afraid to mess with substrate

[mumrah]

I've got a 10g tank with fish that have recently aclimated with the enviroment. I also just bought a patch of dwarf hairgrass. The gravel i have in there now is regular top fin gravel. I'm pretty sure it's no good for root propagation, but i'm afraid to entirely change it out.

What should i do? Remove a segment of the gravel and put some sand in? Or just put sand in all around on top of the gravel.

tia,
David

 

[SnyperP]

You can change the substrate over slowly by 25 or 50% at a time. until you change it all.

 

[gheitman]

If you put sand in on top of the gravel then the smaller grained sand will probably just go around the larger gravel to settle on the bottom of the tank.

 

[BASSNMAN]

You can grow most plants in regular gravel. Use some plant tabs and a good fertilizer, like Flourish with iron. Try DIY co2.

 

[czcz]

Remove a segment of the gravel and put some sand in?

From what I've read here, I think the above won't impact the biological filter much.

FWIW (newbie) I changed from silica/ground quartz to Shultz aquatic soil for half of a 7g tank earlier today. Ammonia measured 0 yesterday and is ~.25 as of five minutes ago. I've read here that you should do half the tank and wait a week until doing the other half, assuming a fully cycled tank, to ensure the "good" bacteria survives.

 

[Swank]

Sand is inert -- as far as plants and their needs are concerned -- probably no better than the gravel. An iron-rich substrate would have been preferred, but I believe that a 10g tank is small enough that you can easily make up for inert substrate with good fertilization regimine...incl. iron.

Is this what you mean??