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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| convert gravel tank to sand substrate?
like the title says, i am thinking of converting my tank, whats the easiest way? | 
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| 1. Remove the fish and décor.
2. Fill pantyhose (I used knee-high pantyhose) with the old gravel keeping the gravel in the tank water the whole time.
3. Add the new substrate.
4. Return the décor and fish.
5. Leave the old gravel for 2 to 3 weeks before removing.
I was simply changing the gravel but the principal is the same. In the picture you can see my old blue gravel in pantyhose in both rear corners. pantyhose.JPG | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| I have taken fish out to do this and left them in. I find leaving them in is easier. After switching every tank I have to sand I am pro at it now. LOL Since I move all the decor to one side they have all kinds of security over there while I'm working. But they usually dont care much. They more come over to bother me wondering what it is I'm doing. Their pretty used to me being in there doing stuff  I don't leave the gravel in a bag in the tank like some people do. I vacuum the out of my gravel and I doubt there is any bacteria in there to even leave it in for that reason (it gets disturbed too much for any significant amount of bacteria to grow). I've never seen a problem though I do test the water everyday for a week after just to make sure. Good luck with the switch! | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| great advice from all, just remember that you need to rinse the sand before putting it in your tank. this can be done relatively easily, just fill a bucket with sand, add water, let it settle, and then pour the water out, you shouldn't get a whole lot of sand everywhere and it will get the dust and everything out | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Thanks for the advice everyone, i will probably do the keep fish in method as i have nowhere to keep 63 inches of fish for a few couple of hours while i do the switch. What sort of sand will be best? The fish i have are all listed in my aquarium info. Also, how much sand will i need for a 65 gallon tank? | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| FYI
I have sand in one of my tanks and it has tore up 2 filters so far. It makes an awful racket and no amount of cleaning will get the sand out. Eventually it just seizes up. I will be switching from black sand to crushed rock this weekend. | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| pool filter sand, definitely
i'm going to look for a link for you that is a substrate calculator, you plug in the dimensions of the tank and how much substrate you want and it tells you how many pounds you need | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| oh wow thanks agabr123
i dont think the sand getting into my filter will be any problem as my lowest filter intake is around 6-7 inches from the bottom of the tank | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| no problem
yeah, that and pool filter sand is designed for that sort of thing, if you rinse it and try not to stir it up massively you wont have any problems.
oh! and make sure that at least once a month you aerate the sand. i use the other end of an algae scrubber, and just sort of drag it around in circles. sand can hold pockets of toxic bacteria and if you don't aerate it regularly and it suddenly gets released can be harmful to your fish. if you don't want to stir it up as often, you can get a malaysian trumpet snail, they dig around in it all the time and will help with aeration. | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| i have about about 500 malaysian trumpets in my tank now so i will make sure to pick most of them out and leave them in the tank when taking the gravel out :P | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| FYI unless you already bought sand. taking advice from a store owner construction sand sold at Home Depot sells for $7 per 60 pound bag manufacturer is called Quickcrete. Very nice not too fine, almond color with black speckles. This is the regular sand used in construction to mix with concrete, not playground sand (too much clay), and not sand blasting sand (too much silica, too fine). use a 5 gallon pail and place a few pounds or 1 gallon of the bagged sand at a time. Use the garden hose with a pressure nozzle to blow the sand and agitate the sand around as the pails fills with water. When filled dump out and repeat the process until that sand water is clear then place in a separate bucket as clean washed and ready. Then repeat the process over and over until you have the amount of sand you want. Take your clean sand and add a little hot water and mix before placing in aquarium so that it is not be cold and cause a big temp change. remember to treat washed wet sand with water treatment as it will contain chlorine. The remaining bag sand can be stored outside and used for a verity of purposes. I have seen this exact same looking sand sold in aquarium stores for $20 per small bag. I am using the construction sand myself now for more then a month now and it looks and keeps great because it keeps debris from getting berried unlike in course gravel which traps everything and discolors. Also after soaking or saturating for a week it no longer affects my filter impellers at all even when moving things.
Last edited by CWO4GUNNER; February 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 PM.
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Sophism  FYI
I have sand in one of my tanks and it has tore up 2 filters so far. It makes an awful racket and no amount of cleaning will get the sand out. Eventually it just seizes up. I will be switching from black sand to crushed rock this weekend. | You could cover the intake to the filters to minimize the amount of sand they suck up with a piece of foam and of course make sure you turn the filters off anytime you're kicking up sand.
As far as what type that's up to you. You could use aquarium grade which is a little bigger in grain size and much bigger in price. I have playsand in a lot of my tanks. It cost 3 dollars for a 50 pound bag. Though some of the play sand brands are kind of brown looking which I hate. I use quikrete brand and it is a nice color. I like whiter looking sand. You could also go with silica (pool filter sand) Which you can choose to go up in grain size with and it is a bit more uniform. I like the play sand but it is really up to you. Sand is sand unless you get into the iron slate which is not really sand. Fish love sand and if you have any bottom feeders they will too. All of my corys barbels have grown since I switched and my loahces too. I love it and the cleaning is a breeze. No more vacuuming gravel, just hoover over the top of it to pick up anything (in my tanks there isn't much to pick up off of it) and your done. I loooove sand! And it is closer to the fish natural environment (most of them anyway).
P.S as far as play sand having clay, clay is very desirable for a planted tank. But I wash the out of it before it goes in the tank so there is no more clay by the time I get done. And silica sand (pool filter sand) is a very popular sand for tanks just make sure while washing it that you don't breath it in. And it also takes less washing time. I have never used construction sand but I heard it was sludgy. But I've never used it so I can't say.
Last edited by Aries; February 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 PM.
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Quote:
Originally Posted by jack--sos i have about about 500 malaysian trumpets in my tank now so i will make sure to pick most of them out and leave them in the tank when taking the gravel out :P | You wont even have to airate the sand if you have Malaysian trumpets. Their great for a sand bed | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| I will try to go to B&Q tomorrow (Hopefully we will have a snowday at school because we were sent home early today) and i will look for some sand, unfortunately i cant look for brand names as they are probably different here in england. i like the silica sand so will probably look for that, is there anything that i should lookout for that may harm the fish? | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Just found out from my dad that we have a big bag of playsand in the garden that he is using to redecorate the garden, so im thinking about "borrowing" some from him | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| be careful of pesticydes and other outdoor elements being in that sand...bacteria and chemicals from the garden could be in there | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnie be careful of pesticydes and other outdoor elements being in that sand...bacteria and chemicals from the garden could be in there | we have one bag that is sealed (as in not opened) would that be ok to use? | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| id only trust it if it was on a shelf where no water or other things could get to it | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| I've left my bags outside and they have gotten rained on. I figured it couldn't hurt since I was going to wash extensively. And two of my tanks have sand that got rained on. But I guess it depends. I assume if you were in a highly polluted area there would be some pretty harmful stuff in the rain. Not sure if that would be washed out or not. Anyway, always better if it doesn't get rained on I guess but I had already bought the stuff. No harm seems to have come from it | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| hmm i guess il wait, let my dad use that. he needs to buy more anyway so il might go along for the trip | |
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
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February 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| I think it just depends on the type because mine hardly comes up ever with the vac. I basically have to stick the vac directly on it to get any up. | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| i am going to change it over this weekend, would i be able to change it all at once and take the gravel out or would that couse my tank to go into a mini cycle? | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| just put a good amount of gravel in a nylon stocking and hang it in the tank to prevent a mini-cycle | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Be careful about “hanging” stockings in your tank. Stocking will act like a wick and drain water from your tank if they are hanging over the outside edge. I suggest tying the stocking and placing them completely in the tank. (refer to my picture on the first page of your thread) | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Dozey Be careful about “hanging” stockings in your tank. Stocking will act like a wick and drain water from your tank if they are hanging over the outside edge. I suggest tying the stocking and placing them completely in the tank. (refer to my picture on the first page of your thread) | lol, yeah sorry i should have been more clear!  the whole thing should be in the tank. thanks for catching that dozey | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Thanks, one more thing, what percentage of the gravel should i keep in the tank? | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| That will depend on the size of your pantyhose 
Just kidding. Try to keep as much as you can. 2 to 3 weeks should give the new substrate enough time to establish its own bacteria. | |
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February 6th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Dozey That will depend on the size of your pantyhose
Just kidding. Try to keep as much as you can. 2 to 3 weeks should give the new substrate enough time to establish its own bacteria. | lol! | |
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