Going to buy sand today to put in my puffer tank, have not had any sand bottoms before and not sure how to go about this. Shouldn't have a problem scooping the gravel out but wondering if I can just put the sand in without clogging filter or upsetting puffer. Will the sand go right to the bottom or does it take awhile to settle? Another thing I'm wondering is when I clean the tank if the sand is going to get sucked out..... Can anyone please educate me on this cause want to get it done this afternoon......
Gravel out and sand in..... Best way?!
- Thread starter puffer_girl
- Start date
Sand takes couple of days to settle completely, so you would have to turn off your filters, and usually this does stress out the fish. When you buy the sand, take something like a 5 gallon bucket and fill it half way with sand and just let water run into the bucket for about an hour and usually that will wash off the smaller particles thus letting the sand settle faster.
When i put sand in my tank i had no problems, i just typed the sand closer to the bottom, it never did get into my filter. good luck
Once the sand settles is it going to be difficult to keep clean? Heard that puffers tend to suck in substrate and concerned about this which is why making the change.
Soak the sand first, until everything settle down.Then put the sand in the tank and it'll settle faster.
Going to feed him first in case he gets upset and wont eat for a little. Then going to do a partial to get rid of any bm so it doesn't get stirred into water when i scoop up gravel.... Then going to get sand, soak it in 5 gal bucket to get rid of floating debris and then will put in tank..... Good game plan?! Thanks alot guys. Will check again before I go buy sand in case any more input.
Ok.... Getting gravel out went smoother than I thought! Because I put some live food in for him fist he didn't even pay attention to me!!! I guess I'm no competition for food!!! 
Will let you guys know how it goes and will take new pics of him for you guys soon. Thanks for the help!
Will let you guys know how it goes and will take new pics of him for you guys soon. Thanks for the help!One thing that I did when I added sand to my reef tanks was rinse the ever loving hell ouf of it. After I'd rinsed it out. I would leave it in the bucked i rinsed it out in with some water on top. I would scoop the sand in a cup with a little water on top and put it into the tank. This stopped the water rushing into the cup and prevented further mixing when it went into the tank. It limited the amount of dust that I couldn't get from floating off into the rest of the tank. It worked pretty well. Just a suggestion.
Good advice thanks. Think I'm going to just get natural sand. Concerned that dye might affect my water or fish. Any dye colors better/safer than others? Being the fact that he may be injesting the sand I am curious about this...... I am assuming there are diff colors although never really paid much attention to sand before.....