Substrate: Changing

[pride]

I have a two footer that has been running for over a year now which I am wanting to change the substrate from black gravel to sand. What is the best way at going about this? Can it be done with water in the tank? Will removing the gravel possibly cause an ammonia spike? Also the tank has an Aquaclear on it so should I temporarily move this to another tank in case the sand buggers it? Would the fish become stressed from this and be temporarily housed in another tank too? Oh and the only tank occupants are a pair of sajica. Thanks in advance.

[Link2Hell]

Hi pride

Have the new substrate clean and ready to go in

Get a few towels for mopping up

Turn off the heater at least 15 minutes before you start work, lets it cool off

You will need to bag the fish or put them in a bucket before you move things around less crap in the water for the fish also less stress for the fish

Reduce the water level by syphoning undisturbed water into buckets for return to the tank or gravel syphon to remove as much crap as possible from the substrate before disturbing things

Unplug and move the aquaclear, hang it on another tank and keep it running would be good otherwise remove the intake tube and have the media covered by tank water it will be fine in the time it takes to change substrate

Remove any rocks etc

I find Ice cream tubs or dust pans good for this exercise, a large ID hose can be used to syphon the gravel out but you will also remove a fair bit of the water so take care and mark how low you intend the water level can go to

Decide what you intend using before starting and have them ready with the new substrate

I wouldn't worry about removing all the black gravel as it will mix into the sand and black gravel is know to buff tanks to alkaline pH

Once you have the substrate back in replace your rocks etc, top up the tank, turn on the heater, refit the filter and add the fish back job done

L2H

[Peter_Gun_Riff]

have some aged water ready(heated) and use a thick clear hose to syphon out the gravel once all gone place a bottle full of sand(i used a 1.25L) with the bottom cut out and slowly add it into the water so the sand dont get disturped then lower it to the bottom and tip it out it took me 1/2 and hour to do and it saves stress IMO cause you not catching the fish and putting them into something they cant see.

[pride]

Cheers L2H & PGR,

Was going to do this tonite but came home from work this arvo to no power in the house. All okay now but not sure how long it was out. Might monitor the tanks for a couple of days before I change the substrate. Thanks for the tips, sounds a piece of cake.

cheers again

Adam

[graceless]

Hey Adam,

This will probably make everyone's eyes roll at how bad practice it is - BUT!!, i'll tell you my experiences of changing substrate in 2 established tanks in the last few months.

first one was my 4 foot community tank. it had gravel, about 20 fish in it, and an undergravel filter. i wanted to keep the UGF plate and some of the gravel, but fly screen it down so that it couldn't get mixed into the sand i was planning to add. so, despite knowing it was a risky thing to do, i did it all on the fly - without removing fish, without stopping the filter or the heater. so i pulled out all the gravel i wanted out of the tank - which was heaps. this cause the water to go feral and cloudy, so i let that sit and added some fresh water (straight from the tap) let it settle a bit, stirred it up again and gave it a bit of a vacuum. then, i put down the flyscreen. this was the hardest bit with fish in the tank, cause they all seemed pretty obsessed with hiding under it, and i'd notice last minute that there were stray fish pinned to the gravel by flyscreen, and would have to pull it up again. ok, so then once that was cool, i added my sand. this was quite murderous, as i hadn't pre-washed any of it, and ended up washing it for hours and hours adding it at about 5 cups of sand a wash. but after about 4 hours of work, and overnight to settle down, i now have a great looking tank and didn't love a single fish!

the second one i did last night. 2 footer with occies in it. i just took out most of the coral sand that was in it, and then added sand. about 40 mins (including sand washing time). didn't take out the fish. didn't turn anything off. everyone in there is happy too.

that's just my experience. maybe i've been really lucky. maybe it's not always necissary to be overcautious.??? who knows!

hope that's entertaining if nothing else,

Grace

[Gigitt]

Hey Adam,

...

i now have a great looking tank and didn't love a single fish!

...

Grace

LOL @ Grace

I love my fish too!

Funny I do simlar things like Grace when it comes to Major work on the tank.

1st. I remove all the plants... these things just get in the way. Put them in a bucket with tank water. Then I carefully remove the rocks/bog wood making sure my bristlenose's have flopped back into the tank as I raise them out of the water.

2nd. I syphon clean the bottom. This gets most (80%) of the junk out.

3rd. I disconnect my canisters/filters and do a quick clean... you will see why next.

4th. With sort of newly clean filters back on the tank, I do the nasty - swap gravel, add/remove ugf etc. THe tank still dirties up pretty good, but with 2 canister filters on a 4ft tank it is pretty clean in about 1hour. Fish actually don't mind this - much!!!... They can't see anything and just stay in one place till the water starts clearing up.

5th. Slowly add the cleaned substrate, rocks, bog and plants back.

Takes about 2 hours for me to do it start to finish to do a UGF swap in or out.

[pride]

I made the change and the tank looks much nicer except my little sajica pair have erupted now into violence with the male giving the female a beating. I'm thinking of removing the female into another tank and adding another female I have from another tank and see how he takes her. She's a little bigger.