acidpope

I have a 38g with roughly 3" of Deep River gravel in it currently. I intend to switch to sand within the coming month. What is the safe way to do this? I just don't want to cause a mini-cycle from removing too much at once, or is this even an issue to be concerned with? Should I do it a quarter of a tank at a time, a half, full change at once? Also just how deep does a sand substrate need to be, because I'd like to lower it from how high it is now for more swimming space. Thanks for any help.

Shawnie

id remove the fish to a bucket while doing this, and hang all the gravel in a fresh nylon (not washed in detergents) in the tank and do it all at once..only issue would be cloudyness IMO but you are going to get that either way..

gmen4life

i would do as shawnie said better makeing is cloudy once then over a few times

acidpope

Now what do you mean by the nylon technique? Do you mean use the nylon for removing the gravel, or do you mean putting all the gravel in a nylon, or nylons, adding my sand, and then leaving the nyloned gravel in my tank and removing it over time? When I read it I pictured a single nylon with 40-60lbs of gravel in it sitting in my tank. Or did you mean remove all of the gravel, then put a nylon in my tank and dump the sand into it and then cut the nylon and remove it leaving the sand at the bottom?

Water being cloudy isn't an issue for me.

Shawnie

LOL remove all the gravel and put it in nylons hanging inside your tank somewhere....you may even need queen sized ones (you have a ton of subtrate) leave it there for a couple weeks....after removing the gravel and hanging it in the tank , add your sand and deco, and then put the fish back in the tank

acidpope

Ok, not quite sure how to hang so much gravel in my tank, but I'm sure I can wing it. Thanks for the tip and so do my Corys. One last thing, by a couple weeks do you mean after 2-3 weeks up and remove all the hanging gravel at once or remove a little at a time over the two weeks?

Shawnie

after a couple weeks, you can slowly start removing a little at a time...its going to be allot of gravel I agree...3 inches is a bit much but better than taking a chance on a mini cycle ...

aquarist48

Agreed. By doing it all at once it will be a lot less stressful on your fish and easier on you as well. Try to keep it fun Hope you share pictures of the results with us.
Ken