want to change from gravel to sand bottom

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Just went from black gravel in my old tank to sand in the new tank.... all the fish seem to love digging about in it. I was worried about turning the sand over until I put my common plec in.... he carves huge trenches in the sand.

Mine needed 3 washes per half a bucket so took a while
 
I just did 2 of my tanks. Switched from gravel/rock to sand. Best decision ever, and it was easier to do than I thought it would be.

Now, all the detritus sits on top of the sand. So once a day I flip on my powerhead, and it kicks all the detritus up and it gets sucked into the filter. Presto! Clean tank. Just had to experiment a bit to find out placement of the powerhead to not kick up too much sand. I used PFS, and it's pretty darn dense. It doesn't really get kicked up, and sinks back down like a rock when any of it does. I'll never go back to gravel. Plus, $5 for 50 lbs is really nice. For my 55 gallon and 75 gallon, I only used about 35-40 lbs. I subscribe to the "just use enough to cover the bottom" thinking. It's not a reef tank, you don't need 4-6 inches of the stuff. And the deeper it is, the more likely it'll trap gas pockets and be more dificult to "stir" every couple of weeks.

To swap it all out, I syphoned 2/3 of my tank water into a plastic 50 gallon tote. Then I netted all of the fish and put them in the tote (I didn't use a heater or power head, etc... because they were only in there for about 20 minutes, but if they were in there longer, I'd have taken my heater and powerhead and put it in there with them). Then I scooped out all of the rocks/gravel and put my PRE-WASHED PFS in using a cup to "set" it on the bottom (don't just dump it in). It all settled immediately, and I didn't have to wait at all for the sand to settle and get out of the water column. Just make sure the sand is VERY well washed using the 5 gallon bucket/hose method. When you think you're done rinsing.....rinse some more. Then I filled up my tank using a dinner plate so I wouldn't move all of the sand all over like mentioned before.

Make sure you monitor your water parameters daily for a few weeks so you know you aren't getting ammonia/nitrite spikes from swapping substrate. By changing substrate, you are removing some of the BB that resides in the tank, and when you put the same bio-load back in, you might get a mini-cycle. Just monitor, and do a water change if anything starts spiking too high.

Good luck! You'll love the sand!
 
Interesting post, I'm thinking about switching from Sand back to Gravel lol

Sand substrate sucks as far as keeping it clean. I suppose it depends on the type of fish and if it's well stocked. I'm use Playsand so not sure if other types of sand is easier.

I usually have fish poop all over the sand and even though I try to vacuum it, I still pick up about a cup of sand every time and when I'm finish with the water change, there's more poop lol

I'm about done with sand, looks nice, but gravel is so way easier to clean because you can shove the vac right into it without sucking the gravel.

I know some fish prefer sand, but what they prefer and what makes my cleaning easier may not always work.

Some will say sand is easy to keep clean, "cough bs" it's a real PITA, I'm a long time sand user and I'm seriously thinking of going back to gravel.

This one type of gravel I got for my Oscar tank is the same color as his poop lol works out nice. I'm thinking of switching my other tanks to gravel.

I was thinking of maybe just leaving the poop all over the place, maybe the look will grow on me, but not sure what that will do for water quality.
 
plecostic said:
Interesting post, I'm thinking about switching from Sand back to Gravel lol

Sand substrate sucks as far as keeping it clean. I suppose it depends on the type of fish and if it's well stocked. I'm use Playsand so not sure if other types of sand is easier.

I usually have fish poop all over the sand and even though I try to vacuum it, I still pick up about a cup of sand every time and when I'm finish with the water change, there's more poop lol

I'm about done with sand, looks nice, but gravel is so way easier to clean because you can shove the vac right into it without sucking the gravel.

I know some fish prefer sand, but what they prefer and what makes my cleaning easier may not always work.

Some will say sand is easy to keep clean, "cough bs" it's a real PITA, I'm a long time sand user and I'm seriously thinking of going back to gravel.

This one type of gravel I got for my Oscar tank is the same color as his poop lol works out nice. I'm thinking of switching my other tanks to gravel.

I was thinking of maybe just leaving the poop all over the place, maybe the look will grow on me, but not sure what that will do for water quality.
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I'm not being rude, but man that's one of the "laziest" outlooks. Being in this hobby means we have to take care of our fish, for some of us, its a significant investment. It is not at all about what is easier for you, its about what these animals need to survive and make them comfortable in this environment. The fact that you want gravel the same color as poop says to me you like to procrastinate cleaning your tanks. I'm not trying to be an arse but come on. If I had that attitude I would consider another hobby that doesn't require regular tasks. I'm not attacking you personally, just that your post kinda took me aback. Maybe you should try the sand mentioned above and if there is that much detritus in your tank, maybe it is overstocked our your feeding too much. Just a guess I don't know the details of your tank. You said you have oscars, they are poop factories themselves due to how much they eat and the size they reach.
 
Thank you again everyone very help my next Q what about my filtration i have 2 fluval 305's how fare up should my intakes be from the sand i will be using PFS???
 
Keeping sand clean is EXTREMELY easy. If you're using a heavier sand such as PFS then a couple well placed wavemakers such as koralias will keep the water circulating enough that the waste will never settle on the bottom. It just stays suspended in the water column until it gets sucked up in the filter intake. As long as you watch the output pressure of your filters to make sure they get cleaned often enough then all you shouldn't have any issues.
 
here is a tip that gets rid of excess "floaty" sand. After you've cleaned it, grab a 2 liter bottle. fill it with sand. Submerge the bottle into the aquarium water, so its full of water. turn the bottle upside down. As the sand pours out the bottom, all the "floaty" will stay inside the bottle.
 
I think Plecostic's problem is with the Play Sand. I use a python with my PFS, and don't have a problem with sucking up sand at all. I can see granuals get into the main chamber of the python, but it never gets sucked into the hose. It just falls back down to the bottom of the tank. And I think a well placed powerhead would solve his/her problem with detritus sitting on the sand. This would kick up anything sitting on the sand, and keep it suspended in the water column until sucked up by the filter. And because of this, I have to syphon very little when I do water changes.

But to each their own.
 
I switched all of my tanks over to sand a few years ago and never looked back. I found it easiest to take the fish out before I did it. There are a few places behind the large rocks that detritus collects, but it's not too bad. And as far as gas development under the sand, I just stir it up when I do water changes, but I am looking into getting some snails to see how they work out.
 
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