Any advice on how to switch to sand?

[TwistedPenguin]

Yea, that's why I'll NEVER use gravel again. All that crud and gunk hides underneath it, it drives me nuts knowing it's there. Once it settles do a good long syphon of the bottom and re-rinse your filters out so you get that goober-stuff (whatever the proper term is) out of there. Otherwise it just sits in your filters rotting and making your nitrates build up faster. I do think you'll like sand better. Husbands are not known for their decoraating tastes

 

[Lissaspence]

Got the sand in!!! It looks a million times better than it did before. It's still a little cloudy in there which is why I haven't posted pics yet. I took some but they look like crap. I had two canister filters on this tank, one being marineland. I will never buy one of those again! Everytime I've cleaned it or changed out the media something on it has broken. Well when I finished changing to sand and most of the junk got out of the water I went to clean it and it was making some strange noises when I hooked it back up. The motor completely died shortly after that! Pretty sure it had nothing to do with switching to sand as I did everything the correct way (pre-filter and turning it off). I think it was just a piece of crap! I'm in the process of trying to find the recipt (since it didn't even make it a year) so I can write the company and give them a peice of my mind! Fluval is still going strong! I was planning on building my own wet/dry anyway so my plans were kicked into overdrive. I'll be working on this tonight and tomorrow. Hopfully by the end of the weekend everything will be hooked up and my water will be clear enough to show off my beautiful new aquascaping

 

[assortedsorts]

The best way I have found to wash sand is instead of putting wanter in the bucket and mixing the sand with my hands, I will fill the bucket about half way with sand and take a hose and put it right down to the bottom of the bucket and let it go...on low flow of course haha...the hose does all the work of moving the sand around.

 

[Lissaspence]

That's a really good idea! I wish you would have posted that a week ago! O well, live and learn.

 

[Lissaspence]

Well my water is crystal clear now and I'm just being a putz about posting pics. I'll try to get that done tonight. I'm sure your all dying in anticipation right

 

[bgcoop8784]

i know i'm really late on this but when washing sand or gravel i always suspended a beach towel over an old rubbermaid container with a hole in it so that the towel didn't touch the bottom of it, pour sand in the towel and just rince the sand with the water hose. almost perfectly clean.

 

[Lissaspence]

Well I went to a new fish store that I read about from another member in the favorite LFS thread and didn't leave there for a couple hours. So cool!!!! They had some amazing tanks and ponds set up that I stood around and looked at forever. So needless to say no pics yet. Soon....

 

[tcarswell]

Well I went to a new fish store that I read about from another member in the favorite LFS thread and didn't leave there for a couple hours. So cool!!!! They had some amazing tanks and ponds set up that I stood around and looked at forever. So needless to say no pics yet. Soon....

Im guilty of the same thing. I had leg surgery so the meds had me kind of
I was at exotic aquariums for like 4 hours .

Furthermore I am switching to sand as well from gravel (First timer!) All my tanks for the past 18 years have had gravel lol starting with my turtle tank when I was 5. I just got the last of my gravel out today (Me being paranoid I removed a cup a day)

Please post some pics and let me know what you think of the change.

 

[whamphyry]

pics please lissa =)

 

[Lissaspence]

I promise I will tonight. I'll even set an alarm on my phone to remind me (trust me this is absolutly necessary, I think I'm brain damaged some times my memory is soooo bad ). I have tons of pics on my camera already. Just have to upload and post. Plus my husband will be gone for the over a week starting tonight so I will have no excuses!