Re-scape or give up, looking for general advice.

[DanMac]

I have had my first ever/current tank for nearly a year now and i am thinking of doing a rescape, My main reason is due to BBA taking over my hair grass and yamaya stone (along its straight edges) because my filter is not running as strong it should be (its my second jbl and i refuse to buy another).

I was going to take final pictures and get rid of everything which would have put me off the hobby forever which would be a shame but I have had an idea.

I'm thinking of going back to cold water with gold cloud mountain minnows no plants except moss and boulders/stones with a white sand base, I think that the BBA would have a harder time growing on smooth rocks and it would be easier to scrape off if it did, also i have never had algae on any type of moss before.

On top of that i wouldn't need to dose my tank anymore or worry about the temperature, and i can remove my heater to make it look even better, This is the general look i would go for:



Does this sound like a good plan to you guys?, its better than giving up the hobby and i wouldn't make any money back really compared to the hundreds i have spent.

Cheers.

 

[tim]

Go for it dan, in all honesty I've found bba will attach to what it wants ( I hate the tuffty horrible bloody stuff ) got a massive outbreak of it in my 3 ft at the moment but I refuse to use liquid carbon, I also refuse to give up I'm using the slowly slowly manual removal subdued lighting method.It will not beat me

 

[DanMac]

I forgot to add that my filter is still good enough to filtrate and add decent movement, so im assuming with smooth rock and moss only i should get away with it..

 

[tim]

Don't think bba is a flow thing mate I've had it in high, low and extremely high flow tanks (700ltr an hour on a 12ltr tank) it's a b***h, I don't get any other type of algae that troubles me for more than a couple of weeks but bba has plagued my setups for a year

 

[DanMac]

Lol tim i'm the same I dont like to give up on things and i have spent way too much time and money just to throw it all away. bba is the worst algae i have encountered and even if it does grow on smooth boulder like rocks it would be much easier to remove imo.

I also switched to tropical thinking i would have an endless choice in micro fish but im a bit disappointed with the choice, I currently have ember tetras and they dont look as good as i thought they would and are too timid for my liking, mountain minnows were my first ever choice and look just as good and they didnt care when anyone went near the tank.

 

[Andy D]

It's a good idea. George has done a WCMM set-up and it looked great - How to set up a White Cloud biotope | Features | Practical Fishkeeping

It's very east to maintain. I did give it a bash myself for a short time but given I had no height or anything for the fish to swim around they just looked bored to me. Apologies for the very poor picture. This was just after I had set it up.

 

[DanMac]

Oh i thought it was mainly down to low flow in certain areas, Either way the main problem is that its growing on my hair grass and it seems pointless keeping it unless it looks pristine , it doesnt look as bad on rocks imo.

 

[DanMac]

Cheers for the link andy, thats roughly what i want but im going to go for a more 'iwagumi' look and have a big main stone with a few smaller ones and maybe some tiny pebbles on the outside, moss inbetween the stones ect.

 

[Andy D]

Cheers for the link andy, thats roughly what i want but im going to go for a more 'iwagumi' look and have a big main stone with a few smaller ones and maybe some tiny pebbles on the outside, moss inbetween the stones ect.

Ah I see. Sounds good.

I do like WCMM. I have both colour varieties and think they look great together.

 

[DanMac]

I would say my recent filter is mature by now, im guessing running it in a tropical straight to coldwater will be safe?, and will it be ok to put the mountain minnows straight in when the new setup is done?

 

[Andy D]

Yeah. The temperature range is not 'that' different assuming the tank is still indoors.

My temperate tank sits at about 17° in winter.

 

[DanMac]

Thats it then i'm going for it, so happy not to give up on the whole hobby at this point

 

[Manrock]

Just a quick point - if you want to get rid of bba buy a SAE. They eat it for fun. I lost mine a while ago and had a major bba outbreak within a month. To be honest I'd never seen the stuff before but quickly bought another pair of SAEs and it was all gone within 3 days. Never seen it again. Of course it would be good to not get it anyway but I think a biological attack is always warranted in an eco situation!