Stripping A Tank

[lowee]

After having my tank set-up for just over a year now, its just not looking how i would have liked it. I would really like to strip the tank of everything and start again but there is a few issues i am not sure about.

1) My substrate is a layer of sand on top of a layer of JBL pro-flora, this means that whenever i pull out plants the pro-flora is disturbed and clouds the tank. Is there a way to stop this? Or does it not really matter?

2) I would probably remove 80% of the plants and maybe not put any new ones in for a couple of weeks. To stop an algae boom would i have to switch off the light and CO2 and stop dosing ferts?

3) The current set-up has a mound in the middle of tank, in the new set-up i would like to flatten out this mound. But this would create the same problem as above, the substrate would be quite badly disturbed. As above, does this matter?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Themuleous]

1) My substrate is a layer of sand on top of a layer of JBL pro-flora, this means that whenever i pull out plants the pro-flora is disturbed and clouds the tank. Is there a way to stop this? Or does it not really matter?

Not really just one of those things. Best solution is not to move the plants around, but thats tricky I know!

2) I would probably remove 80% of the plants and maybe not put any new ones in for a couple of weeks. To stop an algae boom would i have to switch off the light and CO2 and stop dosing ferts?

If you are removing a lot of plant biomass, which 80% is, I would really cut down on the lighting, aim for around 1 to 1.5WPG depending on the size of the tank (smaller tanks can have a comparatively large WPG). Remove the CO2 and stop the ferts. Perhaps only a weekly dose with a trace mix like flourish.

FYI disturbing the substrate will likely release a bit of NH3 into the tank and NH3 is a big trigger of algae. Perhaps leave the lights off for a few days following the strip down so the filter has a chance to remove the NH3 before the algae can take hold.

3) The current set-up has a mound in the middle of tank, in the new set-up i would like to flatten out this mound. But this would create the same problem as above, the substrate would be quite badly disturbed. As above, does this matter?

I guess the only problem with very cloudy water is that it could damage the gills of your fish.

Sam