Switching Your Substrate?

[Catfish enthusiast]

Wasnt 2 sure which forum 2 post this in. But i have a fully matured planted tank with many fish (180 litre). Kinda bored with my natural gravel and really want 2 change 2 silver sand......

Does anyone have any advice on this? is it a good idea or a bad one??

cheers,

adam

 

[fozziebear]

id suggest doing a search this topic has been discussed a hell of a lot, if you want to do it go for it, but its a lot of work, but well worth it in the end, also think about adding a nutrient rich plant substrate under the sand if your going to go to the effort of ripping the tank apart.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

id suggest doing a search this topic has been discussed a hell of a lot, if you want to do it go for it, but its a lot of work, but well worth it in the end, also think about adding a nutrient rich plant substrate under the sand if your going to go to the effort of ripping the tank apart.

cheers, yeah ive noticed NOW that there's alot of talk on this lol. Well is there a proper way of taking the gravel out or do you just work away??

 

[fozziebear]

a good routine would be to drain the tank and put all the fish into a large large bucket with the filter running on that, then you drain out the water as much as you can, then scoop out the gravel and get on with putting the new stuff in.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

a good routine would be to drain the tank and put all the fish into a large large bucket with the filter running on that, then you drain out the water as much as you can, then scoop out the gravel and get on with putting the new stuff in.

ooof! sounds messy! just as i have in excess of 25 fish, including 2 large angelfish 2 large plecs and 3 large chocolate talkers, but i can see that would work. Though would just taking bunches of gravel out at a time not work no?

 

[fozziebear]

would work but taking that out and putting the sand in would be very stressful to the fish it would be less stressful for them to be caught and put in a bucket.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

would work but taking that out and putting the sand in would be very stressful to the fish it would be less stressful for them to be caught and put in a bucket.

Yeah your right there. Hmmm ill give it a thought lol. Just as a matter of interest how long would the fish have to remain in the bucket till i was done?? working fast like.

 

[fozziebear]

if you've got a filter and heater running on it and the bucket was large then up to like 12-24 hours if its a small bucket then less time obviously as the larger fish might have a go at the smaller ones.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

if you've got a filter and heater running on it and the bucket was large then up to like 12-24 hours if its a small bucket then less time obviously as the larger fish might have a go at the smaller ones.

KK well i have a bucket but its just 3 gallons/15 litres? that enough or...

 

[fozziebear]

nah not for those kinda fish, i had fish all under 4 inches and i used a 35 litre bucket, that was ok, but you'd need bigger with those fish.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

nah not for those kinda fish, i had fish all under 4 inches and i used a 35 litre bucket, that was ok, but you'd need bigger with those fish.

KK cheers man . Uve been great help. If i do decide to go through with this you'll probably see a pic of the finished product on this forum