Switching substrate

[timbruun]

Now that I know I want sand in all my tanks. What is the best way to go about the change without dealing with any old tank syndrome and any other problems. I don't want to have to catch everyone and redo the tanks. And I can do little by little if that will save me some trouble. The one tank is a 55gal and has a few plants and a few larger fish and the other is 5.5 gal and has mostly floating plants with snails and shrimp.

Edited January 14, 2010 by timbruun

[catshanon]

I recently changed some of the substrate from my 50G planted and what I did was scoop out the sand in small portions until I had removed all of it. It sure did stir up a whole lot of detritus and the tank was cloudy for 3 or 4hours.

I would suggest the following:

Take out some water so its easy to work inside the tank.

Uproot the plants and place them aside

Take out all of the old gravel at one go and start putting in sand.

When you are putting in sand, be careful that the sand doesn't get sucked up by the filter intakes. (Maybe shutting off filter for that time is

good).

When sand has been put in, restart the filters and wait for cloudiness to end.

Replant and put in an airstone (just for a day).

I think you should be fine with this routine.

[timbruun]

Question with that is someone just replanted their tank and stirred up the substrate alot and lost a bunch of fish... Do I have to be worried?

[catshanon]

What happened with Goldy was that he fed the CO2 into the canister and most probably his tank was saturated with CO2. If you are not using pressurized CO2, then its no concern to you. Even if you have DIY CO2, I would suggest, not to pump CO2 for a day. Thats why I suggested to use an airstone for a day to keep oxygen levels high.

Also, you have to worry about the pH. If you use normal water and don't mess around with the pH, then you will be fine with such a big water change. If you have a low pH, then I suggest you prepare the water first and then replace the water once your gravel switching out is finished.

[gadgetgirl]

Funny you should mention this today; I was thinking about doing the same thing.

I use a piece of python hose about 3-4 feet long,and a 5g bucket. Choose a plantless place to start. As long as your gravel is small enough, the syphon action from the (Which is it - 1" or 1.25" interior diameter?) hose will pick it up as well as the detritus you stir up. Watch your fish!!! The noise is usually enough to keep them away, but there's one in every crowd. . .

Minimal disturbance to the inhabitants. I've done this several times in a few of my tanks and never lost anyone yet.

When putting your freshly washed sand in place - I use a soup bowl sized container. Fill it about 3/4, then lower it gently into the top of the tank and allow it to fill with water. Lower it slowly the rest of the way to the bottom and pour out slowly. Repeat. Slowly is key in keeping the sand where you want it, rather than letting it fly all over. Leave your filter off until you're finished and the sand has settled.

It's easy to do once you get the hang of it, but don't get too greedy when sucking up the gravel, you'll clog the hose.

I advise not doing the entire tank at once. Do a bit with every water change until you're happy. Really, you ARE doing a water change, the gravel is a bonus :thumbs:

[jvision]

I have now added Quickrete brand play sand to 2 tanks with water in them and had almost no cloudiness. It's a natural colored sand that is available at Home Depot for around $8 per 50lb bag.

[CORVETTE]

Remember to shorten your intakes too so you wont suck up sand and destroy you impellers and shafts.

[rayfong]

I've swapped out gravel for sand in 3 of my tanks, my 120, 90 and 72 gallon. I did it with the fish still in the tank. All I did was scoop out the old gravel and once I got most of it out, I can't get it all out, I poured in the quik-rete play sand. It was cloudy for a few hours but after that everything was fine. I didn't lose any fish either, I couldn't see them for a while but when I could I didn't notice any missing.

[timbruun]

I can't find quickrete on the home depot website? Is it called anything else? I can find the King brand which has a bunch of different types. And Stone Mason sand.

[jonnytens]

I can't find quickrete on the home depot website? Is it called anything else? I can find the King brand which has a bunch of different types. And Stone Mason sand.

another alternative is to use sand from sil industries in edmonton/sherwood park.....their sand come in different sizes sil 1 being the finest and sil 9 being the coursest......it is around 10 bucks for a 40 kilogram bag. i use sil 2 or 3 (can't remember exactly)in many of my tanks, i just picked up a bag of sil 1 (very fine) that i was going to use for some shell dwellers, but it is very fine so i am not sure how it will work out.

[timbruun]

Hoping to get it today. Not sure if sil industries is open? Trying to stay south side if at all possible also.

[timbruun]

And how much sand for a 55 gallon tank? 48x12 or so.

[jvision]

Quickrete is in the cement isle at Home Depot. One bag is great for the 55 gal.

[timbruun]

I found it today. Bought a couple bags so I have some for later I guess. Much cheaper than elsewhere. Went to big al's for black sand to add to one of my tanks that I have already that is short. They didn't have any so I went to aquagiant and it was $29.99 for 1 bag. It's crazy. And it was only 20 pounds instead of 55 pounds of play sand for $7 at home depot.

[timbruun]

Well that quikrete was awesome. Just changed over 2 tanks from gravel to sand. The sand barely even needed to be washed once and it was good. Very slightly cloudy in the one tank but that's partly because I dropped the pail and sand went flying. I had more issues with all the crap in the gravel turning my water black. End result is much better and easier to maintain.

Thanks for the help everyone.