On Friday, I changed from 80% sand and 20% black gravel back to 100% sand. Meaning I completely changed substrates.
The sand was "play sand" from B&Q at £5 for 25kg I think was a bargain, it's what I've used in all my previous tanks. Just ensure that it is thoroughly cleaned.
My technique was:
1)Prepare for the changeover, wash all the sand and have it ready, get any buckets cleaned and ready for swapping over.
2)Remove fish and put them into a 20L bucket (and covered the top of the bucket so the fish don't jump out, I wrapped a towel around the bucket too to insulate it.
3 a) I'm not sure how most people do it, but I used a 1/2Metre length of hose to syphon out all the sand off the bottom, naturally water came out with the sand, so I let the sand settle in the bottom of the bucket and tipped the water back into the tank, so it never really dropped below 100L (In a 125L tank).
3 b) However if you are changing from gravel to sand then it would probably be best to try and scoop the gravel out with either your hand or I used a small garden trowel type thing for the intial parts.
4) Have a quick syphon of any other waste that has settled on the bare bottom of the tank.
5) Begin to scoop the sand out of the bucket and place it in the bottom of the tank, if you still have water in like I did it will just drop off the scoop, form a small cloud and then quickly settle.
6) You will want about 1-2" of sand depending on wether or not your tank is planted, in which case go for around 2".
7) When the sand is all in, fill the water back up to full with fresh, dechlorinated water.
8) Put the filter(s) on and leave it 30mins then introduce the fish back in.
^ This is how I did mine on Friday, and the fish all look well and healthy, no casualties or losses.
Best of luck,
Tim.
Thanks,
Well..... that was an experience.
God help me, i was so tempted to quit half way through, It did not go to plan at all, ill add some pictures later on.
Right. I used two polystyrene boxes, one very large one, and one littler one, In the large on i put all the fish that I knew for certain were going to get along, I.E. all tetras, my angelfish, my male gourami and corys. In the smaller one i put the ones that i thought might have a squabble with the ones in the bigger box, I.E. My FEMALE gourami, and my two clown loaches. Unfortunately, there were 3 or 4 tetra, that were just impossible to catch, it may sound harsh that i left them in there but there was no way of catching those with a net in a 40 gallon.
So, i took the water down a little further, and proceeded to remove the gravel, now i pride myself just like all of us on keeping my tank clean, and under this subject comes gravel cleaning, well, god help me xD after removing a couple of jugs full of gravel, it was shocking to me how much dirt was actually under there, i mean tons, maybe this is just my bad maintenence i dunno, but it was ALOT, after doing about half of the gravel, the water was.. BROWN bordering on BLACK, at this point i felt like curling up into a ball and not contiuing because i diddnt know what to do, i pushed through it, whilst making a couple of emergency water changes to clear the water somewhat (so i could see what i was doing!)at this point i felt really bad, feeling that i had ruined my tank. I got most of the gravel out, theres a layer on the bottom of about 1cm, the rest on top is sand.
All the fish went back in in good health, the corys immediatly started digging
The tank is still very cloudy, is it OK. to run the filter? i think whats making it cloudy now is just dirt, poop, from what was the gravel. I did clean it VERY thourughly, i will also have to put some more sand in at a later date as i diddnt quite have enough.
Opinions please?
Thanks,
Simo
