Swapping Gravel For Sand?

[Ransom]

Well ive had my tank for about 3months now. an its got quite large rough gravel its white an blue stuff from the LFS but ever since ive seen tanks with sand or fine gravel.

so a couple of questions

where would i buy sand for the tank ? LFS or builders merchant?

i presume a good 1- 2" level is needed at the bottom of the tank (29gal)

after i put the sand in roughly how long untill it settles?

any suggestions on what to do with the fish (i have 2 large buckets but no spare tank) as will be getting a larger tank when current occupants grow to big.

i have a few plants that are just pushed into the gravel right now so im not sure if they would live in the sand or not.

fish in the tank for this change are 1Fire Eel / 2x Khuli's / 2x Common Plecs / 2x Hoplo Catfish.

so would this be a good idea or just change the gravel for much finer stuff?
comments very welcome altho overstocking comments are not.
thanks

 

[fishfanatic]

Hi there!

I changed to sand at the weekend and it looks so much nicer and the fish prefer it !

I changed over with my fish still in the tank and they are absolutely fine, I think its less stressful than to keep moving them in and out of the tank.

If you go for sand it is a good idea to get some malaysian trumpet snails as they help to keep the sand aerated.

My sand settled almost instantly I purchase online from seapets, as my lfs doesnt have sand!!

Good luck with it! it is worth it in the end!

 

[Ransom]

thanks for your reply.

im thinking taking all the gravel out by a net but i know this will stir a great deal or crap up thats sunk down there etc

whats best take gravel out let the filter clean the water for a few hours then start adding some sand?

whats best way to add the sand? by hand / by scoop / by net?
wont it just cloud the water terribly

sorry so many questions i just dont want my fish dieing especially the plecs an fire eel that cost me £16 yesterday

 

[fishfanatic]

thanks for your reply.

im thinking taking all the gravel out by a net but i know this will stir a great deal or crap up thats sunk down there etc

whats best take gravel out let the filter clean the water for a few hours then start adding some sand?

whats best way to add the sand? by hand / by scoop / by net?
wont it just cloud the water terribly

sorry so many questions i just dont want my fish dieing especially the plecs an fire eel that cost me £16 yesterday

I took my gravel oout with a net, it does create messy water but then this is unavoidable really! I then take out some of the dirty water and replace with fresh so it gets rid of some of the mess! once that settled down a bit I added my sand, i found doing it by hand easiest as i could distribute it evenly without disturbing the fish too much! it really depends on how well you clean the sand the more thoroughly you clean the sand the less cloudy it will be in the end only took a few hours to clear and looks stunning!

Thats ok ask away!

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

you will want to clean the sand for ages before putting it in. i thought it was alot more dustier than gravel. just have a tap running over it in a bucket for a while and keep stirring the sand until the water goes clear.
then its fine to stick in the tank. i put mine in by hand. just flatten it out too. the fish should move it about anyway.

 

[Callum]

i bought some playsand for my new tank from B&Q as recommended by the catfish club of great britain, but it was a very dark brown and tasted salty so i decided i prefered tahiti moon sand so i switched even thought it is very expensive. Also i suggest if using play sand make sure its thoroughly clean it took ages to clean that playsand now its just sitting in the garage.

 

[Ransom]

does Focus sell any decent sand?

any sand i should be looking for or avoiding?

an any idea how much i will need my tank is 36"" long / 12"" wide and 18"" high

ive read that 1 - 2cm is all that's needed and to *rake* it once a week
also my catfish and fire eel will help in this also



btw is Coral sand any good to use?

 

[Ransom]

can i just use Builders merchant bags of sand (washed ofc) for the fish tank?

anyone know or should i goto Argos an pick some up from there?

 

[Callum]

builders sand contains lots of unsuitable chemicles for aquariums so i wouldnt use this. Coral sand inst any good either its for marine tanks only or for malawi or other african chicilds in need of a higt ph. (it raises ph). if you have 1cm of sand there is no need to rake it as the anaerobic conditions cannot form. i dont know much about argos sand but if you went to your local lfs they should have some suitable sand.

 

[Ransom]

Flame where did you buy your tahiti moon sand from?

idealy i would like some white sand but i doubt ill ge this

 

[Cultasso]

Ive got some really nice White sand that i bought from

www.seapets.co.uk

its about 12 quid a bag but is white and look fantastic

I think its caribean beach sand

 

[Callum]

your local lfs may sell it thats where i got mine from.

also i found out it wasnt suitable for bottom dwellers and being a cory fan i took the sand back and got some regular silver sand that had been prewashed so it only took 5 min to clean each bucket and there was no silt

 

[Kevstir]

i used argos play sand for my tank , to clean it i just filled a bucked with 1/4 of sand and gave it a dam good stir, took about 8 water changes to get each bucket full of sand clean , tank looks great with it in , tanks still cycling at the moment so no fish , looking forward to seeing how my albino corrys like it when i transfer them

 

[smmetz]

I went to a pool supply store, and got pool filter sand. I rinsed each bucketful of sand a few times, and put it in. It was very cloudy at first. In was much better a few hours later.

 

[Ransom]

well i swapped the gravel for sand last night
put quite a bit in an evenly distributed it but then i tried to bed my plants down an there wasnt enough sand so i had to wash some more an put in.

and my tank looks sooo much better now. ok its still settling but i can almost see the back of the tank now.

but the change from white/blue gravel onto Silva Playsand is absolutly amazing.

one happy fish keeper lets hope my fish are just as happy they had to stay in the tank the whole time from taking the gravel out to putting the sand in there