How do i add a substrate

[VioletEmber]

I started growing plants in my tank before I knew about substrates, etc and now I want to really do a nice aquascape, get better lighting etc. Right now I just have plain old gravel.

So how do I take out the plants, the gravel, and the fish and put in a good substrate and start over essentially. It is a ten gallon tank with a male Betta in it- two other fish that I am moving to my other tank anyway.

I am going to put some celestial pearl danios in it once it is reset up. Will I have to cycle the tank again after changing the gravel out?

 

[jcolon]

Couple of ways you can do this.

1. Change it in sections ... like 1/3 today, another in a day or two so any debris kicked up and your fish settle down. The last third a day or so later.

2. Change it all at once which with a 10 gal should be fairly quick. This way is bound to kick-up a lot of debris and stress the fish so put the fish in a 5 gal bucket or spare tank with tank water and an air-stone / hose. They should be fine for a few hours while debris settles and the water clears. You'll probably want to do a 50% PWC afterwards.

I wouldn't worry too much about the cycle, most of your BB live in the filter media so just keep that wet with tank water. You'll lose some BB that are in the substrate but you shouldn't have much of a mini-cycle.

 

[meegosh]

I just posted this a few days ago on another member's thread.. here it is.

What I do is:

- Shut the filters/heaters/lights off
- Drain the tank halfway with your gravel vac, fill a 5g bucket halfway with the tank water
- Remove decor/plants
- Put filter media in bucket
- Net fish into 5g bucket
- Cover bucket with a towel to keep the fish from being stressed
- Drain the tank the rest of the way
- Scoop out the gravel (credit cards or a wet/dry shop vacuum, work best)
- Rinse your new substrate and add it to the tank
- Put your new decor in and plants
- Fill it up & add prime or water conditioner
- Turn your heaters/filters on (may want to wait for sand to settle if going with sand)
- Net your fish and add them

 

[VioletEmber]

Thanks! Super helpful!!

 

[Damian]

I just did the same thing last night for my 55g. It took me about 5 hours to do it.
Went to Lowes bought a 50g bucket. Drained half of my tank water in to it. Scooped up the fish and plants. Put the heater in the bucket with one of my filters running. Stuck the vaccine hose all the way to the bottom drained the water. Scooped the the gravel out, washed the tank, put 7 bags of substrate in filled half way with tap water. Mixed all the substrate together drained the water out. Filled it half way with conditioned water. Added couple of buckets of eater from my tank put plants in fish poured the rest of the water in and I was done. No fish deaths.

 

[WBAC88]

I just posted this a few days ago on another member's thread.. here it is.

What I do is:

- Shut the filters/heaters/lights off
- Drain the tank halfway with your gravel vac, fill a 5g bucket halfway with the tank water
- Remove decor/plants
- Put filter media in bucket
- Net fish into 5g bucket
- Cover bucket with a towel to keep the fish from being stressed
- Drain the tank the rest of the way
- Scoop out the gravel (credit cards or a wet/dry shop vacuum, work best)
- Rinse your new substrate and add it to the tank
- Put your new decor in and plants
- Fill it up & add prime or water conditioner
- Turn your heaters/filters on (may want to wait for sand to settle if going with sand)
- Net your fish and add them

I need to do some major aquascaping changes in my 65g tank, but I don't have to switch out the substrate. Would your recommend the same process as there will be lots of stuff floating in the water and I'd rather not stress the fish.

 

[joel618]

I need to do some major aquascaping changes in my 65g tank, but I don't have to switch out the substrate. Would your recommend the same process as there will be lots of stuff floating in the water and I'd rather not stress the fish.

Same question.

 

[Damian]

I can tell you from experience that last time I did aquascaping in my tank with out taking the fish out and draining the tank I lost half of my fish. There was stuff floating around and the water got very cloudy. I would perform the same steps but of course with out taking the gravel out.

 

[Sisserydoo]

I recently did a complete makeover on my 20 and 27 gallons, including switching out gravel with the fish in. I just worked on half the tank at a time so the fish could stay on the opposite side. The fish involved were gourami, black skirts, zebra danio, mollies, and guppies. No deaths or even stress that I could detect.

 

[meegosh]

I need to do some major aquascaping changes in my 65g tank, but I don't have to switch out the substrate. Would your recommend the same process as there will be lots of stuff floating in the water and I'd rather not stress the fish.

Good question. I guess it would depend on a couple things. First, what type of scaping are you going to do? If you are stacking new rocks and need to dig all the way down in the substrate I might consider removing the fish temporarily.

I've done some major rescapes with the fish in the tank. All of my fish are pretty much trained to eat out of my hands so they don't get skittish when I have my hands in the tank. I have done complete rescapes, minor rock work, plantings, etc with the fish in the tank. I move around extremely slow as not to scare any of the fish. Be careful placing rocks and heavy objects down.

If you notice the fish stressing then take a break and come back to it. There is no rush and as we all know, nothing good in this hobby comes quickly.

 

[WBAC88]

Good question. I guess it would depend on a couple things. First, what type of scaping are you going to do? If you are stacking new rocks and need to dig all the way down in the substrate I might consider removing the fish temporarily.

I've done some major rescapes with the fish in the tank. All of my fish are pretty much trained to eat out of my hands so they don't get skittish when I have my hands in the tank. I have done complete rescapes, minor rock work, plantings, etc with the fish in the tank. I move around extremely slow as not to scare any of the fish. Be careful placing rocks and heavy objects down.

If you notice the fish stressing then take a break and come back to it. There is no rush and as we all know, nothing good in this hobby comes quickly.

Thanks for the info. I pretty much did what you said and it turned out well. Moved all the plants around, added some driftwood, re-arranged the rocks, etc. it's been a few days and all the fish seems healthy and happy. More good advice from the people here at AA! Thanks all.