Substrate Disaster

[drain_bamaged]

Wow, last night was epic. I came home from work (around 6.30pm) to see my dad changing the substrate from gravel to sand. 'Great' I think, ive wanted to do that for a while, and its only a little 25 litre tank .

So my fish are lovingly imprisoned in their plastic bags, as we do not have a spare tank. The media is in some old tank water, by all accounts things are going well.

Then disaster.

My dad accidentaly drops the old gravel all over the kitchen floor. Again, no biggie, its now no longer used. He sweeps it up and puts it in a carrier bag.He then washes the sand and starts to put it in tank.

Three hours later, and the sand still hasnt settled. We're beginning to get antsy now, as its knocking on for about 10pm, and the fish, although being checked on arent happy, and im pretty mindful of the media.

So we decide to clean the tank out of the sand. Without thinking I put the gravel back in to the tank and fill it up. Its then I notice all the debris and crap from the kitchen floor floating in the tank. So, we wash the gravel out and re-fill the tank, but again there is debris. By this time its 11pm.

Tired and annoyed, We *again* took the gravel out, put it back in to the carrier bag.

Last night we went to bed, having put the fish back in the tank (after temp matching), with the filter and heater. And NO substrate. I went to bed thinking if I have any fish left in the morning, it will be a miracle, and Hallelujah, there was! All the fish are still alive!

Now, I have a few questions:

1- I like the look of the tank without substrate, so, it is possible to have a tank without substrate? What complications can you expect?
2- im expecting a mini cycle, because of the bacteria I have lost from the substrate, but what, in your opinion is better, sand or gravel? and if I chose not to have any substrate, would the bacteria grow on the glass?
3- how long does it normally take sand to settle, and is there a preferred technique?

Cheers

Darren

 

[tropic_john]

Wow, last night was epic. I came home from work (around 6.30pm) to see my dad changing the substrate from gravel to sand. 'Great' I think, ive wanted to do that for a while, and its only a little 25 litre tank .

So my fish are lovingly imprisoned in their plastic bags, as we do not have a spare tank. The media is in some old tank water, by all accounts things are going well.

Then disaster.

My dad accidentaly drops the old gravel all over the kitchen floor. Again, no biggie, its now no longer used. He sweeps it up and puts it in a carrier bag.He then washes the sand and starts to put it in tank.

Three hours later, and the sand still hasnt settled. We're beginning to get antsy now, as its knocking on for about 10pm, and the fish, although being checked on arent happy, and im pretty mindful of the media.

So we decide to clean the tank out of the sand. Without thinking I put the gravel back in to the tank and fill it up. Its then I notice all the debris and crap from the kitchen floor floating in the tank. So, we wash the gravel out and re-fill the tank, but again there is debris. By this time its 11pm.

Tired and annoyed, We *again* took the gravel out, put it back in to the carrier bag.

Last night we went to bed, having put the fish back in the tank (after temp matching), with the filter and heater. And NO substrate. I went to bed thinking if I have any fish left in the morning, it will be a miracle, and Hallelujah, there was! All the fish are still alive!

Now, I have a few questions:

1- I like the look of the tank without substrate, so, it is possible to have a tank without substrate? What complications can you expect?
2- im expecting a mini cycle, because of the bacteria I have lost from the substrate, but what, in your opinion is better, sand or gravel? and if I chose not to have any substrate, would the bacteria grow on the glass?
3- how long does it normally take sand to settle, and is there a preferred technique?

Cheers

Darren

Well;

1. Substrate can hold some useful/filter bacteria
2. Substrate also makes the tank water less smelly
3. Substrate is used by some fish to breed.

And no, good bacteria only grows on rough edges e.g gravel, sand, rocks, filter sponge etc...

 

[Curiosity101]

My tank was slightly cloudy for a week after a switched to sand. I just stuck a spare filter in it full of filter floss which I cleaned out every day until the tank was clear.
A tank without substrate will be fine depending on your fish stock...
What fish are in the tank?

Only other issues with no substrate is that you can't plant rooting plants (you can always put them in, just that they'd have to be potted)
And you'll be able to see any rubbish that builds up on the bottom.

You shouldn't necessarily have a mini-cycle, unless you have an undergravel filter, as most of the bacteria will be on the filter foam. Just keep an eye on water levels and do changes as + when they're needed.

 

[21rm]

I think ya've got good advice from the two previous posters, and i agree wit what they say,

just wanna say sorry for ur trouble, cos ive had my fair share of disasters. God i know what thats like

 

[drain_bamaged]

thanks guys, i think when I get home, im going to try and 'place' the sand very gently into the water, and see what happens...if that doesnt work, im going to give up on the sand hahaha

Quick question, when the sand becomes wet, it it changes colour from the lovely while sand to the browny murky sand that we all know from the beach...i assume that this will clear up when everything has settled down and its been left alone for a while?

 

[Curiosity101]

I thought that myself. But once you fully fill the tank and put the light on, for some reason it goes white again. *shrug*

 

[drain_bamaged]

i guess its to do with saturation? Or I could just be making that up! haha! So does this sound like a good plan:

1- remove the fishies
2- cut a drinks bottle into a funnel and 'place' the sand on the bottom
3- do not turn the filter on just yet, wait till the sand settles.

It seems so simple, but last night, Dad and I were stressing big time! But thinking about it now, thats because we added the sand then the water, so the sand was displaced as soon as the water hit it. Doing it vice versa seems to make a bit more sense in theory!?

 

[Curiosity101]

Sounds like an aright plan to me. Quite a clever little idea using the bottle. Am I picturing it correctly, sort of in the same way you ice a cake...
Cut off was was the bottom of the bottle, put into the tank upside down and pour in the sand? Moving it around to spread it evenly?

And depends what type of filter you have...so long as any suspended sand particles hit filter media and get trapped before they get to the motor + propellor then you can put the filter straight back on.

 

[drain_bamaged]

yep that is spot on, 101!

At first, id leave the filter off though, just to make sure I dont clog it! It would be another expense I could do without lol