Changing Substrate

[FcUK_B]

Hi all

I have a gay looking multi coloured substrate..looks like @*!#.. my tank is 7 weeks old and my water stats are good. I have 20 fish in there. I have recently 2 weeks ago added an external eheim 2213 media filter as well and am looking to remove the exisiting filter when the bacteria have colonized. Is it ok to change the substrate even though its not that old.. will this affect the cycling of the tank? and can i also remove the inetrnal filter at the same time to make some more room.

 

[RYO]

If your eheim is seeded ok ,you wont have any problems.
I take it your internal is the juwel one, why not leave it in for now until everything settles.

 

[Bloo]

I think it's too soon to do this change - without the risk of a spike. Even a cycled filter will spike with such major changes only 7 weeks down the line. I'd really give it a few more months for the sake of your fish's lives and health risk. Run the two filters together for at least a month - 6 weeks if possible - for increased stability.

If this tank was over 6 months old, I'd probably not blink an eye doing either/both of these things. You might think it's only a few weeks, but it makes a big difference.