Changing For Gravel To Sand

[ben3486]

What's the best, easiest or safest way to do this for my tank without up setting the fish and the good bacteria too much?

 

[fish_tank0311]

Firstly take out all the ornaments and plants, then take out the fish and put them into a plastic bag, then pick up the gravel either with your hand, or scoop it up with something, like maybe a big spoon like soup spoon or something like that. Then when its all out put in the sand, do a 20-30% water change, then chuck in the fish and everything else that was in there before.

 

[-Craig-]

put the water into buckets aswell as everything in there like the fish ect, take the gravel out then put sand in, put a plate on top of the sand and por the water on the plate to avoid to much cloudy water, once filled put every thing back in and whatever and the fish and do a small water change.

 

[saz326]

The approach to take does depend on the size of the tank you are making the changes to. If it is larger than 3ft long then I would make the changes to one side of the tank with a bare space in-between. This way the fish still feel safe as they can stay on the other side until you have finished with one side and move onto the next.

I use an old fish net as a scoop to move my gravel around. This way all the water drains out as I lift it and the small broken down bits of waste in the stones can pass through the net so you dont end up lifting out all the poo etc. (I like to re-use my stones around house-plants etc.)

When you have seen to one side and replaced ornaments and re-planted etc move onto the next side. The fish will move to the new side and let you get on with the job on the other stoney side.

If its a small tank (less than 2ft) Id move the fish into a bucket of tank water with the heater, save around 50% of the tank water if possible and deal with the whole change in one go.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I just did something similar (installed fluorite under my old gravel bed) because my substrate wasn't quite deep enough for plants.

Since I had a spare tank...
- I put about 50% fresh water in the empty tank, and then filled it the rest of the way with water from the current tank.
- After I made sure the water temps were close I netted the fish out and moved them over.
- Quickly set-up the heater, and filters on the spare tank.
- Pulled all the plants out and stuck them in a bucket of tank water
- Pulled out the rock work and stuck all of that in the sink for a scrub
- Drained the main tank and scooped all the gravel out into a container
- Cleaned up any hard water stains etc on the tank, background, covers, etc with mild vinegar solution and gave everything a good rinse
- Rinsed all the new gravel (fluorite is a PITA to rinse without access to a garden hose btw), put that in and then the old on top.
- Filled the tank back up partially, let it settle for awhile
(Day 2)
- Gave the plants a good pruning. Divided some of the crypts, split some of the anubias, etc
- Replanted everything (which I most likely should have done before I refilled the tank, but meh)
- Ran a filter stuffed with poly-fill to help clear out any remaining dust
(Day 3)
- Refilled the tank at the right temperature
- Moved the fish back
- Moved the filters, heaters, etc back over
All done! Phew...

I'd say the only one that was really unhappy was the ram, and that was only while in the spare tank...most likely because it was bare bottom on a metal stand (e.g. clear view to the floor way down below ). He was fine again once he got "home" despite it having been rearranged.

 

[scobie140]

Why not just bag the fish or stick them in a big bucket with the filter and heater either way make sure the filter is removed from the tank and kept in flowing tank water, Remove all water possible then scoop out the gravel, Put sand in then you could put a plate in and pour the water onto that but we prefer to use a jug and trickel the new fresh water gently down the side of the glass as this barley disrupts the sand eventually the fuller it gets the quciker you can empty the jug.Stick the heater on to settle the temp of the tank. We left it a hour or so after this to stick the filter back in as this let what was left of the very fine sand to settle then reintroduce the fish as if you had just brought them home from the pet shop. the 100% water change won't doo them of the fitler any harm

 

[5teady_2012]

i got a a tube (slightly bigger than syphoning ones) was only about £1 per meter, and i started a syphon and sucked up all the gravel out that way, was very easy and clean way.

 

[ben3486]

Cool. thanks for all the replies. I was woried it could mess up all the good/bad bacteria balance.
I currently use a gravel vac to clean the tank. Is it still going to be ok to use this to clean the tank with sand in? or will it just suck up all the sand into the bucket? lol

I only have a small tank, 26ltr Flval edge. So it wont take long to do at all. Just wanted to know a bit more and if there were any major donts

And im guessing sand is ok with all fish ? I currently have 6 Cardinal Tetra and two Cherry shrimp

 

[CrystalClear16]

If your worried about bacteria you could always leave the gravel in the tank for a bit. When I switched I scooped all the gravel into a clean stocking, tied the top and left it in there for about a week. Not the best looking but it made sure bacteria wasn't lost.

You do need to vac sand, but it is a knack. You just hold the tubing about 1cm from the top of the sand and make small circular movements to lift up the debris.

 

[grumpysteve]

i know some people on this forum disagree with me on this, but there is a lot of bacteria in the gravel (enough to make a difference if you remove it in one go at least) so i'd follow Crystalclear 16's advice and net the gravel up and leave it in the tank.

bacteria isn't free floating in the water, but it also doesn't think to itself "i'm going to make my way over to that black box in the corner of this rectangular glass box thats full of water. i've heard rumours there's a nice bit of sponge i can make a nice home on in there"