Newbie with 72 gallon bow front tank, question on gravel to sand + additional fish

Hello,

If you still have the 20 it would be much easier but you can scoop out all the gravel with fish in the tank. It is a little bit of a pain but so what. Scooping the gravel with the fish in the tank will disturb them and upset them but so would transferring them to a different tank for a few days.

The real issue will be when you put in the new sand. A major cloud of sand will fill the tank for up to 3 days and you will not be able to see anything. It is hard on the fish but they will mostly live especially if they are already healthy and your tank maintains its own chemistry. You will need to rinse your filter pads daily for a few days.

The next issue to be aware of is your biological filtration. Much bio filtration happens with bacteria that live in the substrate and removing all of it will certainly upset the cycle of the tank. It will cycle again after this change. Test your parameters often and know that you may need to change the water more than once a week for a little while. If you have other bio filtration on the tank it will help. The more other bio filtration you have the better.

What you are planning can be done and you can prepare for the pitfalls and challenges. Good luck with it all.

I have tanks with sand in them and have changed substrates (but I moved the fish to an extra tank for a bit).

It is always fun to show pictures. Post 'em if you have 'em.

Nate

I'd remove the fish & then change the substrate. I've done switches to sand to accommodate keeping bottom dwellers (cories, plecs & such) & yea moving the fish to a new tank can stress them a bit but I don't like the idea of having my fish in a tank that I can't clearly observe until the water clears (which will be days). Especially since your bio-filtration will take a hit in the process as was already mentioned. I'd like the be able to identify quickly if any of my fish are experiencing adverse effects from it so I can take action if need be. But if you don't have somewhere else to put them in the meanwhile then I guess your choice is already made for you...

As for additional stock there are plenty of colorful tetras that you could add to your tank to give it some color. Cardinals, lemons, emperors, glowlights are all colorful & good community fish (and inexpensive). Their colors excel when they are kept in groups & in well planted tanks (especially the lemons). As for peaceful cichlids, rams are colorful & relatively peaceful but I like keyholes more personally. They are peaceful (the occasional short chase & posturing is the extent of their aggression I've observed in mine) & hardy & if you keep more than one & give them hiding spots (i.e. driftwood, rocks etc) they'll color up a bit to a greenish iridescent hue, at least the males will, the females still stay kind of a cream/grey color. If you make them comfortable you'll get the most out of there appearance (same goes for any other fish).

That is one nice looking tank, congrats!

Not familiar with the submerged soda bottle technique. I did watch a video of it after you mentioned it, looks like it's worth a shot although it seems like it might be a bit tedious. I have however had people tell me that they've taken a bag of sand & placed it inside the tank intact & then cut it open while it was submerged & pulled off the bag & that it has worked for them. I've never done it like that though.

You've got room in that 72g for a school of any of the tetras I mentioned. The lemon tetras are the ones that grow the largest out of the ones I mentioned @ about 2 inches more or less. The others max out at smaller sizes (1 - 1.5 inches).

Again, really nice looking tank, can't wait to see pics of it once you switch out the gravel for sand & start adding live plants. Good luck!

I have submerged the bag and cut it. I used playground sand and it still clouded the bejezus out of the water for days. Try the bottles if you want to.

Removing gravel and adding sand every few days is not enough to keep the bacteria stable. If you exchanged a third every few weeks the bacteria problem would be solved. I know many patient fish keepers and few would wait that long to change it out.

Water changes and several water quality tests per week will give you the best chances.

Pinkey said:

I have submerged the bag and cut it. I used playground sand and it still clouded the bejezus out of the water for days. Try the bottles if you want to.

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I bet it clouded the bejezus out of the water hahaha. But the people that have told me they've done it that way did so because it was the quickest/easiest way for them to swap out lots of sand for big tanks (90 plus gallon tanks etc). I didn't imagine it would do anything for preventing clouding that's why I never use that technique. I personally like to rinse out my sand like crazy (as tedious as that may sound) & then add it.

As for adding color, how about a pair of Peacock Gudgeon?