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I want to reduce the amount of sand in my 10 gallon from 2.5 inches to 1 inch. Will this cause a mini cycle? Will my plants be ok in only 1 inch?

10 Gallon
Black Sand
2.6 WPG Compact fluorescent bulbs (2)Daylight
Average Temp. 76F 24.4C
PLANTS
1 Amazon Sword/Echinodorus cordifolius (i think)
1 Saggatarius/Sagittaria subulata
2 Valsneria Americana not sure what type exactly
Flourish Tabs added for amazon sword
FISH
1 Female Bolivian Ram/Mikrogeophagus altispinosus
3 Panda Cory's/Corydoras panda
5 Bloodfin Tetra's/Aphyocharax anisitsi
INVERTS
1 Amano shrimp/Caridina japonica
more info in profile under tank 1 cont. if needed

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Plants generaally dont like sand anyway.
In one inch of substrate they wont have room to establish a good rootsystem.

As for a minicycle, you're likely to not see one due to the lowerbioload and higher plant level, but considering the fact you're keeping panda cories you may want to keep a close eye on it.

^_^
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bcwcat22,

I agree with Babel on the “plants don’t like sand” theory, although some people grow plants in sand rather successfully.

About the mini-cycle: I would say that this is certainly a possibility when I think of how you would go about the sand level reduction. Are you planning to shovel it out while the tank is filled with water? Or do you think about removing the water and afterwards adding the same water back in? Also, I don’t think that your fish-load is all that small, a 4 inch Ram, 3 2inch Pandas, and 5 1.5 inch Tetras are fully stocked for a 10 (except if all are babies), IMHO.

Why do you want to reduce the sand height in the first place?

Also, I think the Amazon and the Vals will, if in good health and sufficient light, outgrow a 10G rather sooner than later.

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I want to reduce the sand so that I will reduce the chance of getting pockets of ammonia. My ram is not yet full grown but my tetras and corys are just about. The plants are not doing good as my lights have been off for 2 weeks now for algae control which was killing the plants so right now plants are low priority;I eventually will want to rescape the tank with all new plants. Could I put seachem flourite under the existing substrate by removing sand adding the flourite and readding the sand while the fish are out of the tank?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

The sand can be siphoned from your aquarium. Use the largest diameter tube that you can find to siphon the substrate into a waste bucket. The heavily rooted plants like your echinodorus (sword plant) will hate you.

You will probably want to break down the tank to add fluorite. The product should be thoroughly washed before adding it to an aquarium. Then, if you are not very careful, you may still stir up a considerable cloud of substrate into your water. Some people use fluorite as a base then add a "finish" substrate that reflects the final colors that they want to present.

An option may be to add Eco Complete, as the product is washed and should cause a minimal disturbance in your water. It has a very good composition for plants. The finer particles in a substrate work their way to the bottom of your tank over time leaving the larger particles as the surface of your substrate.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Most plants do not like sand at all, also they prefer a good 2-3mm gravel substrate at least 3ins deep.
If you have those plants there already they certainly will not grow to their full size that is if they grow much at all.

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Keith

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Yes, you can reduce the sand from your tank, but the plants wouldn't like it. If you want a planted tank, i would change the sand to gravel, as it's better for the plants.


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Thanks the sand is for my corys they love to burrow in it. I have noticed that my plants grow extremly slowly which is ok in the case of my amazon sword as it seems to be growing out instead of up.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons