Switching Substrates in an Established Tank

[jbarr]

I have a planted 20gal Long, it's got a Betta, Temmincki Pleco, and lone peppered Cory (I know they do best in shoals, I've been waiting to redo the substrate til I buy more).

My substrate is currently white silica sandblasting sand. I got a bag of eco-complete, and I would rather use the eco-complete, as aside from dosing Iron, and DIY CO2, the plants are getting very little light.

I know I'll probably have to tear the entire tank down. Should I just put the plants and fish into a bucket of tank water while I'm scooping the sand out?

What's the best way to go about doing this? The tank is moderately planted.

 

[BrianNY]

Here's what I would do........

Drain the tank but save half the water. In short, you'll be doing a 50% pwc at the same time. You have such a small bioload and most of the nitrifying bacteria will be in the filter.
Place the fish in the container(s) with the water you're keeping. Once you've emptied the sand and replaced it with the eco complete, you can add the fish and old water, then fill the rest with fresh tap.

 

[jbarr]

Also, I don't need to rinse eco-complete, do I?

 

[rich311k]

No eco does not need rinsed. It should not be rinsed as a matter of fact.

 

[drobertson]

I would agree with BrianNY, and would add to remember to keep the filter wet, do not let it dry while you are emptying the tank.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

What I did was mixed the eco complete in with 1/2-1/4th of what sand I had to keep the bacteria active. I just removed about 1/2-3/4 of the sand, added the 1/2 the eco complete and mixed, then put the last half of eco on top of the mix.

A warning, however...

I took 3/4 the water, all the plants and the fish out. I put the filter in the bucket with the fish. It took the better part of 24 hours for the eco to settle. It is pretty "silt"-y. It will turn your water brown for a good while while it settles.

When I re-filled, I put a plate over the eco, then my hand over the end of my python and filled over the plate, with low water flow. this kept the silt from stirring up again a lot. then I let it settle again for about 12 hours, then re-planted and added the fish back.

 

[travis74]

I had a flourite and gravel mix, got sick of the cloudy water every time I moved a plant so I switched to eco. I did as BrianNY is recommending. I really didn't experience any water clouding however, nowhere near as much as when I added the flourite. If you want to stretch or save $$ add a bag of tahitian moon sand...Good Luck!

 

[bs6749]

I agree with BrianNY...the only thing I would say to do in addition is to pour some of the tank water into a clean 5 gallon bucket and add about a 1/3 of the tank's current substrate to the bucket. I would then try to aggitate and mix the substrate around to try and get some of the nitrifying bacteria to become waterborne. Then pour this water into another bucket or back into the tank.

I don't know if it will work or not but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. I thought it may reduce any "mini cycle" that you may experience from changing substrates.

 

[SparKy697]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=27

 

[jbarr]

Sparky thx a lot for that article.

I'll be siphoning the sand out.

I'm imagining it could take a while for the eco to settle. Unless I emtpied the whole tank? Should I empty it all?

And would it be better to move my fish + plants into my ten gallon livebearer tank? It tends to run a lot hotter then the planted, though. Should I acclimate the plants with the fish at all? or should I keep the plants in a damp bag, as per the lfs.