Changing my 55 gallon tank from gravel to sand, any help would be appreciated.

[Byron]

I rinsed it four times, by the forth time the water was pretty clear. I guess I bought high quality sand, there was only 4 pebbles. I bought the darker play sand.

That's plenty; I never rinse it to the point that the water is clear, it takes forever and besides it is just dirt.

 

[Retired Viking]

I am starting the big change over, wish me luck. At least today is a cooler day.

 

[Retired Viking]

Progress so far, I removed as much of the salivina as I could and moved my plants and stumps into a bin filled with tank water.

 

[Retired Viking]

Have the fish out in a buket and the gravel out and sand in , sorry but not the best pictures

 

[Retired Viking]

Almost done, still mixing in the RO water and adding the rest of the salivinia. It was a lot of work, the UGF was surprisingly cleaner and was easier to deal with then my past experiences. There was dirty water but none of the gunk and crap. Wife put it on her flowers. I hope I did not stress out my fish too much

 

[mbsqw1d]

Congrats! Will you be getting some cories to go in there?

 

[Retired Viking]

I will get a few and some more tetras, I just hope I do not loose any due to stress. I covered the bucket and kept them in the dark, they seemed to go to sleep. I had an air line and kept the temp above 70.

 

[Retired Viking]

Well it is done for now, need to pick up some plants. Also picked up a couple more inches of swimming space for the fish by lowering the bottom to 1.5-2 inches

 

[Airwreck]

I added a troop of Malaysian Trumpet snails to mine as I understand they're good at burrowing around in the sand and so prevent from any stagnant areas being created.

Be careful with MTS make sure you have someone to eat them. had a 55 gal tank..turned on the light in the middle of the night.. the bottom was covered with them. You could only see MTS. A couple of loaches solved the problem.

 

[Retired Viking]

I just picked up some hornwort and moneywort to help with the planted recycle. The LFS just received a little from their supplier, tomorrow a portion of salvinia I order come in. I heard MTS are like rabbits, thanks for reminding me.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Snail population size can be a helpful indication in showing if you might be overfeeding or if your plants are melting/dying. An abundance in snails means there's food available to them. Yes, MTS do tend to come out like a bunch of zombies at night but to be fair, you're not likely going to see them. During the day, they're still being useful by shuffling through the substrate

 

[Retired Viking]

Snail population size can be a helpful indication in showing if you might be overfeeding or if your plants are melting/dying. An abundance in snails means there's food available to them. Yes, MTS do tend to come out like a bunch of zombies at night but to be fair, you're not likely going to see them. During the day, they're still being useful by shuffling through the substrate

Thanks, I only have 3 nerite snails in the tank now, I found 3 empty shells and one is missing.

 

[seangee]

Snail population size can be a helpful indication in showing if you might be overfeeding or if your plants are melting/dying. An abundance in snails means there's food available to them. Yes, MTS do tend to come out like a bunch of zombies at night but to be fair, you're not likely going to see them. During the day, they're still being useful by shuffling through the substrate

That's a fair generalisation but there is a caveat. In warmer weather / water they (MTS) will multiply like crazy no matter how clean your tank is. I have these in 3 tanks by choice. 2 of these are currently at 27 and 30 degrees. In these tanks I am catching any that I find at the moment. Its not that there are that many, but there are thousands of tiny babies. I wash hundreds of these off the filter media every week and they are still light enough to float. I know I won't eradicate them but any I see now I remove.

The third tank doesn't matter because it has 14 dwarf chain loach. They can't manage the adults - but they won't need feeding for several months until the tank cools down and the survivors have grown too big to be a snack

 

[Retired Viking]

I am having a good time watching my fish, last night when I put them back into the tank they swam in one large group from one side to the other with a few off on their own. Today the Glow light tetras are in a group at one end of the tank, the neon tetra are mostly at the other end, The ember tetra are swimming in a tight formation back and forth near the top and the red eye are following the ember tetra. When I approach the tank they all come to the center.

 

[Retired Viking]

Here is a picture of the tank after it cleared up and I added 11 neon tetras and some more plants.