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over weekend im planning to revamp tank by changing substrate and re designing the layout. so far i have moved most of my fish to other tanks.... any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated in a smooth transfer... i will be keeping ost of the aged water and all filter media as i will keep filter running in other tank so bacteria dont die and end up in a cycle.

I'm soooo excited about this. hope fish will love when i finish.

i'm getting that all the fish are in temporary homes, so go for it. just don't add all the fish back in at once. some of the bacteria may be living in the gravel so give your tank a chance to regrow the bacteria to make up for the loss of this.

20 Gallon Long:
Aquaclear 300
2 Bolivian Rams, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus: Gumby and Pokey

p.s.
if you leave some fish in be very careful not to hurt them.

20 Gallon Long:
Aquaclear 300
2 Bolivian Rams, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus: Gumby and Pokey

Whenever I've swapped substrate, I've found that you can never get it all. There's always alittle gravel or sand that you can never get out. Other then that, just save soem water, dump everything else in a bucket, and put the new stuff in. If the tank is on the large side, you might have to wait a while, before you put the fish back in.

Thnx for the advice, i wasn't thinking of adding all fish back was thinking of adding small fish such as tetras. First i have to wash sand tonight so it ready for tomorrow. just hope it don't take too long.

well everything went to plan more or less,,, except now ive extreemly cloudy water with a scum on the surface!!! i have fish in tank because of this as i wasn't sure whether it was safe enough.

Jb aquabasis plus [plant base]
river sand on top at a depth of 1inch all round.

Filled tank slowly by distrubuting water over a plate so it didn't stir up substrate.

Have 2 filters running side by side trying to get water clear as fast as i can because i want to get my corydoras outta the plastic fish bag i put them in. I have put filter floss in both filters, to take out the fine particles.

If you're using sand, just rinse it as much as you can, so you don't have a cloudy tank when you start it up again.



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http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

It been a nightmare the sand was clean, but the aquabasis i put under the sand turned my water like milk and scummy so i had to empty most the water out and refill again....grrrr my corydoras still haven't gone in as yet... the water is looking loads better now tho.

Wish i had never started it now!!!!

maybe all the scum was left over from the old substraight? just an idea.

20 Gallon Long:
Aquaclear 300
2 Bolivian Rams, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus: Gumby and Pokey

I've changed gravel in 2 different tanks now...a 75 and 150. Both have excellent filtration. The 75 has an AC500 and Emperor400 and the 150 has 3 AC500's. Excellent filtration is key for changing substrate the way I did.

In the 150, I basically did just like I was doing a large water change and vacuumed the gravel very thoroughly. Then, when about 1/2-2/3 of the water was gone I stopped the vacuum and started removing gravel. Once all the old gravel was out, I rinsed and added the new gravel. Then all that was left was to refill the tank and get the filters going again. Fish were in the tank for the whole process.

In the 75, I started removing water and while the water was coming out, so was the gravel. By the time the water got down to where there was only about 1/3 left all the gravel was out. I then rinsed and added the new gravel and refilled the water. Again, the fish were in the tank the whole time.

The reason I mentioned the filtration above is because good to excellent filtration would be required to change out substrate the way I did. With all that filtration comes lots of surface area for bacterial colonies to grow. That much filtration and surface area for bacteria kept the tank stable and kept it from recycling while bacterial colonies grew in the new gravel. If it would make you feel better, you can put "bags" of the old gravel buried into the new gravel for a week or 2. This will speed up the process of bacterial colonies growing in the new gravel.

If you're using sand, just rinse it as much as you can, so you don't have a cloudy tank when you start it up again.

I found out the hard way. Mud!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

How often should you do substrate changes?

You can change the subtrate when you want, but there's no fixed date when you should. If you are happy with your tank, just leave it as it is. You must only vacuum clean the subtrate, so it will stay clean.




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http://www.deathbydyeing.org/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

ditto what jasonpisani said. you don't have to change the substrate occasionally. the only reason for changing the substrate would be if you decide you don't like what you have or some harmful chemical falls into the tank killing all the inhabitants and you have to start over. I'd change the gravel in that case just to make sure nothing was leftover. But, let's all hope that doesn't happen.


I changed my gravel because I didn't like the old. In the 150 the gravel came with the tank when I bought it used. It was huge and nearly impossible to vacuum so I finally decided it was time for something new. In the 75, this was only my third tank and I was still inexperienced and didn't realize how much better, imo, a natural setup looks than a flourescent one. Plus the fact that my (now ex-) girlfriend had a say in things. She didn't want any more tanks unless they were "pretty".

I only changed my gravel once in about 3 years. That was becasue I had this funky neon green gravel and I wanted to go with a more natural look.