My Stendker Discus from Discus Hans

[lkc]

Hey Snoopy, I have been slobbering over your planted tank, reading all the comments and I think it would be best if I remove the substrate, pot the plants and go barebottom for my 6 juvies to grow up. They are doing fine, but I want to be pro-active about this and give them the best. I've got 6 blue pigeons from hans 3.5 or so and growing. Here is the burning question: Can I remove all the substrate at once or should I do it in stages? I removed the front 25% last night (white sand) The rest of the tank is filled with Flourite for the plants. I potted the plants and put them back. I am going to assume that the substrate does contribute to the biological filtering of the tank. I don't want any ammonia spikes here.....Thanks for any help.

 

[snoopy65]

Hey Snoopy, I have been slobbering over your planted tank, reading all the comments and I think it would be best if I remove the substrate, pot the plants and go barebottom for my 6 juvies to grow up. They are doing fine, but I want to be pro-active about this and give them the best. I've got 6 blue pigeons from hans 3.5 or so and growing. Here is the burning question: Can I remove all the substrate at once or should I do it in stages? I removed the front 25% last night (white sand) The rest of the tank is filled with Flourite for the plants. I potted the plants and put them back. I am going to assume that the substrate does contribute to the biological filtering of the tank. I don't want any ammonia spikes here.....Thanks for any help.

You should be able to remove it all at once if you are doing water changes for the discus anyway. You are removing some of the nitrifying bacteria, but the majority of it lives in your filter. I would just keep a closer eye on the water params after removing the substrate and up your water change to daily (if you don't already do daily) for a couple of weeks and everything should stabilize without any issues.

 

[lkc]

Thank you so much Snoopy. Will do. I do 50-75% WC every other day. The tank is looking pretty messy right now so I can't wait to clean it up.