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Thread: Change substrate possible ??

  1. #1
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    Smile Change substrate possible ??

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    I have this 2ft tank originally up for mora than a year or two with very minimal water change, in fact through the years, the number of times i change water can be counted by 2 my both hand. After hearing my friend said what i did was wrong, i learn and did water change by myself. Not knowing anything, i did a more than 50% water change and i guess i destroy all the good bacterial in the tank and filter. Fishes die. I bought 100 pcs tetra, not knowing what is bioload, fishes started to die again, now am left with 12 pcs of tetra with my "undead" sae,cory and algae eater.

    Seeking my friend's help, i slowly re cycle my tank and its's been nearly a month. Because i did not re empty my tank, i start from where my tank was destroyed. I planted many plants. Using small gravel (sands, originally intact there using for years). I thought of re lay the substrate of sand to soil so that the plant can grow better. Search the internet was what i did, and alot says they suceed by ;

    1) prepare subtank, draw half main tank water into sub tank, net fishes over, place plant in another pail, remove filter and use in sub tank.
    2) remove as much main tank water into one more pail.
    3) remove gravel, clean and lay soil.
    4) plant back the plant.
    5) pour back main tank water from (2) put and on filter.
    6) net back fish
    7) pour back main tank water from (1)
    topup when require.

    By doing this, minimal bacterial is disturbed or remove. Some even say use a fine net to contain previous gravel, tie up and place on top new soil as a few bag for a few day or week before removing it.

    I would like to ask can i do the same as above? My friend told me to hold my fishes in sub tank for a month to let the new tank re cycle again for a month. But i am too anxious to wait for a month to place back the fishes.

    My old tank now ammonia and nitrite zero.
    Is it possible for me to perform the above task without risking my fishes life?
    Last edited by shunkun; 26th Aug 2011 at 15:41.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    Hi Shunkun, the method you've said seems ok. To speed up the process, you can use fine net to get the top soil from your gravel (also contains beneficial bacteria) and place it on your new gravel. I would say your friend is also right. Your water parameters might change after the change of soil. So let the tank restabilise for about 3 weeks or so. And don't dump all the fish back immediately. Give a gap of about 1 week or so for every group of fish.

    You would also have to prepare the sub tank. Start by getting a simpler filter to mature by letting it run in your main tank (along with your original filter) for a while. Use some of your old filter medium in your new filter as well. And, again, use some topsoil in your sub tank. Hope this helps.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    arlowz v_nod

    thank you for your suggestion, seems like you are the only one attending to my problem haha :P
    I've just changed from a hangover filter to a canister filter, well I just gotta let it settle down for sometimes again before I do a major change.
    So, that being I cant put my fishes back into the tank right after my task huh >.<"
    some says beneficial bacteria live in the filter, while some say beneficial bacteria live in the substrate. really confused me, or beneficial bacteria live both in filter and substrate?
    secondly it's because I just don't have anymore space to place another smaller tank already unless placing the tank on the floor to obstruct daily activity, :~~~~
    so if placing my fishes in immediately right after my task is not reccomended, then... ... maybe I leave it as it is for current.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    BB lives on everywhere they can stick on with food and oxygen.
    Feed sparingly to let the filter cope with additional bioload.
    Fast growing plants can help take up ammonia.
    Some activated carbon in the filter for two weeks can help absorb toxins while the BB multiply to cope.
    You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    Hi StanChung,

    Thank you for the information ^-^"
    Placing carbon in filter? I did thought of that, but for whatsoever reason, my friend discourage me from putting the carbon, because he says carbon is for newly setup tank, and I won't need carbon that much.



    Quote Originally Posted by StanChung View Post
    BB lives on everywhere they can stick on with food and oxygen.
    Feed sparingly to let the filter cope with additional bioload.
    Fast growing plants can help take up ammonia.
    Some activated carbon in the filter for two weeks can help absorb toxins while the BB multiply to cope.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    When you change your substrate it equals a newly set up tank. Tell your friend that.
    You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    Just share my experience on changing substrate and it's relationship with cycling. Last week was the 2nd time for me to change the substrate of my 4X1.5x1.5 IOS SA biotope -> from ADA amazonia -> white sand -> ADA Malaya. I did simple method and works well with out any casualties:
    1) Save as many tank water as possible. I normally transfer around 80L from the tank into my large bucket
    2) Keep the fish in 2x1x1 spare tank running large sponge filter (water is from the existing tank as well)
    3) Take out lots of BW/DW and the substrate, clean the tank using the tank water
    4) Put in the new substrate, rescape...
    5) Use the old water, topup new one. My usual ratio is 30% old water and 70% new water. The new water was treated with seachem prime 3X the usual dose.
    6) run the filtration, IOS (2000 l/hr)

    I just made it a point not to clean the wool/media for about 2-3 weeks before changing the substrate to keep as many BB as possible.
    After 12-16hrs ammonia reading was around 0.2 mg/l, and normally cleared in less than 48 hrs. The fish were back in the tank in less than 48 hrs without any problem.

    cheers.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    The point is to be safe than sorry. The carbon pack helps when you do a large change.
    You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    hi apisto31,

    glad to hear another successful story of yours. Really hope I can do the same soon, my plant isn't really growing well in my substrate consisting or only sands. I'd started to follow the seachem product dosing rate as recommended by fellow bros in my other thread, I'll see if it's working, if it's not working after 1-2 week then I really had to do a substrate change. I'm left with 4cardinal 5blackneon 2CAE 1SAE 1cory and 2otocat in the tank. I believe my bottom dwellers should be able to take changes of the new water perimeters, because they did survive till now after what I did nearly a month back, destroying the good bacterial and causes 80 over fishes death due to my stupidity and not searching for information about how to keep fishes. I've learn so much in this few weeks with the help of my friend and this forum. one problem now is, I've since changed from a overhang waterfall filter to a external canister filter few days back, I had a hard time with my friend trying to run the filter that day, because the filter and chiller level is the same as my fish tank thus water flow is not smooth. I was thinking, can I :

    1) Do everything I can, BUT keep the water level in my current tank low enough so as to keep my external canister filter running (It's really hard to let the filter run, i don't want to stop it), slowly scoop up the old substrate not to stir up debris AND put a sponge around the filter feed inlet (in the tank) so any debris will not directly flow into the filter?

    2) while at the holding tank, I use back my waterfall filter (washed and kept previously) while waiting for main tank to be ready (in case I need to hold them for days to weeks). My woes are, using the old main tank water of course, I'll be using a new filter media for the waterfall filter. Is that okay?

    Hi Stanchung,

    I'll be glad to put A.C in the filter if only I had put in before my new filter start running. If I continue to let my filter run when changing substrate as mention above, then I won't be able to ~~~~ arghhhh... unless I try to stop the filter to change substrate then add in A.C.
    Last edited by shunkun; 31st Aug 2011 at 17:07.

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    Re: Change substrate possible ??

    You can keep your filter running with a bucket & all the fishes inside while you replace the soil.
    You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung

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