Wanting to change from gravel to sand

[kaz petts]

Hi all,
As the title says I am thinking about changing my set up tank from gravel to sand as I have alot of bottom feeding fish and think they might be happier with sand.
How do I go about the change, I know this will be alot of hard work as I will have to catch the existing fish and keep them safe and do a full 100% water change. What do I do with the sand though? I know I have to wash it but what is the best procedure for this?
Thanks in advance.

 

[RYO]

I siphoned out most of my water into a large plastic toy box (cheap as chips)put all decore , fish, heater and filter in. Empty out your gravel and smeg from the bottom . I just chucked a bag of play sand in and rinsed it a few times in the tank (bit of a pain )replaced decore, filter and heater. 1/4 fill tank with fresh treated water ,add your fish and the water from your plastic box,then top up as needed.
just keep an eye on your water parameters for a few days, you should be ok with using your old decore and filter but just incase
Good luck and keep us posted how you get on.
send photo too

 

[sharktale]

I changed my 180l a few months ago. I removed about half the gravel and washed play sand out in a bucket, and then added it with the fish still in the tank. They loved it, they were being nosey and loved getting sand on them
I changed the other half the following week and I had no probs at all.
Julie

 

[drunkenmonkey]

i remember a post a while ago that the-wolf made about changing his tank from gravel to sand. after he had the sand, decorations and plants placed back in the tank, he got a clean pantyhose, and placed the gravel inside of it. he put the gravel filled panyhose in the tank for a while (not sure how long) to allow the bacteria to reestablish itself.

 

[kaz petts]

Thanks people for the replys and advice. I am still deciding what to do but I think my bottom feeding fish such as the clown loaches, pakistani loaches and corys would be happier with sand. Play sand is a good idea as it is cheap.
I assume that when rinsing the sand it is the same procedure as rinsing new gravel, rinse until water is clear am I right?

 

[enchanted]

That is correct, rinse until water is clean, but don't expect a fast process of it. Sand can take a lot longer to clean.

 

[Scougie]

I know lots of people advocate play sand but I gotta disagree. It's too fine, is full of dust and it takes ages to get clean. Use proper aquarium sand it's cleaner and won't clog up your filter in the long term. It's lso not that much more expensive. I just bought 25Kg for £8 at my LFS and it took me about half an hour to get it clean. Money well spent.

 

[enchanted]

If you are doing a 55 Gallon or larger 25 Kg is not enough. A 50 lb bag of Play Sand costs $2.50 here. For the savings of over $30.00 it is worth the time to clean. It has never clogged my filters either.

 

[kaz petts]

I have to say that I am prepared to spend the extra time cleaning the play sand. My lfs's are expensive when it comes to aquarium sand and most of them only sell the stuff with salt in it for the brackish and marine tanks (or at least that is what I think it is for).
I think I will wait until the Argos Spring/Summer catalogue is out so that I can get the sand even cheaper from them, I get 10% off as I work there. It won't be too long to wait and my fish have done with gravel for nearly a year now so another few months won't harm them.
I have to say though I am not disputing the fact that aquarium sand would probably be the better option and I do appreciate everone's comments on this thread equally. I will try the play sand and let you all know how things go. As for clogging the filters I can't see this to be too much of a problem with submersable filters like I have got. I would imagine any sand would be a problem with a UGF though.
Any how, if things go wrong with the play sand all of you who say that aquarium sand is best can say "Told you so!!!!!" I know not that any of you would!