Adding Sand?

[glenwood]

Well I searched around the site and could not find a topic covering how to add sand.

So here is a few basic questions

1. How exactly do you go about replacing substrates? (going from 1-2 inch rocks to sand)

2. Which type of sand is prefered? (pool sand, playground sand, regular aquarium sand..ect)

3. I am wanting to switch to a dark substrate maybe even black as the tank and stand itself is black, will this cause a lot of peppering in my pigeon blood discus?

Specs
-72 Gallon bow front
-fluval 304 filter
-temp 82.5
-6 discus, two clown loaches, 4 glass cats, 1 red tailed shark, 2 corries.

Main reason I want to switch is so food doesn't get wasted, when I syphon out the tank the majority of the waste is uneaten food that falls between the rocks.

[jball1125]

I would put all discus in a temporary tank/bucket filled with just water from the already established tank some heat and air. Turn off filters remove as much water from it as you can. Remove the gravel by hand. Try to clean the tank as much as possible. If you can hose it down in the back yard even better. Put sand (pool filter sand is what most use) in and then slowly fill with new dechlorinated water. Leave enough space to add back your fish and the water they are in. Plug filters heaters back in and your good to go.

HTH

[goodoo]

I have done this a few times. I would move the fish to your a large container 50 gal, would be good. Run your filter in the container with the fish. one time I had all my fish in a 250 litre container 50 gal for about 10 hours and they got ammonia burn, didnt lose any fish but its better to run your filter with the fish. Empty the main tank and remove gravel. Get pool filter sand or kids play sand and wash for hours, do this before your remove fish, It takes forever. Add sand and put fish back in. Please dont use black it will make all your discus look horrible, I know I have done it.

[Jennie]

If you can find pre rinsed pool filter sand than you only need to rinse for 5-10 minutes..some places carry it, some don't

[Larry Bugg]

If all you were doing was adding the sand then I would leave them in the tank but since you have to remove gravel I agree with everone else, remove them. A big rubbermaid storage bin works great for a temp tank. Pool filter sand is what I use and reccomend. I have never rinsed my sand. Maybe I have been getting pre-rinsed and didn't know it. Every other substrate I have used HAD to be rinsed. Yes, if you have pigeon based discus a black sand will cause peppering.

[discuspaul]

I have used silica pool filter sand several times (3 separate bags), and didn't have to rinse any of it at all, or very lightly. Just a very slight cloudiness initially, which disappears in about 2 hours. Have tried black sand but don't like it's effect on some discus' coloration, and much prefer white for really bringing out the fish and plant colors, and giving the whole tank a more upbeat bright look, imo.

[goodoo]

I think any discus strain looks better with light substrate. If it has pepper or salt on it It will look much better with white sand.

[jball1125]

I think any discus strain looks better with light substrate. If it has pepper or salt on it It will look much better with white sand.

LMAO!

[Foxfire]

Be careful with sand in an aquarium (I have two planted discus tanks both with sand.)

In my community tank (which was planted/had sand) I had a major die off because the sand (after three years) became terribly polluted due to fish waste (I believe mostly liquid.) Yes, I had cleaned the bottom of solid waste, made weekly water changes and I used both a biowheel and canister filtering system and the water was perfect until one day ... most of the fish starting dying. Realizing the problem (after two days of confusion), I removed the sand and it was awful - I've learned a few lesions both to read warning signs and a danger related to sand tanks in general (also, I should add, at first I was puzzled by my plants dying off a few weeks before the fish kill and stupidly didn't put two and two together until after the major fish kill. Appears plants can't endure that much waste in sand, either.)

The community tank is bare bottom (for now) and one discus tank has had its sand replaced (glad I did, it wasn't all that clean; the other discus tank/setup is rather new and can wait the results of my new approach to filtering.)

Speaking of which, in a few months and once I am sure the idea is valid and worth the effort, I will give details - so far, I've never seen my tank so clean which, I hope, is a good sign - of course, the chem tests say all is well.)

BUT the safest solution for any tank with sand that is fairly old (even with heavy planting like mine) is to replace the sand at least yearly - especially for large discus in a tank close to its volume/fish limit (all mine are 6-8 inches @ 1 fish/12.5 gal.)

[kendrid]

I just replaced my black Eco-complete with sand last week. I should have done it before getting discus since I knew from reading here that gravel is a big no-no (and sand to some extent but I wanted some substrate).

I only have four discus right now so I moved two to a ten gallon tank and the other two were in a Home Depot bucket.

Here were my steps:
Remove half of the water
Move fish into temporary homes
Remove the rest of the water
Scoop out old substrate with a cup. I put it into two HD buckets.
Wipe down tank. It wasn't possible to rinse it outside, it was 10 degrees..
Put in pool filter sand, fill with aged water, put fish back in, done.

It was simple. The discus were not happy campers but they seem to really like the sand. I've seen them move mouthfuls at a time digging for food. I have 2" on one end with plants, almost BB on the other end. I have my flow setup so everything runs downhill to the almost BB end. It makes cleaning much easier. My bristlenose pleco actually moved so much sand the other day that it is BB in a big area now.

I am going to post photos of the fish before and after the change. My blue turquoise was a very dark, deep blue with the black substrate and now he's a nice light blue.

Firefox's story is a nice warning to the rest of us. Sand is $8/50lbs for me and I will replace it annually. It's two hours of work and the risk of everything dieing isn't worth saving a few bucks.

[goodoo]

Replace or wash annually. definetly a good idea.

[Herbicidal]

I just replaced my black Eco-complete with sand last week.

I am going to post photos of the fish before and after the change. My blue turquoise was a very dark, deep blue with the black substrate and now he's a nice light blue.I'd love to see some before and after pictures! How long did you have Eco-complete in your aquarium? Since you had that as a substrate, did you have plants then as well? Do you have plants now with a sand substrate? Thanks!

[Darrell Ward]

The trick with sand is to use a thin layer. Obviously you can't do that with a planted tank, but for everybody else, it's your best bet. If you really pile it in there, expect to have to clean the heck out of at some point.

[strawberryblonde]

So this is a bit unconventional, but it's working for me. <in other words, let the buyer beware>

I wanted a low light, planted tank and forgot to factor in the fact that it's a 54 tall when I put Eco Complete in it a couple of weeks ago. The lighting was fine for my original sandy brown gravel, but didn't penetrate to 28" once the black stuff was on the bottom. POOH!

I started hunting around for a larger grit, but still smoothly rounded, sand in a darker shade than white or beige and found Onyx Sand. It's expensive! But, since I was only planning on adding it as a top layer over the Eco, I figured one bag would do it. Then I got really creative and found some "Oreo" gravel. Also in a larger size then pool sand and also very smooth and rounded. They are both made up of very hard clay according to the side of the bag.

I tore my tank down to about 3" of water this afternoon. Washed both gravels REALLY well in a 5 gallon bucket...brrrrrr...it's cold outside around here! Then I put them into the tank using an old coffee cup. I just poured it in very gently...especially around my lil plants. Once that was done, I trimmed off any brownish leaves and then gently filled the tank again.

The water has only been in the tank for about an hour and already the water is nearly crystal clear again! Woot!!

I'm not going to toss the fish back in till the cloudiness has settled and I've tested the params.

The most amazing part was turning on the lights and having them shine all the way to the bottom. It looks awesome, though I'd prefer not having any whitish gravel in there at all, but at least in the front there's a nice light gray "beach" for my future discus to root around in.

Total depth of the Onyx Sand and Oreo gravel is about .5 inches. I'm hopeful that a light vacuuming once a week will keep the sand from settling too badly into the Eco. Will let you know how that goes.

But anyways, wanted to let you know that adding sand really isn't all that horrible. I was pleasantly surprised.

SB

[gsteve]

Be careful with sand in an aquarium (I have two planted discus tanks both with sand.)

In my community tank (which was planted/had sand) I had a major die off because the sand (after three years) became terribly polluted due to fish waste (I believe mostly liquid.) Yes, I had cleaned the bottom of solid waste, made weekly water changes and I used both a biowheel and canister filtering system and the water was perfect until one day ... most of the fish starting dying. Realizing the problem (after two days of confusion), I removed the sand and it was awful - I've learned a few lesions both to read warning signs and a danger related to sand tanks in general (also, I should add, at first I was puzzled by my plants dying off a few weeks before the fish kill and stupidly didn't put two and two together until after the major fish kill. Appears plants can't endure that much waste in sand, either.)

The community tank is bare bottom (for now) and one discus tank has had its sand replaced (glad I did, it wasn't all that clean; the other discus tank/setup is rather new and can wait the results of my new approach to filtering.)

Speaking of which, in a few months and once I am sure the idea is valid and worth the effort, I will give details - so far, I've never seen my tank so clean which, I hope, is a good sign - of course, the chem tests say all is well.)

BUT the safest solution for any tank with sand that is fairly old (even with heavy planting like mine) is to replace the sand at least yearly - especially for large discus in a tank close to its volume/fish limit (all mine are 6-8 inches @ 1 fish/12.5 gal.)

I had the same prob and will never use substrate again. sj

[kendrid]

I'd love to see some before and after pictures! How long did you have Eco-complete in your aquarium? Since you had that as a substrate, did you have plants then as well? Do you have plants now with a sand substrate? Thanks!

It was and still is planted but now it has a lot less plants. I really did NOT like the look of Eco complete. I had it for about six months and from day one wanted to go back to sand. I thought I would get used to a black substrate but it always bothered me.

Around the driftwood stump on the right is where all the waste accumulates. I am vacuuming it out daily.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5474349519_3b60b9af8b.jpg

Back when it was more heavily planted with Eco (and a "generic" community tank):
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5244/5352222016_764a8c7775.jpg

[Herbicidal]

Thanks for the pictures! The white sand definitely brightened up the whole tank. Very nice! :) I'm strongly considering making the switch...just trying to think through all the logistics/pro's and con's, etc.