Gravel change?

[Bristol]

In my cherry tank I currently have Flourite as my gravel, Mostly since I was told I have to as I need to have plants in there and they need "Plant Substrate"

But now I really want to change it to either a light sand (I Have heard playsand is great?) Or something very light - right now you can never see the shrimp as they blend right in!!

Is it possible to do this without killing off my shrimp? My tank is fully cycled now but Im so scared to do anything to disrupt that!

Thanks!!!!!

[thegrandpoohbah]

Fully swapping the substrate will likely cause a mini cycle. I've done it with fish with no problems but I'd be careful with shrimp as they are more sensitive. What I did was drain all the tank water into a big rubbermaid bin. Moved the filter over to the bin to keep it running and put all the fish in there as well. Empty the old substrate from the tank and rinse the tank out. Put the new substrate in and then return all the water, filter and fish to the tank. It will be cloudy for a couple days but should settle after a bit.

Incidentally, light sand may wash out the colours of cherry shrimp. They show their colours best with a black substrate such as Eco-Complete.

Good luck! Make sure to post before and after pics.

[Bristol]

Yes I was going to do black at first - but I have some Black bee shrimp in there too!!:confused: I wanted to change to something that they would both show up with! It's hard though - I never thought the light colored would wash them out - Thanks for pointing that out to!

:smile: I will definetly post pics! Thanks so much for the help!

[zapisto]

dont change your substrate.
dark substrate is better to see how the shrimp are nice.
and for me it is a mini cycle change the whole substrate.

[Bristol]

dont change your substrate.
dark substrate is better to see how the shrimp are nice.
and for me it is a mini cycle change the whole substrate.

So I should stick with the flourite? My problem with it is that you can almost never see the shrimp since they are red and as is the flourite! someone suggested I change the gravel like suggested above but keep the flourite in the tank in a little nylon bag for a few weeks until things settle in.

[zapisto]

So I should stick with the flourite? My problem with it is that you can almost never see the shrimp since they are red and as is the flourite! someone suggested I change the gravel like suggested above but keep the flourite in the tank in a little nylon bag for a few weeks until things settle in.
well
that's a way if you really want change it,
but if your tank is planted you will see the shrimp at one point , because you will plant everywhere and you will barely see the flourite :)
but anyway it is up to you.

[CACAdmin]

OK, I will interject a 'stupid question' here...lol... yeh, I know, there isn't such a thing.:;):

I've never used anything other than gravel so I'm out of my league here, but what I was wondering is if you can simply add a layer of light sand over your current substrate? Or is that not going to work? Just a thought... we'll await input from the experts.

[Melody]

It would work until the first gravel vac, I suspect.

How about something in the middle? Like the light brown substrate? Or you can mix two colours of substrate. I've mixed a deep saphire blue with black and a deep emerald green with black and that turned out well, but you could do the same thing with two natural shades. Or maybe just add some nice beach rocks in different shades, placed here and there over your current substrate, so some shrimp are visible all the time?

When studied, it was found that fish prefer a darker substrate - just thought I'd throw that in there.

[thegrandpoohbah]

From everything that I've read it is recommended that you do not cap the existing sustrate by putting another layer over it. I think it can trap all the waste and stuff which can cause an ammonia build-up.