changing from cc to dsb

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force of habit

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 29, 2003
Messages
27
Location
Wausau WI
My tank has finished cycling. I now have decided to go from a cc to a dsb substrate. I will use rubbermaid containers to hold fish water and lr. How long do I need to wait before reintroducing fish after the change? I have read about it being cloudy after such a change. Also ordering 30# of lr today. How about adding that? Should that be done all at once?
 
If you don't have anything in the tank or want to wait until the sand settle then you can just cure the LR in your main tank as long as nothing is in there because it will cause an amonia and nitrite spike. It is okay for animals to be in when the water is cloudy, just think in the wild if there is a storm or hurricane that stirs up the sand bed :D
 
How many fish do you have? Is there LR in the tank already? I removed my CC and switched to sand with my 2 damsels in the tank, they were fine. I wuold be concerned that removing the CC adding dry? sand and then adding new LR will cause a pretty high ammonia spike. Your CC has nitrifying bacteria growing on it that will need to colonize the new sand if it is not live sand. You can try to speed this process by placing some of the CC in mesh bags and setting on the bottom of the tank to aid in bacteria transfer. If you are adding live sand you should be fine. However, adding 30lbs. of uncured LR will definitely cause the ammonia to jump. This isn't a problem if you don't have any fish or inverts.
 
I have a orangetail damsel and a dwarf flame angel in the tank now. Also have about 8-10# of lr now. I can add the lr slowly if that helps. Also wanting to move tank at the same time. so a full drain is in order.
 
May I ask why you have a flame angel in relatively new tank?

Without the presence of a lot of LR you are going to seriously damage your tanks ability to reduce ammonia and nitrite once you nuke the CC. Adding a lot of new LR will cause a ammonia spike by itself.

If this were me, I'd get your LR up to about 20lbs with a couple smaller increments, and then pull the bed about a month from now. You could always take a chance, do it now, and simply monitor ammonia levels since two small fish aren't going to produce lot of over-whelming waste. The flame angel though would be my biggest concern. Dwarf angels are hardy, but still sensitive to big changes in tank chemistry like any other angel.

You can leave *some* CC in the tank and dump you sand over the top. With 3-4 inches of sand on top a one inch or less CC layer acts just as any other inert bacterial sump. It's the sand on top that does the real work. This is form first hand experience converting CC to DSBs

Live sand will also be much cleaner to work with since adding dry sand to an established tank will make a holy mess, although I'm convinced LS has no biologic benefit over dry sand. It's simply cleaner when added to a wet tank.
 
May I ask why you have a flame angel in relatively new tank?
I went to Drs. Foster & Smith(aka liveauaria.com) in person to get fish and supplies. I was sold these two fish as good hardy choices to cycle a tank with as well as coexist with the planed lionfish. I was looking for expert help from a respected company and worked with a fish tech there. Well thanks to this sight I have since learned that I should not have either one of these fish for what I was doing or what I planed for the tank. With everyones help at this wonderful site I was able to keep the flame alive through out the cycle. Live and learn
 
Also I am currently using 1 gal of bio balls in a wet dry setup. Will this help for this change as far as holding good biology?
 
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