Rescape Including A Change To Sand

[iroc]

I want to rescape my 55gal, mainly to try and get rid of a hair alge issue I have been having, but also to put a light sand as a substate to brighten up the whole tank.

Right now I have a large piece of bog wood, a nice piece covered in java moss, and a couple of smaller pieces. I also have quite a bit of slate I was going to reuse mainly for some caves. I also have a couple of large anubis and a large amozon sword, 5 water onions and some water wistera. Can anyone seggust how to go about doing the change out. I will need to remove the fish as the old substate is VERY dirty becuase of an old common pleco I had and when the tank was giving to me I didn't clean it very well.


plan 1
1. clean sand
2. remove water into bucket, put filter in bucket. drain tank
3. put new sand ( maybe some ferts) into tank and begin rough scape
4. contunie to fill tank, final arrangements of plants
5. replace fish into tank


does this sound like an ok plan?

what kind of ferts should I mix into sand (most likely I will be getting something as close to white as possible)?


I have 80 watts for 55 gal tank / 1.45wpg which isn't very much so my plant choices are limeted

stocking is as follows:
3 x Clown Loaches
1 x Golden Gourami
1 x Zebra Danios
1 x Silver Veil Tail Angelfish
1 X Platinum Gourami
1 X Blue Gourami
5 X Black Skirt Tetras
1 X Albino Rainbow Shark
1 X Rainbow Shark
2 X Clown Plecos
1 X Red flame Gourami

 

[DarkEntity]

Just remember that you should let the sand settle before turning on your filter as sand is an abraisive and could damage it.

 

[Themuleous]

Sounds go, adding ferts is going to be tricky, as most will look stupid mix with sand as they are completely different colours. Have a look here for for ideas of what ferts are available. You could try Seachem Onyx Gravel that might blend best.

Sam

 

[Dave Spencer]

I used API Laterite underneath my sand. This consists of brick red coloured granules mixed with the first 1/2in of sand, followed by the required depth of the rest of the sand. My substrate still looks like 100%, even with some replanting.

 

[Sammie7]

About the fish, you don't have those fish yet, right? The clown loaches can get up to 12 inches. The different gourami might fight each other and the angelfish. Zebras danios should be in larger groups. The rest of the fish seem fine for that size tank. If you do go with the various gourami, you should make sure they have plenty of hiding places.

 

[iroc]

About the fish, you don't have those fish yet, right? The clown loaches can get up to 12 inches. The different gourami might fight each other and the angelfish. Zebras danios should be in larger groups. The rest of the fish seem fine for that size tank. If you do go with the various gourami, you should make sure they have plenty of hiding places.

Actually I do already have all these fish. the Gouramis are all good with each other, and when the loaches get to big they will get traded for yo yo loaches, but they are all about 3" right now and loaches (which rarely grow up to 12", 6"-7" is wayyyyyy more common) grow very slowly so I have some time

 

[iroc]

I recently did a trade it for some of my oversized fish ( green sev, red parrot, common pleco, marble angel) for some smaller fish ( rainbow and albino rainbow shark, clown plecos) The goal of this rescaping was to try and brighten up the tank as well as making it have better more thought out hiding places.

before

After

I am a lot happier now and more importantly the fish are..............