[ZakD786]

Hey guys..Did a 25%water change yesterday now my water is absolutely cloudy,so im thinkin of doin my 29galon tank up again..Switching from ugly gravel to sand..Now 2 my question:i have 2 yelow labz at the moment..If im gona drain my entire tank,in what do i keep them for the time it takes to add new water n get my water levels back to normal?

 

[acreal]

I'm not sure you'd have better result with sand with regards to cloudy water but I would say you could put them in any container big enough to hold them without being too crowded (in complete dark), maybe in different one for species/specimens who are more aggressive and then simply remove the water and substrate, then replace with the new and water, and then the fish (with some time in between). Just make sure to clean the sand very thoroughly and add water slowly when refiling as to not cause too much.

Another thing that you might do is drain half of the tank water, then remove all the substrate and replace it with the previously clean sand (this depends whether or not the fish you're keeping are easily scared). Also add the sand slowly (in a few times).

In all cases, carefully watch for any sign of stress. You might also want to keep the lights off when the fish are reintroduced to the tank (and as long as necessary if they seem to be acting unusual).

I've been adding sand a couple times in my tank recently and the fish actually seemed to like it (they seemed more inclined at sifting the sand than usual).

 

[quiksilver]

When I switched to sand I removed one third of the gravel and cut the sides off an ice cream container used them to stop the gravel from levelling out, then added some sand in the empty space. Over the next couple of weeks gradually removed gravel and added sand. no deaths.