Back to black

[AquaBarb]

Lucky you, are the peppers calmer than albino cory?

Going off what Sean has said id say their pretty similar

 

[seangee]

Quick and easy water change in this one today cos the plants don't need thinning

 

[seangee]

Finally filled in to where I hoped it would get. The vals are a real bonus - didn't think I could make them work in this tank

Guess I am going to have to trim the crypts roots or deepen the substrate. Nobody in the UK has stock of the black limpopo sand - I know its not deep enough.

 

[seangee]

Plants really exploding now. I finally managed to source some black limpopo sand which arrived today. Will top it up tomorrow so that it is actually deep enough for the roots to anchor in the substrate.

 

[AquaBarb]

Got there with about half an hour to spare before the lights came on. It did take a long time but was fairly painless in the end.Its currently a bit cloudy but not nearly as bad as I expected. Some of that is down to the fact that I did go with the matrix in the HOB in the end. I ended up not even turning the filter off at all. The plan was always to do all the cleaning and vaccuuming old sand out as part 1 of the weekly water change. In the end it was only a 25% change. I left it at that because by then the fish (and I) were fed up with all my fiddling in the tank.

Here it is at the bare tank stage.
View attachment 94191
I'll take an after pic later tonight so I don't get as many reflections when the rest of the room is dark and the tank lights are on

Was your fish ok changing the sand with them still in it?

Im thinking of changing the front layer of my 200

 

[seangee]

Was your fish ok changing the sand with them still in it?

Im thinking of changing the front layer of my 200

They were fine. How much of the sand you changing? If its not too much the easiest way to remove is to siphon it. Have described elsewhere how I use an upside down bottle as a funnel for putting new sand in. Ended up adding about 12KG to this tank today without turning off the filter and never even got it cloudy.

 

[seangee]

All went to plan. Didn't bother uprooting and re-planting. I just put the sand in and gravity will level it out for me within a couple of days .
I did split the left bunch of crypts and plant them along the right wall. Want to create a bit more floor space - especially for Billy the bulldozer (bristlenose). The second bunch is going and possibly the vals growing out of the middle - but they are probably destined for the new tank. So I won't disturb them until moving day.

 

[AquaBarb]

They were fine. How much of the sand you changing? If its not too much the easiest way to remove is to siphon it. Have described elsewhere how I use an upside down bottle as a funnel for putting new sand in. Ended up adding about 12KG to this tank today without turning off the filter and never even got it cloudy.

Thats good i might try that
I dont want to change alot really, it will just be the bottom tier i want to take out which is the thinnest layer.

I put small areas of tiny stones for a bit of contrast when i first set it up but its starting to look a bit messy now and its driving my OCD wild.

Ive got about 10kg of black sand left over from the 80ltr vamp.

 

[AquaBarb]

Thats good i might try that
I dont want to change alot really, it will just be the bottom tier i want to take out which is the thinnest layer.

I put small areas of tiny stones for a bit of contrast when i first set it up but its starting to look a bit messy now and its driving my OCD wild.

Ive got about 10kg of black sand left over from the 80ltr vamp.

Pig of a job to get the sand out of the tank but the bottle trick works a treat to put it back in

 

[seangee]

Where's our dinner?

That is the feeding hatch they are all loitering under. Not so sure I want to move the bunch of crypts anymore. Looks better now its on its own. But I fear I will soon need to halt the progress of the vals

 

[Back in the fold]

@seangee Why do you want to mess with perfection ? You have what others dream about. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[seangee]

@seangee Why do you want to mess with perfection ? You have what others dream about. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

If you are talking about the vals ...
In this tank once they go they really go and it will be overwhelmed within weeks. Last time that happened I had to rip them all out and trim the roots before replanting. Vals don't like this and take ages to recover. Even worse in my soft acidic water. Its probably taken a full year to get them looking good again. I'm happy to keep them constrained to the corner as long as they don't choke the hygrophilla.

Best to keep them under control now - last time they strangled all my plants, and if that happens again they are in the bin

 

[Back in the fold]

@seangee That's a problem I'd like to have but I think I understand. Must be cool to see the fish moving amongst the thickets. I imagine it looks quite wild.

 

[seangee]

Added salt to the tank today. Not normally a fan of prophylactic treatment but I lost 2 cardinals within a week of each other to spinning / whirling disease and I have way too much invested in this tank (emotionally) to risk it being wiped out.

(I know I'm switching threads - but this is the journal thread that I will come back to in the future to see what happened when )

 

[AquaBarb]

Added salt to the tank today. Not normally a fan of prophylactic treatment but I lost 2 cardinals within a week of each other to spinning / whirling disease and I have way too much invested in this tank (emotionally) to risk it being wiped out.

(I know I'm switching threads - but this is the journal thread that I will come back to in the future to see what happened when )

Hope everything works out ok for you Sean. Hopefully salt is all you will need