All Change..Substrate

[bigfatfish]

As some of you may know, I have 2 GSPs in a 55 UK Gallon bowfront. I have been toying with the idea of going full marine with them, but I am in no rush & will be taking it slowly (its taken me a year to get them to an SG of 1.017!!). There are also 8 ghost shrimp & about 20kg of ocean rock, which I hope to seed with live rock when the time comes?
I currently have plain old gravel as a substrate, but have bought some coral sand to replace. I plan on using a large net to scoop out the old stuff, then rinse the coral sand & replace. I was thinking to do the tank in 2 halves so as not to take out all the 'good stuff' with the old gravel all at once. This is probably going to be a messy process, but I have 2 filters (one internal & one external), which I hope will clear any sediment fairly quickly.
Has anyone done a complete substrate change, with fish in the tank? Is it going to be too stressful for them do you think? They don't mind water change time & are pretty used to me dabbling around in there!
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

[Lil' Swimz$]

I have before. I actually just siphoned out all the rocks then put the sand in. I did take out the puffs before that though. Kept them in a bucket.

[SammyDee]

I did a 100% substrate swap too once. I just drained half the water then scooped all the gravel out. Replaced it with heavily heavily rinsed sand. Then once the sand was in I used a dinner plate on the bottom to pour the new water in without kicking up all the sand. I did it with my puffs in the tank but I felt bad cuz it got pretty cloudy but they made it fine. Once it cleared they were cruzing around leaving lil belly tracks in the sand so I knew they liked it. Didnt have any probs with Water Parameters either. So I wouldnt worry about losing bacteria especially if youve been running two filters for a year on this tank.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Ha ha SammyDee, the belly lines.

A little TidBit: I washed mine for probably an hour and it turned out beautiful. Zero cloudiness. The gravel made the water cloudier.

[bigfatfish]

Well, I have taken out half the gravel today & will do the other half tomorrow. Tank got pretty cloudy looking, but cleared within 30 minutes - I will change the filter floss regularly during this upheaval!
Not looking forward to rinsing all the sand. What would be the minimum depth I could go with - it will hopefully be a FOWLR tank in the future.

[SammyDee]

You dont really want to go more than an inch. If your plans are a FOWLR. Unless u wanna stir the sand occasionaly which still isnt a bad idea with even a smaller sand bed than an 1"

Definitely wash the sand very very good at least an hour. I washed the crap outta mine and it still made a good amount of cloudiness

[bigfatfish]

Here we go...new coral sand in with the ocean rock. Will be having a little move around I think - once the dust has settled! Although pic not the best angle, so you can hardly see the long awaited sand!

[Lil' Swimz$]

Cool backround!

[xrayjeeper83]

I love that back ground, when ever i venture into salt i think im going to hunt that stuff down

[SammyDee]

YEa seriously I want that backround bad. Where ya snag that at?

Tanks looks real nice too!

[SammyDee]

DAng just saw ur in the UK soo I hope my LFS can order it. Best backround I ever seen. Makes me want some Coronas. Is there any logo on the backround I could try looking up??

[bigfatfish]

Theres no logo. I got it off e-bay - I'll have a look & see if I can find the name of the seller. (its only since using the Seaview adhesive that the colours have really come alive).

[PolishPuff]

Yeah, let us know if you find it again, I want it as well

[bigfatfish]

Found it! Comes in various sizes.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Ibstock-Aquati ... les-online

[SammyDee]

Thx. Yea seaview is amazing I use it now too. Wow wat a difference from before with just tape. Looks like it's painted on with the seaview stuff.