sand VS. rocks

Its up to you. Its going to be a lot of work no matter what. How big is the tank?

Adding sand to an existing tank WITH fish will be a huge mess and quite difficult to do IMO.

My recommendation is to stick with the rocks.

Why are you deciding to go with sand instead of gravel (fish issues - ie diggers?).

GOod Luck

Aries

I tried the "sand replacement" but it turned out BAD.... I've cleaned them out since, left the sand in there now, but I would never try replacing subtrate again. I would make sure about what you want in there before you buy it

P.S. Light substrates (whites) do not work well with plants... they get nasty quickly and it's really hard to clean them well.

I used to have sand, im now in the process of changing back to fine gravel. Sand looks nice when its clean, but it shows dirt easily and its a pain to clean, the gravel cleaners suck the sand up aswell. I'd stick with gravel

i put sand in and took rocks out it is very simple to do leave the fish in the tank remove everything plantsdecor etc leave all the water in .Then keep the bubbles in until u put in the sand wash the sand for about 3hrs then then when u put it in get like a cup and dont drop it in put it across the top moving it back and forth then put decor plants etc...... back in and let it settle

You could try moving them to another tank and then work on this one. Just make sure you keep your filter media under water (to keep it alive). Most of the bacteria (in my experience) is in the filter anyway. I just changed over my 20 gallon tanks and kept the filter media. 0 ppm readings for ammonia and nitrite and still going strong.

Hopefully that helps

Is it really that hard to keep clean? I also have been thinking of putting it in one of the tank I am about to set up, but if it requires a ton of maintenance I may stick with gravel. Also will a power filter suck it up?

as long as you rinse the sand thoroughly before adding it to the tank, you shouldn't have a problem with it getting in the filters. sand is easy to keep clean if you have a steady hand. you can stir up the sand and suck the poop out of the water, or just hover the end of your tubing above the sand. if you use a python, put some kind of container underneath the drain. any sand that you take out is caught in there and all you have to do is swish it around/rinse it again to get the bad stuff out, then scoop the little bit of sand back into the tank. not a big deal.

ha already said that he doesn't have a backup tank, but if he works fast he doesn't need one. pick up a cheap rubbermaid container at walmart and put your fish in that during the 1/2 hour to an hour it'll take to change your gravel to sand. you can even leave the filters in there, just don't run them until you're ready to put the fish back in.