Wonder if I could remove about an inch off top of my current substrate. I would like to change color of gravel on top of substrate. My tank is 125 gal and has been established for about 4 years. I do not want to remove the fish so I thought I may have to do a section at a time. Are there any negatives to doing it this way?
Partial Substrate Change.
- Thread starter ddlbrooks
- Start date
I wouldn't think so. Can I ask from what color are you changing to what color? What kind of decorations and such do you have in there? If you don't have live plants, it really shouldn't be a difficult task. What is the current depth? The only problems I can think of is 1.) if you really don't have much depth to begin with, you'd be losing a lot of beneficial bacteria and such that call your substrate home and 2.) if your replacing a large grained substrate (ie pea gravel) with a small grained one (ie pool filter sand), the small grained one will eventually work it's way to the bottom and you'll be stuck with the same gravel that you wanted to replace on the top again. That is not an overnight process, but it will eventually happen
I have about 4 inches of substrate. The majority of substrate is flourite and top 1 inch is a mix of small gravel and small to medium rocks. One of the main reasons I want to do this is I have trumpet snails and I have so many it's amazing. Now I have 4 clown loaches and do a pretty good job of eating them but then I have so many empty shells just laying there. Thought if I could replace that very top layer and get rid of the snails I thought it would help it look nicer. Also, I have finally given up on live plants, I've been trying for 5 years and just can't keep them alive. My water is very hard, we have well water and I think that plays a role.
