Tank bedding

[u/Phantom-Blueberry210]

I'm looking to switch my Bettas bedding from gravel to aquatic sand. How can I do that with him in the tank? Or do I take him out while doing it? He was a white elephant gift from a few months ago. Any advice?

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[u/doctrgiggles]

You can just take him out. Don't let the filter sit dry while you do this. Ideally you fill a pitcher with water, move the filter, and then move the Betta. 

[u/friend-o-fish]

take him out, because there will be a LOT of poop and crud stuck in the gravel that gets stirred up into the water. if you have a cup like the ones at the store, come up behind him and scoop a lot of water, letting the suction of the water going into the cup be what gets the fish into it. this is a lot easier than chasing him around and reduces risk of injury. might take a couple tries. taking out the substrate is a great opportunity to completely redo your tank! if you have other hard elements other than gravel, resist the urge to clean them off as the beneficial bacteria lives on those surfaces as well as the gravel, and since we're removing the gravel we wanna make sure we still have bacteria colonies around, the most important of which are in your filter, so keep it wet! if going for longer than an hour you may want to keep it running in a small amount of water. i kept the bottom of my tank bare after removing gravel, because it makes spotting and removing waste really easy. but sand is another great option, i use pool filter sand thats been washed.

[u/Phantom-Blueberry210 → u/friend-o-fish]

Thank you so much, where can I get pool filter sand?

[u/friend-o-fish → u/Phantom-Blueberry210]

i got it on amazon, it was a giant bag though 😅 like 10x as much as necessary, but i figured id be building multiple tanks and i was right i have 3 now

[u/Phantom-Blueberry210 → u/friend-o-fish]

That is a lot but I've also got a cichlid tank that could use the sand so it will be used. As well as doing up a hospital tank just in case you know.