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I have loads of sand and am going to start transferring my pebbles out of my tank. I am now wondering whether this was a good idea. Been sitting here now for about an hour wondering whether to take my bags of sand back. My tank is 5ft long and have loads of live plants and hiding places as i have a Blue Crayfish, Peacock Eel, Albino Shark, Silver Shark and

8 Neon Tetras
1 Golden Gourami
2 Dwarf Gouramis
2 Kissing Gouramis
1 Talking Catfish
1 Albino Catfish
7 Guppis
4 Mollies

Can anyone tell me if this will work? Went to a new fish shop around the corner and all there tanks were white sand, well it looks like sand and they looked good. But my tank has always had pebbles will the transfer be ok for my fishes/others. I have an Interpet Undergravel Filter and I am also worried whether the sand will mess up the cycle and get stuck anywhere it shouldn't be.

HELP???

I also forgot to mention in the top right handside of the tank i have baby guppies 2 off them. I will have to be extra carefull when i transfer them as they are tiny. Came back from a 3 day holiday yesterday in the Highlands and I noticed I had little babies.


--
"There are only 10 kinds of people in the world --
.....Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Last edited by NORMANBOND007 at 05-Oct-2005 14:07

Sand wont work with an undergravel filter (UGF) as it will simply fall thru the cracks and clog the whole thing up. UGF's are in most peoples opinions really outdated and not even worth thinking of anymore. Not only does sand not like them but plants generally dont like them as well as it causes issues with the roots. Additionally but somewhat off topic, most plants dont really like sand either as it contains little nutritional value to them, and has a strong tendency to compact the roots crushing them and killing the plant.

Sand has it's own host of problems, including but not limited to getting sucked up the intake of a HOB filter, clogging UGFs and compacting roots as was mentioned. And even more worrysome it will easily develop pockets of anerobic bacteria which will kill fish if not properly prevented. This involves carefully sweeping the surface of the tank with your gravel vag weekly then stirring up the sand to prevent it from forming pockets that will turn anerobic.

Since you have plants and a UGF I'd suggest against the switch. If however you do still wish to change there are steps to be taken to prevent a minicycle. You'll need to buy a new filter, and carefully switch the tank over. I've done it on one of my tanks and it's not all that hard....just very time consuming.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

Thanks, what system would you suggest with sand? A modern one as I really want sand so my eel and crayfish can hide better.

Even if you plan on covering the intake on a HOB canister you have issues....at least in my experience . Canisters are more expensive, but ...as of yet I've not managed to kill it.
With HOB filters the first thing the water (and any sand that may be along with it) hit the impeller first. With my canister (eheim ecco) it hits the media first so there's less a chance of the sand hitting the impeller and damaging it.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

I had a brand new HOB filter get ruined when i switched my twenty nine gallon to sand. Um, in my experience, which isnt a long time, the HOB filter is the easiest way to do it, but the sand if not settled before-hand, will get sucked right in and clog. also cleaning is kind of a pain too.. the only bright side is the fish love it, and it looks good. :hrugs::

if i were you, i'd stick with the current setup. but, thats just me.

-Chelle

*Chelle*
_______________________________________________
I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

Go with an eheim , in a number of models the water has to go throughat least 4 types of media, two of which should catch every particle before it would ever get to the impellor. You can buy a prefilter for them too that you could empty more often than the main filter thereby making sure the clogging (should it ever happen) is exterior to the filter and an absolute cinch to rectify.

It takes time for sand to settle as I found out when I first put sand into my 12 gallon it took almost 2 days to settle on the bottom luckily I didnt put any fish in there first. The sand does give a more uniform look to a tank but beware the downsides others have mentioned, also if you move things in your tank such as plants or rocks then ocasionoly the sand will float to the surface and must be skimmed off to avoid getting caught in a HOB filter.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed my sand so it took no time to settle. I poured sand into my 4g bucket till it was half ful. Then filled it with water, swirled the sand, and pour off the water on top after about 5seconds. Eventually anything that didn't settle after 5seconds was scattered across the bathtub. When I poured it in the tank it took about 5 seconds to become clear.

I'd suggest just about any cannister filter for a tank that size with sand. It doesn't really matter which one you decide on because just about all of them have a filtration method before the sand reaches the impeller and cannister choices seem quite dependent on personal preference and available funds. Alot of people love eheim, quite a few people think it's not worth the money, and a few people hate their cannisters. I have a Jebo odyssea which has the exact same design as the eheims but with media baskets which some are lacking and it costs 1/3rd the amount. The water flows through course, medium, fine filter media, and the purigen before it reaches the impeller.

Peacock eel with a cray fish!
bad idea they crayfish might think of the burrowing peacock eel as food and might even kill it