switched from gravel to sand.

[gravereaper0]

Hello. So last night I switched from gravel to sand. Bought a 30 lb bag of TOP FIN oolite aragonite sand for a 20 gallon tank. Also installed the fluval 306 I also got yesterday. Took all the gravel out syphoned out half of the water, washed the sand put it in the tank and filled the tank back up with fresh treated water. Now the water is really cloudy. Not sure if the sand isn't settling or its because of the water change and the new filter. I did leave the marine land 200 in it for the beneficial bacteria so they can establish themselves in the new media in the fluvial. Also I see that the goldfish are sucking in and spitting up the sand. Is that normal?? Also I got 3 live plants if it changes anything. So should I be worried about the cloudiness, is there a certain time period to when it should clear up?

 

[GNarnian]

The cloudiness is natural. It will go away as the sand settles. No matter how much you wash sand there will always be at least a little clouding. Just give it a couple days.

 

[jlk]

I actually disagree on sand cloudiness. I use pfs now in my Goldie tanks and never experienced any cloudiness. The aragonite sand is very fine sand. I am curious why you chose this because it's going to affect your ph?

 

[CoryFan]

The sand spitting is totally normal. They play with it. My calico telescope even takes it in...then floats without fin motion until she is above my BN pleco...then spits it on her head and darts away. Ha ha!

 

[jlk]

The sand spitting is totally normal. They play with it. My calico telescope even takes it in...then floats without fin motion until she is above my BN pleco...then spits it on her head and darts away. Ha ha!

+1
Definitely agree! Eating/spitting sand is normal.

 

[gravereaper0]

Its just what they had in the store and I like how pure it looks. I tested the water today and my ph does seem to be a bit high, looks like its at 7.8 is there a natural way to get it down to 7.5 I don't want to use chemicals to bring it down. When i set up the fluval yesterday I added poly fill and a packet of algone to the media trays. All the other readings are a bit high which is expected when most of the water has been changed out. Oh and today it looks a lot clearer then yesterday.

 

[jlk]

With this sand in there, there honestly is little you can do to reduce the ph. Don't be surprised if it peaks higher than what it is now. Your amm test has a glare on it so I am not sure what this reads but your nitrites 'look' in the pic extremely high. I would work on some 50% water changes to drop this below .25ppm. The water changes should also reduce the cloudiness.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

This sand should hold your pH somewhere around 7.8 or so. It's just the nature of aragonite.

 

[gravereaper0]

Your amm test has a glare on it so I am not sure what this reads but your nitrites 'look' in the pic extremely high. I would work on some 50% water changes to drop this below .25ppm. The water changes should also reduce the cloudiness.

The ammonia is reading at. 50 ppm. I will do a 50% water change now.

 

[librarygirl]

The ammonia is reading at. 50 ppm. I will do a 50% water change now.

I would do more than one 50% water change. Nitrites look to be pretty high, about 5. A 50% water change will bring it down to about 2.5 (assuming it isn't higher than 5 to begin with) which is still high for fish. Another 50% would bring it down to 1.25 which is better, but borderline. You might want to to a few 50% water changes throughout the day today.

 

[Aquastrategist]

I did the same thing with my 25 gallon with angelfish neons Cory cats and rainbowfish inside. It cleared up within a couple days and not a single fish died! Good luck and for the future if you add more sand, use a cupp and bring it to the very bottom, the dump it slowly, it clouds up less.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

The ammonia is reading at. 50 ppm. I will do a 50% water change now.

I had some big spikes the other week when I reworked my tank. Some days I had to do multiple water changes, too. It's a pain but the fish show their gratitude by staying alive. :/

 

[ktomminello]

I'm afraid aragonite and oolite are going to off set (up) your ph. Those types of sands are known to be high end brackish to saltwater substrates. I would try to stick as natural as possible for your solutions. Lava rock, malaysian bogwood and plant fertilizer can help to lower your ph- throw in a cpl 5-6 inch plecos with that and change your water about 30% per day for a week, change out 60% at the end and keep a very close eye on your fish... Or you can always meet yourself halfway, put a layer of regular aquarium sand on top, put fish in a separate holding container and make sure there is only about 2 to 3 inches of water when you add the normal sand, make sure the new sand kind of forms bricks in your hand and add water through your filter slowly to keep from disturbing the substrate. Good Luck!!!

 

[jlk]

I'm afraid aragonite and oolite are going to off set (up) your ph. Those types of sands are known to be high end brackish to saltwater substrates. I would try to stick as natural as possible for your solutions. Lava rock, malaysian bogwood and plant fertilizer can help to lower your ph- throw in a cpl 5-6 inch plecos with that and change your water about 30% per day for a week, change out 60% at the end and keep a very close eye on your fish... Or you can always meet yourself halfway, put a layer of regular aquarium sand on top, put fish in a separate holding container and make sure there is only about 2 to 3 inches of water when you add the normal sand, make sure the new sand kind of forms bricks in your hand and add water through your filter slowly to keep from disturbing the substrate. Good Luck!!!

What is the purpose of adding a couple of plecos? They will make no difference with the ph, likely overstock the tank that already has issues with ammonia/nitrite and are strongly not recommended for a goldfish tank. A 30% water change is far from sufficient on any tank that holds messy fish, particularly goldfish.

 

[gravereaper0]

I asked at the store if it matters what kind of sand I buy, and of course they said no. That's the last time I listen to someone at the lfs. I'm back on the road (otr driver) so my wife took over. She did a 50% water change not too long ago and tested the water. Everything seems to be going down except the nitrites. Later on today she'll do another water change and post the results here. I don't want to change my substrate, we both like how it looks and I spent good money on the sand. Can I add something to the media baskets to lower it?

 

[jlk]

You can try adding peat moss to your filter but it will stain the water. Unfortunately, you may be fighting a losing battle with the ph because of this sand. As long as the ph doesnt jump dramatically from normal, you should be ok but I would keep close tabs on it over the next week or so and see what happens. Goldies are fine with higher ph's but it will make water changes a bit more of a challenge if the ph difference becomes a big one. Keep us posted!

 

[manbeast]

you said you had a couple goodies in a 20 gallon so the amount of waste they put out was probably lowering ph to begin with so given time the bio-load and the aragonite may balance each other out, as for the suggestion of the plecs, I wouldn't do it in your 20

 

[ktomminello]

oops

you said you had a couple goodies in a 20 gallon so the amount of waste they put out was probably lowering ph to begin with so given time the bio-load and the aragonite may balance each other out, as for the suggestion of the plecs, I wouldn't do it in your 20

Too many posts lol, thought you had a 40g The thought behind the plecs, j, would have been to force a fast cycle by adding to the output of bioload along with sludge and protein clean up, a couple small bristle nose plecs can get rid of some of the nitrogen rich diatoms from a sand bed decently quickly and they are one of the hardiest fish out there. I use giant danios and plecs to cycle my tanks.

 

[jlk]

Too many posts lol, thought you had a 40g The thought behind the plecs, j, would have been to force a fast cycle by adding to the output of bioload along with sludge and protein clean up, a couple small bristle nose plecs can get rid of some of the nitrogen rich diatoms from a sand bed decently quickly and they are one of the hardiest fish out there. I use giant danios and plecs to cycle my tanks.

Trust me, the bioload of goldfish is more than sufficient to cycle any tank. There is no 'forcing' a fast cycle either unless your adding lots of cycled media. Mother nature works at her own schedule.

 

[jlk]

Gravereaper, how many goldfish are in this tank and what type are they?