Substrate For An Already Stocked Tank?

[RossC]

Hello guys, does anyone know of a substrate that is suitable for putting into a tank that is already running and stocked? I want to put in a more plant friendly substrate as the cheap gravel in there already is rubbish. I need to avoid pH changes and also any other spikes that might crash my tank. Does such a substrate exist or shall I just stick to new gravel with fert tabs?

 

[MrGT500]

i have done a good number of gravel changes in my time. through trial and error i have found out what to do and what not to do.

as far as substrate, the best stuff for plants is somthing like seachem flourite, the standard version is a little rough if you have bottom feeders though. they do make a sand type though. regular sand is also nice and stays clean. as well as fine gravel. most of the packges say weather or not it will change your ph. but you might get spikes of different things or a bactira cloud just from stirring the tank up so much.


here is how i do it.

after taking all of the decorations and things out of the tank use a gravel vac to siphon out alot of the black gunk thats in the gravel. this will lessen the explosion of yuck into the water.

when scooping the gravel out i find that a plastic dust pan works best.

for putting the new substrate in a bowl works well for sand, just go slow so that it doesnt float around and get sucked into the impeller of your filter. for gravel the dust pan can be used again.

the water is probably going to be dirty no matter what you do, but it should settle out in a few hours. also, i take my fish out of the tanks when i do this kind of stuff.

 

[pablothebetta]

If you've got cories I'd have sand personally, as gravel can damage their delicate barbels (sp?) and they often seem to like 'playing' in it. Other than that, I'd just go for what you like I'd do something similar to MrGT500 - take out decor and fish, clean existing substrate if wished, remove, replace and put everything back. I'd imagine a large w/c might help cloudiness. If you do get sand and don't already have it, I'd watch out when pouring water into the tank - it can go everywhere

 

[allan078]

I changed from stone chips to sand not long ago. I elected to take my fish out and put them in a bucket of syphoned tank water for the short time it took to change the substrate. I thought it would stress them out less. If you're using sand make sure you wash it properly, I spent ages cleaning my sand until i thought it was just clear water coming out of it. When i put it in the tank it looked like a latte! It cleared over a few days and the fish didn't mind it being a bit cloudy. I would recommend removing the fish because it made putting the new substrate in a lot easier.

 

[phoenixgsd]

i changed to sand and it was the best thing ive ever done, yes you do have to wash and wash and wash it but it is worth it, when putting water back in, pour slowly over a ornament or put a saucer in to stop it blowing back up