Switch to sand

[jrskater1999]

So in my 26 gallon i have some black gravel. If i wanted to switch to sand, what would i have to do?

 

[Zevyn]

I did this last week with the fish in the tank. The stress of removing them and moving them back seemed to be theoretically more than just leaving them in there to me.

The big question then remains: what would all the filth from the gravel do to them after being stirred up? I wasn't able to gravel vacuum a majority of my tank due to plants and rock work, but that seemed normal and accepted since the assumption was the plants would feed off of the spots I couldn't get to (which was about 90%, lol). After seeing what came out of that gravel, I'll never use it again in a tank that can't be easily vacuumed on a regular basis. It was horrific, heh.

So I took all my rock work out and left only the plants and fish (8 guppies and 4 Panda Cory's). I was going to gravel vacuum and water change over a 3 day period until it was ultra-clean.

The first gravel cleaning got just about 95%+ of the detritus out. I had the sand pre-washed and sitting in my living room for an entire day, so it was room temperature. You don't want the sand to adjust the tank temperature. I made the decision to start pulling the gravel out with a dust pan I purchased and washed in hot water just for this one project.

The fish all schooled up, guppies and cory's, in the corner opposite of the side I worked on. When I finished that side, I corraled them into the bare tank side I finished and cleared that side of gravel. I was able to use a cup to lay the sand in the tank (3" in the back sloping to 2" in the front) and the fish didn't seem bothered by that. Put my plants and decor back in (which sat in old tank water along with my filter media) and filled it with treated tap water.

Instantly the cory's were 100% happier and everyone made it through fine. Only took me between 1-2 hours total.

 

[5x5]

So in my 26 gallon i have some black gravel. If i wanted to switch to sand, what would i have to do?

I've done this before with my 30 Gallon and here is what I recommend.

1. Drain the water about 50% and store some of it in a 5 Gal bucket or two (depending on how many fish you have).
2. Net the fish and put them in one or more 5 gals
3. Remove your filter and filter media and keep it wet.
4. Completely empty the tank and hose it now. This is a great opportunity to give it a nice cleaning and make it look new.
5. Add the sand (Rinse it first if necessary) and slowly add the water to preven stirring it up more than necessary.
6. Let it settle for a little bit and then add the fish back and turn the filter on.

Note - if the sand has not mostly settled by the time you re-add the fish, you can temporarily add a filter sock/screen over the filter intake to prevent too much sand from getting sucked up.

This is a 2 hour job and the results will be rewarding.