Rescaping an established tank?

[Worshiper]

Tried using the search on this forum but cannot find it.

I needed to rescape a few things in my aquarium which will involve moving the gravel around a bit and re scaping the rock work.

Just afraid that if I move the gravel Ill let all the gunk out that will lead to an algae outbreak? I also got 3 month old root tabs in it..
Any suggestions?

 

[EnderUK]

you should always 75-90% water changes after uprooting or disrupting the substrate.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Just done one this morning.Normally I do 2 or 3 30% water changes per week on my metre long tank. After just reading about scaping wood in PFK from George Farmer decided to change it a bit.Firstly I got my 35-45% new water ready( treated) in 3 gallon buckets,cleaned front glass,syphoned out 20% of the water from gravel,uprooted loads of vallis, stem plants and a large rooted Amazon sword added some new branched wood with most of old still left,replanted stems in different places in tank.Cleaned external filter sponges in tank water taken from near surface replacing floss in top basket.Not touching benefical media.Added the new treated water also placed temporary a Fluval U4 full of filter wool then,switched external back on.Just checked water 2 hours later Ammonia0 Nitrite 0, will test later on do another 30%WC in morning.As long as its gravel should be ok if careful, possibly have to remove livestock if it was soil substrate. Dont do it in your normal photoperiod if gas injecting

 

[Worshiper]

Thanx Ender and Paraguay.
That's what I plan to do. I will have to do a few WC as it gets pretty cloudy when i upset the substrate. The DHG has started to take off so i needed to move things around.
I dint have the faith that i could grow the stuff so ended up putting alot of rock in it so it would be a low planted tank

 

[alto]

If you've enough coordination, you can set up a syphon running whilst picking up rock (rather easier on a large tank re water volume) ... run outlet tube to drain or a very large bin so as to avoid the sound of water overflowing
- when meeting a root tab, check for intactness before shuffling about ... again "safer" to syphon out
(though I once brokedown a tank with root tabs still intact after a couple years )

 

[Worshiper]

Alto: as a man my co-ordination is always a problem . I just cannot multi task. It's only a 60l tank so I plan to do 70% water changes each day for the next week jus to make sure things settle in.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Just done a 30%WC this morning after a above gravel clean and changed floss in temporary Fluval internal.Noticed a bitt of debris had settled on the moss this morning and some in aquarium corner I have syphoned out maybe next time if needed uproot amazon swords I will do seperately ,Think I will do as Endler suggests do several water changes this week instead of normal routinedJust tested water again ok