Changing substrate

[newbie_dave]

I have plain sand in my aquarium at them minute but thinking about changing to some black and white sand if I do will it completely get rid of all the good bacteria or will my filter instantly cycle the tank ready just to put my fish straight back in?

 

[Brookster123]

If your filters been running a while than instant cycle, just keep it in a bucket of tank water while you swap substrate..

 

[newbie_dave]

yeah it's been going id say about 3 months lol

 

[Brookster123]

Should be fine..

 

[newbie_dave]

Cool I will give it ago

 

[newbie_dave]

What would be the best way to remove the sand I was thinking about using the syphon as it works well when I don't want loads of sand to be sucked up when I do a water change haha

 

[Brookster123]

Yah... It's a pain.. Are you going to remove the fish and drain the tank??

 

[newbie_dave]

Yeah was thinking it would be less stress on them, would it not look like a sand storm if I drop the in with the water in there because when I went from gravel to sand I completely emptied the tank and put the sand in with no water at all (part from what I washed it in) and it was pretty messy

 

[newbie_dave]

Well here's the result it's a bit cloudy but I'm sure it will clean up in a couple of hours