First for treatment of the new sand, keep it in a large tub and wash
it with
water while stirring it with a stick till the water above clears
and u can seen the sand through it.
Then for acid wash, buy the HCL(muratic acid) used for bathroom
cleaning
and pour some amount of it in the same tub.
The sand will fizzle. keep on pouring some amount & stirring till the
sand stops fizzling. Then again wash the sand with plain
water till the acid smell goes away.
While using acid, take due precautions to avoid acid burns,
e.g., use gloves, keep children away, don't shake vigorously and
splash,etc.
For adding the new sand to the tank, get a large 1or 2 -inch diameter
funnel,
attach a long (e.g..3 feet) plastic pipe to it and then position this
into
the tank where you wan to introduce new gravel.
Then slowly pour new sand though
the funnel and slowly remove the pipe upwards,
so that new sand does not cause a storm!.
You can either remove some old gravel or just pour this new sand
where you think there are gaps in the old one.
I don't think there is any harm if you bury the old detritus under
this new
gravel, and further it will act as fertilizer.
Hope it helps
regards,
ajit athale
India.
Message: 10
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 04:00:33 -0700
From: Scott Scheibe <dsscheibe at earthlink_net>
Subject: [APD] Play sand
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
I've been wanting to replace the large gravel in my biggest
tank
and read a while back that play sand was a good plant base. I bought
a
couple of 50 pound bags today at Lowes. Any thing I should do about
rinsing it (hints how?), and/or soaking it first? I am thinking of
removing the gravel in sections and replacing it with sand. The front
half
of the tank (44 gal. corner tank) has onyx sand and the clay plant
base
stuff which name escapes me at the moment.. mixed with the gravel.
The tank is setup, has a bunch of swordtails, few corries,
ottos,
and pleco, and a couple clown loaches who spend most of their time in
the
hollow of the drift wood. I'm sure the corries and pleco will like
the
change from gravel to sand. I've had trouble with the Pleco digging
the
sand out of planters to hid in..
Plants, I have 10 Narrow-Leaf Dwarf Subulata along the front
of
the glass, an Amazon Sword, a Needle Leaf Lud and a mystery plant in 3
small planting rocks, some floating Anacharis and Hornwort. This
along
with a good size piece of drift wood take up most of the bottom of the
tank.
Any advice on replacing existing gravel with sand and any
cautions
I should be aware of? I expect the plants, corries and pleco will do
better. The current gravel has such large spaces between them the
swordtail fry hid in it.. Needless to say this is a major trap for
food
and debris.
D. Scott Scheibe
<mailto:dsscheibe at earthlink_net>
<http://home.earthlink.net/~dsscheibe/>
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