Re-scaping question

[Sparx]

Hi all

I’m thinking about re-scaping my 30gallon.
Why? Because I feel the substrate is not deep enough for the plants, so the main thing I want to do is add more substrate and have it kind of sloping up to the back of the tank. The plants are mainly located across the back so this would give them more gravel to take root in.
Hubby gave me his excess guppy grass from his Beta tank and I attempted to plant the cuttings last night using aqua tweezers, but I couldn’t plant them deep enough as I kept hitting the bottom of the tank, and by the time I got home from work today it was all floating on the surface.
I realise I will probably have to remove everything to do this.

Question time:

To add more substrate, can I do this with the fish present?
Is there a chance I will be adding toxins to my tank as the substrate will be uncycled, un-established?
What is the best and safest way to accomplish this?

Thanks in advance

 

[CassCats]

As long as you aren't removing the old substrate, you can safely add new substrate to your established tank.

Rinse the new stuff to remove dust so it doesn't cloud your tank, and remember dechlorinator if you rinse with tap water

 

[Sparx]

As long as you aren't removing the old substrate, you can safely add new substrate to your established tank.

Rinse the new stuff to remove dust so it doesn't cloud your tank, and remember dechlorinator if you rinse with tap water

Ok great, thanks for the tip.
And I can leave the fish in the tank while I do this?

 

[MattW]

A big help for moving substrate is one of these. I recently added some substrate (JBL manado) to my 60L in shallow areas. Just make sure to rinse the new substrate in dechlorinated water. The fish should be fine.. my rice fish thought it was food at first.

*edit I found the best way to introduce new substrate was using a plastic sieve like this one

 

[CassCats]

I've added new substrate and rearranged tank with fish in. Just move slow to reduce stress and they should be fine. No sudden trying to grab them or anything lol

 

[rebe]

The "bottle method" seems like a great aquarium life-hack. Here's a screenshot from a reddit post:

This YouTube video illustrates the idea nicely:

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I love it! You were inspired by @CassCats tanks, weren't you? Same girl, same!

If it were sand, it would be harder to add a slope since it settles and levels out quickly (darn you, gravity!) gravel will too, but it'll hold for longer, and a basic aquascaping kit (long tweezers and scissors, the long scaper like dohickey thing that @MattW showed a pic of really is suitable for moving substrate back where you want it, and for other things too.

Adding some substrate shouldn't bother the fish too much if you're slow and gentle. I mess with tank planting and scaping fairly often when I'm actively doing things with the tank, and the fish are rarely bothered! They're used to it. You can always take breaks and do it in stages if the fish get stressed or start to panic.

 

[Sparx]

A big help for moving substrate is one of these. I recently added some substrate (JBL manado) to my 60L in shallow areas. Just make sure to rinse the new substrate in dechlorinated water. The fish should be fine.. my rice fish thought it was food at first.

View attachment 346442

*edit I found the best way to introduce new substrate was using a plastic sieve like this one
View attachment 346444

Agreed! I already have an aquascaping kit which I got from Amazon, £15 I thought was a great price!

The "bottle method" seems like a great aquarium life-hack. Here's a screenshot from a reddit post:


View attachment 346446




This YouTube video illustrates the idea nicely:

This actually looks like a great method, in the video it looks like the bottle caught any murky water as well so that’s actually a really good idea.. perhaps I’ll have to give this a go if I can find a bottle to use thank you!

I love it! You were inspired by @CassCats tanks, weren't you? Same girl, same!

If it were sand, it would be harder to add a slope since it settles and levels out quickly (darn you, gravity!) gravel will too, but it'll hold for longer, and a basic aquascaping kit (long tweezers and scissors, the long scaper like dohickey thing that @MattW showed a pic of really is suitable for moving substrate back where you want it, and for other things too.

Adding some substrate shouldn't bother the fish too much if you're slow and gentle. I mess with tank planting and scaping fairly often when I'm actively doing things with the tank, and the fish are rarely bothered! They're used to it. You can always take breaks and do it in stages if the fish get stressed or start to panic.

Yes, yes I was I want to add more plants but yeah I just feel that my substrate isn’t deep enough at the moment.
To level it up I might do what hubby has done with his new tank - place higher level gravel behind rocks to keep it in place as seen here…

Speaking of which the little tank is pretty much cycled now so I think today might be the day we go and get a Betta I’ll update the 10g thread if we do but watch this space!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Oh yes, you can definitely keep it from levelling out if you use hardscape and things as a barrier to keep it up!

Congrats on your plans for a new fish today!! Good luck on finding one you love!

 

[Sparx]

Oh yes, you can definitely keep it from levelling out if you use hardscape and things as a barrier to keep it up!

I’ll start moving stuff around and my fish are gonna be like “oh FFS what now?!”

I’ve just created a rudimentary sketch over the top of one of my pics of the idea I have… hopefully this will look as good as I think it will haha

Does anybody else do this or is it just me???

Congrats on your plans for a new fish today!! Good luck on finding one you love!

Thank you

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I’ll start moving stuff around and my fish are gonna be like “oh FFS what now?!”

Only word of caution is if you start shifting/mucking about a lot with the older substrate. It's less common in gravel, but anaerobic bacteria pockets can build up under substrate that's got less oxygenated water flowing through it. So high risk spots especially are underneath decor, and on gravel that has a lot of mulm build up underneath.

So there have been cases of people shifting old substrate like that, the pocket of gases created by the anaerobic bacteria is then released into the water column, and can kill fish that happen to be too close.

If you're just adding new substrate on top, shouldn't be a problem. But especially because you're planning more of a major rescape, want to at least make you aware of it.

Especially if you're going to be moving old substrate to create different levels held back by hardscape, and rearrange a lot, out of an abundance of caution, I'd probably catch the fish up and pop them in a bucket of their tank water while you do all the fussing about. Put a towel over the top of the bucket to prevent jumpers.

Then can rescape to your hearts content! Just leave a thermometer in the bucket so you can make sure the temp of the bucket and tank match before you put them back in, and should all be good. It's been so warm here, that my fish in a bucket yesterday held the same temp anyway!

If anaerobic pockets of gas are released, they'll head to the surface and soon dissipate. Just want to make sure you're aware, since I don't know how long your tank has been running/how likely it might have formed the right conditions in your tank.

I’ve just created a rudimentary sketch over the top of one of my pics of the idea I have… hopefully this will look as good as I think it will haha

View attachment 346528

Does anybody else do this or is it just me???

Lots of sensible people do! So you're not alone! I tend to just faff about until I'm happy(ish) with it, then wish I'd planned it better!

Thank you

 

[Sparx]

Only word of caution is if you start shifting/mucking about a lot with the older substrate. It's less common in gravel, but anaerobic bacteria pockets can build up under substrate that's got less oxygenated water flowing through it. So high risk spots especially are underneath decor, and on gravel that has a lot of mulm build up underneath.

So there have been cases of people shifting old substrate like that, the pocket of gases created by the anaerobic bacteria is then released into the water column, and can kill fish that happen to be too close.

If you're just adding new substrate on top, shouldn't be a problem. But especially because you're planning more of a major rescape, want to at least make you aware of it.

Especially if you're going to be moving old substrate to create different levels held back by hardscape, and rearrange a lot, out of an abundance of caution, I'd probably catch the fish up and pop them in a bucket of their tank water while you do all the fussing about. Put a towel over the top of the bucket to prevent jumpers.

Then can rescape to your hearts content! Just leave a thermometer in the bucket so you can make sure the temp of the bucket and tank match before you put them back in, and should all be good. It's been so warm here, that my fish in a bucket yesterday held the same temp anyway!

If anaerobic pockets of gas are released, they'll head to the surface and soon dissipate. Just want to make sure you're aware, since I don't know how long your tank has been running/how likely it might have formed the right conditions in your tank.


Lots of sensible people do! So you're not alone! I tend to just faff about until I'm happy(ish) with it, then wish I'd planned it better!

Oooh ok thank you for the advice on that. I wasn’t aware of anaerobic gas pockets.

But I will probably just be adding new substrate on top and build it up from how it is now and the layer I have down already is fairly thin.

Plus I do carry out a gravel vac about once a week so the gravel is constantly being moved and shifted, I guess it’s just anything under the rocks and driftwood I will need to be careful of.

 

[CassCats]

I’ll start moving stuff around and my fish are gonna be like “oh FFS what now?!”

I’ve just created a rudimentary sketch over the top of one of my pics of the idea I have… hopefully this will look as good as I think it will haha

View attachment 346528

Does anybody else do this or is it just me???


Thank you

I'm guilty of hand drawing scape ideas, so you definitely aren't the only one to sketch up plans for a scape!

I'd recommend you some stargrass (Heteranthera zostifolia) as it's bright green color and spiky bushy shape will contrast very nicely with the plants you already have in the tank. It's easy to trim to keep short, and I know online guides claim it's a short foreground-midground plant, but if I leave mine untrimmed (which I somewhat do, because I want a natural look instead of tamed) it can get tall.

 

[Sparx]

I'm guilty of hand drawing scape ideas, so you definitely aren't the only one to sketch up plans for a scape!

I'd recommend you some stargrass (Heteranthera zostifolia) as its bright green color and spiky bushy shape will contrast very nicely with the plants you already have in the tank. It's easy to trim to keep short, and I know online guides claim it's a short foreground-midground plant, but if I leave mine untrimmed (which I somewhat do, because I want a natural look instead of tamed) it can get tall.

Thank you for the suggestion! I just had to google it to find out what it looks like very similar to guppy grass but the leaves look a little thicker.
I will have to see if I can source any locally

 

[CassCats]

Thank you for the suggestion! I just had to google it to find out what it looks like very similar to guppy grass but the leaves look a little thicker.
I will have to see if I can source any locally

Prettier than guppy grass, imo, grows denser too.

I've known someone to trim it almost weekly to grow it as a carpet plant
But I use it mostly as a background in one of my 55s.
Almost every 2-3 weeks I sell off a full zip lock bag of the stuff