sand change

[HiImSean]

ive had 2 bags of play sand that i've been meaning to put in my 125g. all i've had in it for the last month is some tahitian moon sand from another tank, only 1 bag. so today i had some free time and decided to put some of the play sand it. it was a PITA to clean. it was a lot dirtier than i remember. i only put about 3/4 of the bag in after cleaning it. it made my tank so much brighter. the black sand and back really absorbed the light and made it hard to take pics of the fish w/o a flash. now everything is bright and illuminated. the sand was a bit dirty still so pics didnt come out great. it should clear in a day or so. here are some before and after pics. i only have 84watts on the tank, 4 21watt t5 bulbs. i will add the rest of the sand later when i have more free time, i had to study tonight so this will do for now. i think my jurupari prefers the play sand better to the moon sand. the other fish seem to be more safe to come out

before

now

 

[FSM]

i recently switched my tank from PFS to black sand. I agree that it makes it look much darker, but I love what it does for my fish's color.

 

[HiImSean]

the dark was making my fish darker but you couldn't even see the patterns on my psittacus and my jurupari was becoming very dark.

 

[jdmkid]

are you guys doin this to allready cycled tanks? ive been wanting to get rid of my blue rocks for some black or sand, but i was told to do it in sections to not mess with the bacteria too much. any ideas or tips on changing the gravel?

 

[HiImSean]

yes my tank is cycled. while BB does live in the substrate, most of it is located in your filters. so if you change the substrate you're not going to be messing with your BB that much. i also left the old sand in there, just mixing the two together.

 

[jdmkid]

thanks thats what i was hopeing and i should have enough because im running a hob filter and a fluval 305 on a 55 gallon