xathine

I've become bored with my current substrate and I'm going to be taking on a new challange, plants.

Whats the best way to switch substrate? And will it cause any cycle problems?

Also, one of my tanks has a mix of black gravel and sand as its substrate - how would I go about removing the sand?

gmen4life

i know one thing it will get messy for a day or 2

jclee

I changed over from gravel to flora base by scooping out the gravel, one handful at a time, and slowly putting in the florabase. I did not remove my fish for this, but I did stretch the process out over a few days. (None died, thankfully, but I don't know if I'd recommend this method, especially with more delicate fish.) To this day, I am stil picking gravel out of the florabase. As the florabase settles with every plant I plant and every fish that flips the substrate, gravel rises to the top. It is not terribly attractive, and it'll be ages before I get rid of it all (though my husband claims he likes it this way). If I ever change substrate again, the fish are going in a bucket and I'm just going to flip the whole tank over.