My New Aquascape Journal

[eggo]

Well guys i have decided to go to in another direction with aquascaping my tank, since i first set up the aquarium back in march, i used ocean rock & coral sand dont get me wrong i have liked the combination for 6 months but i have decided to go with sand and boulders

My tank has of today

i dont like playsand it does not look natural, and my favourite at the minute is kiln dried sand but the wife dont like it so any info of you guys would be fantastic

i have bought 50kg of atlantic paddle stones from a reclamation yard only 38pence a kg + vat the guy said they were from northern island

Atlantic Paddle Stones

thinking of buying another 50-100kg

how easy is it to do a full rescape removing all fish, substrate, egg crate etc i only have facilities to save approx 100litres of my tank water from a 260litre tank, what the best method to do it, i have a 3ft tank fully matured to hold my stock while i am aquascaping, would i need to inspect my water perameters after scape has finished ie ph,gh,kh over the coming weeks, has i will have no limestone in my aquarium.

will i need to think about adding salts and buffers, i will fill a small emty tank i have and stick a air stone in it and leave for 24hrs and do a PH,GH & KH tests to get my true results from the tap.

 

[Aquascaper]

No harder than setting up a new tank IMO if properly planned.

If you lose 160 litres of water then so be it, that's no different to a 40% water change in any case and as long as the fish are happy whilst the changeovers done then great.

I would guess you're going to need some buffering to maintain the higher pH but that will be trial and error really.

As for the actual procedure for removing everything from the old tank, are you wanting to totally drain the tank? If so then remove what you can with a syphon and then buy a bag of nappies. These are amazing at getting that last bit out that you can never get without mopping for ages

If it was me i'd remove what I could of the substrate by hand with the water still in then allow it to settle. Once it has, syphon the last of the bits out until it's clear and then just add the new substrate. Then add rocks and away you go.

HTH

 

[eggo]

No harder than setting up a new tank IMO if properly planned.

If you lose 160 litres of water then so be it, that's no different to a 40% water change in any case and as long as the fish are happy whilst the changeovers done then great.

I would guess you're going to need some buffering to maintain the higher pH but that will be trial and error really.

As for the actual procedure for removing everything from the old tank, are you wanting to totally drain the tank? If so then remove what you can with a syphon and then buy a bag of nappies. These are amazing at getting that last bit out that you can never get without mopping for ages

If it was me i'd remove what I could of the substrate by hand with the water still in then allow it to settle. Once it has, syphon the last of the bits out until it's clear and then just add the new substrate. Then add rocks and away you go.

HTH

thanks for the info i have a high ph from the tap around 7.8

my aquarium stats at the moment without adding salts and buffers are

ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 20ppm
PH = 8.0
KH = 8 drops 143.2ppm
GH = 17 drops 304.3ppm

 

[eggo]

Gone with kiln dried bought a bag today i also bought another 55kg of the atlantic paddle stones a couple weigh in at 20kg each, so most of the afternoon and evening i have been working on my tank aquascaping, i have all my stock in one of my 3ft fry tank with 2 exta filters in it to cope with the bio-load, my tank is abit cloudy at the moment but i have 4 filters running in it and 3 heater's so i may just wait till morning before i transfer the fish in to there new home.

 

[thereverendturtle]

No harder than setting up a new tank IMO if properly planned.

If you lose 160 litres of water then so be it, that's no different to a 40% water change in any case and as long as the fish are happy whilst the changeovers done then great.

I would guess you're going to need some buffering to maintain the higher pH but that will be trial and error really.

As for the actual procedure for removing everything from the old tank, are you wanting to totally drain the tank? If so then remove what you can with a syphon and then buy a bag of nappies. These are amazing at getting that last bit out that you can never get without mopping for ages

If it was me i'd remove what I could of the substrate by hand with the water still in then allow it to settle. Once it has, syphon the last of the bits out until it's clear and then just add the new substrate. Then add rocks and away you go.

HTH
Agreed.

 

[eggo]

well guys i have done my aquascape.

this is my sand

sand rinsing

1hr later.....

while the hose was rinsing the sand i was removing my ocean rock

then moved all my fish into one of my 3ft fry tanks

empty tank

then i removed my egg crate and coral sand and syphoned the bottom of the tank clean,when i put the rinsed sand into the tank it clouded the water well gutted, i placed the rocks into the tank into the cloudy water so could not see how it was going and what it looked like, a couple of the rocks weigh in at 20kg each

has you can see if have put in extra filtration to help clear the tank, so i have 4 filters and 3 heaters in the tank

tank with blue light

finished tank i waited till the next day to transfer my fish back into there new home

my fish in there new enviroment

 

[onidrase]

that scape is gorgeous love the fish too