I want to chang substrate

[Istfensarion]

So i want to change from river rocks larger then gravel to silica sand i have heard soo much about. I have the sand now it seems to be really cheap and i hear it does great. My question is what is the best way to change it in a tank already established I don't want to hurt ne thing i already have going on but i just really want to change over to sand i hear it is much easier to clean then the big rock i am using. I was thinking of doing it during a water change but removing all the water and the fish all together cleaning the bottom of the tank rocks and the mulm under them rinse it out with tap add old water back and fish and prime and new water. Any help would be great i really don't want to cause any trouble to these fish.

Thanks again
Lawrence

 

[prober]

That will work, or depending on the fish you could just scoop the rock from half the tankand put the sand in that side, then do the other side later. after you scoop out the rocks you cansuck up any mulm.

I have done it both ways, I think doing it half at a time causes less problems with water chemistry because you are not removing so much bacteria at once. If your fish are very skittish though it may be harder on them.

I personnaly would not wash and rinse the tank unless it is really foul.

 

[Istfensarion]

so i decided to change it in my test tank before i did it in my display tank and it looks alot brighter being the sand is white and the rocks where all different colors. Though it is cloudy from the sand i assume it seemed very heavy but there is alot of tiny ones floating around guess i'll wait a few days to see how it looks for real.