removing plants to rescape help needed

[bobc4d]

I have sand as substrate and want to remove plants to give tank good cleaning and to rescape it.

What suggestions do you have? I'm going to put tank water in 5 gallon bucket move plants to it, clean then reinstall. Does this harm the root system?

[GodFan]

Originally Posted by bobc4d

I have sand as substrate and want to remove plants to give tank good cleaning and to rescape it.

What suggestions do you have? I'm going to put tank water in 5 gallon bucket move plants to it, clean then reinstall. Does this harm the root system?

It shouldntnhurt them too bad. Inevitably some roots will break but it should not hurt them. Some like crypts may melt but probably not.

[Mebbid]

Most plants will handle it just fine, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Pezzep]

You might wanna turn your filters off when playing around with the plants cause if you stir up enough sand and it gets sucked into your filter it can damage the motor. I have this with one of my filters, the filter is very noisy now.

[bobc4d]

Thanks all, good tip pezzep on turning off the filter, it hadn't occurred to me.

[wildroseofky]

Watch out for ammonia spikes. I redid my tank a few times and each time I messed the substrate I had an ammonia spike. It releases a lot of stuff into the water that was trapped in the sand. You might want to take the time to sift through the sand a little and remove old, dead roots.

[bobc4d]

thanks wildrose, I hadn't thought of that. I did do a 50% water change at the same time (40B tank), but I will keep an eye on it. prolly do another water change anyway, just in case.