RonDutt

So now that my main tank is established and good to go, I was thinking of taking out the plastic decor one by one and replacing with real. My question is, can I take the gravel out as well? It's used black gravel and doesn't really look all that great. I'd love to get some gravel/sand but curious as to how I would do this and what negative effects replacing the black gravel would have? I don't have another tank to put the fish from this tank into else I'd just move them all over and clean up the current tank.

Tony G.

If you want to change out the substrate, then you would have to grab the current substrate, put it in a clean new nylon bag and leave it in the tnak. THE DECORATIONS YOU CAN ALL ADD, BUT DONT TAKE OUT THE OLD DECO AS BACTERIA LIVES ON IT TOO.

darn, i just noticed i wrote in caps. Im to lazy to go back and fix it LOL

iloveengl

When I switched my gravel to sand, I gathered all the gravel into a new nylon. I kept the bagged gravel in the back corner of the tank on top of the newly added sand (or you can hang it from the top, so long as it stays wet is the key). I kept it in there for about a week and kept an eye on the water params. Everything was fine. Didn't lose my cycle or have any mini-spikes. Keep your filter media wet, too. I still have that bag of nylon gravel at the back of one tank so that I can use it to instant cycle new tanks.

***TONY I was wondering why you yelled that last part of your post. LOL.

Tony G.

Lol

eiginh

Tony you lazy bum lolol.

You don't have to put all the gravel in the nylon bag just a good amount. You can also buy a bunch of sponge and put it in the filter then when you change your substrate you won't be having too much problems.

Tony G.

what are you talking about?

peacemaker92

LOL