Switching substrates

[Tyler2354]

I want to change out my pebble rock substrate for crushed coral in my african 75 gallon. But I'm not sure how to go about it. Would the best way be to take all the fish and rocks and decor out and put them in a container with air stone and switch out the pebbles with the crushed coral and fill the tank up and let it filter for a hr or 2 and place the fish and all back in?

 

[Sleeves]

I would recommend getting a large plastic cooler and syphoning the water from your tank into the cooler and placing some of the current substrate into the cooler as well.

what type of filter do you have currently? You are going to lose a lot of good bacteria from the tank when you swap out substrate

 

[Tyler2354]

I've got two canister filters on it. One made for a 100 gal and the other for 180 gal. Should be plenty of seeded media in them plus all the lace rock I have in the tank should have a decent amout of bacteria in it

 

[Sleeves]

right on... you might even run one canister filter in the cooler with the fish so you wont have to be rushed

 

[Tyler2354]

Yeah it will definetly take me a while to make the change over. I just don't want the fish to be terribly stressed. But they shouldn't if most of the old water is placed back in the tank right

 

[Chi_Cichlid]

Hey Tyler. I didn't do a complete substrate change, but when I first setup my 75g, I bought fish the same day. I set everything up and moved an already established filter to the 75g and squeezed one of the sponges directly into the water. You should see all the bacteria and whatnot cloud up your water. I let my filters do their thing and once the tank water was clear again and the temp where I wanted it, I acclimated my fish and put them in with no issues.

I think you should be fine moving your fish to a container, switching your substrate, running your filters for an hour or two, and then reintroducing your fish. It wouldn't hurt to add the old water either. Although, most of the beneficial bacteria will be on your decor and substrate, not your water. But hey, it couldn't hurt so why not. Just be sure to check your parameters for at least a week to be safe. Hope this helps!

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[Tyler2354]

Ok thanks for the advice! I just think they will be much happier with a substrate they can dig around in and it will look better and it's easier to clean IMO

 

[Sleeves]

yeah that's why I changed substrate from gravel to playground sand. I went to toys r us and bought 50lb bags of play sand.... it looks awesome and more realistic

 

[Tyler2354]

So I've already got the crushed coral because I got a steal in it. But would sand be better? I've got two canister filters running on the tank and the intakes are pretty close to the bottom of the tank right now so I'm worried sand could get sucked up into the filters and that could be bad

 

[Sleeves]

The benefit to the crushed coral is it helps keep your PH and water hardness in good target areas

 

[Tyler2354]

Yea true. But some sand does also right?

 

[Sleeves]

Not sure


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[mikem691]

I don't think sand will have any affect on your PH but the crushed coral will raise it some.