My 75g currently has a 1 inch gravel substrate that I'd like to replace with sand, but I'm worried about losing too much of the bacteria. The tank was cycled about 5 weeks ago with Tetra SafeStart. When I poured the stuff in I poured a little on my 2 bio wheels and the rest into the tank, most of which settled in the gravel. I'm afraid that if I remove the gravel I will also be removing most of the bacteria. Do you think the bio filter can recover on its own or am I gonna have to get another bottle of SafeStart? (there are 22 Tiger Barbs, 6 Peppered Corys, and 1 Rainbow Shark in the tank)
Switching to sand substrate, but worried about losing bio filter!
- Thread starter Fishle
- Start date
as long as you keep your old/established filter on your tank, it will be instantly cycled. no matter how much water you change or how much substrate you take out.
also, with sand, im not sure how deep it has to be before you add MTS, but just something to think about
also, with sand, im not sure how deep it has to be before you add MTS, but just something to think about
I would suggest a conservative approach, removing a third or a quarter of the gravel during each water change over the course of a few weeks. It may be true that very little of your beneficial bacteria are living on your gravel, but you did not say what your maintenance routine is like. After just 5 weeks, there may be a lot of waste down in that gravel that you may not want to stir up all at once.
if you have a quarantine tank (or even a tupperware container and an air stone) that you can hold the inhabitants in during the substrate swap, it shouldn't matter how much waste is in the gravel, because you can just scoop out all the gravel and empty the rest of the water for a fresh start.
I've done the switch over from gravel to sand when I had my 10g... its a long process so you better have a full day to dedicate to it. Thats why I started out with playsand when I upgraded to my 33g long. The trick is to have a temporary holding tank that you can have your fish in while you do the switch.
I had an old 5g bowfront from my first goldfish years back, so I cleaned that out and used it to hold the fish while I did the switch. Since it was half the size of my 10g, it was easy to syphon half the water out of the 10g directly into it, switch my filter over to it, net up all the fish and transfer them over... and then I had a tank with nothing but gravel and water to work with.
The key is to NOT gravel vac when you are syphoning water into your holding tank, but when you get the remaining water out get as much of that gunk out as you can, it makes cleaning the gravel out a cleaner process. Once you get all the water it, just scoop up the gravel, and hose out the tank and clean it up as much as you'd like.
Next is the frustrating part. Fill your tank about 1/4 full with water, then put in your sand (which you have hopefully pre-washed beforehand). Now to fill the rest of the tank get a bowl which is easy to keep a hold of, because you need to keep the lip of the bowl at the waters surface and as you fill the rest of your tank pour the water into the bowl and let it overflow out. This will keep you from mixing up as much sand as possible from the bottom.
Now that you have a full, cloudy tank its time for water changes! Keep taking out water and replacing it a bucket at a time until it starts looking clear! This process took me a few hours to do all by itself both times I've had to do it. Its frustrating, and quite the workout if you are lugging buckets and don't have the luxury of spending $70 on a python just to do water changes. In the end though, this is the quickest way to clear up the water. Do not be tempted to say "screw that" and just run your filter to clear it up... it will take forever, OR kill your filter...
Well I hope that helped, if I left out any details that may confuse you don't be afraid to ask.
I had an old 5g bowfront from my first goldfish years back, so I cleaned that out and used it to hold the fish while I did the switch. Since it was half the size of my 10g, it was easy to syphon half the water out of the 10g directly into it, switch my filter over to it, net up all the fish and transfer them over... and then I had a tank with nothing but gravel and water to work with.
The key is to NOT gravel vac when you are syphoning water into your holding tank, but when you get the remaining water out get as much of that gunk out as you can, it makes cleaning the gravel out a cleaner process. Once you get all the water it, just scoop up the gravel, and hose out the tank and clean it up as much as you'd like.
Next is the frustrating part. Fill your tank about 1/4 full with water, then put in your sand (which you have hopefully pre-washed beforehand). Now to fill the rest of the tank get a bowl which is easy to keep a hold of, because you need to keep the lip of the bowl at the waters surface and as you fill the rest of your tank pour the water into the bowl and let it overflow out. This will keep you from mixing up as much sand as possible from the bottom.
Now that you have a full, cloudy tank its time for water changes! Keep taking out water and replacing it a bucket at a time until it starts looking clear! This process took me a few hours to do all by itself both times I've had to do it. Its frustrating, and quite the workout if you are lugging buckets and don't have the luxury of spending $70 on a python just to do water changes. In the end though, this is the quickest way to clear up the water. Do not be tempted to say "screw that" and just run your filter to clear it up... it will take forever, OR kill your filter...
Well I hope that helped, if I left out any details that may confuse you don't be afraid to ask.
there is no need to take out only a part of the gravel at a time. in fact, this will ensure that you never get ALL of the gravel out of the tank.
just switch all of the substrate at once. this will also be less stressful on the fish since you will be able to get it over with in one attempt.
just switch all of the substrate at once. this will also be less stressful on the fish since you will be able to get it over with in one attempt.
You can switch it all at once. The filter will keep the tank cycled. I would take the fish out while you do the change.
I did the gravel to sand switch myself... i didnt do half of the work the person did above...
I got a plastic bin to keep my fish in whilst i did the change, rubber tube n sucked the water into buckets emptied the tank completly... trick is to throughly wash the sand... if u use the "bowl" trick to refill... cloudy water shouldnt be an issue... just spend most time on washing the sand of course. and refill nice and slowly... no cloudy water, refill the water arround the correct temp and then turn everything back on and add your fish... this process only took me 2 hours... not a whole day lol do it proper and then you wont have issues to resolve later
I got a plastic bin to keep my fish in whilst i did the change, rubber tube n sucked the water into buckets emptied the tank completly... trick is to throughly wash the sand... if u use the "bowl" trick to refill... cloudy water shouldnt be an issue... just spend most time on washing the sand of course. and refill nice and slowly... no cloudy water, refill the water arround the correct temp and then turn everything back on and add your fish... this process only took me 2 hours... not a whole day lol do it proper and then you wont have issues to resolve later
