Not sure if this is the exact right thread, but need help with sand

Tommy Gun

Tommy Gun

Fish Fanatic
Aug 1, 2006
302
0
0
49
Wisconsin, USA
Hey everyone!

So like I am sure a few of us are going through right now, I have not been able to get much in the way of supplies and equipment, other than food and the bare neccessities for my fish tanks because of the upcoming Christmas Holiday. However, I was able to find this aquarium sand at a toy store, yea I thought it was weird also, for a buck a pound and so I bought 60 pounds of it.

I have been wanting to get my cichlid tank switched over to sand for quite some time now and so this is my plan with the sand I brought home today. Actually, it is not really sand but finely crushed gravel and it is black.

The only thing is, when I first started out with this tank, I wanted sand but ran into so many problems with it that I gave up and went to gravel. This new sand that I bought is pretty coarse grained sand and so I dont expect a whole lot of problems with it, but I am wondering if anyone knows of a really good method for me to clean this stuff up so that I at least reduce some of the time that will be needed for the water to clear up.

I want to do it with fish in the tank, but I can and will most likely take them out and put them in a bucket for the messy jobs of getting the old substrate out and putting the new sand in. I think that the cloudy water due to the sand is not going to hurt the fish when I do put them back in, but I wanted to check to see if anyone feels different and why.

So, I am sure that someone out there can give me a good method for cleaning the sand and any tips I can use to make this go a bit smoother. I really would appreciate it and am open to any and all ideas. Thanks!
 
All I would do is put it in a pillow case and rinse it like crazy. Scoop the old out, and put the new in.

You can keep from stirring things up as much if you use a cup to lower it to the bottom before pouring it in.
 
Add the sand to the tank first, then add the water after by placing an ice cream tub onto the sand and slowly pouring the water onto that so that it doesnt disturb the sand lots. This will reduce the cloudy water as the water will tricle onto the sand from the tub.

It will still be slightly cloudly of course but will settle lots over night.
 
Thanks for the input!

I have fish in this tank and so I do not or cannot really take all of the water out completely to make this switch. I could put the fish in a bucket or something, but I am worried about a having a mini-cycle because I will be effectively be taking out quite a bit of bacteria with this substrate change.

I am going to put some of the old substrate in a filter bag to help 'clone' the new sand. I know a pretty good trick to use a couple of HOB filters to screen out the sand a bit faster, but I am going to try the pillow case trick of course first.
 
ye i under stand about the bacteria, but there is some good live bacteria called BioBac (i think) that is alive and you add straight into your filter and is ready after 3 days in a new aquarium but in an existing aquarium should be ready after like a day or so.

Personally i would empty the water and fish into buckets, add sand and slowly add water back in, try and be quick to keep the water at the corect temperature then add s bottle of BioBac into the filter to help maintain your bacteria :idea:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom