took the plunge and changed from gravel to sand!

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aaronjohn20

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Ok, I like the look of the sand but jeeze it was soo much more work than what I had expected.

Here's my old gravel
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Here's what I bought
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Here's a tub in my tub. I love my wife lol
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All my fish in their temporary home
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Starting to fill the tank back up
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There's everything back in order right after fill up and adding everything back in
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Looks good. The cloudiness will go away eventually with the filter. But when I start out with sand I usually change the entire volume of the tank water at least once to get rid of the cloudiness. Makes the process a lot faster.
 
For me they were new tanks so didn't have to worry about BB. I've never converted over before.
 
I'm gonna do a 50% pwc prob tomorrow. I was in a hurry to get the fish back in. I always just float my bio wheels (Penguin 350) when I gotta do something like this, or when I actually clean my filter out.
 
Hey, aaronjohn...

I stumbled upon this thread and wanted to ask you about that ship you're using as your tank's centerpiece...in considering yet another "pirate shipwreck" kind of theme for my 60 gallon, your ship intrigued me...where did you get it, and is the pirate setup what you were going for?
 
I have done a compleat gravel to sand change over. Drained the tank all the way and it was an all day project. Well worth it!!
 
ArtesiaWells said:
Hey, aaronjohn...

I stumbled upon this thread and wanted to ask you about that ship you're using as your tank's centerpiece...in considering yet another "pirate shipwreck" kind of theme for my 60 gallon, your ship intrigued me...where did you get it, and is the pirate setup what you were going for?

We bought the ship off of a friend for $40. No clue where he got it from.
 
Wasn't really going for any kind of theme. The wife seen the ship and liked it. We did buy the bubbling treasure chest with scuba diver but that's been about it
 
Wasn't really going for any kind of theme. The wife seen the ship and liked it. We did buy the bubbling treasure chest with scuba diver but that's been about it

I see...well, that kind of ties in a "treasure/pirate" kind of thing...

Do you have any clearer, up close pics of the chest and diver?
 
On aaron's topic here...

Is sand generally advised AGAINST as a substrate with goldfish, or is it okay?

It sure does look a lot more wicked than gravel...:blink:
 
Nice looking tank! I like the Pirate ship as well. I have black sand in one of my tanks and I love it! It is an easy cleanup and looks good. The only thing I have heard is you should stir up the sand a little bit when you do a water change because it traps pockets of harmful gasses that can build up and then leak out and harm the fish. How true this is I am uncertain, but I err on the side of caution. Good luck!
 
ArtesiaWells said:
On aaron's topic here...

Is sand generally advised AGAINST as a substrate with goldfish, or is it okay?

It sure does look a lot more wicked than gravel...:blink:

Not sure about goldfish. I personally don't like them
 
Lucas82 said:
Nice looking tank! I like the Pirate ship as well. I have black sand in one of my tanks and I love it! It is an easy cleanup and looks good. The only thing I have heard is you should stir up the sand a little bit when you do a water change because it traps pockets of harmful gasses that can build up and then leak out and harm the fish. How true this is I am uncertain, but I err on the side of caution. Good luck!

Never heard that about pockets of gas. I guess its time to do alil more research into it. The only drawback I have seen so far from the sand it its black and the tank and stand is oak lol.
 
Nice looking tank! I like the Pirate ship as well. I have black sand in one of my tanks and I love it! It is an easy cleanup and looks good. The only thing I have heard is you should stir up the sand a little bit when you do a water change because it traps pockets of harmful gasses that can build up and then leak out and harm the fish. How true this is I am uncertain, but I err on the side of caution. Good luck!

I'm not so sure it's a "pirate ship" per se; looks like simply a sunken Spanish Galleon, which are nearly as nice...

With regard to the "gasses," you are correct, and this can happen with gravel as well as sand...rotting food the fish missed, waste particles that didn't make it to the filter intake...these can all contribute to these toxic patches of gas that get trapped under the substrate...

I just did a 50% water change on my tank today and did some gravel syphoning, but I have to get a MUCH longer and bigger one because of the depth of this new tank I have; it's SO deep that I simply cannot reach in all the way to truly do a deep gravel vac...:banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
Anyone other than aaron know if sand is recommended/not recommended with a goldfish community?
 
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