Albino Cory Replacement Sand

[RainboWBacoN420]

Just prove her wrong with viable information, there's a whole source of information to can gather up to prove your stance. And what's making her hold you back from proper and ideal practices, exactly? 

 

[BaylorPerez]

money......

 

[Far_King]

Everything will have to come out of the tank to change the substrate, but just do not "clean" any of this, meaning the filter, wood, rock, plants.  With the filter, you can keep it running in the temporary "tank" holding the fish.
 
I wouldn't use the same water in the new tank, just siphon it out for the temporary holding tank/container.  There is nothing useful in old water, quite the opposite.  Using tank water in the temporary holding tank has the benefit of maintaining the same chemistry while the fish are in this temporary space which means less stress, but the completed tank with the sand should have fresh water, conditioned.  There will be ammonia and other pathogens in the old water and these are not beneficial in the new tank.
 
Byron.

 
This is slightly off topic, so I apologise.
 
I'm moving house soon and I was intending to retain a portion of the tank water from each of the tanks when I move.  Given what you've said above is this just going to be detrimental?

 

[Byron]

 

Everything will have to come out of the tank to change the substrate, but just do not "clean" any of this, meaning the filter, wood, rock, plants.  With the filter, you can keep it running in the temporary "tank" holding the fish.
 
I wouldn't use the same water in the new tank, just siphon it out for the temporary holding tank/container.  There is nothing useful in old water, quite the opposite.  Using tank water in the temporary holding tank has the benefit of maintaining the same chemistry while the fish are in this temporary space which means less stress, but the completed tank with the sand should have fresh water, conditioned.  There will be ammonia and other pathogens in the old water and these are not beneficial in the new tank.
 
Byron.

 
This is slightly off topic, so I apologise.
 
I'm moving house soon and I was intending to retain a portion of the tank water from each of the tanks when I move.  Given what you've said above is this just going to be detrimental?
 

 
There are situations when retaining the tank water can benefit, but generally this is not the case.
 
When I rebuild one of my tanks, which is frankly almost the same as starting up a new tank, I move the existing fish out to a temporary aquarium.  Here I would use water from the main tank, if the temporary tank is not one that has been running on its own for some time.  The reason is that the effect of moving the fish will be minimized.  This is also very beneficial in a hospital tank; moving a diseased fish to a treatment tank will have less impact on the fish if the water is identical.  In both cases, you can then do water changes to refresh the water.
 
Provided the parameters are not vastly different, there is not much value in retaining "old" tank water.  It will have ammonia, pheromones/allomones, pathogens, and who knows what else, all of which are detrimental to fish so we want to reduce them as much as possible.  Sometimes I mix the waters with the fish in a pail, similar to mixing tank water in with the bag water when I bring home new fish from the store; but only if I have reason to believe the parameters will be vastly different, or sometimes depending upon the degree of sensitivity of the fish species.
 
I know my tap water and tank water is very soft, as I add no minerals aside from the very minimal level in plant additives which are not sufficient to even register with a GH/KH test.  So I use the pH and temperature parameters.  If the pH is within a few decimal points, I proceed without mixing.  While fish can adjust to differing pH, it takes time, and the greater the pH difference the longer it will take and the more the fish will be affected.
 
When I moved to my present house in 2000, I had almost 300 fish from my 115g, 90g and 70g tanks to move.  Unfortunately, as often occurs, an unforeseen accident with the moving van delayed the arrival of the tanks, and the fish spent almost 10 hours in their plastic bags inside the boxes, and were chilled (it was winter).  When the tanks were finally delivered, I filled the 70g with tap water, dechlorinated, and as soon as there were a few inches of water in the bare tank, tore open the bags and dumped the fish in.  I lost only 12 fish, and all of these were already dead in the bags.  All the rest survived the move.  "Clean water" is almost always better, regardless.
 
Byron.

 

[Far_King]

That's good to know, thank you, and that will save me a lot of extra effort carting water around I don't need. 

 

[BaylorPerez]

Also off topic, what fish/bottom dwellers could i do with my corys and snails(danios and tetras are a no as they have been giving me the main disease/bacterial issues)

 

[BaylorPerez]

well my blackskirt tetras are doing just fine. so i think i may stick with those ones instead of neon tetras

 

[Byron]

BaylorPerez, assuming this is still the 20g aquarium, I would not add other bottom fish if you have corys.  You need a group eventually, at least five, and there is not much room left; depending upon the cory species, a couple more beyond five would be better for them than adding another fish, given the space.
 
As for the tetra, blackskirts are not a small tetra, so I would stay with these for the upper level.  A group of 6-7.
 
Byron.

 

[BaylorPerez]

so when i get my new substrate, just stick with my corys?. or could i add some bigger fish(ones that wont eat my current corys)

 

[BaylorPerez]

UPDATE ******
 
 
i had done the substrate change, keeping my old filter in my tank as i did it. Now just waiting for it to clear up

 

[eaglesaquarium]

so when i get my new substrate, just stick with my corys?. or could i add some bigger fish(ones that wont eat my current corys)

20 gallons is a small tank. Keep it simple. A group of cories and a group of skirts would pretty max out your stocking. No 'large' fish would be suitable in a 20gallon tank.

 

[BaylorPerez]

plus the snails lol

Also noted, i may have not cleaned my sand good enough as it looks like black spots are floating up from the sand 

 

[BaylorPerez]

its been 6hrs and my water is still cloudy. i think i may of caused a bacterial bloom when putting in the new tank water 0.0

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Sounds more like dirty sand to me.

 

[BaylorPerez]

yea, i expect it to be the sand, but its hard to tell