Changing gravel substrate to Pool Filter Sand .

Hello guys.

I will be changing my substrate this weekend. Adding more lighting and going to attempt diy C02.

A fews questions please.

How do I go about changing the substrate.Do I need to do a 100% water change.If so do I need to cycle the tank for a few days.

Using the same equipment.will just rinse filter medium in existing water.

Regards

 

You firstly need to clean the PFS very thoroughly , do a 100% water change & let the tank cycle for couple of days , make sure to use some prime , Rince media in existing water yes...

 

Are there still fish in this tank @twincam16

 

Thanks Guys ,

Yes there are fish , but will move them to another tank until the cycle is complete.

Regards

 

I did this a while back in my 4ft, changed from gravel to pfs + black earth. I researched before attempting it and found the best way was to remove a quarter of the gravel every week using a scoop and a clean dustpan, leaving the fake plants and ornaments in the tank. Did it this way because of the livestock. As mentioned above, make sure you rinse the pfs very well. When you think its clean, rinse it some more. After the last gravel was removed, the bottom was bare apart from the ornaments and driftwood I had in the tank. I saw a video on YouTube that helped with adding the black earth and pfs. Basically fill a bottle (I used a 2 liter coke bottle) with sand to the top. Put it into the aquarium top up and let it fill with water. Once full, turn it upside down and the sand will begin to fall to the bottom. The debris and dust get sucked into the bottle without clouding up the aquarium. Once empty, carefully remove the bottle sideways then refill and repeat. I added extra filter floss to catch all the floating particles that I threw out after I completed filling the sand into the tank.

Hope that makes sense.

 

Thanks Leeban.this method seems like it would save allot of time instead of doing a full water change.did u mix the black sand with the pfs or have u got the pfs on top of the black earth.Can u upload a pic if possible.My problem is that I recently went crazy with plants.so if I use the above method , I need to remove all the plants into a temp tank for now until I change the Gravel.

Thanks

Regards

 

I started out with clear divisions between the black Earth and pfs to create islands but after some time if tends to get mixed up. Especially with planting and replanting. Some of the fish also like to rearrange things to there preferences. Do it slowly and you shouldn't have a problem.

 

Hi All ,

Finally changed over to PFS , please see below , Sorry for the bad Quality pics (Blackberry :-( ).






Before PFS



After PFS

 

Did you add a growing medium like pfp, or just sand?

 

@ Broader , Just sand nothing else.