Question: Tank Cycling, Substrate, Starting Over

[Twoapennything]

Ugh, I think I have a chemical mess on my hands. Yesterday I had to remove a large piece of decor from the tank due to an accident with one of my fish (I posted about this separately; some of you may have read that thread). I know that the good bacteria grows on the decor, the plants, the substrate, etc, of the tank. I already have the large piece of decor out of the tank, which I'm sure disturbed the cycling process. I believe it was jsoong who mentioned that pebbles/gravel isn't the best choice when there's a goldfish in the tank, because the fish like to mouth the gravel looking for food, and can sometimes get a pebble stuck in their throat. After my goldfish's accident yesterday, I'm now super paranoid, and Lady does mouth the gravel constantly. She sucks in a pebble and then spits it out.

So, I want to switch to sand substrate, but I'm afraid of disrupting the cycling process if it's not already damaged to the point of the cycle essential being back to square one.

Should I switch the substrate now, since I already removed the large piece of decor and have messed with the cycle? Or should I put safety on hold and wait for the cycle process to complete, which could be a very long time? My tank is almost a month old and it's still not past the ammonia stage - not even close.

This morning's readings were Ammonia 1.0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, High pH 7.8. Despite doing 50-75% PWCs daily or every other day, I cannot get the ammonia to fall below 0.50. I changed the water yesterday and the ammonia level was exactly the same as before I spent an hour and a half doing the PWC, at 1.0.

Thanks in advance for any replies and/or suggestions/advice.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

The vast majority of the bacteria lives on your filter. Sure there is a proportion in the gravel and a small amount on the decorations, but they aren't massively significant when compared to the filter. So I wouldn't worry about removing the decorations at all.

You would probably be wiser to not do any major changes like gravel until the tank is fully cycled, as the fish is already stressed by the ammonia, changing the gravel is only going to add to that.

 

[Twoapennything]

You would probably be wiser to not do any major changes like gravel until the tank is fully cycled, as the fish is already stressed by the ammonia, changing the gravel is only going to add to that.

Thanks! I will wait until the tank is cycled to change out the substrate. I purchased 40 lbs of white sand substrate today, but there's no rush to put it into the tank. As long as my goldfish doesn't choke on a rock anytime soon! We're finally moving from the ammonia part of the cycle into nitrites/nitrates, so perhaps I'll be able to change out the substrate in the next month or so. Appreciate the response

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Thanks! I will wait until the tank is cycled to change out the substrate. I purchased 40 lbs of white sand substrate today, but there's no rush to put it into the tank. As long as my goldfish doesn't choke on a rock anytime soon! We're finally moving from the ammonia part of the cycle into nitrites/nitrates, so perhaps I'll be able to change out the substrate in the next month or so. Appreciate the response

Goldfish are usually kept in tanks with gravel bottoms so I wouldn't worry about that at all. If it were a bottom dweller such as a catfish then maybe, but not goldfish.