Removing UGF and replacing substrate in an existing aquarium

[shogsten]

I'm converting my 150 gallon tank over to a planted tank. As part of the change over I am going to 100% flourite. Currently I have large gravel and UGF filter plates. Since the gravel is so large and I have a lot of it (3-4 inches) , I really need to replace it rather than add to it. To keep from completely cycling the tank I want to swap out part of the gravel at a time.

My idea is to

- loosely block off 1/3 of the tank with a plexiglass divider to protect fish and hopefully minimize clouding and mucking up the rest of the tank.
- remove the gravel and the UGF from that section
- vacuum and water change like crazy from this section
- refill with flourite
- Allow the tank to adapt to the changes (2wks or until water parameters settle down) and repeat until all three plates are replaced.

Anybody see anything wrong with this idea other than the amount of extra work involved ? Actually this is probably less work this way as tearing down a 150 is a lot of work.

 

[mitche8359]

Thinking about it, I'm wondering how you are going to keep the gravel and flourite from mixing after you replace each section. Maybe you can keep a short divider in the tank between the changes.

 

[malkore]

he implied he was going to put in a divider in the substrate.

One thing...if you add 400 watts of light, you'll need CO2 immediately, or you'll start growing algae.

 

[shogsten]

actually I have been running the 400 watts for a couple of weeks and last night I finally saw some new algae in the tank that wasn't there before. But this may be due to the fact my timer failed and the lights had been on for 24 hours straight . This is a really well established lightly loaded tank with a really efficient nitrogen cycle. I just don't lose fish, I have a zebra danio that is 11 years old in this tank. My fish die of old age, I've actually wanted to convert this tank to a planted tank for a long time but I've been waiting for a couple of fish to move on to that great fish tank in the sky.

Scott

 

[mitche8359]

Yeah I read about the divider, wasn't sure if it would be left in the tank in between work on the substrate. If some type of divider isn't left in, you may have a hard time trying to get the plexiglass back in between the flourite and gravel.

 

[Guest]

Read my FAQ. You can do the replacement all at once so long as you load up the tank with fast growing plants. Do you have any other filter than the UGF? If so then it will have enough bacteria to handle the change.

 

[hashbaz]

The whole idea sounds very tricky. Have you ever pulled up a UGF before? There is a HUGE (and I mean gargantuan!) amount of waste under there. After separating off the aquarium, I would somehow siphon the water straight from under the UGF. Good luck and tell us how it goes.