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Wanting to change out gravel

1362 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  artega, 
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Hey all I have a 60g with oh 300+ shrimp in it. It has the standard top fin blue color gravel. I am wanting to change out the gravel and go with Caribsea Flora Max or Flourite. Would there be anything I would have to worry about if I were to change out most of or all of the gravel? These pics were taken right at feeding time so they are on the march to different areas in the tank.




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R
I don't know if there is a better way, what I would do is set up a temporary tank and net all shrimps (easier said than done, I know) to the temp tank, then do whatever to the substrate, wait for a few days and slowly move shrimps back (if the moved ones don't do well then stop until they do well before moving more back).

Change substrate while shrimps are there can do harm to the shrimps. You could also do it slowly like 1 liter of substrate out, 1 liter of new in every day but I think that's more work and still risky.
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Complexity
The old gravel has a lot of bacteria in it so the first concern would be how much an impact the change would have on the tank's cycle. That being said, RCS don't produce much of a bioload so odds are you'll be okay as long as you check for ammonia and nitrites after the change and take action should you get a mini-cycle.

The second concern would be getting all the RCS out of the tank so they don't get harmed while you're working. You will most likely lose some babies because you just can't see them all (although the blue gravel does help make them more visible).

I think the best thing to do would be to net/trap as many of the shrimp as you can see and put them in a temporary holding place. You can put all the plants and decor in a bucket and then add the shrimp. Put a cover over it so they don't crawl or jump out due to all the changes. Then work quickly to remove the old gravel and put in the new substrate. Put your decor back in place and add your shrimp. Then keep an eye on your cycle.

RCS are tough little shrimp so they should be okay with the change. You may want to hold off feeding for a day or two before and after to reduce the bioload to help compensate for the loss of bacteria.
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diwu13
I'd worry about upsetting the substrate too much and creating a large bacteria bloom.

If you have a spare 5G bucket I would put some of the existing gravel, plants, and decor, in there with an air pump. Then, using a bottle trap try to get as many shrimp out as possible. Obviously you won't be able to get 100% of the shrimp out, but as long as you get a majority the rest "dying" won't matter. Then, remove the remaining plants/decor and take out all the gravel. Add the new substrate, wait for the water to clear (I know flourite clouds water for ~1 day) and then add the shrimp back in!
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randyl said:
I don't know if there is a better way, what I would do is set up a temporary tank and net all shrimps (easier said than done, I know) to the temp tank, then do whatever to the substrate, wait for a few days and slowly move shrimps back (if the moved ones don't do well then stop until they do well before moving more back).
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If you would recommend moving them to a temporary tank quickly, then why would moving them back need to be done slowly?

If the change in water is a concern, you can use the same water both ways; although, if the new water matches the parameters of the old water, this shouldn't be a problem for RCS. I defer back to the time when I accidentally poured bleach in my RCS tank instead of Prime. I had to do immediate back-to-back 90% water changes along with heavy dosing of Prime to fix the problem, and even with all that, not a single RCS that I could see died (maybe a baby that was too small to see yet). RCS are really tough shrimp. They can handle water changes.
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eco
Here's a suggestion, start new! Maybe a used tank around same size, start cycling with all new substrate and plants then permanently tranfer all shrimp to a brand new and improved planted tank :) sell your old tank plus some shrimp and you'll be good to go! I know, easier said than done but admit it you are considering it now! e
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J
If you're tearing it down and rebuilding, then no, there's really nothing to be worried about. If you're going to try to pull the blue rocks out without taking the shrimp out first, you're likely to cause problems with ammonia levels, bacterial blooms, and general yuckiness via stirring up all the mulm that is in there. I'd go with the former, personally.
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R
Complexity said:
If you would recommend moving them to a temporary tank quickly, then why would moving them back need to be done slowly?
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Reason being you're not sure if the new substrate in the old tank is ready yet. You could take the extra caution to move them slowly too to the temporary tank.
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randyl said:
Reason being you're not sure if the new substrate in the old tank is ready yet. You could take the extra caution to move them slowly too to the temporary tank.
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Neither substrate the OP mentioned affect the water parameters. If the water isn't clear, then that should be addressed before putting any shrimp back in the tank. While I haven't used flora max, I have used flourite in a small tank, and that one cleared up within minutes. Just rinse it first, then do a water change after the first fill, and then let the filter clear out any cloudiness that's left. Within an hour, it should be sparkling.
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A
You can see a pic of the tank in my sig. I have a brand new 10g tank sitting empty, I could try to get the shrimp in that tank for a temporary setting. If I were to get some water out of the 60g and add it to the new 10g and add a small filter to it do you think that would be ok even though it would not be cycled until I am able to get my 60g substrate removed and go with Flora Max or FLourite and the plants planted. If this will work, once I have the 60g changed out am I looking at doing a whole new cycle?
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Complexity
No, you shouldn't have to do a whole new cycle. While some of the bacteria is in the substrate, it's also on everything else in the tank. It's on the glass, the plants, any other hardscape in the tank, and most especially in your filters. So while it's always good practice to watch your ammonia and nitrites when you make a large change to a tank like this, suggesting that you check does not mean I'm anticipating you'll lose your cycle.

At the worst, the tank could experience a mini-cycle. If that happens, you can do water changes as needed to keep the parameters within safe limits while dosing Prime each day to protect the fish and inverts from the harmful effects of the ammonia and nitrites that do remain in the tank (you'll need to leave some so the mini-cycle can do its thing). Because the tank will have so much bacteria already, it won't take long for the mini-cycle to end.

The main thing is to ensure that the bacteria in the tank is not disturbed at this time. For example, this would not be the time to clean out your filters.
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acitydweller
The danger with new substrates is the possibility of leeching ammonia and nitrates. Perhaps having the new substrate sit in a tub of water with a heater and used "seeded" filter running could get this process started, in about 3 weeks or so, i would do a complete swap out of the old and place the new.
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acitydweller said:
The danger with new substrates is the possibility of leeching ammonia and nitrates. Perhaps having the new substrate sit in a tub of water with a heater and used "seeded" filter running could get this process started, in about 3 weeks or so, i would do a complete swap out of the old and place the new.
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Flora max and flourite do not leach ammonia (therefore, no nitrites either).
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A
OK, so catching the little guys. I am expecting a dead loss of some sort, but I have enough shrimp to still be able to maintain the colony.

Netting - definitely easier said than done and probably the most amount of stress put onto the little guys.

Soda Bottle with wafer inside seems like it would work.
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