If you do decide to change your substrate, I would reccomend course sand. Too me, it is much easier to work with and looks much better. (I made the switch a while back... not sure how long, but I will never use gravel again)
Does gravel size really matter?
- Thread starter F1shkeeper
- Start date
Hey Pappy try this little trick for planting stem plants. Instead of the usual stripping off a few leaves at the bottom and inserting into the substrate, try laying it down and placing a small stone at either end and maybe one or two along the length if the cutting is long enough. It takes a bit longer to look good, but you get alot more bang for your buck when 8 or 10 shoots come up! Also it will grow roots along the whole length.
ok so thanks for the advice, I will be replacing the gravel because of the posts I've read here added to the advice of my LFS. Now my new question is If I have fish in the tank what is the best way to change the gravel without stressing the fish out? Will taking all the gravel out make my water unhealthy? Do I need to take all the water out prior to the switch?
I have all kinds of substrates from sand all the way to coarse gravel. When it comes to plants, the smaller the gravel the easier to plant. That being said, I find no difference in growth rates except with the sand. My plants that are in sand do not grow as fast BUT it is also possible that the fish are nibbling at them. They have destroyed most of what I planted. That came as no surprise to me as I expected it and they were put there for the express purpose of letting the fish eat them.
What I did is take out a couple of cups of gravel, a couple times a day. To me, this seemed to minimize stress, and allowed time for any bacteria I was removing to be replaced in the filter. Then, after a week or so when I was done removing gravel, I added all of the (well washed!) sand at once (slowly, watching out for bottom dwellers...)
moving all the gravel will not harm the water chemistry? I don't know if letting all the crap under there into the water will hurt anyhting.
