Planting in a sandstorm?

[ZorroNet]

I am doing exactly what you guys are suggesting... I took a gravel vac to the top portion of the sand and in turn removed some of the water to make planting easier. I'll just sacrifice some water and pour it over my outdoor plants to avoid having a dusty tank later. Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[Pinkey]

Zorro,

Nice to hear about the progress. I'll throw yet another opinion based on experience into the mix. Plant the plants.

If you do decide to drain the water as mentioned above and if you are moving the residents from your hex to the new 55, I'd fill the new 55 with water from the hex even if it takes a couple days (25% per day from the hex, however that works out). This would help with all sorts of stuff. Also, since there is no bio load on the new tank yet you could put the new filter on the old tank for a little bit, or trade filters, to get the colonies going. There are a ton of options. If the tanks were near enough to one another in my house, I'd set up an exchange between them so 1 would pump to 2 and 2 would drain to 1 creating a huge sump of sorts. This way the water quality doesn't change, the bacteria colonizes and everyone is happy.

In theory, if you use all old water, and the old filter, and the old fish, the bio load will remain exactly the same and you would not have any sort of serious cycle at all.

My only concern with moving piles of snails before moving fish is that their food chain is interrupted and could cause problems.

Good luck!

Nate

 

[ZorroNet]

You know, you make a good suggestion there, Nate. I am moving plants from one to another, but it's a 20L to the 55... However, I can fill it as slowly as I want, so I can move plants and a little water over periodically. It's a new filter that's way over-sized for the 20L, so I'll just have to wait that out. BUT I have had no issues with cycles in the past if I just plant the new tank heavily, which is exactly what I am doing.

I do like the idea of porting some old water in for water parameter matching though. Check my theory here, but if the water source is the same, shouldn't the parameters be close anyway? Other than providing some ammonium for the plants straight away, I'm not sure it would make a huge difference. There won't be any fish in this tank... only inverts and plants. I don't mind moving a little water around since a water change is going to have to happen anyway.

 

[nikirushka]

Pop one of those little air-driven corner filters in there full of cotton wool, or a little power filter with the same (making sure the wool can't get sucked into the impellor). It'll catch the dust and clear the water in a day or two. I've just dumped about 5kg of playsand in my new 30, unwashed and the temp power filter has got the water about halfway clear after 24 hours. I find the corner filters work better though - some of the water gets dumped back in when I take the power filter out to wash the wool so of course some dust goes back with it and slows things down.

 

[Byron Amazonas]

The temporary corner filter is a good suggestion. I think in your case, Dave, most of this cloudiness is from the sand, and this would/should help. I would myself do the complete drain as this is quicker, if you have a Python.

On the matter of using the old water. Provided the parameters between tap and tank are close (GH and pH), I would only fill with fresh water. You really do not want to be adding "crud" back to the tank. By "crud" I mean everything bad that one removes with a normal water change. There is nothing beneficial in "old" water.

I know you are not transferring fish here, but for the benefit of those who might be doing this such as when one resets a tank with new substrate: perform substantial water changes on the temporary tank housing the fish. I usually do two, each half the tank volume (the tank holding the fish now), one after the other. Then net over the fish. Another method is to fill half a pail with water from the temporary (fish housing) tank, net in some fish, then siphon water from the new tank to almost fill the pail. Then after a few minutes, net out the fish. I prefer the water change in the tank method to the pail method, only because it avoids double netting of the fish which is more stressful.

Byron.

 

[ZorroNet]

I'm all for the thread being a help to others as well! Preach on brotha!

You have no idea how excited I was when I learned how insanely easy it is to plant things in sand! I now know exactly what I've been missing out on by having gravel all these years. I planted a lawn of leopard val in a matter of minutes with only one float-up. Crazy easy!


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[ROYWS3]

Hows the Blyxa I sent you Dave?

 

[ZorroNet]

The blyxa is floating happily in the shrimp tank right now. It's going in the new propagation tank tomorrow... I've gotta upgrade the lights so it can survive the increased depth. It will eventually be in a different 55 which is a show tank I am building. It will also be a sand bottomed tank, so I figured it would make a seamless transition.

Speaking of our trade, Roy, I found a little more scarlet temple hiding in the hex tank. I trimmed the dying leaves back and cut it on either side of the rooted nodes to propagate some more plants. Man it has taken some unintended abuse in the background of the shady hex. That tank is now a black water tank. ST does not like black water! The neon tetras, panda corys, and the glowlights love it though.

The sand cloud has cleared nicely since I dropped the water level. I used a gravel vac to sift the top layer of dusty sand and drop the water down for easier planting. It really went well and will look great when I fill it the rest of the way and turn the filter back on. I expect more temporary cloudiness as I'm sure I will stir up some sand again while refilling. Since there are no shrimp in the tank yet, I'm going to skip dechlorination and just drip a hose in there and add some prime later. Any objections?


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[ktrom13]

An easy way to prevent cloudiness is to fill up with an airline. Kind of crazy on a 55 but if you have the time... I used to do it on my 10gal before i took it down.



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[ZorroNet]

You might not remember this thread, but I made a DIY Gravity-Fed Water Topperoffer that I usually employ for jobs like this where I want to trickle in water... It's going to take a while, but time is on my side according to The Rolling Stones. I'm not sure how much I trust Mick Jagger though...