Wanting to change to sand

Im wanting to change my gravel... to sand but i have a few questions.

1. is it safe to add sand with my fish in the tank?
2. what the best sand for my livebearer planted tank?
3. do i add fertilizer with the sand? if so do i put a layer of fertilizer down then the sand on top or do i mix it all?


Thanks in advance :)

1. yes
2. I use pool sand
3. talk to Fern or FishVixen, they both do plants well

is pool sand the same as play sand? the real fine sand you see in sandboxes???

I use silica sand from a pool shop, it is also pool filter sand, wash it well, I just feel play sand as unsanitary, this is just an opinion that i have, not a fact, I really don't know, just seems that way for me, I grow a few low light plants in my 55 gallon with sand, Anubis Nana, and Java fern to name a couple. I have never added sand with the fish in the tank, I was unsure so i took mine out. I have had it in there from about a month in and everything is doing fine, I also mixed a small bag of gravel into it to sorta break it up. but its a fun way to "naturalize" your tank!

Pool sand is more uniform than play sand.

Okay thanks for all the great answers! hopefully soon i can get some sand and start scooping out my gravel!

I've used play sand and wish I had used pool sand for the uniform grain size.

to 'seed' the new sand, I pulled out my gravel using a fish net so that the fish waste was left behind.

After the waste settles, i gently added the thoroughly rinsed play sand on top so that the waste was kept at the bottom to fertilize plant roots.

Cohazard wrote:

I've used play sand and wish I had used pool sand for the uniform grain size.

to 'seed' the new sand, I pulled out my gravel using a fish net so that the fish waste was left behind.

After the waste settles, i gently added the thoroughly rinsed play sand on top so that the waste was kept at the bottom to fertilize plant roots.

Good tip i didnt think about that i will for sure do that!