New substrate for new motoros... (LOAD WARNING)

[Hawkfish3.0]

Changed my silica sand/gravel substrate out for some quartz pool filter sand. What a PITA!! All in all the process took about 4 hours, not too bad I guess.

Before:

I figured it would be easiest to do while performing a 50% WC:

Removed all the deco:

Started putting in the new sand:

My fish were not too happy about the whole process:

Pretty cloudy after filling up:

All clear by morning:

The only casualty I suffered, :

Now, my motoros should be here tomorrow afternoon!

 

[BIGgourami]

which was the casualty?

are you leaving the deco like that?
i'd split it between the 2 back corners... but that's just me

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

The glass top, notice the cracks.

 

[turkeyboy85]

that prolly wasnt the smartest thing to do... all the bacteria in the substrate is gone, along with a water change makes it almost a new tank

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Oops, sorry about that. I had accidentally edited it out. I put the pic back though.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Still plenty of bacteria in the filter medium and on the deco.

 

[stingray man]

Are you going to keep all those fish in there? Your probabley going to have a problem if you are.

 

[pitbullfish]

Are you going to keep all those fish in there? Your probabley going to have a problem if you are.

i agree

 

[groovitudedude]

that prolly wasnt the smartest thing to do... all the bacteria in the substrate is gone, along with a water change makes it almost a new tank

Unless he left the old filter media in there.

 

[rallysman]

that prolly wasnt the smartest thing to do... all the bacteria in the substrate is gone, along with a water change makes it almost a new tank

A very small percentage of the bacteria are in the gravel, even less (almost none) are in the water. As long as the filter was wet, it shouldn't cause any problem at all.