add more sand. You don't have to remove all the gravel, perhaps, but even a quarter of it would make adding the sand easier.

I'm due to do a WC tomorrow, I'll remove gravel from front half of tank and put sand in (well washed of course), if I'm very carefull and try to avoid clouding water, how long due you think I would need to leave filter off in case any get into impeller, outlet pipe will be about 2" above sand, is that OK?

 

[Steffyboy]

No need to turn off your filter. Just scoop up the washed sand and carefully lower it into the tank and pour it slowly into desired place.
I've done my 4ft tropical like that and it was fine.
I tool all of my gravel out including the fish and done an exchange and it was fine.
Some people were saying to leave some of the gravel in a pouch of some sort in the tank so the bacteria could migrate back into the tank but mine was fine.
You'll still have all your bacteria in your filter.
Go with the sand, best thing i ever done! The fish love it and it's a lot more pleasing to look at.

Forgot to say...take your gravel out first before putting the sand in!

 

[Shadders]

thanks will try it that way, I have decided to completely remove all gravel and rescape the whole tank, if your going to do a job do it right, things never look right when you cut corners, I post a pic when its done, cant decide which sand to get, Argos / B&Q playsand which seems very light, or aquatic sand which is a bit darker, thing is aqua sand is about 6 times the price

 

[frapadoodle]

Went with playsand in the four footer. Other than washing it til the second Tuesday of next week have had no problems.
Had some left over paver sand I used in the Betta tank. Larger grains and a bit pebblyish. But looks okay to me.
Both are fairly cheap, and no problems growing plants.
Agree though so much happier I went to sand.

 

[Shadders]

yeah think its gonna be the play sand, got a large 60L bucket ready for the arduous task of washing the life out of it. lol

 

[frapadoodle]

Rule of thumb. When you're done washing, rinse it one more time.

 

[CJH0825]

I had regular gravel in my 55. I started to hate the looks of it and decided to put pool filter sand in. I put it over the top of the existing gravel. That was 3 months ago. The sand still sits on top of the gravel. I have a few spots where the gravel and sand have mixed, But that was my own fault when I was vacuuming.