Switching out gravel

[Midas-n-Titus]

Right now I have a sand/gravel mix in my 30g tank and have decided to go for a more uniform look by going with all sand. In taking out the gravel and adding new sand, is there some kind of conditioning process I should put the sand through before adding it to the tank? Do I need to keep the gravel in until the sand is conditioned?

Any info would be very helpful.

Also, is there a benefit to having one over the other?

 

[zave2340]

when I changed over, i just did it on the fly. 100% gravel to 100% sand.

Now that i look at it, i most likely sould not have done it that way.

BUT

Since you are changeing from 50/50 to 100 there si no reason why you cant just add the rest of teh sand in. Mixing in the new with the old would most likely help the tank aclamate to the sand. Plus, any bacteria that is in the old sand should quickly move into the new sand... you can comprare this with placeing a new filter, on a established tank, with a esstablished filter. Just like that method of aclamateing the new filter, by adding the new and old sand thgethor, there should be no problems.

 

[Midas-n-Titus]

Thanks, I never really thought of it that way.

 

[YuccaPatrol]

I would get something like a pasta strainer and use it to separate the existing sand from the gravel, probably using a big plastic flour scoop or something similar.

I'd do this with the fish removed and the water level drained to about 1/3 water remaining.

Then I would add more washed sand as necessary to please my eye.