Totally re-doing the tank, need help!!

[MyShrimpDied]

Tomorrow i am planning on completely redisigning my 20g tank and i wanted to know if you guys and gals could help me make sure i dont loose any fish in the process or afterwards.

Heres what im doing:

Last week i changed half of my substrate to tahitian moon sand and tomorrow i am gonna change the rest of it.

Hopefully the plants that i ordered will come tomorrow so ill be planting about 5 new plants into the tank. For me to do this i have to remove a large rock which im sure has a lot of bacteria on it.

Since im removing all this stuff that no doubt has beneficial bacteria on it, what should i do to make sure no fish die from bacteria loss. I will add a standard dose of therap to the tank but there isnt anything else i can think of, any suggestions would be helpful.

~ MyShrimpDied

 

[Seaman]

Im sure some of the bacteria have started in on the sand thats allready in there...but if you want go buy a mesh bag that will hold some of your current rocks after you take them out (be careful and keep them wet!) put them in the mesh bag and set it on the sand in an open area....move it everyday so it doesnt become stagnant, maybe more than once a day...and i bet that will help the bacteria colonize the remaining sand.

 

[Leopardess]

The amount of bacteria on a large rock is negligible. Don't even worry about it. You do lose a *bit* of beneficial bacteria when changing out a substrate, but again, compared the amound on a filter cartridge, it isn't a huge deal. Plus, since you changed half of it out last week, that half has some on it.

Don't worry about it.

Not sure what Therap is, but you probably don't even need to use it.

 

[MyShrimpDied]

Thanks a lot guys, you've made me feel much more comfortable.

~ MyShrimpDied