Total tear down and rebuild: 37g

[Vincenia]

I decided that I want to do a complete tear down and rebuild of the 37g. I removed the remaining fish, which were, 3 plates, 3 SA Bumblebee catfish, 4 shrimp and 3 snails. The platies and shrimp went into the 20g while the catfish and snails went into the 20L. I recently lost both of my angels, which upset me. But this tear down is a good thing.

I removed all décor, drained it and going to remove the sand. Going back to natural stone with some larger rocks and new peices of driftwood. I know this will cause a complete recycle of the tank. I don't plan on adding fish for about a month or so. I have to think of a new stock for this tank bottom, middle and top.

Here's a list of what I will be getting:
Slate or some sort of large rock
25 lds of natural stone/gravel
driftwood
tall, medium and small live plants

I will include pictures of the progress as I go along with this.

 

[krytan]

Look forward to seeing the progress

 

[Greggz]

Is the natural stone/gravel going to be pea gravel? And you are going to go planted?

If so, I would consider going with another substrate. I kept plants in pea gravel for many years, and just changed mine out. It's not to say you can't grow plants in pea gravel, but it is so much easier to plant in a finer substrate. I wish I had changed mine out long ago.

 

[fishorama]

This sounds awesome! A great chance to reset your tank & see what works for your tank. Pics!

 

[Rbishop]

pics...pics...pics......

 

[FreshyFresh]

Why is going to a new substrate going to cause a "complete recycle of the tank"? It absolutely shouldn't provided you re-use the seeded filtration.

 

[Greggz]

Why is going to a new substrate going to cause a "complete recycle of the tank"? It absolutely shouldn't provided you re-use the seeded filtration.

I agree. I recently changed the substrate in my 120G, and had a very small ammonia spike for two days. Nothing to even worry about.

However, in this case it sounds like he removed the fish and drained the tank. If it's sitting dry (filters not running), you are starting from scratch.

 

[Vincenia]

I did remove the fish, drained it, it sat dry for two days. I didn't get pea gravel, was thinking about it but went with normal river gravel I picked up from the LFS. I bought red and black shale, zebra rock and small driftwood. Also went a bit crazy with plants. I have one large piece of driftwood in the middle as the centerpiece. I did throw in 5 platies I had in my 20g.

Here's a bunch of pictures.

 

[krytan]

Looking good so far.

 

[Vincenia]

Going to let it sit for awhile, with w/c, for a few weeks before slowly adding fish.. Just need ideas on fish now.