Changing substrate

[FredS]

I am thinking about removing the gravel from my 24 nano and replacing it with white sand. I have my hospital tank i can use to put the the fish for a couple of day if needed. An thoughts on this good or bad plan?

[Streetwise]

I prefer gravel to sand for planted tanks, with organic soil.

[Mydonkeyfish]

I did the opposite thing by changing sand to gravel and i left the fish in and did it one section at a time but it would have been a lot easier to just scrap the tank and move the fish somewhere while i was working. If you really like the way sand looks and dont want gravel put a nutrient layer of gravel like stratum or aquasoil and put sand on top.

[Levi_Aquatics]

I usually just drain the tank and then change the substrate. 

[Mmiller2001]

If you like the look, do it. Just prepare for a mini cycle.

[Griznatch]

 I've done 2 substrate swaps. once on a 75 and a 55. Both were done with fish in the tank. Went form gravel to sand and the fish didn't seem to mind. Took hours for the water to clear, I used polyester in the HOB to clean it up... worked pretty good.

 

I've found trying to net the fish out to move them to another tank stresses them more than leaving them in. Except some of my male guppies I can catch half of them by hand and they don't care. The females are much more crafty.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Griznatch
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[Quokka]

I haven’t done a substrate swap, but I remember seeing someone on another forum mention they did theirs with fish in, but only changed out about an eighth at a time with several days in between changes. They were aiming to give at least some of the substrate beneficial bacteria a chance to cross over. 
 

If you want to do the full tank at once though, based on my microbiology experience, that mixing maybe 5-10% of the old substrate into the new would also work. This would give your substrate adapted bacterial colonies a larger foothold to recolonise the sand.

Disclaimer, my bacterial experience is not in fish tank bacteria, and I’m not sure how different the bacterial colonies are in different parts of the tank.

[FredS]

Thaks for the replies, thinging on leaving fish in and will put a hungon filter on till the sand settles down just to keep most out of the sump onof the built in filter system. Wife is wanting to get a variety of shrimp or some peapuffers in the tank.

Edited January 31, 2022 by FredS

[Hobbit]

You can use a siphon hose (without the gravel vac attachment) to slurp out all the gravel. I think doing it with the fish inside will work just fine. When I changed substrates in my 55 I ended up taking all the fish out, but that’s because it was a soil tank with a terrible gravel cap. I also had to take out all the plants and driftwood. It made a huge mess.

If you want, you could put a bunch of the sand in a filter bag and plop it in the tank a week or two before you change the substrate out. That will give the bacteria a chance to seed the sand.

[Flumpweesel]

Just a note before you start because it's not a fun job swapping substrate check the compatibility of pea puffers with the other fish I don't believe they are the best community tank fish.

And they might eat shrimp they destroy snails so I can only imagine them thinking shrimp are also crunchy snacks.

[Brandon p]

It’s a personal thing for me but white sand shows everything. Same with black I try used brown gravel or sand. I guess I’m lazy

[JettsPapa]

On 1/28/2022 at 2:13 PM, Griznatch said:

 I've done 2 substrate swaps. once on a 75 and a 55. Both were done with fish in the tank. Went form gravel to sand and the fish didn't seem to mind. Took hours for the water to clear, I used polyester in the HOB to clean it up... worked pretty good.

 

I've found trying to net the fish out to move them to another tank stresses them more than leaving them in. Except some of my male guppies I can catch half of them by hand and they don't care. The females are much more crafty.

I agree.  Leave the fish in the tank and move slow.

On 1/31/2022 at 3:13 AM, Flumpweesel said:

Just a note before you start because it's not a fun job swapping substrate check the compatibility of pea puffers with the other fish I don't believe they are the best community tank fish.

And they might eat shrimp they destroy snails so I can only imagine them thinking shrimp are also crunchy snacks.

I understand that can be a problem, but I have two of them in a 40 gallon breeder tank with pearl gouramis, serpae tetras, pristella tetras, and Corydoras trillineatus.  The pea puffers mostly ignore the other fish, and have never showed any aggression to them.  Your results may vary.

I have seen some posts on forums that make me think the aggression might be more of a problem if there's just one pea puffer in the tank.

On 1/31/2022 at 7:20 AM, Brandon p said:

It’s a personal thing for me but white sand shows everything. Same with black I try used brown gravel or sand. I guess I’m lazy

I don't think I'm lazy.  I just don't mind if the substrate doesn't stay pristine.

[FredS]

Thanks for the headsup Flumpweesel, will check on the compatibility of the pea puffers.

Thanks for the idea with sand in a filter bag Hobbit.

[Hobbit]

I’ve used white sand in some of my tanks, and over time it just turns into brown sand. 😄 I’m not a gravel vacuumer though, so it might be possible to keep it white if you try.

[Gannon]

I've done so many substrate swaps I feel like ive got it down to a science, but really its just using a siphon to get what you can and scooping the rest into cups and dumping it into buckets. Chances are you wont get it all but you might like the look of a little gravel mixed in with your sand.