Changing My Fish Tank..

[fishmad135]

I want to swap my heavily planted, natural gravel fish tank to a less heavily planted white sand substrate tank. i want to do it in a way that i dont have to cycle it all over again is that possible?? If you were going to do this how would you go about it?

I need help because i have a week before i go back to high school so i need to get it done pronto!!

i have already got a heater, internal filter, bog wood etc

thanks

fishmad135

aged 14

 

[sjolliff]

Nearly all the good bacteria is in the filter, only a small amount in the substrate etc

 

[fishmad135]

if i poured all the water away down the sink and kept the filterand he cartridges would that be okay then?? I want to no because i have no idea how to go about what i want to do.

thanks

 

[yvez9]

as long as you keep the filter media wet, you'll be fine. you can dump the rest

 

[Azeron]

Yeah, keep the filter wet with the aquarium water, doesn't really matter if its not running. I changed to sand in my tank, removed half of the water, then the gravel, then all the crap under the gravel until the bottom was clear, added the sand, waited 3 days. Then I put my fish back in and its all fine, 4 ft tank, took a while. Just bought 4 angel fish for 2.50 each, 3 of them are ok the other one has some of them long fins missing but they should grow back and one died, think it had something wrong with bladder :l Crappy stores. Make sure you clean the sand

 

[fishmad135]

Do i have to use all the water from my tank or can i keep 3/4's of the water and then get 1/4 from the tap (dont worry de-chlorinated). These questions are very straight forward, i no but i just dont wanna mess up big time

 

[coldcazzie]

Apart from the water that the fish are actually in, and the water than the filter is in, you can get rid of the rest and use all new water from the tap if you want... because you're not changing filter media it's essentially like doing a 90% water change on the tank when you keep everything the same.

 

[fishmad135]

ohh i used some of the old water anyway but now i know for future reference lol. thankyou