sand area in my tank

[angel_lover]

Ok this may sound dumb but i bought some loaches and i was just wondering if it would be possible for me to make like a "sand pit" for them.My tank is 55 gallons so ive got some space

 

[Eelzor]

I suppose you could do something like that but it would start to get mixed and stirred by the fish, I just made my whole tank a 'sand pit' and my rainbow shark and spiny eel both love delving in it.

 

[angel_lover]

Hmmm well is that hard to do??Is there any risks with changing your gravel to sand???And how the heck would you go about doing that???

 

[Aulonochromis]

It's quite easy to change from sand. Just drain most of your water into buckets or some other safe container(s). Keep your fish in there while your doing this. Grab a plastic shovel or something to scoop out the gravel. Once the gravel is all out, go ahead and put in the sand (but rinse it really well first). Once the sand is in it's only a matter of putting everything back in. Make sure your filter intakes arent too close to the substrate because it's possible to get it in your filters and that's not good for them. Keep in mind this causes a biological disturbance and you may get some ammonia or nitrite showing up shortly afterward depending on how your tank is stocked. The key is to do it quick, make sure the sand is washed before you start.

 

[rsz]

i like little sand pits in tanks i think they look really cool, with the mix of substrates

 

[andyt_uk]

i cant remember if it was in a book or a web site but i have seen a tank with a mixed substrate.. part gravel & peat for planting in, and part sand - the whole thing was made to look like a river bed with plantation either side, the sandy area was supposed to be the river; looks quite good and if you pick your fish well i would say would work well

 

[Losi]

Why dont you bury a shallow bowl or similiar with sand in that. That way you could move the 'pit' around the tank!!

 

[angel_lover]

That is a good idea Losi ,maybe I could try that out,thank you guys sooo much for all you suggestions

 

[Lithril]

Another way of doing it is cutting a section out of a lemonade bottle just a bit higher than the depth of the gravel, put in the tank down to the glass then remove the gravel from the middle, you can then carefully fill the middle with sand (just make sure you clean the sand well first.)

 

[AquaNut]

Hi angel lover

Whooaaa...I don't wanna be contradictory, but definitely don't follow the 'take out all your gravel and replace it with sand' advice. That's a great way to destroy a huge part of your bacterial bed and cause nitrite spikes like you wouldn't believe. Hello hole in the head for all your beautiful angel babes. I used to have a little sand pit for my kuhlis in my community tank; I never separated it from the gravel, but was careful not to disturb it during vacuums. It got all mixed up when I moved the tank, though. I would suggest following Lithril's suggestion about the plastic bottle or the other one about the bowl... or.. if you want more sand than that, you can build a little plastic 'fence' to separate your sand from the gravel. When you do your vacuuming, vac the gravel like normal, but just hover above the sand to suck up the debris on top. Congrats on the new loaches.

 

[angel_lover]

Thanks I'm really excited to make a little area for them It seems they are dying to bury themselves.Oh and I decided the part with the angels.I am going to keep one.Hes alot smaller then the rest of them and not as strong so I would like to hang on to him and make sure he gets taken care of well I guess I just decided it was too much to keep all of them and I think I'd like to make it a community tank