take em out or leave em in?

[king]

I just finished taking the crushed coral out of my tropheus tank and want to go with sand. Do I need to take the fish out to add the sand or could I leave them in and just add slowly?

[TangoMIke]

Be carefull Bro. If you add slowly you will be OK. Just make sure the sand is clean. If it is not you can suffocate the fish.
Mike

[king]

Be carefull Bro. If you add slowly you will be OK. Just make sure the sand is clean. If it is not you can suffocate the fish.
Mike

Thanks mike.

[danielp]

I doub't i'd leave them in the tank when introducing sand. Sand is fine and will take a while to settle out.

[JasonC]

Make sure you rinse it like crazy. Then rinse it again.

[jhenry]

+2 on rinsing the sand thoroughly. But I've added substrate to my tanks in the past with fish in it with no problems. Also how can it suffocate the fish please explain that to me Tango

[king]

Thanks for all the help. I think I got. Rinse, rinse, rinse, and keep rinsing. Add slow and all should be well.

[TangoMIke]

The fish will definately suffocate if the sand is not rinsed enough.. I Know that from making that mistake a long time ago when I was just starting out in the hobby/ LFS said just rinse it once than put it in the tank, fish will be fine. Boy was he wrong Killed most of the tank.
Mike