gravel to sand help...

Fish Hobbiest

Fish Hobbiest

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Dec 30, 2007
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im going to go to petsmart in about an hour and im going to buy sand for my 40g tank, but i was wondering if its safe to take out the gravel and put in the sand without taking out the fish? seeing as how I dont have no where else to put them since I had extreme failier with my 100g because i had a power surge and both my filter and air pump were fried, and all of this happened while i was away on a 5 day christmas vacation, and the reason the filter AND pump stopped working was because those two things were the only things that were directly hooked up into the wall plug and not a spliter that protects against surges. I wont be replacing those 2 things in some time, so right now ill just focus on my 40g.
Luckily tho I didnt have massive fish loss, but i did lose some fish, sadly it was one of my rainbow sharks and 3 of 9 inch sarassa comets :(

so now back to my question, of course ill put in the sand 1 small cup at a time and slowly, but is it safe if any sand is sucked in by the fish before it settles?
and sorry for writing so much but i had to tell someone and get it off my chest.
 
It is safe. Fish won't get hurt. However, I would never buy sand from a petstore; it's too expensive.

Assuming most freshwater fish operate the same, I've seen my guppies poop out sand all the time without any problems.
 
Absolutely. This was just mentioned a while ago as well. Just ensure to megaly (might not even be a word :D) rinsed and slowly lower it to the very bottom of the tank to dump it out. Never dump it out from the top or else you will get sand floating all over the place.
 
James0816 said:
Absolutely. This was just mentioned a while ago as well. Just ensure to megaly (might not even be a word :D) rinsed and slowly lower it to the very bottom of the tank to dump it out. Never dump it out from the top or else you will get sand floating all over the place.
Click to expand...

LOL no james megaly is not a word but the rest of your post is pretty well right on.. i'd go the hardware store and buy playsand (quikrete) or the local pool supply store for pool filter sand.. make sure to rinse the heck out of it then rinse it again. do a major gravel vac .. take most of the water out, then take the gravel out and add the sand slowly put a plate or something down on the sand so when you refill the tanks the water doesnt hit the sand directly.. be prepared to do 3 or 4 water changes to get any floating debris and in a day or two you got a clean and clear tank...
excuse the novel here folks lol i've done this on two tanks
bush
 
so its safe to leave my fish in the tank as i switch from gravel to sand?
 
yes you can leave your fish in there, I have, but do a water change afterward, and before if the gravel is really nasty

I use pool filter sand, it doesnt get sucked up in the gravel cleaner, and its heavier, so less floating particles and less stuff in your filter when you go to move stuff around

I love pool filter sand, just wash it lots when you get it first
 
thanks for the info, so where can i buy pool filter sand? i went to petsmart and they dont have it there, they had other types of sand but it was all really expensive, so i just walked out with some filter cartridges.
 
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