trem1

i have sand as my substrate how do i add more without creating a nightmare, you know the type cloudy water cant see the fish,will it kill them type of thing

timg

The best way I've found for adding sand to an establish tank is with a funnel, (the type you use for fuel), clean of course, and a flexible piece of hose pipe. Tip the dry sand into the funnel and feed the hose across the bottom of the tank where you want to place the sand. It will take a while, but create minimum suspension in the water, since the sand is put right onto the bottom, not tipped through the water.

As long as the sand is cleaned first, it should create very little cloud and not harm the inhabitants or the filter.

beingteri

Great IDEA!! I guess if you wanted to spread it in a larger area at a time, you could connect a second funnel on the other end and actually sit it on the bottom. That would create little sand castle mounds, but as you moved it, you'd cover 3-4 inches at a time. Plus, depending on how big the tank is/how much sand you were adding, it would free up both hands to support sand pouring.

timg

Haven't tried that idea, but I found it very easy to cover a good area just by slowly moving the pipe around. The problem may be that using the inverted funnel you would cause a larger disturbance as the top of the funnel would still be full of water and the sand would have to fall through it to the bottom. When you remove the funnel, the cloud would then mess up the rest of the tank!

I would try it in a spare tank first!

(When I poured sand, there was always two of us doing it, one pouring the other depositing)

darkwolf29a

When I had sand, I hated it, I used a butter container.

All you do is:

1) Load up the container with sand.
2) Carefully put it in the water.
3) Let the water enter the container.
4) Place the container on the bottom.
5) Tip the container.

Worked like a charm, honestly.

norcals14

I like darkwolf's idea... the funnel thing seems to be a pain in the rear unless you have an inner diameter of like 12"... but it might be a good idea to do this in the middle of a water change as well.... just a thought

griffin

when i needed to add more sand, i did something similar to darkwolf.

first, make sure that the sand to be added is wet, then put it where you want it when the water is lowest (usually during water change)