I've recently got into Cichlids. I have around 11 various mbunas in a 160 ltr tank with algae eaters and fire eel. In larger tank I have south americans, angels and rams, with a plec and clown loach. As of tomorrow I wil be re-kitting the large tank with sand and tufa rocks and transferring all the mbunas to join the plec and clown loach. The south americans will be going into the other tank with the algae eaters and eel. Never used sand before. I know eels prefer sand but am worried that he might get battered by the plec if i swap him too. The substrate at the mo is fine gravl which he sems to be okay with, plus he's got quite cozy with the algae eaters. Bless.
I also have a small tank with clown plecs, harlequins, cory gurami, figter and a suicidal long fin rosy barb. I say suicidal as he is determined to wedge himself in the most awkward places and stick. Twice I have had to squeeze him out of some strange position and he's scraped chunks out of his back and ripped his fins but bounced back extrordinarily well. Indestructible but think im gonna have to put him in a padded tank!

Your fire eel will be much happier in sand as it is a lot better for them to burrow in, as for keeping the eel with plecs you should not have too much bother. Which type of sand will you be using? The reason i ask is that you can use play pit sand which is much cheeper than aquarium sand, and safe too use. Do not use builders sand as it contains chemicals. As for the suicidal rosy barb, i would suggest you get a few more as they are a schooling fish, and so are better kept in numbers which could be the reason the fish is trying to hide. going back to changing over to sand you can leave the fish and the water while you do the change over. Let us know how it goes

All went smoothly. No problems so far. Angels and rams loving the planted tank. Fire eel loving the sand. Yey! I am going to build up the malawi tank and i know i should use tufa rock as it changes the ph of the water in cichlids favour but will that effect the fire eel and common plec? Otherwise i will use slate and pebbles. Thanks for the advice. Will post some pics when the sand has completely settled. Off to get some more cichlids today, a friend spotted some that look like they are in army camoflage. Beautiful. Don't know the name but will find out soon. Also got some mating activity from the dolphins. Hope they are a pair!!

I would go steady with the high Ph for the plecs and the fire eel, they might take to it if gradualy done over time but remember it is not thier natural Ph. glad to hear all went smootly, just remember to rake the sand every now and then