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I have large gravel in my freshwater 55 gallon and i want to replace it with something a little smaller. I would really like some sand, but alot of people have told me that it is difficult to keep. But my main question is how do i change the substrate without draing my entire aquarium? someone please help!

very difficultly. Youd should be able to scoop most of it out with a large cup. and whats left will be covered by sand.

what filtration do you have. because if you have a UGF you can't have sand for obvious reasons

You can scoop up the old gravel with a bowl or strainer. This will most likly kick up a lot of dtris, so the tank will get cloudy. Then you can put the new gravel or sand in with a bowl or even a PVC pipe with a funnel to dirrect it to the bottom of the tank. With sand you will again get a lot of cloud in the water.

Dan


Dan

i have a powerfilter that hangs on the back, so thats all i will have to do is scoop it out with something? what about all of my decorations and fish? and if i decide to do sand, when i pour it in, will it cloud the water since i am pouring it directly into water? should i put all of my fish into a seperate area while im doin the gravel change?

I heard that you can loose alot of beneficial filtration by changing your substrate.

i filled a tank with sandand ittook about 3 days to settle properly, i would advise pooring the sand down a length of pipe straight to the bottom then it shouldnet stir up too much. the more you wash the sand 1st the better to get rid of the fine dust, you cannot wash it too much

if i do change my gravel, will i have to re-cycle my tank again?

Just take out some gravel each day and you will be fine. I change my gravel couple of times before.

You should try bare bottom - so easy to clean. 2 of my 4 tanks are bare bottom.:%)

A lot of your benificial bacteria is in your HOB filters and bio wheel, if your running one. Some is in your gravel, so you will loose some by removing the gravel. Any time you make a change there is some recycle involved. If your stocking is low, this will not be a problem, but if your running on the high end you may see an ammonia spike. Test your tank for this. If you see it going up, do a water change to protect your fish.

Dan


Dan

but if you are bare bottom where does all the benificial bacteria stay????

In the filter.

Also, i would drain the water a little, scooping the gravel out might displace alot of water out, and spill on your floor.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the old "gravel in a nylon stocking" trick yet It's as easy as it sounds. You place a scoop or two (or even the whole lot) of the old substrate in a nylon stocking (or several), tie it off, and place it in the tank for a couple weeks. This way you don't loose any of your bacteria and it seeds in the new substrate.

That being said, to switch from your current gravel to smaller gravel, I'd drain the tank about half way, scoop out the gravel, put as much as you want in nylon pantyhose or some kind of mesh bag, add the new gravel and refill the tank. If you're do for a WC anyway, it's a nice way to kill 2 birds with one stone

To switch from gravel to sand, rinse all the sand, a little at a time, THOROGHLY. Then do as I said above. Sand needs to be stirred once every week or two to prevent gases from building up under it. A powerhead helps keep the poo and leftover food kicked up for the filter to grab, since you can't gravel vac sand Other than that, sand isn't that hard to maintain. Also, I recommend getting a colony of [link=Malaysian Trumpet Snails]http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug_S98.jpg" style="COLOR: #FF82AB[/link]. They dig around in the sand for you (but you'll still need to stir it yourself) and won't eat any plants.

HTH

><>Dani<><

ok, thanks everybody, u guys were really helpful, but i have 2 more questions:

1. i dont have an under gravel filter, does that mean i can't have a powerhead?

2. can i just get play sand from home depot?

Hi,
Yes you can use a power head to provide current within
the tank. IF you do, put a sponge filter around the
power head's input to keep the sand out. The sand will
destroy the impller and its housing.

You should give some thought to why a power head? If
you are using a good filter(s) then it (they) should provide
plenty of current making the power head an unnecessary
option.

Yes, you can simply purchase the sand at Home Depot.
As was mentioned, wash it throughly. This not only removes
the "fines" (silt and dust) but it also removes the pieces
of wood and twigs that often accompany the sand.

One last thing, if you decide to use sand, consider raising
the intakes from your filter higher into the water colunm
and further away from the surface of the substrate. Sand is
very easily stirred up by yourself in cleaning, and by the
fish. Like with the power head, if sand gets into the filter
it will destroy the pumping mechanism and ruin the filter.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 05-Apr-2005 09:33

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Sand can burn out the impellors of HOB's very quickly. So, I'd recommend you use a "prefilter" of some sort on the intake to prevent sand from being sucked up. And for the same reason, turn the filter off if you create a sand cloud in your aquarium when adding it.

I've changed substrates out and haven't had a problem with the tank re-cyling or anything. And this was with a 100% water change. The majority of the bacteria is in the filter. So, as long as that is kept in tact, you should be fine.

I recently changed my gravel from big to a smaller size. I can tell you that if you decide to change it at once it is going to take quite some time with your 55 G and definatelly stress you fish. So I would suggest changing 50% gravel on one side in 2 weeks. i.e 50% per week. you can use seperation scrren to minimise shock to your fish. this can also minimise cloudiness on one side if you are replecing with sand. you can remove the screen after sand settles down.