Rocket's Redecorated Pad....

[Glod]

So, since Rocket and his little Corydora friends were getting along quite happily I decided to revamp his tank a bit to benefit the bottom dwellers with sand instead of gravel. I had to relocate the Corys into the community tank after one got an infection in his mouth and died It seems even the rounded small gravel I had wasn't much good for them. They really seem to be enjoying their new home tho, having even more little cory friends to play with. Once I was sure all the fish were fine (a couple of weeks ago) I started to prepare for the substrate changeover.

Anyway... Here's the way the tank used to look ..

Much sand washing and washing and washing... you get the idea, it was time to make the change. So the tank was drained and the water stored in pails along with poor old Rocket... I threw the heater in too just in case I took a while.

Then I removed the gravel and plants and whatnot and sat them aside...

Gave the tank a quick clean to remove the algae that was there and then took the sand I had prepared....

And placed it on top of a layer of Tetra CompleteSubstrate to aid plant growth. Then started to add water from the pails I had stored.

The plate is to minimise the disturbance of the sand . Anyways, a short time later with the plants replanted in the tank and the water (and Rocket) back in too the whole ensemble looks something like this... (It's a little cloudy still, but that will soon settle).

Rocket's pad is redecorated and he seems quite happy with the new look of the place. I plan to get some more plants for it once I find the ones I'm after, but in the meantime I'll let him get re-settled in.

What do you think ?

 

[froggy]

It is very nice he seems very happy!!

 

[gsta13]

looks good mate!
is it tht easy to do a substrate change?
my gravel has lots of algae on it and would sure like to clean it up nice. only wayis to take it out of the tank i guess and boil it through. i would like to have some rea life plants in there aswell. would i be ok to clean al the rocks like this or would it affect the fish and water quality. everytime i have cleaned the gravel in the past everything dies

Greg

 

[Glod]

is it tht easy to do a substrate change? my gravel has lots of algae on it and would sure like to clean it up nice. only wayis to take it out of the tank i guess and boil it through. i would like to have some rea life plants in there aswell. would i be ok to clean al the rocks like this or would it affect the fish and water quality. everytime i have cleaned the gravel in the past everything dies
Greg

Well it depends on how your tank is configured. If you have a filter (not undergravel) and the tank is cycled, that is where most of the beneficial bacteria live. If you use undergravel or no filter at all then your gravel is where your beneficial bacteria live. In my case there is an internal filter which has been cycled (and was kept in the same water as Rocket for the hour or so I had the tank stripped down. Other than that I never touched the filter materials at all, so they should be the same as before I started. Hopefully they will easily handle any waste Rocket produces.

As for "easy", I think I spent 5 or 6 hours cleaning the sand, and ended up with twice as much as I needed, lol. In the 10 gallon I used about 5 Kilos of sand and a couple of cm layer of the plant substrate under it.

Basically as long as you keep your filter materials wet so the bacteria don't die off too much it shouldn't cause a major spike of ammonia / nitrite in your tank. Please remember tho, I only put one fish back in the tank so there is less load in there than before the changeover, I'll slowly reintroduce the corys in a few days once things have settled. The only other thing you would need to watch out for that I can think of is any contaminants getting into the tank. I used clean pails that never get used for anything except my fish tanks, the sand was thoroughly washed for hours to get it as clean as I possibly could. (And still the water was a little cloudy tho it's already clearing after only an hour or so). Maybe you could clean the parts in stages ? Do the rocks first since you can lift those out seperately, then if all goes well you could consider doing the gravel at a later point ?

Also, make sure you dechlorinate any new water that is added to the tank so the chlorine doesn't kill off your filter.
*edit - I wrote nitrate when I should have written Nitrite Doh!

 

[gsta13]

mmmm could be where i cleaned the gravel off, i did itin thekitchen sink...... dont ell the missus tho i used boiling water to remove all the algae. i jus recently did a clean of the filter medium in my tank i did it in old tank water dont worry! so i think i will leave it a while before i do anything else. i only have two guppies in there and about 7 fry so the load shudnt make tht muh difference i hope. ill leavit a week or so i think, wheni havgotmy hands on some new plnts for the tank.
what ya think?
o btw sorry for kinda hi-jakin

Greg

 

[Miss Wiggle]

very nice! how big is his tank?

 

[Glod]

mmmm could be where i cleaned the gravel off, i did itin thekitchen sink...... dont ell the missus tho i used boiling water to remove all the algae. i jus recently did a clean of the filter medium in my tank i did it in old tank water dont worry! so i think i will leave it a while before i do anything else. i only have two guppies in there and about 7 fry so the load shudnt make tht muh difference i hope. ill leavit a week or so i think, wheni havgotmy hands on some new plnts for the tank.
what ya think?
o btw sorry for kinda hi-jakin

Greg

No worries, It was still somewhat relevant Probably wise to let your filter recover a bit before starting

very nice! how big is his tank?

Thanks Miss Wiggle, still nothing compared to you and Ian's latest and greatest I'm sure I'm happy with it tho, just need to find a few smallish bushy plants now I think. If the LFSs ever get any decent stock in
The tank is a fluval Uno 500, 37.5 litres / 8.2 UK Gallons / 9.9 US Gallons or something like that

 

[zoekin8yg]

I like the tank redesign! Im sure that will give him something to do for a while getting used to the new layout!

 

[jollysue]

Nice project and well done!

Now come do mine.

gsta13: Don't boil your substrate. Don't clean it with tap water, if it is treated water. The only reason I can think of off hand to boil things is to kill desease. Get a gravel vac. Change your light schedule to have a break in the middle, so you don't light the tank for 8 hours straight. Other options are snails, BN plecs, otos, etc. But changing the light schecule and vacuming the gravel should do the job. If you have a heavy infectation of algea, turn the lights off for a few days. If the tank is small and gets a weekly 100% water change, then just swish it out with the water.

 

[Glod]

Nice project and well done!

Now come do mine.

Sure, no problem Just post the flight tickets to....

 

[jollysue]

8)

 

[gsta13]

ok i just oderd a gravel vacthat looks the buissiness its called a sumet summet sludge mover... ah well it cost a fair bit so shud b good i will adjust the lighting schedual aswell cant wait! i heard that snails reproduce really quick and was thinking about shrimp cause i got a baby guppy problem aswell! what snails are best btw?

Thank ya vry much

Greg.

this time i really hi-jacked it
maybe i shud start another post?

 

[jollysue]

gsta: depends on your Betta, will he eat the shrimp? Some have done well with ghost shrimp. But plant if you change the light schedule and don't over feed, that will help. If you have a deep substrate, plant the tank, that will take care of the extra detrius and food. Otherwise reduce the substrate.

 

[Glod]

ok i just oderd a gravel vacthat looks the buissiness its called a sumet summet sludge mover... ah well it cost a fair bit so shud b good i will adjust the lighting schedual aswell cant wait! i heard that snails reproduce really quick and was thinking about shrimp cause i got a baby guppy problem aswell! what snails are best btw?

Thank ya vry much

Greg.

this time i really hi-jacked it
maybe i shud start another post?

Maybe

The gravel vac sounds like the Eheim Battery Operated Gravel Vac, which has had some good reviews from users on this board. I'm actually thinking of getting one for my dad for his xmas. I take it you don't gravel vac when you change your water then ? It should certainly help a lot if so !

As for snails and shrimp you can get livebearer snails that only reproduce if you have both sexes - Mystery Snails and Apple Snails are the common ones I hear mentioned. Don't have any myself so you may want to research those before you take my word for it

Shrimp wise you have Amano Shrimp (Cardinia Multidentata previously known as Cardinia Japonica) or Cherry Shrimp which I am led to believe are both good with algae. I have some Amano Shrimp in my community tank and they are fascinating to watch! I was considering getting a few for Rocket's tank, but he's never been with shrimp, not sure if he'd eat them

If your betta is somewhat laid back and will accept other fish in his tank (and it's got space for some more fish) maybe some Otocinculus would be an option, they're tiny algae eating catfish only growing to 1-1.5 inches. Of course if your betta doesn't like them they'd be vulnerable if he attacked.



Anyway thought I would mention the tank has cleared up now and the water is like crystal again Tested the water this morning and apart from the nitrates being a bit higher than normal everything is fine. I'm wondering if the nitrates is down to the plant substrate. Need to look into that.

 

[raeburter]

Looks better with sand...