# Change Gravel Sustrate For Sand Sustrate



## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

hello friends, if you are someone who is bored of the gravel substrate in your tanks (like me), here I leave some tips to change it for silica sand substrate.

my tank is a 240 liters, no plants and 3 rbp´s, 2 small (4") and the big one (8") with a divider.

1.- i buy around 30 Kg. silica sand








2.- you need a case to wash the sand, add ONLY water








3.- begins to wash as many times as necessary until clean water comes out















4.- begins to remove the gravel of your tank with a lot of patience to not stress your fish















5.-Once empty, slowly begins to put the sand into the tank, do not worry about the fish, they are well, I took the opportunity to make a new decoration and remove the separator, not worry about cloudy water in 24 hours everything will be a little more clear









6.- 12 hours after








7.- 24 hours after








here you have a tank with new decor and some fish happy, just hope they do not eat each other for the size difference.
as an important fact: working in low light to avoid stress in fish, and disconnect all stufs before start to work


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

Very nicely done

I vote sticky this or put it in a guide section.


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

and 48 hours later clear water and happy tank-mates


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Nice job, but like you said there is still a significant size difference.


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

now I have a small problem with the water in my aquarium, only two days remained clear and now is cloudy whitish, I already made partial changes of 30% water, and as usual, and wash the filter and does not improve water quality, which would you recommend? thanks


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

Any food stuck anywhere?


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

i think in that possibility but i don´t find anything, i only feed them each third day


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

Give it a good look over, move everything around and stuff. Alotta times I get food stuck on the driftwood jut from the currents and fish swimming around. And I know that has turned my water white once or twice. Oh yea and do some water changes


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

hugoale1 said:


> now I have a small problem with the water in my aquarium, only two days remained clear and now is cloudy whitish, I already made partial changes of 30% water, and as usual, and wash the filter and does not improve water quality, which would you recommend? thanks


Do you have a proper test kit ?, if not I recomend the api masterkit if you can find it.

The first problem that I see is that since you removed all of your old substrate which held quite a bit of BB your tank may now be going into a mini if not full cycle. The foggy water is probably a sign of ammonia present, test your water for ammo, nitrites, nitrates and ph and we can go from there


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

****** said:


> now I have a small problem with the water in my aquarium, only two days remained clear and now is cloudy whitish, I already made partial changes of 30% water, and as usual, and wash the filter and does not improve water quality, which would you recommend? thanks


Do you have a proper test kit ?, if not I recomend the api masterkit if you can find it.

The first problem that I see is that since you removed all of your old substrate which held quite a bit of BB your tank may now be going into a mini if not full cycle. The foggy water is probably a sign of ammonia present, test your water for ammo, nitrites, nitrates and ph and we can go from there
[/quote]

yeah, this is the problem, i add one more used filter with bacteria and make the things too easy, now my tank is more clear, and the parameters are normal. a little cycle


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## Talonfal (Jul 17, 2010)

hugoale1 said:


> now I have a small problem with the water in my aquarium, only two days remained clear and now is cloudy whitish, I already made partial changes of 30% water, and as usual, and wash the filter and does not improve water quality, which would you recommend? thanks


Do you have a proper test kit ?, if not I recomend the api masterkit if you can find it.

The first problem that I see is that since you removed all of your old substrate which held quite a bit of BB your tank may now be going into a mini if not full cycle. The foggy water is probably a sign of ammonia present, test your water for ammo, nitrites, nitrates and ph and we can go from there
[/quote]

yeah, this is the problem, i add one more used filter with bacteria and make the things too easy, now my tank is more clear, and the parameters are normal. a little cycle








[/quote]

im sorry but i dont think i understood this right, did you say you used an old filter with bacteria already on it to help with your murky water from the change?


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## fishguy1313 (Feb 19, 2007)

Same thing happened to me. You took out all the bacteria when you removed the gravel. The cycle couldn't keep up.


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

is not an old filter, is a filter in use in other tank, i put in the tank and helps to finish the minicycle, with two filter is more easy the creation of bacteria, the water is clear now.


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

Updated:

it appears that the difference in size between RBP not matter, over one month I made this change in the tank is fairly well tolerated, appears to be already formed a good group.

here are the pics


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