hi. Have 15 gallon tank with 0.5 cm gravales . I recently buy live plant kind of 3 anubias .and 3 more which like java fern donto know right name. By google i found sand is good for plants so i collect sand from near river. It is fine particle. now m confuse what to do? If i remove every thing and than add sand than is there any bad effect on fish. Can i get clean water after adding sand . Having in water filter+bubbler which creat circular flow in my tank .which is 2feet long 1 feet tall. 4 molly and 4 sward tell and my fighter fish

I added sand retrospectively to an established tank a few months back, The process i took is as follows: I rounded up all the fish and shrimp and stuck them in a holding tank, and took a baseline water sample. now this was purchased sand not from a river. i would suggest giving your river sand a hardy rinsing with boiling water, or boiled the sand itself in some water... which wont be good for your pot, but if need be... to kill off any extraneous bacteria. Then i lowered the bowl of sand into the tank and spread out about 1/4 inch then went through with my hand and shuffled the gravel letting the sand settle into the bottom. i did this about 4 times making sure to let as much of the fine particle sand sift through to the bottom of the tank. then waited until the am, took another water sample (there was no change in water quality) went to work, came back about 12 hours later took another sample and since it had not changed either, I went ahead and dropped the fishes and shrimps back in it. TADA!!

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When you pay that cash or swipe that card you are making a bond with that animal that you will treat it with love and respect, and its needs will be met, first and foremost (unless you have kids...) I don't care if you have to eat ramen noodles or nothing at all to feed your cat dog fish rat whatever. That's the bond you made! Life is precious!

my (beaslbob build) methods

I think the best thing would be to drain the tank, put the sand in, plant the plants, then refill.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I just did that with my 55gal and 75gal. Here is a list of steps that worked best for me.

1) Rinse sand (very important otherwise your tank will be very, very cloudy. If you dont rinse good enough it will eventually clear. How long depends on how cloudy)
2) Drain water to a low level.
3) Remove decorations and plants
4) Remove fish (with low water and no obstructions they will be easier to catch)
5) Finish draining tank all the way
6) Remove gravel, all of it till tank is spotless.
7) Add sand, decorations, plants, etc..
8) Add water
9) Add fish

You will have some cloudiness but it will go away. Check your ammonia levels as they will spike especially if you had a UG. I took some old gravel and put in a couple of media bags and placed them on the sand bed to help seed it a little bit. When water was clear and ammonia was gone, then I tossed the bags.

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75gal - 3 tinfoil barbs, 2 convict cichlids, 1 syndontis, 1 fire eel, 1 pleco
55gal - 6 black neon tetras, 3 lyretail dalmation mollies, 3 emerald green corys, 2 albino corys, 1 zigzag loach, 1 kuhli loach, ,1 rubber lipped pleco, 1 otocinclus, 1 goldfish

thanks for great suggession. Now have good info of changing to sand.

Another thought for purification is to soak the sand in salt water for a good half hour then rinse it, sorry i didnt mention that before! but that will help to kill off some types of plant life as well as snails and their offspring!

__________________
When you pay that cash or swipe that card you are making a bond with that animal that you will treat it with love and respect, and its needs will be met, first and foremost (unless you have kids...) I don't care if you have to eat ramen noodles or nothing at all to feed your cat dog fish rat whatever. That's the bond you made! Life is precious!