change of substrate

[petitericeball]

i was wondering since i took out the sand and put in the old gravel would that of killed my bacteria?? because its outside now and i dont know if its dead or not but i did it like yesterday at this time i think... how long does it take for bacteria to die without food but lotsa oxygen?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Even with a rapid loss of population, it would still be a prudent idea to reintroduce part of that gravel. Try adding a partition between the sand and gravel, and slowly change over time, if possible.

 

[tstenback]

You will have lost a large portion of the bacteria and as tempestuousfury has suggested you cantry to place some back in the tank even in a net bag or a breeding net. however the main bacteria is in the filter so dont do a filter change for a while until the bacteria colony has time to rebuild. Do your testing to see if levels of ammonia etc are affected.

 

[petitericeball]

yeah i put all the sand i could get into a wendys salad bowl plus i cant really put it in a net cuz its like sand ya kno so i hope none of it died because #1 it didnt have food for awhile and #2 it was outta de water

 

[petitericeball]

i got really really lucky most of the bacteria survived okay

i took the water test and it was 4.0 0 0 i put sand back in in a bowl...
about an hour later i do a 25% water change and when i check it again its 0 0 40

ammonia nitrites nitrates is the order i did the numbers

 

[petitericeball]

misguess cuz i sprinted up here frmo the basement and i looked at test again its 7 nitrates (i ran up here and barely glanced at nitrates so its really 7 nitrates