Switching From Gravel To Plant Substrate

[sumadis]

I am looking to switch my 75 gallon tank to a plant substrate rather than gravel. What kind of effect would this have on my fish? Do i have to take them out of the tank or can I do the swap on the fly?

[geleen]

If you change it at ⅓ per week the fish will be unefected..make sure to rinse the new stuff well. It will still make a mess but will settle soon.

[cainechow]

Which substrate are you switching in?

[ckmullin]

I'll give you a pm sumadis

[fishclubgirl]

Just some comments here; what kind of plants do you want to grow and do you have the lights for it? There's some plants that can be grown in gravel(root tabs will help though) or above gravel. There's no sense changing your substrate if you don't need to or don't have the lights for growing the plants. Changing the substrate can be a pain!!

[Overboard]

I did the same thing with my 72 gallon bow front about 2 ½ years ago. But I mixed laterite in with my gravel. I set up a 10 gallon to house the fish temporary. I kept 35 gallons from the aquarium for later. The canister sat for 1.5 hours without power. I was a newbie at the time and now I would have filled a large plastic garbage can with the aquarium water and hooked the filter to it with an air stone and heater.

After mixing in the laterite in the gravel I put the 35 gallons of used water back into the tank which has lost about 10 deg cooler.

Added fresh treated water at a much warmer temperature to composite for the cold water to bring the temperature back to 78 deg or what is needed for your fish.

Now I would have used the water from the large garbage can housing the filter because it would be at the right temperature and well oxygenated.

Then I reinstalled the canister filter.

I ran the bubblers for a day or 2 before setting up my C02.

Total time was 2 ½ hours.