Substrate change please help?

[Ndefil]

Hi everyone! I have a fully stocked 20 gallon long freshwater tank, and I would really like to change from my dingy looking gravel to black sand or black gravel or white sand? How involved is this ? Do I need to take the fish out ? Will it look ok if I just put a thick coat of black gravel on top of my current substrate ? What's the best and easiest way to do this? I don't really want to change my rock work either I love it!Hopefully you guys can help!

 

[Ndefil]

 

[wildroseofky]

Did you change your substrate yet? I have done this in a couple of tanks. The best thing to do is take the fish out. Get a bucket or two and fill with tank water and put the fish in there. Remove decor and plants. Then just scoop out the gravel, vacuum the tank, and put in new stuff. Keep a check on your water perimeters for a couple of weeks. Moving things around releases a lot of gunk into the water and will cause an ammonia spike that leads to a nitrate spike. The tank will go through a mini cycle. I switched from gravel to black sand. I find it works better for live plants.

 

[Ndefil]

Did you change your substrate yet? I have done this in a couple of tanks. The best thing to do is take the fish out. Get a bucket or two and fill with tank water and put the fish in there. Remove decor and plants. Then just scoop out the gravel, vacuum the tank, and put in new stuff. Keep a check on your water perimeters for a couple of weeks. Moving things around releases a lot of gunk into the water and will cause an ammonia spike that leads to a nitrate spike. The tank will go through a mini cycle. I switched from gravel to black sand. I find it works better for live plants.

Thank you no I have not done it yet thinking of doing it on Thursday or Friday. Do I put all the tank water back in? How do I prevent it from doin a mini cycle?

 

[wildroseofky]

Yes, you just put the tank water back in. Or, if it is time for a partial water change, just put half back and top off with freshwater. There really isn't any way to prevent a mini cycle. You will be amazed by how much gunk is trapped in the gravel. You can vacuum the tank bottom really well before adding the new stuff but some of it will still be floating around in the water column. This will be turned to ammonia and raise nitrates. You will also be loosing some of the beneficial bacteria. Most of it lives in the filter but there is some on the decor and substrate. If you have a lightly stocked tank the spike should not be that bad. Cleaning up as much of the trapped gunk as you can will also help keep the mini cycle short.

 

[Canary bird]

When i changed over from gravel to sand i removed the fish and syphoned most of the water into buckets then cleaned the gravel and tank added my washed and washed and washed sand then put everything back except the fish , added 50% new water run the filter for a couple of hours until the water was clear, tested it and added the fish ... Perfect... So i did the same on my other 2 tanks...
Its a bit scary when you start but turns out much easier than anticipated .. And went much quicker too..
Good luck

 

[tiffini2]

If you decided to put sand in the tank i used the bottle method to put sand into the tank & I had no cloudiness.
I rinsed it a little then funneled it into the bottle.

Also I put some of my gravel that I changed, in a leg stocking and put this in my tank, this should help with the cycling.

 

[Aqua_Goddess]

Btw I love ur gourami.he's a handsome fella. But I'd say bottle method would be best although in the past Ive used a large substrate vacuum without the guard to just suck up all off my black sand so I could replace it with gravel.maybe the other way around might help although I doubt it.

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[Ndefil]

Btw I love ur gourami.he's a handsome fella. But I'd say bottle method would be best although in the past Ive used a large substrate vacuum without the guard to just suck up all off my black sand so I could replace it with gravel.maybe the other way around might help although I doubt it.

Sent from my LT28at using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Thank you. Fire ball is great! I rescued him from a 100 gallon predator tank at work with red devil and 2 oscars now he is getting a little beat up by my female krib.

 

[Ndefil]

Ok well I just finished. I got the fish out emptied tank and washed the sand and put it in. It's still very cloudy but I love it already. Here is the before and after

 

[Ndefil]

It's getting better.

 

[FishyBusiness]

That looks really nice! My PFS came in yesterday so that's what I'll be doing today!

 

[Ndefil]

And this morning

 

[Ndefil]

That looks really nice! My PFS came in yesterday so that's what I'll be doing today!

Awesome. Good luck! Make sure you put a filter sponge on the intake of your filter

 

[anteatergoanna]

No comparison, your change looks fantastic!! Good luck

 

[Ndefil]

Day two with sand it's mostly settled down.

 

[mkatts]

Awesome. Good luck! Make sure you put a filter sponge on the intake of your filter

Wait what? If you have a sand substrate you should have a sponge filter at the filter intake? I was just going to ask about sand damaging the filter. I changed from gravel to sand a couple months back and just yesterday, my filter crashed and burned. going tonight to buy a new one.
Is there anything special about the sponge? Specific product to buy?

 

[FishyBusiness]

I just bunched up a piece of fiber fill and put it inside one of my intake tubes. I took it out after a couple hours because my PFS doesn't get kicked up. But I put it in mostly to catch any extra gunk floating around from gravel removal.

 

[Ndefil]

I just bunched up a piece of fiber fill and put it inside one of my intake tubes. I took it out after a couple hours because my PFS doesn't get kicked up. But I put it in mostly to catch any extra gunk floating around from gravel removal.

Makes sense to me. I have a large sponge prefilter on and I see sand all over it so. I just don't want that going into my filter.

 

[mkatts]

I got my new filter running. Petsmart didn't have any fill.have to back. The intake on this filter is about 3 inches off the bottom where my old filter was about and inch