Author Topic: Wanting to switch substrate.  (Read 3443 times)

Offline howieb4

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Wanting to switch substrate.
« on: July 17, 2020, 01:16:49 PM »
Hi. My last posting was sharing a catastrophic loss of all my fish while on vacation.  Two years later my tank is up and running with healthy and thriving fish. Now here is my substrate question.  For whatever reason in the past I decided to use a pebble substrate( pebbles a bit larger than pea gravel). I am using an under gravel filter along with my trusty sump and external bio wheel.  Never any water quality issues.  So is trying to switch to a traditional sand bottom a bad idea this late into the game? Besides the work it will take will the affect the sand have to the water be hard on the fish? My fish are a mix of OBs, rusties, elec yellows, coba afrues, and two large plecos. A couple other generic peacocks. Thanks.

Offline danotaylor

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Re: Wanting to switch substrate.
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2020, 02:43:25 PM »
Since you have established beneficial bacteria colonies in your sump media and bio-wheel I would imagine it should be a harmless transition. The only issue I foresee is if you chose a fine sand substrate you would prob have to remove the UG filter as the sand will block up the slits in the plates. If you use a more coarse aragonite your UG filter plates should be good to go still.
Keep in mind your gravel does act as a filter bed so you will be removing a considerable amount of your good bacteria, so I would back off your feeding and gradually increase it back to normal over a 3 week period or so...
« Last Edit: July 17, 2020, 02:45:44 PM by danotaylor »