I was advised against switching to sand

[mattman0182]

I currently have gravel and was thinking about going to sand. The people at the LFS advised against me getting sand in a freshwater tank. I was told it would mess up the chemical composition of the tank and be very hard to take care of.


Is it a good idea to go to sand?
If so, what is the best way to do it without harming the fish?

 

[Joker741]

Sand is not a problem as long as you keep it stired. Get some MTS or stir it yourself.

 

[Etunes]

That is bogus IMO. I had gravel in all my tanks and switched it all to sand. I fin i like it better because it stays cleaner. The dirt/food/food doesn't get stuck on it like it does on the gravel. You only have to worry about sturring it up if it is larger then a inch deep. I do it just in case but i only do it like once a month when i would vacuum my tank.

 

[Zer0]

Also, if you switch to pool filter sand, then don't even worry about those "harmful gas pockets" The granules in pool filter sand are too big for anything to really get trapped under there. It was something i was afraid of at first, but then the good people of AA explained to me why it wouldn't happen or even make sense. So, IMO pool filter sand is the way to go. Looks nice, it's clean, and won't harness harmful gas pockets. But the choice is yours.

 

[Joker741]

X2 on the pool filter sand.

 

[Etunes]

The only issue i have with pool filter sand is it is white. It is chaper but i wanted black sand not white. So i just went and bought sand. It is just as heavy and works just as well. But if you don't mind white then go for the pool filter sand. It is way cheaper.

 

[spoonman]

PFS is the way to go. The small grains keep all the stuff on top. I go along with the gravel vac once a week and just suck up all the bad stuff. The only thing that I did was shorten the intakes on my filters. It will mess up the impellers on your filters if you have the intakes too close to the sand and they suck up sand. Also, certain fish like my Lake Malawi Cichlids love to dig in the sand.

 

[mgamer20o0]

The only issue i have with pool filter sand is it is white. It is chaper but i wanted black sand not white. So i just went and bought sand. It is just as heavy and works just as well. But if you don't mind white then go for the pool filter sand. It is way cheaper.

there is colorquartz which is cheap and black and the size of sand.

 

[Etunes]

there is colorquartz which is cheap and black and the size of sand.

Is there really. I am gonna have to look into that. Thanks for the info MG.

 

[oneball]

there is colorquartz which is cheap and black and the size of sand.

can you mix it with the pfs?

 

[mgamer20o0]

yes you can. colorquartz comes in several different colors.

 

[crusch]

pfs all the way!! I got a 50lb bag at a local hardware store for $5.99 and it looks great and is very easy to take care of. The pfs I have is a tan color looks very clean!

 

[mattman0182]

Thanks for all the replies. The sand I was looking at was a green colored sand. I am not sure of the brand. If this seems like a bad idea I will go with the PFS.

I need to figure out the best way to do the swap without killing the fish. I was thinking about manually removing the water and putting the fish in a bucket....swap the rocks for the sand....replace 2/3rds of the water and add the rest as new water....replace the fish.

The ones I am most worried about harming during a catch are the frog and the bristlenose.

I am also thinking about holding off on the idea, is there a big advantage of sand over gravel? I was thinking it would be more comfortable because everyone likes to hang out on the bottom.

The reason im thinking about delaying the change is because I would like to add 1 or 2 more upside down cats to keep mine company. She is currently the only one in there and I have learned they work better in groups.

Sorry about all the questions, I just don't want to rush into major changes without thinking it through.

 

[spoonman]

I put tank water in buckets and moved the fish into the buckets. I kept the filter media wet and completely drained the tank. Then I scooped out all the old substrate and cleaned the tank. Then I put in the sand (after rinsing it well to keep down the clouding) and refilled the tank with dechlored temp matched water. Put the rocks and plants back in, then the fish. No problems. I dont think making this change should determine when you add fish. If anything, make the change now then add the fish when the tank settles down.

 

[sieski]

I would be tempted to take a good scoop of your old gravel put it in some nylon stockings/net and put that back in your tank with the new sand after for a few weeks. this will seed the useful bacteria back to your sand

 

[mfdrookie516]

I would be tempted to take a good scoop of your old gravel put it in some nylon stockings/net and put that back in your tank with the new sand after for a few weeks. this will seed the useful bacteria back to your sand

If youre using the same filter without cleaning it, you should be fine. With all the decorations and plants, along with the filter, ive never had a tank mini cycle after changing over to pfs

 

[DragonFish71]

I went with the 3M color quartz black in our new 80g tank on advice I have gotten here and so far I love it. I use the Tgrade size, which is just a bit larger than sand. I do have black sand mixed with Activ-Flora in 2 of our other tanks and honestly I'm not going back to gravel. Our 10g was gravel until I converted it over a few months ago after we went with sand/activ-flora mix in our 40. If I could convert all our tanks I would. The plants in our 2 non-gravel tanks stay rooted much better than in our gravel tanks. Cleaning once a week is easy, just skim over the top with the python cleaner. It does stir up sometimes, but over all I'm very impressed.

 

[newfound77951]

there is a small grain of truth to what the LFS folks said that no one picked up on. You wouldn't want to use sand for a saltwater tank (i.e. aragonite sand) in a FW tank as that would alter the water chemistry. That may have been what they meant. But there are many other options as mentioned.

I have PFS in my 36 corner and onyx sand in my 10g. I switched out the substrate in my 36, it was a lot of work taking out all the fish and plants but it worked fine. I would suggest catching the frog and pleco in a plastic cup rather than a net - less stressful for them and much less chance of the pleco getting stuck in the net.

If you're looking for black sand, there is the previously mentioned colorquartz, also Tahitian moon sand, my "onyx" sand is more of a dark gray but looks nice.

 

[eah]

The ones I am most worried about harming during a catch are the frog and the bristlenose.

I recently bought a much larger net than I've ever had before -- it's probably about 8" or maybe a little wider. It makes catching fish so much easier!

 

[sieski]

If youre using the same filter without cleaning it, you should be fine. With all the decorations and plants, along with the filter, ive never had a tank mini cycle after changing over to pfs

Well I changed gravel for gravel in mine without doing that and I DID mini cycle. for the sake of putting a fistful of old gravel in you increase your chances of prventing a mini cycle surely? Saying that you could do what I say and still mini cycle maybe. My point is why not do anything that will only help?