Easiest Way To Change Out Sand?

[catastrophi]

Well I changed out my regular gravel for sand and and its been about a week and my tank is still cloudy and PH is exceptionally high. I'm planning on buying eco-complete instead to end all of this changing substrates. So I'm wondering whats the quickest way of taking sand out of a tank? My guess was to siphon out the sand with a gravel vacuum. anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[Sheridanp]

I just scoop it up with something.

Anyway, if you still do want the sand, this is what you do. Take out all the water, and then take a plate and pour your water that is going in the tank ove the plate so it does not disrupt the sand alot. My tank was crystal clear the next morning.

 

[catastrophi]

theres just too much floating sand tha tnever seems to settle. I'm planning on just buying 3 or so bags of eco-complete.

 

[shaunza2010]

did you wash the sand throughly before you put it in tank

if not try taking most of the sand out
wash the sand till the water runs clear

But if you want to clear the tanks of sand best scoping most of the sand out with a spoon or something bigger then what you can't get out just vacuum it

 

[daspricey]

u can slowly change the gravel to sand without affecting the bacteria too much by doing it very slowly. When you do your weekly water change, remove about 1/4 the gravel and replace with sand. Continue as such each week until you have gone from one end of your tank to the other. The bacteria will spread each week into the sand. Keep testing water and I think you will be pleased! It will take a while but will be well worth it.
i'm changing 2 sand now.


david
p.s.
never take all the water out from the tank.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

To remove the sand use a syphon. The big tube part is not needed- use just the hose. Remember, the wider the diameter of the hose, the greater the suction it will produce. For removing gravel, a wider diameter hose works best.

 

[MasterP]

i started with gravel becuase i heard it was easeir but now i was wanting to change to eco-complete and put that in. In a lfs i went to a few months ago they hag gravel on the bottum and than sand on top. It looked really nice and i was wondering if i could do tha same thing. They had Onyx Sand ontop and ii was wondering if this is a good substrate for plants. Sorry about changing the topic a little.

 

[Grim Reaper]

i started with gravel becuase i heard it was easeir but now i was wanting to change to eco-complete and put that in. In a lfs i went to a few months ago they hag gravel on the bottum and than sand on top. It looked really nice and i was wondering if i could do tha same thing. They had Onyx Sand ontop and ii was wondering if this is a good substrate for plants. Sorry about changing the topic a little.

you dont need to put any other substrate on top of eco-complete

but u can if u dont like the black substrate

 

[Scott MacAdam]

hey just reading random posts and i was also considering a sand bottom when i get my 50gal. but what is ECO-COMPLETE? is it a product to replace sand or gravel? sorry to hijack the post.......

 

[catastrophi]

hey just reading random posts and i was also considering a sand bottom when i get my 50gal. but what is ECO-COMPLETE? is it a product to replace sand or gravel? sorry to hijack the post.......

eco-complete is a type of gravel thats good for plants. The tank is clear but my PH is just sorta high. (7.8 ). I'll stick with it for a while and see how well it handles plants

 

[§tudz]

hey just reading random posts and i was also considering a sand bottom when i get my 50gal. but what is ECO-COMPLETE? is it a product to replace sand or gravel? sorry to hijack the post.......

eco-complete is a type of gravel thats good for plants. The tank is clear but my PH is just sorta high. (7.8 ). I'll stick with it for a while and see how well it handles plants

is that the tetra product? I have something like that in my planted tank, but I have the same thickness of sand on the top of it. I'm not at home so can't check the box it came in lol, and can't remember off the top of my head.

For me it just looked like soil and wasn't as asthetically pleasing as the golden sand