How do you change out your substrate. The LFS said that with large cichlids like I have it is best to change the substrate to prevent digging and cloudiness. I got a 50lb. bag of river rock at the home inprovment store. I was just wondering what would be the best way to change out the substrate. Can I leave the fish in will I suck out the sand or must I put them in something while I drane the tank and scoop it out. If anybody knows of any easy ways please let me know. Thanks.
Changing Substrate
- Thread starter charjump
- Start date
your tank shouldn't be cloudy due to digging if you regularly clean your tank bottom.
changing from sand to river rock doesn't help much. infact, the compact sand doesn't allow any debris to settle between the sand particles, while the river rocks have bigger gaps allowing wastes to fall and sit.
but anyways... the best way to clean out sand, is first turn off your filtration units. there is no need to remove your fishes.
siphoning is a good way, but you'll be removing too much water at the same time. I use a container to scoop out the majority of the sand, when there are only small sediments remain, I use the siphon to clean the rest out.
however, I do not advise in removing ALL the substrate at once, as that would disrupt your bio-bed. remove 25% a week is recomended.
changing from sand to river rock doesn't help much. infact, the compact sand doesn't allow any debris to settle between the sand particles, while the river rocks have bigger gaps allowing wastes to fall and sit.
but anyways... the best way to clean out sand, is first turn off your filtration units. there is no need to remove your fishes.
siphoning is a good way, but you'll be removing too much water at the same time. I use a container to scoop out the majority of the sand, when there are only small sediments remain, I use the siphon to clean the rest out.
however, I do not advise in removing ALL the substrate at once, as that would disrupt your bio-bed. remove 25% a week is recomended.
Charjump I would agree strongly with M\L. With very heavy feeders unless you are going to have just a few rock formatons on top of the sand I think you would be better leaving it with a sand substrate. As he has already said, although it does not look pretty seeing uneaten food & feaces sitting on top of the sand, at least you can see it and siphon it out, rather than it denitrifying between course substrate. If you do go gead with the rock then I'd say you need to look at a VERY thorough gravel vac at least twice a week.
Cichlids dig for a reason, to help establish territories. If they cant make territories then I think they will fight more. I would use gravel over sand or river rock, not as much debris settles on the top, but you can still clean it out easily. River rock is another story, its difficult to get debris out from the crevices it creates.
