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How to re-scape a hi-tech tank, once it's past its best

Joined
12 Nov 2008
Messages
426
Location
Kendal, Cumbria
My first attempt, 'Punishment of Luxury', has lived up to its name. Through lack of experience I failed to prune little and often, and then attacked with too much gusto. The result is a tank full of algae.

Although I could try a black-out, this was always going to be a learning tank, and I'd rather start over - so how do I do that? I'm hoping to work at it over a number of days, rather than trying to do it all in a rush.

At the moment I'm thinking along these lines:
:arrow: Remove and dispose of all plants safely (compost them)
:arrow: Switch off CO2, stop adding ferts and reduce light intensity
(potential for a pause?)
:arrow: fill a temporary second tank with main tank's water
:arrow: Move livestock (harlequin rasbora, ottos, cherry shrimps and assassin snails) to temporary tank
:arrow: swap thermo-filter over to the temporary tank
(potential for a pause?)
:arrow: Empty main tank, remove and rinse Aquasoil/Powersand (which will become mixed together)
:arrow: Thoroughly clean tank
:arrow: Rescape, using old Aquasoil mixture, capping with fresh Aquasoil for aesthetics

At that point I'm a bit lost - how do I move filtration back to the main tank to cycle it? Do I have to buy another filter for the temporary tank?

:arrow: Reintroduce livestock to main tank
:arrow: Decommission temporary tank

Does that all sound OK? Should I have substrate and plants (or other cover) in my temporary tank? Any good advice or tips?
 
Depends how long it will take to rescape?

I'm going to be doing something very similar in the next week or so. I figured the fish would be okay in a big flexi bucket and as long as the water was saved they could be moved back across? I've got a spare corner tank so worst comes they could bunk in that for a while I guess.
 
Not sure how long it'll take - that depends on factors beyond my control (i.e. work). What I'd like to do is build-in some flexibility so I'm not panicking to get the job done, without enough time to do it right.
 
if you can save %50 of your old water and keep useing the same fillter on the tempory tank once youve done your scape you could put old water new water and fillter back in your newly scaped tank with fish job done
 
if you are going to cap the old aquasoil and powersand mix then you shouldnt need to rinse it too well, you will keep most of the bacterial colony this way. fill it up with half the water from the temp tank, fill up the rest with tap water switch the filter and it will be like doing a large water change, you can then drip acclimate the fish back, but you could probably just dump them back in.
 
If you're worried about ammonia leakage from the new substrate you could seed a cheap filter (maybe an internal) with media from the old filter, and wait for everything to die down. Or you could cap the old mixture with inert substrate then you don't have to worry!
Cheers
Matt
 
Why rinse the old substrate? You'll wash away what good is left in there and potentially end up with a massive ammonia spike after killing off the good bacteria.

I'd either disturb it as little as possible, or replace it completely.
 
Rinsing ADA soil will probably turn it to mud by the way, it crumbles way too easily. Powersand and Aquasoil mix is okay from a functional perspective. You can manually pick up any stray bits of Powersand that made its way up to the surface.
 
Hi Paul

I agree with the comments that there's no reason to rinse your substrate. It will likely do more harm than good.

I think you mentioned leaving the hardscape in your journal too. This is a good idea if you're happy with it. It will teach you very well how different plants can affect a design. Something which you won't understand so much if you start over with new hardscape design.
 
Thanks for the feedback, people. George, I'm thinking more and more along the lines of retaining the existing hardscape and seeing how a different planting scheme changes it. TBH my initial plant choice was fairly arbitrary, as I had zero experience. Now I've got a (teeny) bit more, it'd be good to see the impact of a different plant choice.

I'm just kicking myself I never took an equipment-out full tank shot when this was in its prime - still, that's another lesson well-learned.
 
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