Switching from Gravel to Sand

[Teej]

Hi there.. I have some questions.. I am possibly interested in switching to sand... but I have some reserves about it.. first off, I burry my air tubing underneath the gravel to hide it.... Wouldn;t it become unburied much easier with sand? Also... I have a great undergravel filter system... right now my tank consistently has a good PH and 0ppm of ammonia... so I want to keep that.. With sand though, I would have to use a different filtering system, right ? The sand would just get sucked upo the tube.. and sort of nix out the filter... Or am I wrong? Thanks

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You can't bury airstones in sand. The air will just push away the sand. Penn Plax makes a air stone that has a weight on it that is used for sand substrates. You just push the weight into the sand and it holds it in place. We use them on all ours.

An UGF will not work with a sand substrate. You will have to use a different filter for the tank. How large is your tank? What you may want to do is buy the new filter, put it on the tank for about a month, let it seed, then change out the gravel. This way you can practically eliminate a cycle.

 

[Teej]

I will just stay with the gravel then... I have the weighyesd airstoen stipps already... that is what I use in my tank... but I like the filtration system I currenttly have... it does the job VERY well.. I am using a combination under gravel filter system wit htwin powerheads along wit ha penguin 330. The combo keepy my amonia and PH perfect.. Thanks for the info though... you jsut confirmed what I was thinking.