tired of the pirate ship...

[cogburn]

okay... when i bought my tank i was all gung-ho about "cool" decorations... keep in mind my previous fish keepin experience was limited to a few goldfish and a guppie or 2 i think... its been a long time... so i buy tank, a couple of plastic plants, a pirate ship, a skull, and a treasure chest thinking im gonna have this "cool" pirate theme...

well now that i have real fish and its a pretty cool tank im sick of looking at the hokey little pirate thing i have going on... even the fish seem embarassed sometimes... like they point at the ship... look at me and go come on dude...

anyways... im thinking of ditching the crappy stuff and picking up some real nice plastic plants and maybe some fake driftwood... im not quite ready to get real plants yet... maybe next tank...

my question is... can i just take the decorations out... and add new ones (properly cleaned of course) without stressing out the bill's too bad?... i wont be changing substrate... but will it cause a mini-cycle at all?... please tell me everything will be cool

 

[Purrbox]

As long as your tank is well established and you're not swapping out too many decorations, you should be able to swap out the decor without any issues. Otherwise you could swap them out a few at a time.

 

[rkilling1]

I just wanted to say that this is a VERY good question. (I know this doesn't help your question, but Joy is already all over it.)

Most/a lot of people don't realize that the bacteria is all over the surfaces of your aquarium. Hats off to you for the question.

 

[cogburn]

its only a small amount of decorations i would be removing... im just going to remove the 3 ceramic pirate themed things... the plastic plants that are in there already im going to keep... but if i end up going hog wild with new stuff ill add it slowly... it might be kind of cool to have nothing in there for a day or 2... that way i would always know where the shrimp are and never worry if theyre okay haha...

 

[kribbman]

Pirate ship........... lol...!!!!! your post cracked me up. pretty funny. But as far as taking out decorations if you go slow and remove them one at a time there should be no minicycle. but then again you say its only like 3 decorations.. so even then there shouldnt be much of a problem.

 

[cogburn]

well i did it... took a ride to petsmart last night and raided the fake plant section... bought 7 plastic plants and a couple of cool fake driftwood pieces... thought that would be too much and i wouldnt use them all wasnt even enough... still need a few more tall plants for the back... but it looks 100% better already

 

[pitt420dude]

Lets see some pics!
WHen i read you got 7 I was thinking (oh thats waaayyy too much), funny I was wrong. My fake plants always look alot bigger once I get em in the tank.

I have a related question: Okay, so everyone knows ben. bact. is all over every surface in the tank (even the fish). Here is my question: Is it in the water too? When I do PWC's, am I also getting rid of ben. bact. that is just suspended in the water?

I ask b/c I too recently upped my bioload. (two days ago) I did a big PWC that day before I added teh fish. All are fine but I was just wondering, due to the increased bioload, when should the next PWC be?

 

[Skyrmir]

Beneficial bacteria are in the water as well in very very small amounts...usually dead. This is how your tank gets seeded in the first place if you start with a perfectly clean tank. Nitrifying bacteria float in small concentrations just about everywhere, including airborne particles.

As to doing the water change affecting your bio-capacity, nope, not in the least. The only bacteria that would really be affected are the few on the upper part of your glass that hits open air when you drain out some water, and even then most will survive a short drying.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I think you're fine swapping out your decor. As long as it is established, the bulk of your bacteria resides in your filter and other surfaces (glass, substrate, etc). I wouldn't be worried about taking out over half your decor and switching over.

 

[cogburn]

well i got one more plant and it totally set it off... looks great now... but see my thread (a new problem?) i think the bubble thing is next on my list of crap to deal with...

 

[aquamarine]

I have done it in the past, plus a few other items. Didn't have any problems at all. As said before, I would suggest that you change a couple of items at a time.