Rutters19
Fish Fanatic
Hi people,
After much deliberation and research here on TFF i finally decided to go ahead and change my tropical tank from gravel to sand.
Bank holiday Monday seemed to be the perfect time, so i cracked on and did it!!
Here's the way i did it,including step by step photo's,enjoy!!
(1) Firstly i stripped my tank of decorations, which included live plants, and my bogwood centrepiece, and siphoned half of the water into my temporary holding tank, where my fish would be held whilst i carried out the transformation, in the hope this would minimise the stress on the fish.
(2) The second thing i did was catch my fish, which was the hardest part (and took the longest), and placed them into the other tank, where i had a heater to keep the temperature the same as my main tank.
If possible keep the filters running in the holding tank to keep the bacteria alive and if this isn't possible to do, add all the media into the holding tank with the fish.
(3) Now the fish were safely placed into the temporary tank, i proceeded to siphon most of the remaining water, and emptied it into my garden. I then removed the gravel using a jug and placed it into two buckets, along with the rest of the remaining tank water which contained the bacteria. This was the ideal time to give the tank a good scrub using the little remaining tank water, to remove any algae and slime from the tank, and to make sure i made a proper job of it i took the tank into my back garden and hosed it down inside and out, and it was sparkling!!
(4) I then gave the sand a good rinse, even though it was pre-washed, in order to reduce the inital cloudiness of the water once i refilled the tank. Running floss gets rid of the initial clouding quicker, so it is worth adding to the filter to sort this.
The tank was then filled with sand, re-decorated, and i replaced my external filter inlet and outlet, heater etc... into the desired position.
(5) Now the tank was ready to be re-filled, i siphoned as much water as possible from the temporary tank back into the main tank, and i caught the fish and re-introduced them. The rest of the water from the temporary tank was siphoned into the main tank. I then topped the main tank up with conditioned water, and placed the saved gravel into a stocking which i put into the tank for two days, as i believe this helps the bacteria to migrate into the sand.
My tank remained slightly cloudly for a few days, but now's it's crystal clear, and looks so much better with sand rather than the gravel i have had in there for over two years.
Here's a picture of how the tank looked:
And here's a picture of how the tank looks now, five hours later:
I recently purchased two slate caves off adamgreen240 i think it is off of here, and i have to say they look great!!
I'm on the lookout for some java moss to grow around the caves, so if anyone has a decent sized clump for a good price then private message me,lol!!
Also i've just ordered some plants which should arrive this week sometime. I'll be planting both the back left and right corners of the tank, so that the slate caves protrude out of them, aswell as the back middle of the tank to cover the inlet and outlet of my external filter.
This is the first thread i have posted, all opinions welcome!!!
After much deliberation and research here on TFF i finally decided to go ahead and change my tropical tank from gravel to sand.
Bank holiday Monday seemed to be the perfect time, so i cracked on and did it!!
Here's the way i did it,including step by step photo's,enjoy!!
(1) Firstly i stripped my tank of decorations, which included live plants, and my bogwood centrepiece, and siphoned half of the water into my temporary holding tank, where my fish would be held whilst i carried out the transformation, in the hope this would minimise the stress on the fish.
(2) The second thing i did was catch my fish, which was the hardest part (and took the longest), and placed them into the other tank, where i had a heater to keep the temperature the same as my main tank.
If possible keep the filters running in the holding tank to keep the bacteria alive and if this isn't possible to do, add all the media into the holding tank with the fish.
(3) Now the fish were safely placed into the temporary tank, i proceeded to siphon most of the remaining water, and emptied it into my garden. I then removed the gravel using a jug and placed it into two buckets, along with the rest of the remaining tank water which contained the bacteria. This was the ideal time to give the tank a good scrub using the little remaining tank water, to remove any algae and slime from the tank, and to make sure i made a proper job of it i took the tank into my back garden and hosed it down inside and out, and it was sparkling!!
(4) I then gave the sand a good rinse, even though it was pre-washed, in order to reduce the inital cloudiness of the water once i refilled the tank. Running floss gets rid of the initial clouding quicker, so it is worth adding to the filter to sort this.
The tank was then filled with sand, re-decorated, and i replaced my external filter inlet and outlet, heater etc... into the desired position.
(5) Now the tank was ready to be re-filled, i siphoned as much water as possible from the temporary tank back into the main tank, and i caught the fish and re-introduced them. The rest of the water from the temporary tank was siphoned into the main tank. I then topped the main tank up with conditioned water, and placed the saved gravel into a stocking which i put into the tank for two days, as i believe this helps the bacteria to migrate into the sand.
My tank remained slightly cloudly for a few days, but now's it's crystal clear, and looks so much better with sand rather than the gravel i have had in there for over two years.
Here's a picture of how the tank looked:
And here's a picture of how the tank looks now, five hours later:
I recently purchased two slate caves off adamgreen240 i think it is off of here, and i have to say they look great!!
I'm on the lookout for some java moss to grow around the caves, so if anyone has a decent sized clump for a good price then private message me,lol!!
Also i've just ordered some plants which should arrive this week sometime. I'll be planting both the back left and right corners of the tank, so that the slate caves protrude out of them, aswell as the back middle of the tank to cover the inlet and outlet of my external filter.
This is the first thread i have posted, all opinions welcome!!!
because the sand will be picked up too; the base of my plants also cause a problem!
