Switching tank substrate question

[vaygirl]

If I switch Tango's 16 over to Eco Complete and I keep all the decor, plants, filter media, filter housing (without the electric bits), filter intake, and heater in old tank water while I do this, can I avoid a huge recycle of the tank? I expect a mini cycle and I'll be monitoring, I just want to avoid huge ammonia swings. I've read that the bacteria can live without oxygen for 6 hours and I'm sure I won't need that much time. I'll add small handfuls of old gravel around in the tank too.

I'm switching for two reasons. My corydoras were fine for these six months on river rocks but I see now that one of them has a shorter barbel. I feel bad for the guy and I want to fix this before they all start to lose them. Also, I have a diatom problem and I think part of the reason is too many nutrients. The river rocks are medium sized and a lot of the time the cories pellets fall through cracks and decay there. I vacuum every week but in the meantime I have diatoms all the time.

[1fish2fish]

sure... I'm actually about to do the same thing. The best way to do it is to but a LOT of the cycled gravel and put it in pantyhose and put it in the tank... this is cloning and should go very fast.

[vaygirl]

Okay, thanks. I'll make sure I do that. I ordered the Eco complete today.

[1fish2fish]

cool.. I'd love to see pics once its set up!

[vaygirl]

I surely will upload pics! :)

[1fish2fish]

oh I forgot to mention.. make sure the entire time you are switching you keep your old gravel wet with tankwater... if not the bacteria will die. A good way is to put the gravel in the pantyhose and put them in a bucket full of tank water while you switch.

[vaygirl]

Alright. I plan on putting everything in a 4 gallon bucket (that I always use for water changes) in old tank water so I'll put the gravel in there too.

[vaygirl]

Okay, now I have a new question. In the course of my mad science monitoring, I find that my tap water is now a ph of around 6.4. It used to be 7.4 or 7.6. All my tanks are at 7.6 including Tango's. Should I leave half of his old water in the tank when I redo it? I'm going to acclimate them slowly using drip anyway but I want to lessen the stress if I can. It's not dirty water, my params are 0,0,5.

[1fish2fish]

It couldn't hurt.. in fact I would put as much of the old water back in the tank as possible to minimize stress.

[vaygirl]

Alrighty, thanks Jackie!