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I wanted to change the substrate in my 30 gallon tank from medium rocks to Flora base. I got a 20 gallon plastic tub and filled it up with the water from my 30 gallon. I scooped up all the fish and put them in the plastic tub and added a temporary filter. In the 30 gallon I lowered the water level down to 25% full. I threw away all of the rocks and poured in the Flora base. On the Flora base bag it says that the substrate does not need to be rinsed and that it may take a few hours to clear up. My question is, should I refill my tank now and turn the filter back on right now?, or wait until the 25% water clears up first, and then fill up the rest of the tank with new water? And also, when should I add the fish back: when the water clears up, or wait until 24hrs, or when?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by fish007 at 07-Nov-2005 16:24

well, if u leave the 25% water and let all the dust particles settle, when u put in the other 75% ur just gonna stir the dust back up and have to wait even longer, i would fill it up the rest of the way, then let it settle, then put all the fish back, and u NEED to watch the water params as when u got rid of all that gravel u got rid of ALOT of nitrifiying bacteria that kept the water levels right.

its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

what about the filter? do i turn it on while the water is still cloudy, or turn it on when the water clears up?

A filter left unplugged for much more than an hour is a death warrent to your lovely bacteria colonies . Best thing to do is run the filter on the temp tank or any other tank that you have, or even a bucket of water . That's what I had to do while painting the house a few weeks ago...all the fish went into the water change bucket and the filter smushed onto the side.

Running the filter on the tank that's recieved new substrate isnt generally a good idea until the smaller particles settle as they have an annoying habit of getting into the impeller and jamming it up....at leas IME

^_^[hr width='40%']"Our fragile souls are falling
It's heartache every moment
baby with you
my darling with you."~[/font]

I have two filters that I was talking about...a hang-on-the-back filter for my 30 gallon, and a smaller filter by whisper thats used for turtle and shallow water tanks. The small whisper filter is an old filter that I found in my garage. I cleaned it up and put a new cartridge in it. I am using the whisper filter for my 20 gallon temporary tank. I kept the h.o.b. filter on my 30 gallon tank. The water clarity is slightly clearing up. Hopefully sometime tomorrow I can add my fish back in. Surprisingly about ten guppy fry have survived in my 30 gallon tank. I left them in the 30g the whole time as I was switching out the substrate. Its really amazing how tough baby fish can be.