Wanting to change substrate

Hi friends!! I currently have classic blue gravel in my 10 gal but it looks unnatural and I’ve been wanting to change it. I was going to get white gravel originally but my mom convinced me otherwise (oops haha, should’ve listened to me).

So my question is if I were to change it, should I set up a mini “aquarium”, maybe like a bucket or bin, and put the gravel in there with an airstone to grow BB? Would that even work? I know that there is BB in the gravel so I don’t want to just take all that out and crash my tank (although my tank seems to constantly maintain ammonia levels ranging from 0.25-1 ppm no matter how many water changes or how much work I do to fix it, help would be appreciated with that issue as well. My fish still seem to live like nothing is wrong though.).

Also, if anyone has suggestions on good substrate, I would love to hear it!! I am a bit afraid of using soil, I guess because I don’t want it changing my water color or I just don’t know much about it. Thank you in advance!!

 

80% of your bacteria is in your filter, not in your tank, only about 20% is in the tank if its' well established.

My "guess" without further information about tank size and filter, is you have a hang on the back type filter and change out the cartridge every so often as recommended. if you stop doing that and just rinse it out with tank water during water changes, you won't be throwing out 80% of your bacteria anymore and you won't see the ammonia anymore either.

Just a guess.

And if that is what's happening, then you could let your filter finish the cycle instead of mini cycling every month and change the substrate without much of anything happening ecause the vast majority of your beneficial bacteria will be in your filter.

It's ok to rinse the filter cartridge cotton in tank water that you remove to take off the debris that builds up on it, but if you change it, your throw away most of your bacteria each time you do change it. if you do the filter cartridge and the gravel at the same time, you'll get rid of 95%+ of your biological filter and will crash it for sure.

 

I would not clean your filter or sponge filter use your old sponge or filter in the tank and add the old water back to tank except for the last water in gravel you can use organic soil and filter out large chunks of wood of about a inch topped with gravel and sand of about half an inch each to a total of 2inches with the soil. You don't have to cover the entire bottom tank with soil maybe just a section for your rooted plants. Old filter old water instantly cycles tank use Prime evert 48 hours for a week and stability for about 4 days and your good.

 

In a ten gallon tank, I'd say, by experience, that you will be fine changing the substrate completely just don't clean out your filter. You won't lose your cycle.

Do you have live plants? Are you thinking sand? Or just changing the color? Their is also substrate that is very fine grained that is not technically sand. You can also use pool sand. What color or design are you thinking of?

 

80% of your bacteria is in your filter, not in your tank, only about 20% is in the tank if its' well established.

My "guess" without further information about tank size and filter, is you have a hang on the back type filter and change out the cartridge every so often as recommended. if you stop doing that and just rinse it out with tank water during water changes, you won't be throwing out 80% of your bacteria anymore and you won't see the ammonia anymore either.

Just a guess.

And if that is what's happening, then you could let your filter finish the cycle instead of mini cycling every month and change the substrate without much of anything happening ecause the vast majority of your beneficial bacteria will be in your filter.

It's ok to rinse the filter cartridge cotton in tank water that you remove to take off the debris that builds up on it, but if you change it, your throw away most of your bacteria each time you do change it. if you do the filter cartridge and the gravel at the same time, you'll get rid of 95%+ of your biological filter and will crash it for sure.

You’re right!! I do have an hob. So I actually used to change it every month but I stopped doing that about 2-3 months in (I started my tank in december). I just rinse it now. In my filter I have the fiber off an old cartridge in the bottom (I put a new one in because that one was falling apart), a small bag of biomax, and an additional cartridge in the slot. I also have a sponge on the intake that I will probably be moving soon. I put the sponge, biomax, new filter and old filter in on April 7.

So I would assume that I should have a decent amount of bacteria by now? I use the API master test kit and I’ve tested bottled water as a control and it showed n ammonia so I know it’s accurate. I’ll figure it out one day. I have 2 fish (a molly and platy) in a 10 gal so it’s not overstocked.

In a ten gallon tank, I'd say, by experience, that you will be fine changing the substrate completely just don't clean out your filter. You won't lose your cycle.

Do you have live plants? Are you thinking sand? Or just changing the color? Their is also substrate that is very fine grained that is not technically sand. You can also use pool sand. What color or design are you thinking of?

I don’t have live plants but I plan on getting some!! I’m still very new to the hobby so I’m unsure about a lot of things. I love the look of sand but I’m not sure on how to clean it. I would figure that out though. I would like a light colored bottom.

Right now my tank definitely looks pretty fake LOL I have fake plants, blue gravel and several little ornaments including a fun shark head they can swim inside. It’s a very fun little tank but I want to go for a more natural, pretty looking tank. I want to keep clear water so I’m not sure how I feel about driftwood because I’ve heard the tannins can change the water to a brownish color.

The only reason I haven’t gotten live plants yet is also because I’m scared of the uncertain, so I don’t know how they would grow and if I would like a tank with huge plants, although with smaller plants I would love the look of. I’m also not sure if they produce algae.

 

You’re right!! I do have an hob. So I actually used to change it every month but I stopped doing that about 2-3 months in (I started my tank in december). I just rinse it now. In my filter I have the fiber off an old cartridge in the bottom (I put a new one in because that one was falling apart), a small bag of biomax, and an additional cartridge in the slot. I also have a sponge on the intake that I will probably be moving soon. I put the sponge, biomax, new filter and old filter in on April 7.

So I would assume that I should have a decent amount of bacteria by now? I use the API master test kit and I’ve tested bottled water as a control and it showed n ammonia so I know it’s accurate. I’ll figure it out one day. I have 2 fish (a molly and platy) in a 10 gal so it’s not overstocked.

I don’t have live plants but I plan on getting some!! I’m still very new to the hobby so I’m unsure about a lot of things. I love the look of sand but I’m not sure on how to clean it. I would figure that out though. I would like a light colored bottom.

Right now my tank definitely looks pretty fake LOL I have fake plants, blue gravel and several little ornaments including a fun shark head they can swim inside. It’s a very fun little tank but I want to go for a more natural, pretty looking tank. I want to keep clear water so I’m not sure how I feel about driftwood because I’ve heard the tannins can change the water to a brownish color.

The only reason I haven’t gotten live plants yet is also because I’m scared of the uncertain, so I don’t know how they would grow and if I would like a tank with huge plants, although with smaller plants I would love the look of. I’m also not sure if they produce algae.

yeah, if you were changing cartridges, and stopped about 2-3 months ago, and started in December you are just about a month or so on not throwing away most of your bacteria colony it will stabilize here shortly if you continue doing what you're doing, just don't rinse the filter in the sink, only tank water and put it back. Sponge on the intake keeps larger stuff and food out of your filter, it's not a bad thing, it's pre-filtering, but make sure it's kind of large pores on the sponge so it doesn't prematurely wear out yoru filter with added pressure and rinse the prefilter so it has good flow.

I'm sure you do have a decent amount of bacteria by now, but probably not enough just yet. check your supply water, see if that has ammonia or nitrates you might be adding with water changes. your bacteria colony will compensate for the ammonia in the supply water in time also, nitrates is kind of different. but nice to know what that water looks like before it goes in the tank.

I don't do plants myself, I always kill them, in or out of the water. LOL. i would say if it interest you, give it a go and see if you like it, or your good at it, worst case it doesn't work out and you know you got a brown thumb like me!

 

yeah, if you were changing cartridges, and stopped about 2-3 months ago, and started in December you are just about a month or so on not throwing away most of your bacteria colony it will stabilize here shortly if you continue doing what you're doing, just don't rinse the filter in the sink, only tank water and put it back. Sponge on the intake keeps larger stuff and food out of your filter, it's not a bad thing, it's pre-filtering, but make sure it's kind of large pores on the sponge so it doesn't prematurely wear out yoru filter with added pressure and rinse the prefilter so it has good flow.

I'm sure you do have a decent amount of bacteria by now, but probably not enough just yet. check your supply water, see if that has ammonia or nitrates you might be adding with water changes. your bacteria colony will compensate for the ammonia in the supply water in time also, nitrates is kind of different. but nice to know what that water looks like before it goes in the tank.

I don't do plants myself, I always kill them, in or out of the water. LOL. i would say if it interest you, give it a go and see if you like it, or your good at it, worst case it doesn't work out and you know you got a brown thumb like me!

Funnily enough, I tested my water today and it showed no ammonia and no nitrites!! I did do a water change after because I needed to clean the gravel as it was nasty. I think it has to do with the poop not being able to be sucked up in the intake now, because poop was what was all over. I realized I don't want to ruin the perfect parameters hahaha but too late, I'm sure it will stabilize again soon. I haven't tested it so I actually don't know if it did change anything, but we'll see!!

I almost got a plant today. I was so close. But I got a zebra nerite instead and his name is Marty. I had a really fun conversation with one of the employees about pickles too it was really funny because we went from talking about fish to pickles LOL.

 

Yes, a prefilter sponge on the intake, if the filter isn't big big for the tank, won't provide suction to get poop out of the tank (but do you really want that sitting in your filter either?) The vacuum becomes necessary , but you keep food and poop out of your filter and it becomes just a spot for your bacteria colony to build and live, which is what it's supposed to be doing, the vacuum takes out the larger particulates that sink, the sponge on the intake captures the smaller stuff and only the super fine stuff gets into the filer pad.

You'll find in time the gravel isn't as important to your biological filter, vacuuming it won't change anything much at all except make the water better. But when you were changing the pads in the filter, the gravel biological was all you had left.

Now the majority of it will be in your filter and cleaning the tank, gravel and water won't be making you edgy, you'll be confident after a bit that it won't hurt anything.

And yeah it's a 10 gallon tank, it's a 10-15 minute job to vacuum and water change like 20% and clean the glass, no sweat!
Good luck and be blessed!