Substrate question

[corrosionjerry]

I am finally getting around to changing the substrate in one of my Large Display tanks 75G +.... its going to be a job and a half for sure... I do have a few questions

I was thinking of changing out the gravel in the existing tank half at a time over a week or two... yes it has that ugly blue and black gravel that most newbes start out with.... Yikes

Anyways I dont want to move all the fish in the tank (30-two inch fish Aprox.) so I am hoping to change out the gravel 1/2 at a time.... there are some existing plants in the gravel but not much ( Jungle Val)

What I was thinking about using as a substrate was eco-complete.... the problem is that it looks wet to me from looking at the bags.... is this going to upset my water chemestry or foul the water for the fish?

Is there a dry product that would be just as good as the eco-complete that I could carry out this plan with?

How deep should the substrate be....

Any tips for removing the gravel with the least amount of disturbance would be appreciated as well..

Thanks

[Qattarra]

I used a bag of seedling (no dirt) mix. I wet it down and placed it accross the bottom , deeper at the back. I then covered it with a 1 inch layer of play sand(well washed). On top of this an inch and a half of medium sized black gravel. I used a plate to difuse the water as I filled it. I ran two HOB filters with just floss for 2 weeks. I added liquid ferts on a daily basis with 30% weekly WC. Once the plants started looking settled and growing I did a 80% WC and added 4 plattys to see how things are going as far as water comfort for them. This is 1 week after adding the fish and they are looking great. A little rearranging of plants, a trim for some and a seeded sponge, it should be ready for more tenants on the weekend.

As you well know plants are not yet a strong suit for me, but this setup is going very well so I'm hoping I'm getting the hang of it. The sedling mix was purchased at the garden center last summer. It isn't florite or other fancy aquatic dirt lol but the plants seem to love it

[Sam Chicklets]

When I changed my bow front from gravel to sand I used a kitty litter scoop to remove the gravel with. I can't help you with the flourite as I have never used it though

[corrosionjerry]

Its a tough one Nick!

The more I think about the matter the more I think that I will have to empty out the tank and house all my display fish elsewhere till the job is done......

I have a couple of 20-25 gallon plastic tubs that I could put the fish in for a few days... that may have to be the route to do this...

my concern is that if I go that way.... would be the survival of the fish for a week or so in those tubs..... I have enough HOB filters to do the filtration... however they are not seeded in anyway and the tank has a canister on it at the moment that I just installed recently with a bio wheel on the opposite side of the tank to help out till it is fully seeded ....

What to do?

I really would like to do it with everything in tact if it is possible...............

[tbemis]

I am no expert in this area. When I decided to try my hand at aquatic plants I used florite substrate and added over top my existing green gravel. I removed the fish, had them in bowls all over the place and adjusted the plants once the substrate was in place. The cloudiness had mostly settled within a couple of hours then I put the fish back in the tank. Just my experience. Good luck with the task at hand.

Trevor

[snaggle]

To seed the HOB filters you can just go and add them to your tank for about a week then change you substrate. If you are in a hurry just take the foam out of your canister and put one in each HOB.

Also if you want to it quick just take as much water as you can out with out disturbing the gravel save at least 50% in you tubs with the fish the more the better though, change the gravel to the sand slowly add the water back with the fish. That way it is only a couple of hours and you are not stressing the fish too much and you just did a water change at the same time. :shifty:

[gadgetgirl]

When I empty a tank or replace gravel with sand, I use a piece of hose about 4-5 feet long with an inner diameter of 1/2". You can syphon out the gravel carefully if it's small enough, and there's no mess because you're sucking that up too. Of course, this means you'll be doing a water change at the same time. :thumbs: I use a small tupperware type container to put sand/gravel exactly where I want it, but it's key to do everything slowly to minimize clouding. I can't remember if I've ever done this with fish in the tank, though.

[byte]

I just removed the regular gravel last week and replaced with fluorite. I used a square plastic container to slowly scoop out (most) of the gravel after removing about 2/3 of the water. After washing the fluorite, it was put back in with the same container. Lower the container full of gravel to the bottom of the tank and then dump very slowly. There was very little dust in the fluorite and the water cleared up quickly, but I do have a Fluval 305 and AC30 on this tank. I have about 20 fish in this tank ( stayed in during gravel change) and everyone is happy with the new gravel especially the cory doras... I still have one end of the tank to do on the next WC...

The next WC I used a large rubber hose with a one inch inside diameter to suck out the gravel. This worked great, but you need two people because a 5 gallon pail fills up really quick. The water in the old tank was hardly cloudy after removing the gravel.

Edited January 25, 2008 by byte

[jvision]

This is what I've done about a dozen times with zero casualties:

1) Take fish out and house in a 20-40 gal rubbermaid tub. If they're in there for a few days or more, add a heater and a couple powerheads. No feeding!

2) Take out all plants and place in a 5 gal bucket with a lid on it. It's important not to let the plants dry out. They don't need water, but they do need high humidity.

3) Drain tank, and take out old, ulgy substrate.

4) Put a 2-4" layer of Sil 9 or up to a 3" layer of Play Sand. I used to use the fancy substrates - Flourite was my favorite! But, as my tanks started to get bigger and bigger, I found that the substrate was the most expensive part. Big root feeders like swords and Crypts like deeper substrates - I think they'd go for 6" or deeper if allowed! Howver, that'd make for some real stink when the substrate got removed! MTS are great for keeping the substrate from going anaerobic, but they only seem to go about 3-4" deep.

5) Add water slowly - especially for the first 6". Doing what Sue did, and pouring the water onto a plate is a great idea. The less the substrate is disturbed, the less clouding you'll get.

6) Once the tank is about 3/4 full, put your plants back in. The more plants you have, the better. If you have any from another tank, pack them in this tank as well - just for a week or so. If you fully plant a tank (at least 75% coverage) with fast-growing plants, you will never have to cycle a tank.

7) Put fish back in their home once the tank is full, and fire the tank back up!

If this process is going to take you more than a few hours, run your filters on another tank so that the bacterial colonies don't die.

HTH!

[JORG]

I've changed a couple tanks over from gravel to sand recently--All I did was suck gravel out with the hose and once the bottom was clean I put in the sand in a place the filter would not suck it up---no problem--fish spread it out nicely

[Toirtis]

I have used a lot of the Flourite and Flourite black...good stuff. Personally, I would likely just swap the whole thing at once, siphoning out the existing bed into a bucket or four.

[corrosionjerry]

I have used a lot of the Flourite and Flourite black...good stuff. Personally, I would likely just swap the whole thing at once, siphoning out the existing bed into a bucket or four.

Thank you all for your suggestions.... I will get this done this weekend!

[byte]

I have used a lot of the Flourite and Flourite black...good stuff.

I have tried Flourite black and eco-complete and they are both nice to work with...

So I tried 2 bags of the Flourite Black sand... It looks great in the tank at the start. I did not like it at all because it was way too fine... Even after rinsing the sand many times, it was still dusty and gets on all the rocks and plants. It also seemed every time I rinsed it, I lost a lot of the sand down the drain... and after vacuuming the gravel, the sink always had a layer in it too... I have never used sand before, so maybe this is normal.

[Vallisneria]

and after vacuuming the gravel, the sink always had a layer in it too... I have never used sand before, so maybe this is normal.

You don't vacum sand the same way you do gravel. With sand you don't push it into the substrate as you would with gravel. For sand, you place it a little above the sand and just vacum the top. The fish poop should get sucked up leaving the sand on the bottom. You might get a bit of sand sucked up but not too much.

I found the flourite gravel to be quite dusty too. I washed and washed it but it didn't get as clean as regular gravel. I gave up washing and put it in the tank. It took a few days for the tank to clear but the dust eventually went away. Now the dust only causes a problem if I do a lot of planting. Digging around in the flourite can cause the cloudiness to come back but again it goes away in a day or 2.