jbrown03
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I am about to embark on planting my aquarium . Unfortunately this is going to require changing the substrate in my tank. At the moment the substrate is purely pea gravel, which I intend to change to a combination of silver sand, quartz and a laterite based substrate with an undergravel heater.
I am concerned that I should change the substrate in a way that effects the tank as little as possible. I have read a web page or two that says that when changing the substrate it is best to change only half in one go, and wait a few weeks before doing the other half. The reasoning behind this being that a lot of the biological filtering in the tank occurs in the substrate. I find that a little hard to believe, this information probably being the result of the Chinese Whispers effect. I can't imaging a lot of water flows through the substrate of a tank that is not undergravel heated, and hence little of the substances that require biologically filtering would get in to it. I can also imagine that conditions in the substrate are rather anaerobic, and hence only nitrate converting bacteria would live there anyway.
Based on the assumption that the bacteria in the substrate are probably not very helpful to biological filtering, I am planning to change all the substrate in one go. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice about this?
I am concerned that I should change the substrate in a way that effects the tank as little as possible. I have read a web page or two that says that when changing the substrate it is best to change only half in one go, and wait a few weeks before doing the other half. The reasoning behind this being that a lot of the biological filtering in the tank occurs in the substrate. I find that a little hard to believe, this information probably being the result of the Chinese Whispers effect. I can't imaging a lot of water flows through the substrate of a tank that is not undergravel heated, and hence little of the substances that require biologically filtering would get in to it. I can also imagine that conditions in the substrate are rather anaerobic, and hence only nitrate converting bacteria would live there anyway.
Based on the assumption that the bacteria in the substrate are probably not very helpful to biological filtering, I am planning to change all the substrate in one go. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice about this?