Changing substrate

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Barneykirk3

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How easy is it to change substrate with fish in the tank. Wanting to change from soil to either gravel or sand.

Any help/advice much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
It's usually possible to change substrate with fish in the tank, not advisable if the substrate has been in there for more than a year or so though, or is prone to gas pockets - potentially lethal if a gas pocket gets disturbed while there are fish in there.

With soil? I wouldn't even attempt it. That's guaranteed to be messy. You don't need a whole other tank to move them to, you can set up a temporary one using a food grade plastic storage tote, like this one
storagebox.jpg


Get a heater guard for your heater if it doesn't have one, then when you're ready, move the filter/heater/airstone etc to the tote/tank, with most of the tank water, then the fish and any live plants, decor etc. Make sure to cover the top with something to prevent jumpers. Then they can stay in the tote while you take your time removing all the soil from the tank.

It would be a struggle to remove every bit of soil from the tank while the fish were in there, even if you left aside risks to fish from gas pockets, and how messy it would get.

Remember that a lot of your beneficial bacteria population would have been living on the substrate too, when you change it, so there's every chance the tank will go through a mini cycle. That's not a problem as long as you're aware of that so you can test and water change as needed!
 
Syphon it out over a few days and top the tank up each time with some clean water. When all the sand is out, add some washed gravel.

If you want to do it in one day, take fish and water out and put them in a container. Drain tank, remove sand, wash tank out with tap water. Set it up using new gravel, old water with fish in.
 
Thanks for the replies. Think taking fish out is going to be best thing to do. Putting the old water back is a new one to me, is there a reason for doing this.

Also does anyone use the tropical T5 lights (or similar). I've got white ones but wondering if the tropical ones would show up fish better. As having silk/plastic plants dont need light for growing plants.

Thanks
 

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