Tank Decor - gravel

[chris_1127]

The tank that my new oscar is in has large substrate in at the moment that is pretty grubby - the stones of the substrate are 10mm dia approx and most of them are thick with green algae. Ideally I'd like to change this over to a much finer smooth gravel substrate - can this be done with oscars, or do they need the larger substrate? Plan was to replace about 1/3 of the stone at a time if it can be safely done.

 

[dirtydogg]

changing gravel is pretty easy to do, just as you have described a little at a time over a month or so, as for what's best sized gravel for the oscar/new world cichlids in general I can't be to sure. Kinda curious my self.

 

[air*force*one]

you could use sand for on the bottum of an oscar tank if you wanted to it will be fine!

 

[chris_1127]

cheers, just wanted to check before changing it over.

 

[BlueIce]

Any size gravel would work,or sand...
There is no reason at all that you would have to do it over a long period of time however. Just take it out all at once and add the new.

 

[chris_1127]

hmm i thought that the substrate was home to the ammonia/nitrite bacteria as well? the tanks only recently been moved and i'm concerned that taking away the established substrate would cause spikes in the tank... is this not the case?

 

[BlueIce]

hmm i thought that the substrate was home to the ammonia/nitrite bacteria as well? the tanks only recently been moved and i'm concerned that taking away the established substrate would cause spikes in the tank... is this not the case?

Most of the "good stuff" lives in your filter media.Changing out the gravel will not cause the tank to recycle.If you changed all your filter media at one time,then the tank would need to cycle again.

 

[Vip]

Use anything you want dude ive noticed oscars like to "play" a bit more in sand but thats about it, they really dont seem to mind what u use.

 

[Jason_S]

only drawback to sand is that the oscar could stir it up allowing it to get sucked into the filter and possibly causing damage to the filter. B)