sodbuster95
Aquarium Advice Regular
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Messages
- 86
So, I decided to finally change the generic gravel substrate in my tank to a variety more suitable to plants. When I initially setup my tank, I had no intention of going the planted route. As a result, I just picked up several bags of whatever random aquarium gravel the local LFS had. It served it's purpose, but it was blue, so it didn't look very natural, and it wasn't designed to support plants.
Fast forward a bit and I had a number of plants, a CO2 system, plant lights, and multiple bottles of fertilizer. I figured that if I'm spending this much time and effort on plants, it was about time to get the proper substrate. BUT...that seemed a daunting task.
Nevertheless, I bought several new 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store and set about the task. I decided on Seachem Flourite and purchased 3 bags at 15 pounds each. In hindsight, I could have gotten away with 2 in my 29 gallon tank, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out and now have a good 3-4 inches of substrate. After spending several hours in a bucket (with filter, heater, and airstone) my fish are none the worse for the wear and happily back in their home.
It took me about 6 hours to net the fish (kuhli loaches are quite hard to net, by the way), tear the tank down, rinse the Flourite, set the tank back up (using the opportunity to reapply the static-cling backing with a lot less air bubbles), get the pH, temp, and hardness right, and get the fish back in. Most of that time was spent rinsing the Flourite. That stuff is messy! Even after all the rinsing, the tank was still cloudy for quite a while.
Anyway, before and after pics:
Fast forward a bit and I had a number of plants, a CO2 system, plant lights, and multiple bottles of fertilizer. I figured that if I'm spending this much time and effort on plants, it was about time to get the proper substrate. BUT...that seemed a daunting task.
Nevertheless, I bought several new 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store and set about the task. I decided on Seachem Flourite and purchased 3 bags at 15 pounds each. In hindsight, I could have gotten away with 2 in my 29 gallon tank, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out and now have a good 3-4 inches of substrate. After spending several hours in a bucket (with filter, heater, and airstone) my fish are none the worse for the wear and happily back in their home.
It took me about 6 hours to net the fish (kuhli loaches are quite hard to net, by the way), tear the tank down, rinse the Flourite, set the tank back up (using the opportunity to reapply the static-cling backing with a lot less air bubbles), get the pH, temp, and hardness right, and get the fish back in. Most of that time was spent rinsing the Flourite. That stuff is messy! Even after all the rinsing, the tank was still cloudy for quite a while.
Anyway, before and after pics: