changing substrate in established tank

[cheshire hawk]

I've had a 42 gallon tank established for about 18 months now with a few plants and a happy stock of around 35 tetras and 6 corys. Problem is, I really want to plant heavily now after reading a few aquascaping / planting articles and I don't feel comfortable with the substrate I have in the tank at present [3-5mm pea gravel]. I really want to replace this with Seachem or another nutrient rich alternative in order to optimize plant growth.

My question is, would it be possible for me to switch substrate in the same day without unsetting the water chemistry. I was thinking of removing fish and retaining all of the tanks old water in buckets, removing the gravel I have at present, then adding the new substrate before returning water, fish etc.

Is this possible?

 

[Sime]

i dont know if its the right way but i did it just as you said, my fish went into an old tank for a couple of hours while i did it, then i put 65% of the origional water back in and the rest new. it was still cloudy but i put them in when it was virtualy settled.

i had the same fish as you - tetras and corys

Simon.

 

[cheshire hawk]

thanks simon - I think I've just been looking at a picture of you're tank after you have played around with CO2? Looks pretty good to me! That's what I want my tank to look like!!! What substrate did you go for?

 

[Sime]

well at that time i wasnt planning so many plants so i went for tiny blue gravel - it looks the same as GF225's new gravel but mines darkish blue.

im hoping to post some pics of the whole tank in the next day or so - once my riccia stays down!

i wish i'd have had a layer of sometime under it though to specificaly feed the plant roots, but i use the fertilizer tablets to feed them insead - its not as good but better than nothing.

i did find i needed at least 2 to 2 1/2 inches of depth as the vallis was pushing itself out of the gravel and not rooting "down" to anchor itself.

 

[zig]

Ive done this a few times, exactly as you describe, very large buckets, i always made sure to remove the filter also and place this in the bucket with the tank water and the fish, not on or anything just to stop it drying out and keeping whatever benifical bacteria in there alive, hour or two later put the lot back in, no problems.