Tomorrow I will be changing the substrate in my 29 gallon from sand to gravel,I know that a fair amount of beneficial bacteria live on the substrate and I fear a posssible ammonia spike may occur. Will my filter be able to handle the bio-load?, its an aqua-clear 50 ,the bio-max is approx 2 months old.
Changing substrate !
- Thread starter ramman
- Start date
It was the biggest pain in the ass when I switched from sand back to gravel, it felt like there were 10,000,000,000 pounds of sand in the damn tank, it just did not end. Good luck!
As far as any spike goes, just do some daily water changes and you should be good, my water was cloudy for couple of days after I swirled everything around.
As far as any spike goes, just do some daily water changes and you should be good, my water was cloudy for couple of days after I swirled everything around.
that depend's on the quality of your biopad or media more or less how alive is it!, by a test kit if you have'nt got one so as to monitor this potential problem. may be you mite want to switch over slowly as not to lose to much benificial bac either ... good luck how ever you do it... 
trust me man its just not worth it.....just put the substrate over the sand and suck it out as u gravel vac.....doing it all it once is going to aggitate your fish and your water quality....also your going to need to leave your filters off for a while so the sand doesnt clog them up.....in my 50g i had black sand of the bottom and i just put gravel over it and it looks just as good....i'd suggest just putting it over
good point f-fire....Can it really be that difficult to remove the sand? Just empty the water, carry the tank outside, dump the sand and hose out the tank. Then add the gravel, add water (keep some of the old water if you wish) and your set to go.
I added gravel/sand from the lake I live not far from. THAT was a pain in the ass. I first had to rinse the crap outta the stuff then I had to boil it. It took forever but was well worth it. Looks better then gravel or sand.
I added gravel/sand from the lake I live not far from. THAT was a pain in the ass. I first had to rinse the crap outta the stuff then I had to boil it. It took forever but was well worth it. Looks better then gravel or sand.
OH....... I just noticed that your Canadian....... you may need to 3 people to get it done....... you know one guy to hold the tank and the other two to turn him over to dump the tank! 
Sorry I couldn't resist.... I have a lot of Canadian friends in VC
Sorry I couldn't resist.... I have a lot of Canadian friends in VC
First of all , an idiotic joke such as Repair made could only be formulated by an uneducated moron who has nothing better to do than make obserd remarks towards Canadians. If he had read the post correctly(thats assuming he can read at all ! ) the question concerned substrate bacteria , not the actual removal of the sand. I would also like to thank him for the complment, for two men lifting another along with a tank would mean GREAT stregnth , balance , and dexterity , all of which I am proud to posess !
For those of you who gave your input, thank you, the job is now complete and I will be monitoring the water quality very closely for the next week or so.
For those of you who gave your input, thank you, the job is now complete and I will be monitoring the water quality very closely for the next week or so.