[MameJenny]

I'd really like to add a bit of black sand to my two planted tanks. Both tanks are cycled, and have been set up for a few months now. They have bettas and snails.

How would I go about adding new sand? Just drain the tanks and dump it in around the plants? Should I take the fish and snails out for some period of time? Also, will new sand possibly trigger a diatom bloom?

 

[trilobite]

I kept all the fish in when I did it, just drained a lot of the water, scooped out all the old gravel, poured the new sand in then topped up the water again. I think I pulled out my plants because I wanted to rescape it.
The fish are fine since they are smart/fast enough to get out of the way. You might want to take the snail out though since they are slow and might get buried

 

[givemethatfish]

Are you replacing the substrate or just adding sand on top? I found in a couple of my tanks that I hadn't gotten the sand quite deep enough for the plants to stay in, so I just very slowly lowered cups full of sand and poured it really slowly on top, and it didn't create any kind of mess or smother any snails that I know of.

 

[RussellTheShihTzu]

You can take an appropriate sized plastic bottle (for the depth) and cut off the base. Fill the bottle through the base and move the bottle around so the sand comes out the mouth.

 

[peachii]

You can take an appropriate sized plastic bottle (for the depth) and cut off the base. Fill the bottle through the base and move the bottle around so the sand comes out the mouth.

This is what I was also going to say.

 

[jaysee]

You can take an appropriate sized plastic bottle (for the depth) and cut off the base. Fill the bottle through the base and move the bottle around so the sand comes out the mouth.

I use a brita pitcher, with the cleaned sand taken from a bucket. I submerge the pitcher in the water, then simply start poring it out where I want it. With canisters you don't even have to turn off the filters, let alone drain any water (more than the displacement of the sand) or remove fish. Plastic bottle is a great solution for smaller tanks.

 

[Gilligans_Island]

This is great news...i have seachem flourite substrate and want to add sand for my corys.

I have new batch of corys coming and want to cycle my tank before the arrive and also rescape....
for me I need to vacuum so the plastic bottle idea is perfect idea....thank you all.