# Sand on top of already existing gravel?



## Tristan (Jan 25, 2006)

Alright, I have an existing tank that I am planning on working on. I have been told it's a bad idea to do substrate and filter at once, so I am intending on doing my substrate this weekend.

I have a "nutrient rich" layer of gravel, and I am thinking of placing sand over the gravel, and planting into that.

My issue: I have fish, that I can only have out of the tank for a few hours.

What is the best way for me to minimize my settling time? I'm going to go buy sand in a few hours, and am thinking that my best bet is to pull my fish out and into their bucket (with airstone), rinse sand, and add gently over the existing gravel.

Also, will this kill the snails that I occasionally see rooting through the gravel (odd, nautilus shelled snails. type unknown)?


----------



## JonMulzer (Apr 6, 2003)

It won't really hurt to add the sand over the gravel, but it will settle down into the gravel and you will probably have gravel on top eventually. Also, if the sand covers the gravel then the beneficial bacteria cannot get to the ammonia because of the sand blocking off water flow and you may get a mini-spike. It depends on the conditions though. It should not hurt as long as the filter is not changed yet, as long as you are not heavily stocked and overfeeding. YMMV.

It should not take that long to pull out the gravel and replace it with sand if that is the route you wish to take. I recently switched to Tahitian Moon Sand and love the appearance and you can price-match it for $13/20lbs at Petsmart if you are lucky.


----------



## hoffboy (Feb 20, 2005)

If the snails are Malaysian Trumpet Snails, they should have no trouble finding their way to the surface. They tend to do so at night. With sand, you'll see their little tracks all over the place in the AM. To JonMulzer's point, they will also contribute to the eventual reversal of your substrate, with sand going to the bottom as the larger particles move up. My recommendation: start over with a complete swapout, and don't sweat running your filter to clear the water. Just clean it after the water clears.


----------



## Tristan (Jan 25, 2006)

My concern about doing it that way is not being able to keep my fish out of their tank for long enough for everything to clear..... like I said, I'm gonna have about 10 fish in a 5 gallon bucket, and I don't know how long they can do that without going a little nuts.

My current plan is to sand, then plants, and re-add fish.

Although, now that I think about it, a little cloudyness isn't going to mess the fish up, is it.....

Hmmmm.


----------



## JonMulzer (Apr 6, 2003)

Cloudy water will not hurt the fish. If it did then I would have had a tank full of belly-ups from adding my Tahitian Moon Sand, hehe. They should be just fine in a bucket for a couple of hours. It really does not take that long, honestly.

Prewash the sand and place it in buckets to the side. Drain enough of the water out of your tank to make it easy to work in. Pull out all of your plants and decorations and put them in a bucket of tank water. If you have a lot then put a few plants and a rock or two in a separate bucket. You want these buckets to have the first water you drain from the tank because it will be the healthiest and the fish are going to be in in for a little while. Start netting your fish out and putting them in the bucket that has a few plants and a few rocks. If they are hard to catch then drain some more water out to make it easier. Once they are all out then start scooping out the gravel. A colander makes this easy. Set it down in the tank and scoop rock into it. When it is full you can lift it out of the tank and strain the gravel. When you get to where there is only a small amount left in the tank a large fish net comes in handy. They are flat on the bottom and easily scoop up gravel. Once it is all out then drain the rest of the water and clean up the mulm, it will settle on the sand if it is floating and make it look horrible. Add your sand, refill the tank partway, add your plants and decorations, dump in your fish (assuming the water will be roughly the same as what you took out, dump in the old water, fire everything up and enjoy.


----------

