Curious about changing substrate to sand

I have 3 axolotls, I have them in a 55 gallon with river rock, but i had originally wanted to put sand in. I was talked out of it by a fellow fish/ tank lover. he told me that is hard to siphon and that the sand would probably wreck my filter. But i see how nice it looks in other peoples tanks on this forum and i would also like some more plants and i need sand for that. And i just think my axies would like it better.

So i was wondering if others find it pain while cleaning and if i decided to change it over would i have to empty he tank to do it, or do i just move my axies out of the tank and put the sand in and let it settle for a little while and them put the axies back in....
thanks nat

Hi Nat,

Sand can be a bit of a pain to siphon (cause you sometimes suck a bit of it up) and mine has been known to occasionally get pretty dirty looking (from my experience anyway), but I very much like the look it gives my tank and wouldn't use anything else (plus axies tend to love it!)
As for the filter: sand has been known to cause filter issues but this should be unlikely to happen if you rinse your sand well and let the sand settle before turning your filter back on.

You shouldn't need to empty your tank out, or at least I never have. Whenever I have had to replace sand in a tank I would take my axies out, make sure my sand was rinsed thoroughly, and then use a jug of some sort (I use a measuring jug) to scoop up the sand and then lower it into the tank and spread it along the bottom. This doesn't completely stop the sand from clouding up the tank but it certainly helps.

Within a few hours/overnight the sand should have settled and you can put your axies back into their new home

I have sand in my axolotls tank. The first time i put it in the water was cloudy for about a week but i left the filtter on for that period of time and done 30% water changes daily and after a week it was clear and put my axolotls in the tank. its so so much claner than substrant! cause when they poo or leave food you can just scoop it out so eaisly with the net were as substrant the poo and food goes down under neath the subsrant and gets stuck! and then goes all mouldy and horrible were as it cant do that with sand its so much easer and cleaner really hope this helps :happy::happy:

Well I'm currently still cycling my tank but I've got play sand in it and I can't foresee any problems I gave it really good rise before putting it in and my water has been crystal clear from day 1

I don't clean messes off the sand with the siphon, really - I use an idea I got from someone on here - using a turkey baster.

Otherwise, in a small 10g tank, I just don't put the siphon in far enough to pick up the sand (which I imagine would be even easier in a 55g).

I only use a sponge filter, so I don't know how it would effect something else. I imagine just letting the sand settle before turning it back on would really help.

So I work at a pet store and i have access to whatever, we have silica sand, not sure the size seems pretty fine. Is silica what most people use? And what should I put my axies in if it might take all night for the sand to settle? I was thinking of using a very large stewing pot, I promise not to stew the axies . lol. Can I just leave in that overnight? Also my tank just finished cycling about a week ago will changing the substrate affect the tanks bio filter?
thanks everyone!

All done switched everything over and it looks great. just waiting for it to settle some more then putting them back in!! yay!
thanks everyone!