# Aquarium Sand Help!



## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

im going to be using pool filter sand for my 55 gallon aquarium. the sand is 16# which is good size for cichlids from what i heard. how much lb do i need to fill up a 55 gallon aquarium and 29 gallon?
i was thinking of buying 50lb of white pool filtered sand. i think that should do the trick for both aquariums.

also if i use sand do i Have to use egg crates? cuz i do have lots of rock im planning on stacking to create homes for these mbuna cichlids. please tell me asap. would the sand itself be fine with the rock or would it create its own pocket and put pressure on the bottom glass.

can i add the sand with my cichlids in the tank. cuz i have gravel right now which i will be changing to sand. i think they will be fine?

thanks


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You don't have to use egg crate, but you even more importantly don't want to put sand under your rocks.

Adding the sand is the easy part, it's removing the gravel that will be the problem unless it is perfectly clean. Personally I would put the fish in a filtered bucket for the hour or two project.


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## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

DJRansome said:


> You don't have to use egg crate, but you even more importantly don't want to put sand under your rocks.
> 
> Adding the sand is the easy part, it's removing the gravel that will be the problem unless it is perfectly clean. Personally I would put the fish in a filtered bucket for the hour or two project.


i have to much cichlids "22" all different sizes . it would be difficult to remove them from the tank.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

To me since you have to remove all decor to replace substrate anyway, it's just easier to have the fish out of the way.

If you want to leave them in, vacuum your gravel really well...maybe every other day for a couple days all the way to the glass. This will minimize the debris stirred up in the water when you remove it, allowing your fish to breathe better.


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## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

29 gallon aquarium> gravel to sand









55 gallon aquarium> gravel to sand









some pics so you can tell me what you think.


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## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

DJRansome said:


> To me since you have to remove all decor to replace substrate anyway, it's just easier to have the fish out of the way.
> 
> If you want to leave them in, vacuum your gravel really well...maybe every other day for a couple days all the way to the glass. This will minimize the debris stirred up in the water when you remove it, allowing your fish to breathe better.


thats wicked advice thanks! ill clean gravel 2 days in a row to minimize debris. also ill let my filters pump so it gets sucked up? it would help a lot. i have an air stone so it'll give the fish optimal oxygen.


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## gilberbt (Aug 1, 2009)

I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know if you have already done this project yet, but I recently switched my tank over from gravel to sand and kept the fish in the tank during the process. All my fish seemed fine during the process and the hardest part was getting the new egg crate in without trapping any of the fish. The water did get very cloudy but I let my filters run during the process and even had to add water at one point to keep them running.

I would also go with 100 lbs of sand for your 2 tanks. In my 75 gal I used 100 lbs of sand and personally I think it needs a bit more than that. Even if you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t think you will need it now I would just add egg crate or something to the bottom when you have everything out just in case you want to add more or larger rocks down the road and you wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have to worry about it again. Anyway good luck with your tank and post some pictures when you are done!


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## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

gilberbt said:


> I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know if you have already done this project yet, but I recently switched my tank over from gravel to sand and kept the fish in the tank during the process. All my fish seemed fine during the process and the hardest part was getting the new egg crate in without trapping any of the fish. The water did get very cloudy but I let my filters run during the process and even had to add water at one point to keep them running.
> 
> I would also go with 100 lbs of sand for your 2 tanks. In my 75 gal I used 100 lbs of sand and personally I think it needs a bit more than that. Even if you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t think you will need it now I would just add egg crate or something to the bottom when you have everything out just in case you want to add more or larger rocks down the road and you wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have to worry about it again. Anyway good luck with your tank and post some pictures when you are done!


hey thanks for the advice. I'm going to add my egg crates to my 55 gallon because my 29 doesn't have much rock. I'm adding sand next Monday since I was really busy. Need to pick it up. I'm sure my cichlids would be fine, I'm goin to add some salt so they don't stress to much. It'll help overall I personally think. As far as the egg crates go, I'm going to cut it in half so I can half piece in without bothering the fish. I might bot even pit the whole piece as I won't gave rocks all around my tank.

50 lb of sand seems to be fine since I'm only adding an inch of sand. The more u pit chances of bad gasses are likely dead bacteria etc

inch should be enough to cover up the egg crates right?


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## newforestrob (Feb 1, 2010)

I just did this with my tank
1. prepare sand ( clean ) and have eggcrate ready
2. turn off heater and filter(s)
3. have a good size rubbermaid container next to tank
4. take out all rocks plants and ornaments into seperate pail
5. take out heater(when cool) place in rubbermaid, add airstone
6. syphon tank water ( what is needed ) into rubbermaid turn heater back on
7. take out all your fish ( should be easy ) use two nets if need be into rubbermaid
8. take out all old gravel ,syphon remaining water, give tank a quick wipe
9.add eggcrate,cover with sand , replace all ornaments and rocks,remainder of sand
10. Fill tank with conditioned water and desired temperature
11. Turn on filter(s) let run if cloudy
12.when it starts to clear, turn off heater in rubber maid let cool put back in tank
13.replace fish
:thumb:


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## sunny231 (Aug 21, 2010)

newforestrob said:


> I just did this with my tank
> 1. prepare sand ( clean ) and have eggcrate ready
> 2. turn off heater and filter(s)
> 3. have a good size rubbermaid container next to tank
> ...


i think the fish would be fine in the tank. personally i dont see them getting stressed much. or at all. just poor sand on one side let it settle and even it on one side. finish. lol i dont know if the water would turn cloudy as pool filter sand is very clean when u get it. a few rinses and ur done. but if cloudyness is the case i guess do some water changes. the fish wont be harmed.and reapply the rock and on filter once things settle. 1-2 hours. thats all.

if im wrong please correct me 
i think the fishes would be more stressed if u chase them with the net and put them in a container and redo it to put them back in tank. thats what i think

thanks.


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## gverde (Mar 3, 2010)

I just did a gravel to sand conversion this past weekend in a 220 gallon tank. A week before I had already removed about a third of the gravel, so I had about two thirds left to do. I put sand on the cleared area so the fish could hang out on that side while I worked on the other side. I siphoned alot of the debris so the there wasn't too much of a mess floating around. I used Quickrete's medium contractor's grade sand. I only rinsed it a couple of times but this sand is almost clean enough to use straight out of the bag. It's almost pure white too. I tried Quickrete's premium play sand but it took forever to try to get it clean. I exchanged it for the contractors grade sand at Home Depot and I am very pleased with the results.


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