I have a complicated question

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DukeNukem713

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Oct 6, 2011
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So I have a 30gal tank that is cycling right now. i believe its at the end stages of the cycling because the amonia is 0 and the nitrite is getting lower. its low enough so that my 2 female guppies and 2 of their fry are surviving.

Now i was planning on redoing my tank and getting new substrate for it. right now i have crappy looking gravel and i want sand and flourite sand substrite for plants and cool design. i was wondering that if i emptied my tank of the water and the substrate, then put in new substrate and filled it back up with water and put my fish back in, would i be interrupting the cycling process? if so then how and by how much?

my filter media is pretty good, the filter came with 2 pads that have so much crap on them (which btw is so much that water wont flow through them, how do i fix that?), and my roommate gave me one of his filter pads yesterday, plus the fourth one is starting to look pretty mucky.

thanks in advance!
 
Well I would just wait till your cycle is complete or you will create a mini cycle on top of just cycling. You could change the substrate a bit at a time but I wouldnt remove it all

as far as the filter pad just get a bowl of tank water and wash it off good in that.
 
you are cycling to get the good bacteria which will build up mainly in your filter. you can take out all the gravel, fish, and water and put them back in after you switch the substrate. However, make sure that your water is dechlorinated with prime or something so that your bacteria don't die. Other than that, your procedure seems good.
NEVER CHANGE YOUR FILTER PADS unless it is falling apart. like i said before, all of your good bacteria is on it. if you want to clean it, rinse it in decholorinated water or aquarium water so that the good bacteria don't die.
 
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