Tips On Changing To Sand Substrate

[kkppww91]

Hi everyone. I am wanting to change to sand substrate from my rough blue gravel. Looking for a natural seabed look. Is their any tips,rules or advice on the best and also safest way to do this?

 

[garyspence84]

Just make sure you take everythin out the tank 1st before you start and give the sand a good clean before you add it too so your tank dont cloud up. Sand looks excellent! Will be a massive improvement on ANY tank.
Enjoy

 

[shi24137]

WASH WASH WASH the sand! Takes a while but pays off in the end! And when putting the sand in your tank, don't just dump it in there, much easier if you hold the bucket under the water while dumping the sand in one spot! Please post pics of before and after!!!!!! Good Luck!

 

[SaTiVa1984]

When adding sand myself i use a large bucket to wash it thoroughly, i do this by placing a hose pipe in with it, and leaving it to run for an hour or so, mixing it up every 10-15 minutes until it runs clear.

Then when adding it to the tank to minimise the disturbance, i use a pint glass and scoop it out of the bucket, then i place it in the tank and let it fill with water, and slowly move it to the bottom, it pours out slowly and gently.

Also if your gravel is fine enough it might be possible to slowly syphon it out using a hose pipe.

 

[bally]

another tip, once the sand is in,make you the filter outlets are pointing in the correct position to enable plenty of flow in the direction of the intake, as the fish mess really shows on the sand. I run a tet 1200 and after a few weeks of altering positon its working well. Depend son the things in the tank too

 

[Zikofski]

yep +1 to what everyone has been saying to empty my tank of gravel i had a standard syphon was white and plastic but it has an attachment on the end to stop gravel from going up it i just unscrewed that and suck up all the gravel and that way you won't be left with powdered crap at the bottom make sure u don't loose to much water, try doing this when you do a water change to 2 jobs in one go , and you don't haft to move the fish out there altho if you wish you can try not to suck up small bottom fish if you have any like cory's

play sand is great and cheap but i used senegal sand and i love it its in my sig read my journal to how i cleaned it and put it into my tank hope it is of some help any question in there just ask

 

[DBT85]

When I washed my sand I popped about 6-7kg in a 10-12l bucket, added enough water to cover the sand plus about 3 inches. Then I swirled the sand around to make a whirlpool for about 30 seconds, sometimes going back the other way and always making sure that all of the sand in the bucket was suspended in the water (it piles in the middle). Then take your hand out and leave it for 30 seconds for the heavy sand to rest on the bottom and any floaty crap to stay in the water. Then just put your hand in to stop the water moving (if it still is) and then pour away the water and do it again. Each batch took probably 7-9 washes to do so it was tough doing nearly 40kgs but it was worth it for the look of it

The first 2-3 loads tended to have quite a lot of bubbles and residue on the surface but that was gone by the 4th or 5th wash.

 

[kkppww91]

Cheers everyone. I will be going to buy some play sand tomorrow. I will do pics aswell (tank is nothing special,just a little 48l)