Lost all my fish can i save substrate?

[kevfiz]

I just moved house and the last thing to go was going to be tank. Where I live there was a loss of power in the east of the city. I am in the south so I thought that's fine. I went to feed fish in the old property this morning and all my fish are dead. Can I still use the substrate? It's the tropica soil?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It should be OK. But I would want to make sure when your do that it is not creating ammonia. Do a fishless cycle only. When you set up the new tank, let it run for a day or two without adding any ammonia. The test the water for ammonia, that will let you know if the substrate is creating this. If it is comsider the ammonia level from that as part of the total ammonia dose one would normally do in a fishless cycle.

3 ppm is enough ammonia and it should not be above 5 ppm. If it is water changes will be needed to get the ammonia down to 3 ppm or less for doing a fishless cycle. if you are going to do a planted tank. I would plant the tank first and give the plants a bit of time to settle in. They will use ammonia soon after they do.

Cycling with plants change things because they handle some to almost all of the ammonia cretaed in an established tank. However, too much ammonia can harm plants.

 

[Uberhoust]

I have used Tropica Soil before and found that the plants did well with it but when I transferred to another tank it kind of behaved more like mud. I know it is expensive but in my opinion it doesn't transport well after being wet. Scooping and transporting it seems to break down its structure. Overall if the soil is pretty new I might try to keep it but if it is over 6 months I wouldn't try.

 

[Byron]

I would toss the Tropica. Inert aquarium sand works better and is safer.