Removing All The Water?

[TeenyTinyTofu]

I've decided to re-do Tofu's 5 gallon aquarium. Right now, he has river rocks, and I'm going to replace it with sand. Unfortunately, I had his tank near my window, with no wallpaper on the back to block the sunlight somewhat, and that side of his tank is caked in algae. So while I am removing his river rocks, I was going to just remove all the water, and scrub all the algae off everything, and replace the tank with a sand substrate and all new water.

Will this be okay for Tofu doing it that way? I know they're pretty hardy, but I don't want to hurt him.

I plan on buying a tank background tomorrow for the back of the tank, to help block the sunlight a little so the algae won't grow as bad. I'd move his tank, but the spot its in, is the best spot in my room, space wise.

[reaperss06]

I would think it is ok since it's just basically a full water change, the only things that I don't know about are the sand and if you had it filtered.

I'm not sure if the sand is ok, and if you had a filter you would need to get that back to the same conditions, if you had no filter I don't see a problem.

[javi]

Could ya save some of the current water in a bucket and pour that back in to kind of jump start the bacteria?

[TeenyTinyTofu]

I have a filter, it's a hang on back type of filter. I've had sand in my turtle's large tank and it looks so pretty (but was a lot of work being a large tank, so I took it out), but I loved the look of it. So I was thinking I'd try the sand out in Tofu's tank.

I'll still have some beneficial bacteria because he has a HUGE Sphinx statue in his tank and a lot of plastic plants, and all of those have algae and I'm sure a lot of beneficial bacteria. So I wasn't going to rinse or clean any of those things at all, just the glass, and change the water. That way he'll still have some beneficial bacteria from the statue and plants.

[TeenyTinyTofu]

Javi, I was thinking that too. Maybe saving about 1 gallon (it's a 5 gallon tank) to pour back in there to help with the bacteria growth.

[xxabc]

I think the best place to get your good bacteria is from the filter cartridge.

I've heard sand takes a long time to settle? And that you cannot immediately insert a filter-cartridge or else something happens? Not sure, just read a lot.

He should be fine though, as long as the pH change /temperature should be the same.

[TeenyTinyTofu]

As long as the sand is rinsed very well, it only takes about 20-30 minutes to settle. When I did it in my turtle tank, it only took about 30 minutes to settle completely and then the filter can be turned back on.

Thanks for the advice everyone!