# Changing the substrate



## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

Because white sand isn't good for the colouration of painted fires, I went out and hauled a bag of black sand (even brought it to class with me haha). I just wanted to see if this procedure is okay:

Background information about the shrimp
I put in the shrimp into this tank on Sun night before realizing that white was a waste of money. I plan to change the substrate sometime next Wed. Is this enough time to decrease casualties from being moved around all the time? As some background information, 6 of the shrimp was moved from a tank with Netlea. I got 20 shrimps on Sat in a ziplock, so transferred them to these small plastic containers (similar to the ones with sunflower seeds or cashews at No frills, or the containers for the tofu desert at some Chinese supermarket). They sat in the containers until they were brought to Hamilton with me Sun night. I had them both dripped until the pH matched the tank, then put them in. So the dripping took around 3 hours. There were no casualties.

So, the above paragraph is pretty much why I don't want to move the shrimps around for a while. Should I give them more time than 1 week to get destressed?

Procedure
Equipment available to me:
2 small plastic containers as described above
1 white bucket from dollaramma (14L = 3.7 gal
1 bag of caribsea super natural black sand (9kg)
2 drip acclimators

1. Dump sand into white bucket, and rinse with tap water twice

2. Relocate shrimp to one small plastic container, and add a source for air

3. Move plants to the other container

4. siphon as much tank water as possible into the white bucket with black sand. Put the sponge filter into that bucket. Pour out the rest of the water.

5. Put the white sand into the bag that the black sand originally came from. (Would siphoning be effective? If so, then siphon the white sand into the bag, and pour the water into the white bucket as it gets full)

6. Pour water and black sand into the now empty tank. Add tap water to fill the rest of the tank. (Should I use Brita filtered water, or is regular tap water okay?)

7. Add 4mL of prime, and the pouch of bio-clarifier that came with the sand. Turn on HOB to move the chemicals around.

8. Once sand is almost settled, test for ammonium, nitrates, gH and pH. If it is satisfying, start to drip acclimate the shrimp

9. Plant plants into the tank.

10. Net shrimps into the tank individually.

Is this procedure alright? I want to minimize as much casualties as possible.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I think it should be okay. But since you aren't doing it until wed, it's a good idea to store buckets of tap water and let them aged instead use straight tap on that same day. Another suggestion is to wash the new substrate ahead of time, then let them soak in water with a bit of prime now so they are good on the moving date.

I did something very similar to one tank about 3 weeks ago, replace the substrate from akadama to inert stuff. Basically the same procedure you did and all done in about 1 hrs (from shrimps out to shrimps back in). I did wash the substrate before hand and have it soaked in water for about a week, hoping anything bad would be washed off.

HOWEVER, do it at your own risk, I think it's okay, but again that's just me.


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