Adding substrate to a stocked tank?

[s1chris]

Ok, so you may have read in my journal that I have a well established 600+ litre tank which is currently home to many fish and what remains of my plastic plants. The current substrate is approx 3mm diameter gravel. Obviously I am aiming to plant the aquarium with low tech style plants and as such need to add a suitable substrate. Questions are -

Would sand be suitable?
Can I add this over my gravel as removing the fish and gravel is practically impossible due to having nowhere to put the fish while I do it?

Cheers Chris

 

[Dan Crawford]

Hi Chris, there is no problem adding more substrate to a wet tank. I would suggest adding a substrate with the same grain size, if you use sand then your original substrate will eventually work it's way to the top. If you could get exactly the same substrate as you're currently using this would be ideal, because when uprooting plants you will often pull some of the old substrate to the surface creating an undesirable mix of the two.

Pre-washing the new substrate will reduce clouding, sand in particular can be very dusty!

 

[s1chris]

thanks Dan, is planting in Gravel ok then? ideally I would like to change to some sort of compost. I could if needed remove the gravel (a pain but achievable). Cost wise I could use JAB if it is suitable for my fishy friends? Also I could pre soak this so it would sink and not cloud as much? For the scape I have in mind compost would look best.

in truth I haven't got a clue what's best. Help!

Cheers Chris

 

[sanj]

I use pond soil in some of my breeding tanks capped with gravel. Others combine pond soil with other types... I cant remember off hand. I think Troi does this sort of thing.

 

[Palm Tree]

In my 700l tank I changed from gravel to sand, I just used a big net to get out all the gravel then added the (really well rinsed) sand in a jug at a time. If you pour it in it will look like a sandstorm and could possibly have negative effects on the fish. You won't be able to use soil unless you fully drain the tank down, remove the gravel, add the soil and then cap it off.
Just a side note even if your careful you might have some cloudyness so run filter wool in your filters to remove it and/or let it settle.

 

[s1chris]

morning all, thanks for the suggestions. So it looks like adding soil is out of the question unless i fancy draining the tank. If I use my pond sized net then I could have the gravel out pretty quickly. I am now thinking if I use black gravel the from viewing distance it would give the same appearance as soil. Last question is though is gravel really a suitable substrate for the planted aquarium or am I going to want/need to change it in the near future?

thanks again to all.

Cheers Chris

 

[Palm Tree]

You could use fine gravel as a substrate, I would just add some root tabs under the substrate.

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Gravel should be fine, with adequate column dosing such as EI.