# Switching substrates in established tank



## johnnymarko (May 30, 2014)

How have you guys done this? I'm going from gravel to crushed coral that I got from my LFS.

I'm doing a water change tonight so my plan was to leave a small layer of gravel (it's larger, so maybe one rock thick), then place all my cc in at once. I've been rinsing and rerinsing the cc for about 2 weeks, small amounts in a handful of 5 GAL buckets so it's getting rinsed thoroughly.


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## workharddieproud (Nov 7, 2013)

I've done it, never had any problems. I've switched all my decor many times as well, my fish never has been stressed out from it or gotten sick.


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## johnnymarko (May 30, 2014)

Welp, everything went well.

Pulled out all bigger rocks and started scooping out old gravel with the tank still full. Made the water dirty as all get out, but once I had enough gravel out to my liking, I started siphoning out water. Got her down about halfway, water still a little murky, then added all my crushed coral at once. Pulled out maybe 10 more gallons, rearranged the larger rocks back in, and filled er' back up with clean water. By the end of the night, water was almost fully clear again, this morning was like new. The fish are loving it, too :thumb:

Painted my background black last week, and the crushed coral really put the finishing touch on it 8)

One thing I can't seem to understand is now my super peaceful male sunshine peacock is all of a sudden a HUGE jerk...


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## workharddieproud (Nov 7, 2013)

Your sunshine peacock should settle down in time a day or two, most of mine get a little riled up when I make changes. I'm never really satisfied with how my tank looks so about twice a month I move stuff around. None of my fish really hide at all, they're usually out swimming and I've got 17 of them.


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## johnnymarko (May 30, 2014)

I guess I did change quite a bit, but they've never really reacted...I have mostly slate and lava rock (don't hate, I like it) and had quite a structured shelf look going...now it's pretty organic and has a lot more caves, and I took quite a bit of lava rock out


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## workharddieproud (Nov 7, 2013)

Reckon that crushed coral will be easy to clean, or vac clean?? I got white pebble sand in mine and the cichlid's love to dig in it but it does tend to get suck up when I vac clean my substrate. What color is your crushed coral ??


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## johnnymarko (May 30, 2014)

White, with some random specs of color here and there...it seems easy to vacuum clean...like I said I pulled a couple gallons out after adding the coral and sunk the vac down into it...it pulled it up a bit, but much to my surprise (and happiness) it just sank back down. When I pre-rinsed the coral, a lot of the light floaty pieces fell out of the bucket so only the heavy stuff remained.


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