Conversion from Gravel to Sand or replace gravel?

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

I've had my tank for quite awhile now. I haven't had any casualties, have kept up with the maintenance (became a bit more relaxed but everything is still quite normal, not as frequent as a weekly change). I've still been very disappointed with the appearance of my current tank, and have been contemplating on a substrate change.

Presently I have in my tank:
7x Neons
3x Cory (2 emerald, 1 pepper)
1x CAE
1x Zebra Dannio
1x ... Fancy Guppy? I don't know.

My substrate consists of multi-colored gravel that I'm not a huge fan of. I really would like to go the sand route, and know that I can get playsand from the local hardware store if I need to. Not positive if I want to switch to play sand, or to a dark colored gravel, I.E. Black. I do have a couple of questions regarding this:

1) How easy / difficult is it to perform maintenance on a sand tank? I'm concerned with sucking down sand while I'm trying to skim the bottom and remove debris.

2) I know there is a lot of beneficial bacteria within the gravel. If I were to replace my substrate completely, should I place a good chuck of my existing gravel into a thing of panty hose, and keep it in the tank on top of the new substrate? If yes, how long should I keep it in the tank?

3) With the stocking of the tank that I presently have, will sand pose any kind of danger to my fish?

4) While doing the change I would have to keep my fish in another container. The only largest thing that I have now besides my 5g bucket (which would be used to change the substrate) are 5g empty water jugs that were used for spring water. If one of those was rinsed out, filled with some tank water, and the fish deposited... would they be ok to last in there for the duration of the substrate change?

Thanks guys, I believe that's it for now. I'm going to continue reading throughout the forum seeing if there's anything else I can find.

 

[FishGeek]

1) I have had sand in my tank for a couple of years now. All that you need to do is to skim over the surface to remove any poo and extra food. Most of the stuff you have to worry about will sit on the surface of the sand. About once every couple months I would stir the sand up completely to help with anything that may have been covered up. Generally its not an issue.

2) Yes with the fish that you have in your tank I would keep a bit of the current gravel in your tank for about a week or so. The only thing that may happen is you may go through a mini cycle, but with Neons its better safe than sry.

3)No it will not. If anything it will be better for the Cories. It always recommended that you use the softest substrate for them.

4)I would advice putting them in the bucket, or if you need the bucket you can get one really cheap at Walmart. They should be just fine but if you are worried you can put an air stone in there for them.

 

[MatthewLaw]

In my 60g tank, half the tank is gravel and the other half is sand. like literally 50% of the tank is sand, and 50% is gravel. I have not had any mainteance issues and while I have done water changes, the tank is not old enough to do gravel cleaning.

I think you can use the 5g jugs for the fish BUT be mindful that they are in these containers and you should move effectively and efficiently with the substrate change! I would not leave them in those bottles for 48hrs but a few hours should be okay. Also, will you be able to provide oxygen/filter while the fish are in these 5g jugs?

 

[Punkrulz]

Thanks for the input guys. Firstly, how would I skim over the surface of the sand? Would I use my siphon like normal and do that, or do I need any special tools? What prevents the sand from being sucked through the siphon? Also, if every few months when I stir up the sand to remove excess debris, I should disable the filter for this time right?

When I were to put the fish into the jugs, they would not be in there for long at all... only as long as they need to while I'm working on the process of switching over to the new substrate, which should only be 2 hours or so I assume. Maybe 3. As per setting up an air stone or filter, I could probably throw an air stone in there and run the tube through the pump... but actually filtering the water in the bucket will be doubtful as i don't have anything to do that with besides the HOB on my current tank.

 

[MatthewLaw]

if the fish are only in there for a few hours and you have an air stone going too, then that should be enough.

you could purchase a 15 gallon rubbermaid tank to put the fish in. I can tell you that those 'tanks' are large enough to put the HOB filter.

 

[FishGeek]

No just use you siphon. The sand generally stays where its at. You juat have to be slow. And yes when you stir it up shut of your filter.

But with the jug there isnt an easy way to get them out nor a decent air vent. I wouldnt use a jug.

 

[Punkrulz]

Ok, we'll see what I can do... now I just need to get to the store and buy the sand... I could probably use some new filter media, I'm not losing the floss but I've had it for quite awhile now and still wasn't sure when to replace. I don't think I'll replace both at the same time though...

 

[blue_ram]

I have the Tahitian Moon Sand and the fish seem to like it, it really makes their colors stand out. I put a thin layer of black gravel underneath the sand to stop it from compressing and building up harmful gasses.

I wave the gravel vac about 1/2 inch bove the sand and it sucks up most of the waste with only a small amount of sand, if you see it sucking up sand, tilt it sideways and the sand falls back out.

My cories seem to really like it, they sometimes dig into it and my neons will pick at food on the botton which they didn't do with gravel.

Be very careful with sand and cories, some sand is very sharp and may harm the cories.

Depending on what type of filter you have, you can take a bunch of the gravel, put it into a filter bag and put it in place of the carbon. You can also buy one of those cheap $2.00 Lee corner filters (if you have an airpump) and stuff it with filter floss and the old gravel instead of carbon. If you have a filter which uses the Whisper BIObag, you can put the old gravel in the bio bag instead of the carbon.

 

[Punkrulz]

Alright guys,

So originally I was going to go to the store today and pick up the sand, and buy another 5g bucket. My goal was to place the fish into the one bucket, + bubble wand, + try to fit my heater in there (as I don't know how long this process would take). I would also check out to see if they had any of the black fluorite or such at my LFS, because we have to get up there to get some food anyways. I don't think I'm going to be doing any of that today, because not all of my questions have been answered.

Here's how I have it laid out in my head. Remove fish, drain tank, remove gravel into another container. Remove ornaments, scrub down tank with whatever I can think of that wouldn't be harmful (probably just a sponge and warm water). I would fill a bucket with half water, then pour sand in it... stir around, let it settle, then drain. Refill with water, and drain again until its clear.

10g tank = 10lbs of sand, correct? So theoretically speaking @ 2.5g / bucket when cleaning, 4 cycles of doing that?

After I'm done putting the sand into the tank, and making sure I got it as clean as I could when it was in the bucket, now I have to put water back in there. I have heard of people saying hold a plate out while refilling the tank, so you can disperse the water and not stir up as much... is this correct?

So now we've got water in the tank, sand at the bottom. At this point I also have old gravel in a stocking at the bottom. I know that it's going to be cloudy. How soon should I do another water change to remove some of that, before enabling the filter?

Approximately how long should I expect to have my fish in the bucket while I'm making this transition? My biggest concern right now is not buying everything and trying this, and ultimately running into something unexpected. My fish have been doing well, I want to make sure that continues to happen.

Also, I've seen one of the posters state that they put some gravel underneath the sand... is that advisable?

 

[wondabread]

I think putting gravel under the sand might be a good idea, but in the end it depends on a few things. The purpose is so that the sand doesn't completely compact.

If, every few months, you stir the sand up, you will circumvent problems due to anaerobic bacteria, which is a concern with sand, depending on the type you've used.

I have a 75g setup with play sand from home depot right now (no fish). The play sand is VERY fine. So fine that stirring it up suspends a good portion of the actual sand particles in the water. They are too big to stay in the water for a long period of time, so they fall back to the bottom within an hour or so.

I have been rinsing my play sand out when I get time for the last 2-3 weeks. In total, I've rinsed it 4 or 5 times, roughly 200 gallons of water. I did not put any gravel underneath. I am still not certain I want to go with this sand because of how fine it is. Again, the length of cloudiness is going to depend on the grain size and how much dust is suspended in the water. I ran my filter on the second day, after 24 hours of allowing the sand to settle.

I read somewhere on this forum as a general rule for sand, once you feel you are done rinsing it, rinse it again.

As far as the fish, I think it depends on how stressed they seem in the bucket. The more comfortable they are (assuming water quality is the same as the tank), the longer they will be ok. There really isn't much you can do if this is your only tank. Just remember, don't cut corners, you will pay in the end.

Good luck!

 

[Punkrulz]

Yeah I definitely don't want to cut any corners. I think my biggest fear though is how long of a period of time I will need to have them in the bucket... since all I have is the bucket. While I know that I can definitely put the bubble wand in there, I'm slightly concerned if I can put my heater in there with the suction cups, and also how well they'll be in such a small space w/o any filtration.

 

[Punkrulz]

Here's another question: As everyone seems to have been correct, I am able to get a 50lb bag of play sand for $5 at my local hardware store. Unfortunately, with a 15g tank, I will NOT need to use all of that...

1) Am I right in estimating that I will at least need 30lbs for 15g? That will get me 2", correct?

2) Do I want 2" bed, or do I want 1" - 1.5"?

3) The big one... If I am using a 5g bucket, how will I be able to determine how much sand I need to be able to do this?

 

[Rayneuki]

Personaly doing my play sand I used half of a bag (for 30 galons)
It's about 1.5" deep but I wasn't very concerned with it. I love the playsand, it's so pretty, makes it look like a riverbottom.

It's usualy a safe bet to do 1 pound per galon. So 15lb.
Pour out a third of the play-sand bag, rinse it, put it in your tank. Of course the rinsing is a long process. If you need more, add more.