How long do I wait after adding sand?

[LoachOrgy]

How long do I wait to turn on the filter after the addition of rinsed sand. I added 1/3 of the tank sand so far and I am thinking of adding the rest tonight.

Is it ok to change the entire substrate in one night?

So far the loaches are still being playful, eating, and moving around.

between 0 and .6 ammonia. I think its closer to 0.

ph is 6.8-7.0. usually 7.0 consistently from the tap.

[joitoy]

the ammonia may be from a mini cycle due to stirring the gravel while you were removing it.

you can turn the filterso n about 2 hours after you've finished, by then you wont need to worry so much about floating sand particles being sucked in, most iwll have sank and anything still floating will just get caught in the filter pad.

[LoachOrgy]

thanks joi. it took me about 5 hours to change all the gravel and sand out. I am running a 25% water change now. The water is still a bit mirky and the corys so far hate the sand. the loaches havn't really come out yet to explore.

[Curtis]

Which sand did you go with? Why did you switch from gravel to sand?

Thanks.

[loachmom]

Hi LO,

I wonder how much sleep you got last night with all that gravel changing. Looking forward to seeing the results.

When I was doing some research before I changed my gravel, I read somewhere that you shouldn't do any filter maintenance for a little while after such a big change. Don't clean your filter or change the media since you removed a big portion of your nitrifying bacteria when you removed your substrate.

If this info is incorrect, I hope someone will correct me.

[shari2]

I'm sorry I didn't chime in sooner on this LO.
Yes, I'd be concerned about removing all the gravel at once since a large part of your beneficial bacteria does live in the substrate as well as the filter media.
You should be ok, but as loachmom says, don't clean out your filters for a while, and do small water changes without disturbing too much for a while.

Can't wait to see some full tank shots. should be lovely.