Sand &

[The-Wolf]

I'm seeing a lot of people asking how to change from gravel to sand
so here goes...

For an existing set up this is the way I did it.

1; Took out all decorations, plants etc.

2; using a syphon I slowly emptied the tank, syphoning the water in to container that held approx half my tanks volume (large kitchen bin, brandnew and not been used at all).

3; tank is half full of water and empty of decorations, which made catching the fish easy .

4; put the fish in the container with the water in it added heater to keep the temp up to the same as it was in tank.

5; I scrubbed all the sides of the tank and gave everything a good clean in the tank water so as not to kill the bacteria.

6; removed the gravel to a bucket big enough to hold half of it and filled with the dirty tank water (bacteria).

7; disposed of the rest of the tank water onto rose bush (which by the way is blooming in full now )

8; made sure all sides and bottom of the tank were free from slime, algea ets, with clean water and disposed of that.

9; added my sand (pre washed before hand), re-decorated, landscaped etc.

10; with the help of another person I, carefully, raised the bin with the fish and water up higher than the tank, so I could syphon the water back into the tank, slowly. In doing this it did not disturb the sand too much and did not become very cloudy.

11; when the bin was 3/4 empty I caught the fish and reintoduced them back to the tank. then continued to syphon the water into the tank. adding buckets of clean water with conditioner to it as required.

12; I put the saved gravel in a stocking and layed on the sand for two days, after which I removed the gravel without any mess or fuss. Doing this the bacteria migrated into the sand.

job done! my water did cloud a bit, but it cleared up overnight.



I used aquarium sand as it was a cheep deal on ebay.
Sand that you can use is....
playsand (silver sand) the same as you would buy for childrens sand pits
Pool filter sand
sand blasting sand
silicon sand

ok thats about it any other sand recomendations are welcome
and I'm not saying this is the way you must do it! It is just the way I did it.

I hope that this helps someone

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Cool, you might want to edit the title though, it reads to me like you are asking how to change to.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Yeah, i thought you were asking too!

P.T.

 

[The-Wolf]

Cool, you might want to edit the title though, it reads to me like you are asking how to change to.

thanks CS and PT, I didn't think of that
done now

 

[parker313]

Good tips! Thanks for sharing I've been debating with myself whether to make the switch in my big tank - I'm sure my cories would appreciate it!

Question though - what did you do with the old gravel? I already have a bucket of old gravel from when I switched in my 10g.

 

[The-Wolf]

Question though - what did you do with the old gravel? I already have a bucket of old gravel from when I switched in my 10g.

The old gravel I sold on erbay

If the bucket of gravel is dry or the water has gone cold, then the bacteria has died and it would need a good wash.

 

[parker313]

Thanks