Changing Substrate

[greenscooby]

I'm lookin to change my substrate, but DON'T have another tank to put my fish in, my LFS gave me this advice

De-plant the tank
Get fish into buckets
Move filter to a bucket and keep running if possible
Drain tank
Remove gravel
Clean glass if doing so
Change background if doing so
Add plant substrate to tank, if using
Top off with your pre washed sand
Replant and scape your tank
carefully refill with water
pop the heater and filter back in and turn on
re introduce your fish
sit back and have a large drink or two (i added that one!!! )

Does this sound ok?

Many thanks in advance.

Mark.

 

[lizc]

bump....
afraid i don't know, but i would be interested to find out too!
Liz

 

[fatheadminnow]

Sounds like a LFS knows what they are talking about this time. lol

That is exactly what you should do.

I would also put an aerator in the bucket in the mean time while changing out the substrate, just to be on the safe side of things.

And if you are changing the substrate to sand, you are most likely going to have to let the sand settle for a while, which can take hours, or days if the sand was not cleaned properly.

-FHM

 

[greenscooby]

Thanks FHM(again!!! )

But can i keep the fish in buckets for days?( i guess not), so how the hell can i keep my fish alive?

sorry if it's a stoooooooooopid question,

Many thanks in advance,

Mark.

 

[OldMan47]

The basic sequence from the LFS sounds fine to me Scooby. It only means keeping the fish in a bucket during the morning. By noon, they should be back into their home again. I would try that with my 120 gallon if I really wanted a change like that. It might take 3 or 4 buckets to hold the fish but one of them would have the filter and heater running on it.

 

[greenscooby]

I appreciate what your saying, and trust you 100%, but, and it's a big BUT, i've read on these forums that it can take from several hours to a couple of days till the sand settles.

I really don't wanna put my fish into a sandstorm!!!!

Or am i just being silly?

Mark.

 

[fatheadminnow]

What I did when I put sand in my tank was:

First clean the sand as GOOD AS POSSIBLE!

Then I put all the sand in there and added all the water (looked very cloudy).

Then I took out about 15% of the water in the tank and then filled the tank back up.

I kept on doing that for about an hour, and by that time I could of out the fish in there, but since I had them in another tank I just kept them in there for the night.

But if you do what I did, you should be able to put them in there after a couple hours. It may still look murky, but after a couple of days it will clear up.

-FHM

 

[greenscooby]

FHM, my hero ( )

Thanks dude.

Gonna get my plant substrate and sand next weekend,

Wish me luck

Cheers mate,

Mark.

 

[fatheadminnow]

FHM, my hero ( )

Thanks dude.

Gonna get my plant substrate and sand next weekend,

Wish me luck

Cheers mate,

Mark.

No problem man!

Let us know how everything works out for ya!

-FHM

 

[greenscooby]

Will do bud,

Just hope my fish appreciate all the hard work

Mark.

 

[rdd1952]

I see a couple problems with their advice:

Add plant substrate to tank, if using, Top off with your pre washed sand

If you put sand over gravel or other coarse grained substrate (and I think all planted substrates are much more coarse than sand), it will only be a matter of a couple months until the sand will have filtered down into the coarse substrate and the coarse, planted substrate will be on top. Basically, you waisted your money on the sand.

carefully refill with water, pop the heater and filter back in and turn on, re introduce your fish

Personally, I would save half the water, put it and the fish back in first and then finish refilling. It's basically a 50% water change. If you're tank water parameters are almost identical to your tap water (GH/KH/pH), you may be fine doing it the way they suggested but if there's much difference, then you may have to take time to acclimate them. If you put them back in the water they came from, there's no acclimation required.

 

[greenscooby]

Confused now(not difficult i know!!!).

I'm looking at putting some plant substrate on the bottom with sand on the top.

Only got bog standard lights at the moment, and low level plants, but would love to upgrade.

The main reason i wanna change substrate is because I DIDN'T DO MY RESEARCH i bought a bristlenose catfish and didn't realise the gravel i've got is no good for him.

I love catfish, remember when my dad had one, i was fascinated(?spelling) by him, so i HAD to get one.


Mark.

 

[rdd1952]

Trust someone that knows first hand how sand on gravel works. I used EcoComplete in my 75 gallon. I was new in the hobby and since I couldn't find enough EC, I put Tahitian Moon Sand over top if it. It looked great but it took very little time before the EC was to the top and with in less than a year, you couldn't see any sand at all. The more foot traffic around the tank, the quicker it will be but any vibration at all (furnace/AC or other appliance in the house running, etc.) moves the process along. If you want a test, put some of the gravel with sand on it into a bucket and fill with water. Gently tap the sides of the bucket. It won't take long before you start seeing gravel.

 

[greenscooby]

Rdd1952,

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO confused now, i'm REALLY NEW to the hobby, and your last post made no sense to me(sorry for being stoooopid).

My plan is to put plant substrate on the bottom with sand on top, fingers crossed i can convince the wife into letting me buy some decent lights for my plants, but i've gotta work on that!!!

BUT i basically wanna look after my bristlenose catfish, also i'm looking after a mates corys till his new tank has cycled.

If i'm being out of line then i' do apologise, it's my inexperience thats talking.

Many thanks,

Mark.

 

[rdd1952]

You certainly aren't out of line. What I'm saying is that the sand will filter down to fill the voids in the larger substrate. It will basically work it's way to the bottom. An easy way to get the concept is fill a jar with marbles so they are level with the top. Now pour sand into the jar. It will trickle down and fill the holes. It's the same thing only on a bigger scale as the voids between the marbles are obviously larger than the voids between the gravel or plant substrate.