Is it possible to change from gravel to sand without completely crashing the cycle. I wanted to change to sand and not kill my fish in the process. I was thinking I could put the sand into a bucket 1/2 filled with water and dose with pure ammonia and let it colonize some bacteria before introducing it. Anybody have any experience with this?
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Changing substrate
- Thread starter SMIGUMZ
- Start date
I dont think a bucket with ammonia is a good idea. As far as i know most of beneficial bacteria lives on 1/2 inch of sand bed and under the 1/2 of sand, anaerobic bacteria begins to colonize which produces toxic nitrogen gas.
IMHO, move your fishes and filters to the bucket then change substrates with large water change like 50% and put them back to new sand tank with some bacteria additive. You may need another large water change or frequent regular one in a week, depending on your water parameter.
IMHO, move your fishes and filters to the bucket then change substrates with large water change like 50% and put them back to new sand tank with some bacteria additive. You may need another large water change or frequent regular one in a week, depending on your water parameter.
- Messages
- 333
- Location
- Odijk, the Netherlands
I have done it for a 120 liter tank without any fish getting killed. Think i even posted here somewhere with photo's. i did it as following:
Step 1: I toke 2 big buckets, filled 1 bucket full of water from the tank, catched my fish and put these in this bucket, also placed my heater and my filter in this one. (had buckets which could hold 50L of water) Also toke out my coconut and some small plants with little roots to keep your water as clean as possible. Than i filled up the second bucket with water until i only had a little bit of water left in the tank. A little tip, if you want to make it easier to catch your fish you can remove your driftwood and stones, but be carefull that there is no fish hiding in the stones or something, my agassizii female did and i had the stone placed outside 1 of the buckets, luckily i noticed in time so she did not die.
Step 2: Toke out all the plants wood and stones and put some plants in the bucket with fish the rest was placed in the other bucket. Make sure all the fish and most of the water you want to reuse is out of the tank!! Because your water will turn really muddy if you start tanking your plants out before you water is out (i also made this mistake, but hey you learn by trial and error)
Step 3: I moved all the gravel out of the tank, and placed the new substrate into the tank. Make sure you wash the sand really good because you don't want your tank dirty for the next 5 days..
Step 4: place your wood and most of your plants back in the tank and start filling up the tank with the water from the bucket without the fish. If this bucket is empty you can set your fish free and fill up the tank with the rest of the water.
If you do it this way by keeping the filter running and making sure that the water in both of the tanks does not cool down to much you won't lose many bacteria, which means you don't have to do the whole tank cycle thing and nothing can happen to your fish
If you have more questions feel free to ask
Step 1: I toke 2 big buckets, filled 1 bucket full of water from the tank, catched my fish and put these in this bucket, also placed my heater and my filter in this one. (had buckets which could hold 50L of water) Also toke out my coconut and some small plants with little roots to keep your water as clean as possible. Than i filled up the second bucket with water until i only had a little bit of water left in the tank. A little tip, if you want to make it easier to catch your fish you can remove your driftwood and stones, but be carefull that there is no fish hiding in the stones or something, my agassizii female did and i had the stone placed outside 1 of the buckets, luckily i noticed in time so she did not die.
Step 2: Toke out all the plants wood and stones and put some plants in the bucket with fish the rest was placed in the other bucket. Make sure all the fish and most of the water you want to reuse is out of the tank!! Because your water will turn really muddy if you start tanking your plants out before you water is out (i also made this mistake, but hey you learn by trial and error)
Step 3: I moved all the gravel out of the tank, and placed the new substrate into the tank. Make sure you wash the sand really good because you don't want your tank dirty for the next 5 days..
Step 4: place your wood and most of your plants back in the tank and start filling up the tank with the water from the bucket without the fish. If this bucket is empty you can set your fish free and fill up the tank with the rest of the water.
If you do it this way by keeping the filter running and making sure that the water in both of the tanks does not cool down to much you won't lose many bacteria, which means you don't have to do the whole tank cycle thing and nothing can happen to your fish
If you have more questions feel free to ask
- Messages
- 2,766
- Location
- Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I agree with "mokakka", adding ammonia isn't ever a good idea. The whole cycling concept is based upon the premise that if the nitrifying bacteria in the filter (and substrate etc) don't get a constant supply of NH3 they will die, and your tank will be "un-cycled". The whole cycling premise is a "black and white" answer to a "shades of grey" world.
Scientists who work with "waste water" etc use a different metric to measure the capacity of a system to deal with ammonia, and that is Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). BOD isn't something we can measure easily, but basically you need to have an oxygen supply that always exceeds the oxygen demand. I wrote an article for plec keepers that cover <"aeration and dissolved oxygen">, but it is relevant to all fish -keeping.
Assuming you have some plants? plant/microbe systems are much more efficient at nitrification ("can process a greater BOD") than microbe alone systems. Floating plants are especially good for removing nitrogen, because they have access to aerial levels (400ppm) of CO2.
cheers Darrel
I'd just syphon out most of the gravel, and pour in the sand. I've done this with the fish in the tank (because it was heavily planted and, even with 3/4 of the water removed, I couldn't catch them), but without the fish would be better. Where the gravel was bound around the roots of the plants I just left it.
I agree with "mokakka", adding ammonia isn't ever a good idea. The whole cycling concept is based upon the premise that if the nitrifying bacteria in the filter (and substrate etc) don't get a constant supply of NH3 they will die, and your tank will be "un-cycled". The whole cycling premise is a "black and white" answer to a "shades of grey" world.
Scientists who work with "waste water" etc use a different metric to measure the capacity of a system to deal with ammonia, and that is Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). BOD isn't something we can measure easily, but basically you need to have an oxygen supply that always exceeds the oxygen demand. I wrote an article for plec keepers that cover <"aeration and dissolved oxygen">, but it is relevant to all fish -keeping.
Assuming you have some plants? plant/microbe systems are much more efficient at nitrification ("can process a greater BOD") than microbe alone systems. Floating plants are especially good for removing nitrogen, because they have access to aerial levels (400ppm) of CO2.
cheers Darrel
- Messages
- 1,491
- Location
- Wake Forest NC, USA
Siphon off the top 1 inch (or 3 cm) of gravel into a bucket, stir it around vigorously to knock some of the nitrifying bacteria loose from the gravel particles, and pour the "dirty" water back into your tank to salvage the good bacteria. Assuming you have a cycled filter running on the tank, there should be lots of good bacteria in there too, and on plants, rocks, etc.
Martin
Member
- Messages
- 39
Very interesting article, I have a 200g tank I want to convert from a african biotope to a planted south american one.
Looks like I'll need lots of buckets LOL
Looks like I'll need lots of buckets LOL
- Messages
- 333
- Location
- Odijk, the Netherlands
hahaha for 200g you should use darrel his strategy i think >.< mine just works for some smaller tanks
