Removing Rocks and adding Sand

[silent1mezzo]

Hey Guys,

I've had my tank setup for 6 months now and I'm getting sick of my substrate.

Is there anyway to remove it and add sand with teh fish still in the tank? Would my tank have a mini-cycle? How long would I have to have my FX5 off so it doesn't suck up all the suspended sand?

Cheers,

 

[Exile]

It would be difficult to do this with the fish in, or even the water. I personally drained my 125g and removed all the gravel, used a fan to totally dry the tank out and then I shop vacc'd all the tiny pebbles and black expoxy flakes the came off of the gravel.
Put sand in, filled it back up using about 40gals out of my 75gal and that was it. The filters were already established so the tank was fish ready next day...

 

[silent1mezzo]

Hmm, so I need to wait until my fish die out

 

[Chumlee]

ive done it before, not fun at all , but Ive also done it with draining the tank like 80-90% and then replacing the gravel. Whatever you do, dont shop vac while theres water in it, lol I tried that before and my carpets will never smell the same . If you were to keep water in the tank i would still drain it like 50 % and obviously clean the sand really well. If you have less water in there the sand wont have as much water to spread out in and it will clear faster .

 

[creepyoldguy]

I've done it. It's really not that hard, just sort of messy. Just empty about 50% of your water and turn off your filters. Use a dustpan or something similar to scoop out the gravel. Rinse out your sand until the water is clear. Put the sand back in the tank and wait til it settles to turn your filters on.

 

[Dark Jester]

In my 55g I switched from pool filter sand, to black gravel, to tahitian moon sand without emptying the tank. Just take out 20-30% of the water so you aren't splashing it over the edges and get yourself a little scoop to get the gravel out. Think of it like sweeping a kitchen floor, it goes pretty fast if you have something good to scoop it into and lift it out.

For adding the sand, as long as it is rinsed very well, it shouldn't really cloud your water. One trick I found was to rinse the sand in a 5g bucket, then take a cup and scoop the sand out a bit at a time. Put the cupfull of sand into the tank and lower it to the bottom before dumping it out. Really helps keep the water from clouding up, and you don't have to worry about a bunch of micro bubbles keeping sand particles suspended in the water column.

Keep the filter off while adding the sand, but once it's added and settled to the bottom you should be good to go.

Edit:

I've done it. It's really not that hard, just sort of messy. Just empty about 50% of your water and turn off your filters. Use a dustpan or something similar to scoop out the gravel. Rinse out your sand until the water is clear. Put the sand back in the tank and wait til it settles to turn your filters on.

Yeah, what he said.

 

[Allan01230]

Agree wiith above post just keep fish in bucket with aeration and tight lid. My silver dollars (adults) freaked out when I did this with them in the tank.

 

[Younglin]

I would just use a hose to suck the rocks out, like vacuuming them but without the extension. Then do it in reverse with the sand. Fill a 5 gallon bucket like 1/3 full of sand and the rest with water and vaccum the sand into the tank.

 

[Moloch]

I just did this to my 20 with 2 convicts in the tank. Took out all the decor and turned off the filter, used a dustpan to scoop all the gravel into a bucket. Then filled a 5gal bucket with sand (was probably 20-25lb's of sand) and sunk it to the bottom of the tank (real hard...I know) and tipped it to drop the sand in the tank.

Oh, once I got everything I could with the dustpan I used a siphon hose (like mentioned above) to get the rest.

The cup idea up a bit further in the thread is probably better for a tank this size

Its easy though. It did seem to stress my convicts out a little bit (they tried for all their might to stay on patches of gravel once I had gotten most of it out) but I'm not sure if that was any worse than having them in a bucket for however long it would take.