Thinking about changing substrate

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HandSomeDevil13

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 17, 2016
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121
Location
California
I currently have a 5.5 gallon tank. It's been cycled for about a year now and I have a few low light plants like jungle Val that are growing in my tank

I have white gravel in the tank but I have been thinking about changing it and putting Eco complete instead. My question is if this is possible without recycling my tank and if the substrate will help my jungle Val grow or if I should just stick with my gravel for now.


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What kind of filter are you running? Don't change the media in the filter prior to doing this. You want to keep the biological filter (in the filter) intact so that the substrate swap won't cause problems. Yes, you will lose some beneficial bacteria in the old substrate but hopefully the filter can compensate.
As for the EcoComplete and the plants, sure it will help. But plants do fine in gravel or sand as long as they can find nutrients.
Years ago I grew a similar plant (Crystal River Val) in a 55g. It got huge. I would trim it back to the height of the tank and it would eventually cover the length of the tank (+5' leaves). I saw jungle Val at an auction this past weekend. Pretty robust plants for a 5.5g tank.


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I have a tetra whisper 10 internal filter. I added a few pieces of sponge to it so that the beneficial bacteria could latch on to it.

My jungle Val is growing in nicely just with gravel and a few root tabs but I recently bought some Java fern and did not clean them thinking it would be ok and now I have pest snails. I figured changing the substrate would help the plants and get rid of most if not all of my snails.


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Change half of the substrate and wait a month then change the rest. For bigger tanks I would change 1/3 or 1/4 at a time but for a 5 gallon half would be good.
 
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