Swapping gravel to sand

Hi, we have a 60 litre with 6 danios and 6 Cory doras. We recently added 2 snails. We currently have gavel - however I now think the Corys and snails would prefer sand. Is this right? Can I scoop out some gravel and just put the sand on top, or is there a better way? The tank is around 3 months old so don’t want to upset anyone to much. Thanks!

 

Next water change, get a 2 litre water bottle (or fizzy bottle but make sure you wash and dry it really really well), cut the bottom off the bottle. When you take the water out of the aquarium, put the bottle into the water upside down, use it like a funnel to gently move gravel out of the way and then very very slowly pour sand down through the bottle. Must be done slowly to avoid sandstorms. The bottle neck is narrow enough to allow aiming the sand where you want it but without clogging the bottle. Hold the bottle no more than an inch above the substrate level.

 

Can I hop on here?? Looking to change a tank from gravel to sand too. If I remove all the gravel will that throw my tank into a cycle? It's for cory fry... would it make sense to scoot the gravel over to cover half the tank and put sand on the other half next water change, as you described and then the water change after that change out the rest of the gravel to sand?? Any ideas there? It's a 5 gallon with 1 mystery snail, 2 nerites, and 1 cherry shrimp and I am currently trying to get cory eggs to hatch and this is the tank they will go in. Second picture is of the filter which has no space for bacteria media... I have a filter pad piece in the filter that will stay in the tank if not in the filter for a little while. Oh yeah, I also have a fair amount of detritus worms that showed up in this aquarium a couple weeks ago, though they haven't been as prevalent lately.

 

So we did it by emptying out 50% of sand. Scooped out 3/4 of gravel, and left 1/4 in which we have just left in to one side. We then used the bottle method to put the sand in, and then refilled the water as if a normal water change. We didn’t get a spike, all went well xx

 

So we did it by emptying out 50% of sand. Scooped out 3/4 of gravel, and left 1/4 in which we have just left in to one side. We then used the bottle method to put the sand in, and then refilled the water as if a normal water change. We didn’t get a spike, all went well xx

How much water did you remove before you did the change?

 

About 60% x

 

About 60% x

I'm gonna give it a shot once I get this ich cleared up!