Thinking about making the switch to sand...

[parker313]

Well, I'm thinking about making the switch to sand in my 46(US) gallon... I have rounded gravel now so it's OK for my cories, but I love the look of sand and I know they'd appreciate it even more.

I just don't know how much work it's going to be.....

First, I get 30 (or so) pounds of sand and rinse it well, right?

Play sand or pool filter sand - is there a real benefit to one over the other?

What do I do with my fish? I only have a 10 gallon and it's already got fish in it. I wouldn't want to cramp them all...

Do I just remove all the gravel and replace it with the sand? I know a lot of the biological media is in the gravel, but I've got a TON of extra material in the filter so I'm not too worried about that.

I know the results will be great, I'm just trying to decide if it's worth it.

Thanks
--Kristin

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

Play sand or pool filter sand - is there a real benefit to one over the other?

You should buy a type of sand called Maison sand, it looks exactly like play sand but is precleaned and has no dust in it, much less effort washing it. It's usually sell it at any hardware store.
use a never before used 5 gallon bucket (you don't want one that had cleaning stuff in it) and fill the bucket halfway with water from your tank, and add the fish to the bucket, if you have an aerator use it in the bucket. Drain as much water as passable and remove the gravel , then pour in the sand. as you fill the tank you want to make sure that you let the water run in on a plate or something, so it does not mix up the sand and cloud the water. Add the fish back into the tank and leave the filter off until the sand in completely settled (a grain of sand could destroy your filter impeller).

 

[parker313]

Thanks The way you've described it makes it sound feasible I've got a python so getting water out and adding it back in should be fairly painless. My main concern was what to do with the fish, but I can get a new 5g bucket easily...

Maybe we'll hit Home Depot or Lowe's to look for that sand.........

Thanks

 

[parker313]

I had another thought - what do I do with my old gravel?... I've already got a bucket of stuff from when I swapped out substrate from my 10g and think I'll be in trouble with the hubby if I just end up with more buckets of gravel

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

I had another thought - what do I do with my old gravel?... I've already got a bucket of stuff from when I swapped out substrate from my 10g and think I'll be in trouble with the hubby if I just end up with more buckets of gravel

I guess you'll have to set up another tank to keep it in .

 

[parker313]

I have a feeling that wouldn't go over very well either

I'm making the run to Lowe's this morning to get the sand so I can get this done during my little one's nap today

 

[Spishkey]

do you have a garden? use the gravel around the base of plants to make a nice little decoration!
use it to line flowr pots? is great for drainage!

build a mini maze for ants or something? plenty of uses for old gravel!