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Hi all. After searching through all your wonderfull pictures I have decided I want to change my tank around to planted with white sand.

I read a lot of posts and see that people get sand at the LHS. They will have white? What grain do you recommend?

The real problem is that I do not want to harm my fish. Taking out my gravel is already going to cause enough dirty water. Can anyone recommend how I should do this? Should I put the fish in my quarantine tank? I do not want to kill all the good bacteria etc. by changing to much water, however I know it's going to get very dirty.

And finally, I know that new sand, even rinsed is going to make the water cloudy. Will this be harmful to my fish? I would appreciate any advice on how to do this project without hurting my fish. Thank you for your time.

Mike
 
Welcome to AA! We have a 12-step program for switching to sand...ok, no we don't.

The most popular sand for aquariums is pool filter sand, and it is usually white. Try pool supply stores. Do some major gravel vacs in the days leading up to the change. You could even fill your QT with the tank water so there is less shock to the fish. Move the fish to qt and remove about half of the water. Pull out the gravel and add the sand. Refill the tank and let it settle before moving the fish back in. You will want your filter intake to be high in the water so it will be less likely to eat sand.

Another thing to remember is that you will need something to turn the sand to prevent buildup of gasses from decaying matter. Malaysian Trumpet Snails are a good choice. Some fish will also dig in the sand. Horseface loaches are fun to watch as they suck up the sand then filter it out through their gill slits.

I don't claim to be a sand expert. Any other ideas out there?
 
Wow, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I have not seen any trumpet snails at my lfs. Will any other snails do? What if the water is still a little cloudy, will the fish be ok. I am surprised that pool sand does not have any chemicals bad for the fish. Also, is sand better than gravel as far as buildup? I do a 25% change and gravel vac once a week and still it collects a lot of junk. How is this with sand? I would imagine not as much settles underneath, but I don't know. Thanks
 
Someone here at AA recommended straightening out a metal coat hanger and using that to cut the sand occasionally. I have been doing this about once a week.
 
As for the MTS you can post in the barter and tradeforum and ask for some alot of menbers will sl some to you are even give themaway. I have some to give away. But I'm going on vaction next week and nt be around to ship next week. Or I'd just give you some.
 
Hi Everybody,

Thanks for all your help. I bought pool filter sand today and it was only $12 for a 50 pound bag. I put my fish in a qt. tank, however I did change more than half the water because it got so dirty. I really hope that I don't go into another cycle. Anyway thanks for all your help. I live in Boston and I have about 20+ fish stores and nobody has MTS. I am trying to get some from a fellow member of the site. Thanks Again, the sand looks great. I don't think I will ever go back!!
 
You can change all your water with out affecting the cycle. The bacteria is not in the water, but in your filter, and on every surface of the tank.
 
Sand

Isn't a lot of good bacteria stored on the gravel along with the filter...I would think you could affect the balance by removing all the gravel at once.
 
Thanks to a great member of AA I will have some MTS on the way soon! It was a lot more work than I expected to change over, but what isn't? When I woke up the water looked great. I tested everything and it seems to be stable. As long as the temp. is the same in my qt. tank I am going to put my fish back after work today. The last question I have about this subject is how do you reccomend cleaning the sand. I imagine that I probably hold the tube above the sand and suck up the junk? Hopefully. I can't do it like a gravel vac because it will suck up the sand right? I had to buy a 50lb bag so I have enough sand for a long long time. Thanks again for all your help. If it wasn't for all you I would not even know what pool filter sand is and I love the way it looks. I am on my way to a nice planted tank!!
 
sand

Yes, a significant portion of the good bacteria will be in the gravel. So if you change all of it, or even do a really good gravel vacuuming you need to monitor the ammonia (and nitrite) levels for a time. Through ignorance and just not thinking it through; I once did a massive gravel vac and changed all the filter media. I believed the bio wheel would be sufficient to maintain the beneficial bacteria. Thankfully I did watch the ammonia levels and kept the spike to under .5. Meaning I got lucky.
 
Pictures

Hey Joannde if you want pics. I would like to send them to you and maybe you can give me some advice on how I can improve more. I can't get my photos sized right to attach them. I tried and the pixels were fine but the file is to big. I don't know how to fix this. Pm me and I will send them to your email or maybe you can tell me how to fix this.
 
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