7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
So after 2+ years of operation I finally decided my main tank substrate needed a good scrubbing (figuratively speaking of course). I've had a lot of house stuff that has taken my attention away from my main tank the last month or so. I've been religious on my 50% PWC per week, but my pruning habits have gotten....let's just say there might have been more plant matter than water!
So I was concerned about a couple things. One that I could get a massive ammonia spike, but also that my bacterial biological filter might have been weakened due the large amount of plants. Because of this and the huge task at hand I decided to do 50% of the tank, wait a couple days, and then do the other 1/2. The other reason was that this 20 gallon tank houses a LOT of fish (reason for the 50% weekly PWC). I have platy that have taken a liking to my tank in the breeding way. There are at least 20-30 of different sizes (mostly juvi to early adult), on top of my single BN pleco, cory, and checkered barb. I didn't want any aggression or added stress during this time and so having 1/2 untouched as a safe haven made things much easier (they would disappear from the barren side when my hand or syphon touched the water, but then would run over to inspect when I wasn't in the tank).
I began by removing all of the plants on the left side. When I pulled my large anubias from the back left corner, I was shocked at how much junk was under/in the roots. I immediately dumped a ml of Prime into the tank just as a precaution. After getting the remaining plants I proceeded to bury the siphon hose in the substrate and slowly move from left to right sucking all of the pool filter sand into my bucket. I did about 1/2 at a time (1/4 total substrate). Then I took the bucket to the backyard and carefully decanted off the nasty water into my flowering bushes (this is about the BEST fertilizer you can give them!).
Back upstairs in the bathroom I filled the bucket with a couple inches of water, then proceeded to knead gently (I have a lot of MTS that I didn't want to kill in the process) the sand around for a minute. The water would turn nasty brown/black. Dump, fill back up, and repeat until the water stayed pretty clear after the mixing. Clearly I hadn't remembered how much whiter the sand was when new! Then I drained as much water as possible and back into the tank the sand went with a plastic cup, trying to keep it separate from the remaining PFS that had yet to be cleaned. Then I did the other 1/2.
After the sand had been cleaned I filled the tank back up and proceeded to prune and add the plants back in. But I HEAVILY pruned. I decided I'd like to keep 1/2 a bit sparse compared to my normal dense forest. Overall it was a lot of work but very rewarding as I'm sure my chronic higher than I would like nitrAte levels were due to all the crud in the substrate. So here's the final picture with the replaced sparse plants. I'm trying to get up the motivation to do the other 1/2, but it's probably going to be a bit.
Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed the story and I'll post up a final pick in a week or 3 when it's all complete.
So I was concerned about a couple things. One that I could get a massive ammonia spike, but also that my bacterial biological filter might have been weakened due the large amount of plants. Because of this and the huge task at hand I decided to do 50% of the tank, wait a couple days, and then do the other 1/2. The other reason was that this 20 gallon tank houses a LOT of fish (reason for the 50% weekly PWC). I have platy that have taken a liking to my tank in the breeding way. There are at least 20-30 of different sizes (mostly juvi to early adult), on top of my single BN pleco, cory, and checkered barb. I didn't want any aggression or added stress during this time and so having 1/2 untouched as a safe haven made things much easier (they would disappear from the barren side when my hand or syphon touched the water, but then would run over to inspect when I wasn't in the tank).
I began by removing all of the plants on the left side. When I pulled my large anubias from the back left corner, I was shocked at how much junk was under/in the roots. I immediately dumped a ml of Prime into the tank just as a precaution. After getting the remaining plants I proceeded to bury the siphon hose in the substrate and slowly move from left to right sucking all of the pool filter sand into my bucket. I did about 1/2 at a time (1/4 total substrate). Then I took the bucket to the backyard and carefully decanted off the nasty water into my flowering bushes (this is about the BEST fertilizer you can give them!).
Back upstairs in the bathroom I filled the bucket with a couple inches of water, then proceeded to knead gently (I have a lot of MTS that I didn't want to kill in the process) the sand around for a minute. The water would turn nasty brown/black. Dump, fill back up, and repeat until the water stayed pretty clear after the mixing. Clearly I hadn't remembered how much whiter the sand was when new! Then I drained as much water as possible and back into the tank the sand went with a plastic cup, trying to keep it separate from the remaining PFS that had yet to be cleaned. Then I did the other 1/2.
After the sand had been cleaned I filled the tank back up and proceeded to prune and add the plants back in. But I HEAVILY pruned. I decided I'd like to keep 1/2 a bit sparse compared to my normal dense forest. Overall it was a lot of work but very rewarding as I'm sure my chronic higher than I would like nitrAte levels were due to all the crud in the substrate. So here's the final picture with the replaced sparse plants. I'm trying to get up the motivation to do the other 1/2, but it's probably going to be a bit.
Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed the story and I'll post up a final pick in a week or 3 when it's all complete.
