changing gravel to sand...

[jsa83]

i currently have about 40lb of gravel in my 46gal tank. they didnt have enough live sand at the petsmart to fill up my tank so i just decided to get gravel(back in november)..is possible to add sand into the tank and at the same time remove the gravel with out messing up the biological filter?.. my guess is add a little bit of live sand and remove about 5lbs of gravel each time. is there any other way you guys would prefer?.. and is it ok the add the sand while the fish are in the tank?..

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Yes that is exactly how you do it, waiting a week or two in between each transfer. Just keep your eye on the ammonia. Doing the switches right before your water changes is a good idea too.

 

[uh.oh...]

LOL, i thought this was a freshwater tank at first! Gravel in SW, interesting! I've seen some really neat SW tanks with no substrate at all. Just LR for the bacteria. And yeah, I'd follow Kelsey. Also as a tip: gently move the gravel up to the front of the tank over a couple of weeks, so its mostly all in one place. Then when you're removing it you can be as least destructive as possible.

 

[jsa83]

LOL, i thought this was a freshwater tank at first! Gravel in SW, interesting! I've seen some really neat SW tanks with no substrate at all. Just LR for the bacteria. And yeah, I'd follow Kelsey. Also as a tip: gently move the gravel up to the front of the tank over a couple of weeks, so its mostly all in one place. Then when you're removing it you can be as least destructive as possible.

haha yeh. i kinda regret it..atleast i didnt pick out the neon colored gravel.. haaha.. thanks for the tip.. would be a lot easier piling up the gravel before removing it...