The Puffer Forum

In a few months I wanna change my substrate. I currently have CC.

I know my Dragon Goby will be happy that I am getting him something softer.

Is aragonite soft enough for him to burrow in? Does aragonite maintain a pH buffer?

Does sand maintain a pH buffer? If not, then what do you do?

Does sand need to be changed or its good forever?

Yes, aragonite sand will be soft enough for him to burrow in if you get the finer grade of it (not sure what that grade is, though). Aragonite also buffers the pH, which is what makes it perfect for marine tanks. Regular play sand does not buffer the pH, so if you're going to be keeping coral or require something to keep your pH high, I'd avoid play sand.

Heres my next issue....

I dont have other tanks to transport the fish in while I do the substrate change. If I go in one day while im doing a water change and I remove all the CC substrate and replace it with the aragonite sand , how much beneficial bacteria am I gonna lose? Am I gonna have to start a new cycle? Or is the beneficial bacteria in the filter good enough to keep going without any spikes?

I have changed the substrate on a couple of tanks and never had a problem. On one tank I had a mini cycle for about 2-3 days, not a big dea. I'm actually expecting a mini cycle on my new tank that I just transfered fish too. We'll see what happenes. Just don't clean your filter before you change your substrate and you should be fine.

edmlfc1 wrote:I have changed the substrate on a couple of tanks and never had a problem. On one tank I had a mini cycle for about 2-3 days, not a big dea. I'm actually expecting a mini cycle on my new tank that I just transfered fish too. We'll see what happenes. Just don't clean your filter before you change your substrate and you should be fine.

ok kool

You could also change half one week, and the rest the next week...

Oh, pick up a filter bag from your LFS, and put the top layer (maybe 0.25 inches) of crushed coral in that bag, then just put that bag inside your filter (if you have room), or somewhere near the output. Leave it there for a couple weeks, and then you should be good to go. That should prevent a mini-cycle from happening.

What size is the tank, and how many fish (along with their sizes) are in it? Generally, if it's a relatively large water volume with very few fish, you won't see a mini-cycle from changing out the substrate (assuming you follow the suggestions above about the filter). However, if it's heavily populated with fish, you're going to want to save the top layer of substrate as per above.

Paul reminded me of the other technique.
Like Paul said about the media bag, except instead use stockings. then you can lay them on the new substrate and it'll seed the bacteria pretty quick.