plant substrate

[fishfanatic]

Should I be bracing myself for the algae bloom of the century?

 

[mfdrookie516]

No, why do you think that?

 

[fishfanatic]

I guess I am worried about the substrate leaking nutrients into the water column. I am so exited to have this stuff in my tank. (I am tempted to put it in tonight). How long would you say it would take?

 

[fishfanatic]

I am tired of the cheesy blue and black gravel

 

[mfdrookie516]

It took me about 2 hours total, but I had to catch 30 or so RCS. I just drained some water to another tank (a bucket will work too), moved fish, shrimp, and plants, then drained the rest of the water, pulled old substrate out, added new substrate, planted, filled, acclimated fish, done

 

[fishfanatic]

Do I have to drain the tank? I have no way to keep/ replace that much water.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I just can't imagine not draining it since yogi stir up a huge mess when you pull out the gravel. Don't keep the water, just do a complete water change and acclimate the fish when you are done

 

[fishfanatic]

That means I will have to do it when the lfs is open.... I don't have 40 gallons of ro water on hand. Right now I have 15. I dumped some of the substrate in a bucket to see if it needed to be washed and.... the water was very red, I think I need to wash it. Should I just use a strainer and run water though it?

 

[mfdrookie516]

RO water? Is your tap water that bad?

 

[fishfanatic]

I was told that tap water was bad for fish/plants and that I should use nothing but RO. Is that false? I think my tap water is fine (I used it for 5 months or so) and nothing bad happened. What is a good water conditioner?

 

[Fdsh5]

I only use tap water with prime and never had a problem

 

[fishfanatic]

The only thing that is 'wrong' with my tap water is it is on the hard side. Is that okey?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Yeah, definitely. Just be sure to acclimate them slolwly to the new water, maybe add whatever ro you have for now, then just get them acclimated to tap by water changes.

 

[fishfanatic]

How should I accumulate them, I usually have them in a bag from the pet store, but I don't have that many bags? Would zip lock bags work? (Dumb question)

 

[DragonFish71]

Use a piece of air line tubing, start a siphon from the tank to the bucket and let tank water drip into the bucket. Every so often dip out water from the bucket so it doesn't over flow. I usually do this for about an hour before putting the fish in the tank.

 

[fishfanatic]

How do I get the tank and bucket the same temperature?

 

[mfdrookie516]

the water coming from the tank will equalize temps

 

[fishfanatic]

Okey cool. Then I just scoop the fish from the bucket to the tank? I will probably do the drip thing for longer than an hour just to be safe, or is an hour more than enough?

 

[DragonFish71]

Yes, then just dip them out and into the tank.

An hour would be fine, but if you feel better doing it longer that is fine too.

 

[fishfanatic]

I will do it for an hour and a half better safe than sorry (I hate it when I am sorry in this hobby). Sorry to bring this question up again but, does washing of specialty substrate wash out nutrients?