changing gravel to Vancouver island sand need advice

[lukep77]

Hey

I brought back with me about 100 lbs of Vancouver island sand. I was thinking about changing the gravel bed in my tank to a sand bed.
I have cleaned about half the sand and its just sitting in bins drying.
What Iam wondering about is, if I drain the tank and pull out all fish, and then place the sand in and refill let sit for a hour or 2 and then replace the fish and plants. Would every thing still be stable or can I expect to see a amonia spike and some cycleing going on again? Oh I forgot to mention the tank is a 90 galon with a fuval canister filter.

If any one has done this let me know, any and all advice is welcome.

L

[danny zubot]

I would think that if you used the same water and have a lot of bio-filter media you shouln't see too much of a spike. If anything, watch your nitrates.

[Scavenger]

You also may want to do a quick ph test before committing this sand to your tank. Take some sample water, measure ph then add a bit of sand and retest ph later. I have found some sands and substrates can vastly affect ph levels.

[Aquattro]

100 lbs of Vancouver island sand.

We have sand? What kind of sand? From where?

[Willow]

isnt there some sort of beach over there.. its pretty long i think, whats the name, i can't remember, ohh it's on the tip of my tounge. :biggrin:

[lukep77]

Yes there is sand out on van island, some freinds of ours have a annual camping spot at Port renfrew. So every year that we go out they make it harder for us to come back to Calgary. I think that we might be moving out there some time in August, I hope, So if any one is looking to hire, I learn quick.

I dont know if you would class it as sand but its basicly very fine smooth washed stones that look like sand, black sand.

I used the same stuff in my 2.5 pico and now in my 5.5g nano.

My plan at the moment is to just clean some of it and us it in my lizard tank, its a 23 galon long.

Its planted with 1 betta, 4 white cloud minows and a fire belly newt.
I never do too much maintnance on this tank so I will use it for my experament.

I will be useing the same water form the tank and all the live plants in there, also I will be able to use my 90 as top off and water change water.


I will let every one know how it turns out.

Thanks 4 the advice.

L

[lukep77]

OK so its changed over I will post some pics when it clears up.

[lukep77]

So it cleared up nicely, I still need to move some rock around and adds some, also I need some more plants. Lots more plants.
I want the legt side to be heavaly planted and have the right side a sand bed.


I also added a pic of my lizard tank that is heavly planted. The plants wont stop growing in that tank


http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1832Picture_006-med.jpg

[lukep77]

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/183290-med.jpg

[lukep77]

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1832Picture_015-med.jpg

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1832Picture_017-med.jpg


Like I said the plants in this tank will not stop growing.