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Rescaping My Aquarium Few Questions

Deano3

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Joined
8 Feb 2012
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2,503
Hi everyone hope you are all well and looking after yourselves.

I am wanting to carry out a rescape soon as the flow in my setup isn't working plus i just fancy a change as a bit bored. i am fancying doing a iwagumi layout still unsure of the carpet maybe cuba and another plant if i can, i need a carpet plant i can manage with a a nice low one.i am after some advice.

can i carry out a rescape with one the one tank ? by this i mean how do i go about it. i was thinking removing the hardscape and plants then the fish and shrimp etc into a large container with my filter running but how long would they be ok ? and would the filter be ok etc.

when i rescape would my soil be ok tropica soil added September ? would have to try remove the jbl lava rock under the soil so any tips would be brilliant.

when i add the plants over the first month when doing water changes to remove as much ammonia etc as possible would it be ok to add the fish and filter ?

i have a million questions as never done this before so help would be brilliant.
Dean
 
I started a similar thread couple of weeks ago and @Geoffrey Rea was a big help.

 
Fish will be happy in a big plastic tub for as long as you need, provided you keep the filter going. Just watch how you position the heater to avoid melting the plastic.

Plants will be ok floating in the tub for a few days, longer for some.

Your old soil is fine to use. No simple.way to separate from lava rock unless you have a suitable size sieve.

You can give the soil a rinse then dry the soil in your oven if you want to make it easier to scape with. Add some fertilser tabs to the soil when you r3use it.

When you rescape, plant as much as you possibly can straight away. You can add the fish back in immediately provided youve kept your filter going. Just keep an eye out and do more regar water changes.

You shouldn't have ammonia spikes because your soil is old and your filter established, but water changes will be your insurance.

Once plants start growing again then all is good.

Expect everything to look good for about a week, then go bad, then after 2 or 3 weeks pick up and get growing again.
 
I started a similar thread couple of weeks ago and @Geoffrey Rea was a big help.

thanks mate i will have a look through this now :)
 
Fish will be happy in a big plastic tub for as long as you need, provided you keep the filter going. Just watch how you position the heater to avoid melting the plastic.

Plants will be ok floating in the tub for a few days, longer for some.

Your old soil is fine to use. No simple.way to separate from lava rock unless you have a suitable size sieve.

You can give the soil a rinse then dry the soil in your oven if you want to make it easier to scape with. Add some fertilser tabs to the soil when you r3use it.

When you rescape, plant as much as you possibly can straight away. You can add the fish back in immediately provided youve kept your filter going. Just keep an eye out and do more regar water changes.

You shouldn't have ammonia spikes because your soil is old and your filter established, but water changes will be your insurance.

Once plants start growing again then all is good.

Expect everything to look good for about a week, then go bad, then after 2 or 3 weeks pick up and get growing again.
i will be using more soil and planting fresh plants what will be changing to there under water form i will however be doing daily water changes, you think wil still be ok to add fish and shrimp immediately ? all very helpful again thanks kezzab :thumbup:
 
i will be using more soil and planting fresh plants what will be changing to there under water form i will however be doing daily water changes, you think wil still be ok to add fish and shrimp immediately ? all very helpful again thanks kezzab :thumbup:

When I rescaped by tank recently Dean, the new Tropica soil leached loads of ammonia, and it took the best part of two weeks with large daily water changes to get it down to zero. So I personally wouldn't add any livestock for at least two week, or until you can confirm with a test kit (one of the few things a test kit is useful for).

The high ammonia levels also causes a huge amount of leaf loss on my buces too, so when I next rescape with soil, I will also delay their addition from that lesson learnt.
 
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I don't think you mentioned the tank size? With a smaller tank you could do like 2 water changes a day for a week then put the fish/shrimp/snails back?
 
I'd definetly be syphoning out sand, then soil, separating as best you can and reuse them. Any dirty sand can go down first.

Note, you'll be refilling the aquarium a lot in this process.
 
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