Changing substrate

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JackBurton

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
61
Location
New Jersey
When I set my tank up a year ago I opted to cheap out on the substrate. I've got about two inches of sand with an inch of gravel. My plants started out doing OK but in the last few months they have started looking bad. I figure it's time to change the substrate. Right now I'm looking at Eco-Complete. My plan is to change it out in batches, about a 1/3 at a time. I'm thinking this is the best method of not killing the benefical bacteria in the substrate.

Is this a good plan? Is there anything else I should do?
 
Since most of your beneficial bacteria lives in your filter and not your substrate, you should be fine changing out all the substrate at the same time. This would also minimize mixing some of the old substrate in with the new. You can stagger it if you want, but it is not strictly necessary.

You say that your plants are doing poorly. There could be other causes, rather than needing a new substrate. Even if it is the substrate, some root tabs might be all that is needed. If you describe exactly what is wrong with the plants, we might be able to give you some other tips on things to try.
 
I second what Purbox said - the majority of your bacteria are in your filter. Changing 1/3 at a time would be a big pain. It would be very hard to keep everything separate.
 
When changing your substrate just take all of it out at once.Just put a small layer of Eco-Complete first,them add some of the previous substrate to seed it,them add the reast of the eco complete.But Eco-Complete usually already come with lots of bacteria so you might be able to get by with out seeding the substrate.HTH
 
Please be careful though and make sure you test your water to be on the safe side. I changed my subtrate and not all of it either, I added Seachem Flourite to my 29 gallon planted tank and left 10% of the gravel I had in there and still got a mini cycle, although I covered all the gravel, so just keep an eye on your tank!
 
Purrbox said:
Since most of your beneficial bacteria lives in your filter and not your substrate, you should be fine changing out all the substrate at the same time. This would also minimize mixing some of the old substrate in with the new. You can stagger it if you want, but it is not strictly necessary.

Thanks this is really what I wanted to hear. :)

You say that your plants are doing poorly. There could be other causes, rather than needing a new substrate. Even if it is the substrate, some root tabs might be all that is needed. If you describe exactly what is wrong with the plants, we might be able to give you some other tips on things to try.

Well I'm sure the issue is that I have lots of light and should be dosing with CO2. I'm planning to set up a CO2 injection system but it's still a little out of my budget.

I've got quite a few brazilian swords at first they seem to grow pretty quickly. I had off shoots with baby plants and the leaves almost touched the top of the tank. Now the leaves barely come up a third of the way.

I have been a little lax in fertilize with root tabs and liquid fertilizers.
 
As LindaC mentioned, you should probably keep an eye out on your tank stats if you go ahead with the substrate change out. Since you will be disturbing your substrate, depending on how much gunk has collected in your substrate it could cause a slight ammonia spike. Try to get as much of the gunk out with the substrate to minimize the risks, but be prepared to do some extra water changes just in case.

I would definately try getting back on track with the root tabs and other ferts, since it sounds like your plants were doing better when you kept up on your fert schedule. If pressurized CO2 is out of your budget, have you considered DIY while you save up? It would be more difficult with the size of your tank, but even slightly increasing the levels might be of benefit. Perhaps 2 to 4 Gallon Juice containers? Just a thought.
 
Purrbox said:
As LindaC mentioned, you should probably keep an eye out on your tank stats if you go ahead with the substrate change out. Since you will be disturbing your substrate, depending on how much gunk has collected in your substrate it could cause a slight ammonia spike. Try to get as much of the gunk out with the substrate to minimize the risks, but be prepared to do some extra water changes just in case.

Thanks LindaC I'll keep an eye on things after the swap.

I would definately try getting back on track with the root tabs and other ferts, since it sounds like your plants were doing better when you kept up on your fert schedule. If pressurized CO2 is out of your budget, have you considered DIY while you save up? It would be more difficult with the size of your tank, but even slightly increasing the levels might be of benefit. Perhaps 2 to 4 Gallon Juice containers? Just a thought.

I'll definitely get back on track with the ferts.

As far as a DYI CO2 system most that I've seen described are limited by the size of the tank. I haven't found on the will work on a 72 gallon tank. If you know of one I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks for the feed back everyone.
 
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