Sand, Sand, Beautiful Sand!

[Athena]

Yaay! Finally, after all the help and advice from members on here, regarding various play sand types, I now have lovely "sandy" sand!

The B&Q stuff was horrible (maybe a bad batch?), so that got returned pronto (it was like road grit!).

But we took a ride over to Argos and, although the bag was different to how it looked online, I could see through the little air holes that it was a light sand so I got it.

All those who recommended Argos/Homebase play sand - you were spot on! It's perfect for aquariums.

Fabulous stuff. I put it in a new bucket, outside in the garden, put the hose in on a low water flow and stirred it around several times (a bit of scum developed) - took only about 10 mins before the water was crystal clear, even when stirring.

So it's in my tank (along with some gravel from a current tank plus some new gravel), the conditioned water is also now in and at the right temp (I added water that was already at approx 26 degrees so the heater didn't have to work overtime), plus I've poked and stirred the sand to disperse the trapped air bubbles and it looks fabulous. No clouding of water at all.

Next job - and this is what is worrying me - transferring two of my filters across and moving the fish in.

It's a worry because although I'm transferring two established filters across, obviously the whole tank is new (apart from some of the gravel I took from another tank yesterday) so I am preparing myself for teething problems. Water checks, possibly extra water changes etc until things settle down after a couple of months.

No other way of doing it, though. I've moved in with b/f (renting my house to my mum) who is desperate for me to remove all my aquariums from her front room asap so she can get organised in there!

Wish me luck! I've never had to move fish en masse like this and dreading it.

Luckily I didn't move far - just one street away, so they won't be in the bucket for long.

Thanks again for all your help re the sand!

Regards, Athena (sorry, waffling a bit today LOL)

 

[golfzzin]

Good luck with the move

My situation was slightly different to yours, i upgraded to a larger tank and moved all the filter media and fish to the new tank. I did notice a slight rise in Nitrites for a few days (from 0 to 0.3/0.1) however with a few water changes it soon settled back to normal figures. I was advised on here it was from disturbing the bacteria in the filter media so you may experiance something similer.

 

[Athena]

Thanks, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on stats - yes, I think it takes a while for things to settle down in a new/upgraded tank, even with complete mature filters. Like you, I've upgraded - going from a 3ft to a 4ft tank (thought I might as well make the most of the opportunity whilst I'm moving). I have 3 other smaller tanks (2ft x 2 and a 1ft cube) that I will be shutting down and doing a re-scape of just one 2ft tank. I only have room for two tanks now

Oh dear, my SB convicts are going to be terribly stressed out by it all and having to establish new territories. Will be interesting to see how that all pans out! I just hope it's not all-out battles...

Anyway, I'm so loving the sand (wish I'd tried it ages ago!) I will definitely do the 2ft tank with it, too.

Athena