Changing of expired soil.

[Ronaldlim]

Can someone share how they change the soil when there are shrimps in it?

[Navanod]

Not advisable bro. If you must do it, make sure you suck the soil out instead of trying to dig, and change small areas at a time

[Ronaldlim]

If no spare tank = die? Haha...

[seudzar]

What I did is that I transfer all my shrimps to a pail with filter running. It is a tough job especially I got a few hundreds of shrimps to catch and there are so many tiny shrimplets to catch... End up I spent more than 4 hours to catch them all out... Eyes really very pain and tired.

[Ronaldlim]

Need to change water right? Then what if change water then the ph change?
Some more need to wait 1 months to cycle

[Shadow]

Cycle should be faster since your filter media is already mature. I assume you re-use the old media

[seudzar]

Changing water not so bad. You can get Borneowild humic or ketapang leaves to keep your pH low, either you put them in the pail or in your aged water. So when you change water, make sure you do dripping method.

[seudzar]

Shadow, it might be a bit tough if he is using only one canister filter. But he can transfer some old media from his canister filter (I assume) to a small filter and use it temporary in the pail.

[Ronaldlim]

I see thanks all

[wongce]

My suggestion: do not throw/pour the original tank water. Suck up the original tank water and Use it back after clearing the old soil and cleaning/scaping. With the aged 'original water', your tank will cycle faster.. As suggested by others, use back all the old filter medias

[Ronaldlim]

I see.... Okay thanks!! Good Idea

[Dscyth]

But won't the new soil be full of ammonia initially?

[lionelckg]

Interesting topic which will aid me in the future. So i guess after changing the soil, we will still need to cycle the tank right? Just that using back the old tank water as well as the old filter helps speed up the cycling process significantly.

I tried something similar before. I had a 1.5ft tank and i wanted to start a new 1ft tank. I used new soil for my new tank but i used my old water from my 1.5ft tank to fill up my new tank. I also transferred my old filter sponges (which was used to polish my water) from my canister filtering the 1.5ft tank to the new filter for the new tank.

All in all, it took about 3-5days (if i did not remember wrongly) for the new tank to be cycled.

[seudzar]

But won't the new soil be full of ammonia initially?

The new soil of course will be full with ammonia initially. The initial cycling of tank with new filter and new soil usually takes a few weeks to a month or maybe longer because it takes time for the BB to build up inside the bio medias in the new filter.

However, when you cycle your tank with new soil, using back your matured filter and previous tank water, it will take a lot shorter time to complete as your filter has already have a big colony of BB to break down the ammonia.

[Shadow]

correct, so if you can re-use as much as you r old filter media, that would speed up the cycling process.

[jemswira]

When I did a rescape of my tank, I left a thin layer of my old gravel behind and reused as much filter media as I could in a new filter. I had a colony of RCS in the tank before I rescaped it, and spent an hour or so scooping them up slowly, and placeed them in a big container (the kind you can buy at the market). Added a layer of sand over the old gravel. After I rescaped, I suddenly saw 2 juvenile shrimp swimming around in my tank. Since I hadn't put in any shrimp, they must have been uncaught from previously, and survived the rinsing of the gravel, scaping and water parameters. My tank was also almost instantly cycled. Barely 2-3 days and I didn't have ammonia or nitrites at all.
Just my 2c worth.