FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Should I remove my fish when I swap my regular gravel and go to Eco-Complete? I won't be doing this for another month. I know if I don't remove the water, I'll end up having to rinse the stuff.

I wanted to save as much of the water as possible to keep it least stressful to my fish, so I was going to siphon it into a 14 gal rubbermaid bin and put the filter on it . Then I was going to siphon as much back as I could, transfer the fish before adding the last of the water back.

Does anyone know how long my tank will need to sit before I can add my fish back? I have to imagine this stuff will really cloud the water. I would put in about 5-6 gallon of aged new water and can stick a small internal filter in there for a few hours or overnight before siphoning some of their water back in and transferring.

The plants I was goint to put in a bucket with a bubbler.

I was also thinking that maybe I should let the co2 slowly run out so that the pH gradually rises before I transfer them. I don't want to run the co2 in the bucket. Then when I put them back the pH will be at my regular level.

Is there anything else I should consider besides starting at about 6am

Di,

I set-up my 125 in November with Eco. By the way, it is true that you do not need to rinse the substrate. I had used Eco in another tank with great results but the thought of NOT rinsing 200 pounds of substrate was a wonderful selling point.

I did the following steps in setting up the aquarium and consolidating two tanks of discus into the 125. All steps were accomplished in one day.

1. Consolidated all fish into one tank and all filters onto one tank to keep filters alive and fully seeded as I broke down one tank for space.

2. Positioned new tank and stand then filled with Eco. I sculpted the Eco with a plastic wallpaper edge to smooth and pull the substrate into desired depths in the tank.

3. Planted tank with plants from existing tanks and new purchases after positioning hardscape. Note that I did this before filling with any water. Eco is wet and easy to plant .

4. Placed a plate in the tank and began to slowly, did I say slowly?, to fill the tank with my Python. Dispersing the Python flow with the plate was designed to minimize substrate trubulence and shifting as I filled the aquarium. It often helps to keep dust from the substrate to a minimum. However, this is Eco! No dust!

5. Treated the water with Prime as I filled it. Initial dose was 2 ml then I continued to add Prime as I filled it at a rate of 1 ml per 10G.

6. As the aquarium was filled with water tempered to 84F, I was moving the seeded filters and heaters from the tank with fish to the new tank. I started the filters when the water was deep enough to sustain their flow.

7. Test fish came next with a school of corydoras taking the plunge followed by a pair of rams, 5 bristlenose and finally 9 adult (6"+) discus.

End results were no ammonia, no nitrites, no fatalities or twitches. A caution with this approach is that my fish are accustomed to extreme water changes so that this was just another large water change to them!

A friend just emptied his 55 sand substrate tank, cleaned it, refilled it with Eco and plants. He made one mistake. His fish went into a 5G bucket with a heater. Three inches of the heater was exposed and the bucket water ran to 98F because of the heater exposure. All the fish died. If you use a bucket then fully submerse your heater or avoid using it.


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

Thanks Bob! I'm so glad to hear you had a positive experience with Eco. I would imagine that after the company rinsed its own substrate, once they packed it, the fluids helped buffer the pieces to prevent too much breakdown (causing clouds).

It sounds like a plan.

No problems with the heater because it will go on a container that is close in size to my 20. Because the container is plastic, I may stick it to a glass plate at the bottom - something I recommend to people with hospital bins.

I have a Titanium Pro 150 heater and although I really like it, I've been unable to hide it and it is a complete eyesore. I may switch to something more discrete that I can place on the side of the tank. I'm really noticing all of those peripheral things and looking for ways to hide them better.