Should I change my Substrate?

[groovitudedude]

To play sand? I have 80 lbs of it and I don't really want to go out and buy any other type sand, but this stuff looks pretty cool. The main fish I am worried about in my 100G is my fire eel, 'cause I don't want him to get any infections. Right now, I have purple, black, and blue gravel, but I don't want any scratches on my fire eel, who hides in the castle all day. I want to give him an opportunity to burrow while he's still less than a foot long. I have a couple of main questions:

Will my fire eel benefit from a sandy substrate?
Should I change it anyway for the look and overall appeal?
How should I go about doing WCs with the sand?
How should I change it if I do change it?
What type of sand do you guys suggest?

I have two HOB filters running on it (Whisper 30-60) (http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/205897/product.web). I don't want to have to clean them out weekly, and I don't want my WCs to be a hassle, since I have to vaccuum the bottom of the tank regularly. Any and all (positive AND negative) suggestions are welcome.

 

[kusojijii]

since I set up my 150 with sand I like it a lot better than gravel. I can see the debris on the bottom much better than all the nooks and crannies stuff can hide in when using gravel. As far as your eel is concerned I don't know...

 

[oOMO3NOo]

i recently switch my 75 to pool filter sand i like it alot better. looks better and easier to clean IMO.

to clean you just hold your syphon about an inch above the sand and suck everthing up.

to change the sand what i did was first wash the sand really well by putting the sand in a bucket and run water over it tell the water was almost clear. then turned all the filters off, took a little of the water out, then removed gravel (doing this over a period of time will make it so you loose less BB all at one time), when all the gravel was out i took the big tube off my syphon and used that to suck up the single pieces of gravel i couldnt get by hand. and by this time about 50% of the water was out of my tank. i then slowly added the pool filter sand slowly with a bowl or cup. (add the sand SLOWLY and get it close to the bottom before you dump it out) once all the sand is in, it will be very cloudy thats normal. i then added water (again slowly to not disturb the sand). i did a few small water changes to help clear it up then let it sit for a little while before turning filters back on. i turned my canister on let it run for a little while then turned on my HOB (somtime sand can mess up HOB filters)

notes: i used pool filter sand but im guessing its the same. and a heard a sponge filter works better to cear up the cloudy water but thats not how i did it.

and i dont know how the eel will like it but my fish all love it.

here is a pic to show you the difference (sorry there blurry bad camera but u can get the idea)

 

[CTU2fan]

I think the eels like to dig so he'll probably like the sand much better than the gravel. Since it's playsand you'll want to be really patient cleaning it, I've heard it's often dirtier than pool filter sand like I used. 80lbs should be enough for a 100G, do the switch just like OMO3NO describes...I didn't have to as I started my 170 with sand.

 

[groovitudedude]

Okay, thanks for all the help, guys. I'm wondering if it would be okay to take everything out of the tank, rinse it out, and do what oOMO3NOo said with the sand, and put the sand back in. However, there's (of course) the cycling problem and I don't want to have a spike. Would it be okay if I let the HOB filters with the old filter media run in them for about 3 hours, or do I have to get all of the gravel out of there with a bucket?

 

[pwmin]

for some reason, I'm not following your new question...maybe someone else is able to use their brain today, lol.

i would def get the gravel out because of the fire eel, mainly, and also the unnatural colors

 

[CTU2fan]

Biggest thing with the canister & HOB's you're running is definitely do your best to make sure the sand is clean, because that suspended crud in less-than-clean sand can screw your impellers. I would change out 50% of your water, pull out all the gravel (use a net for the last pieces), then add the cleaned sand. You'll want to cut your intakes and keep them 8" or so above the sand to minimize stuff getting in, and you might want to put some fine screen over the intakes but that's not 100% necessary unless your fish actively spit sand into the intakes (tinfoils might do that). Anyway I'd let it all settle for a couple hours, then turn on the canister, let it settle some more and then turn on the HOB. Your BB shouldn't die and even if the BB in the HOB's died you'd still be OK as your canister is seeded.

 

[groovitudedude]

Biggest thing with the canister & HOB's you're running is definitely do your best to make sure the sand is clean, because that suspended crud in less-than-clean sand can screw your impellers. I would change out 50% of your water, pull out all the gravel (use a net for the last pieces), then add the cleaned sand. You'll want to cut your intakes and keep them 8" or so above the sand to minimize stuff getting in, and you might want to put some fine screen over the intakes but that's not 100% necessary unless your fish actively spit sand into the intakes (tinfoils might do that). Anyway I'd let it all settle for a couple hours, then turn on the canister, let it settle some more and then turn on the HOB. Your BB shouldn't die and even if the BB in the HOB's died you'd still be OK as your canister is seeded.

I don't have a canister filter.....

I have pics of the old gravel and the new substrate (in the 20G) that I'm planning to use.