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advice needed complete rescape needed...

jimwalsh

jimwalsh

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2012
Messages
187
Location
Kings Langley
Hi all

was posting on here a while ago and was more active in the hobby.

due to family illnesses and the like I have been away from my house for a good while and neglected my tank.

my dear wife has done her best with water changes etc but things are bad...

while some of the plants are still alive everything is covered in algae and the hard scape is covered in all sorts.

suprisingly all of the fish are still ok.

is there a way to rescape with the fish in situ or do I need to get some sort of plastic container to keep the fish in?

if anyone has any tips or advice about how to deal with the mess...
 
What kind of substrate do you have in your tank? In most cases it should be OK to re-scape the tank without removing the fish, but depending on your substarte you need to be more or less careful. If you have clay-based substrate under gravel or something like that you should be very careful when you uproot & remove dead plants: it's better to cut them above gravel and let the roots die.
In general, I think it would be good idea to handle problems in your tank in several attempts: try to remove as much algae as possible with toothbrush and tweezers (that may require several attempts), start to make regular water changes up to 30-50% several times per week, clean the hardscape (maybe outside the tank), throw away plants which can not be recovered, gently syphon out excessive dirt on top of your substrate, put new plants in, and eventually you'll find your tank better and more pleasing to eye.
 
You can use bleach in a bucket to soak your current affected rocks to remove algaes. Usually 30-60 minutes will be enough, then rinse them several times and give them a good brush. May not work good for wood though.
 
You can leave fish in tank while aggressively rescaping BUT monitor water quality - it's best to have done several water changes on the tank over a couple weeks until tank water is back in line with tap water: then if you need to do an emergency water change or transfer fish, there's no "shock" factor in terms of the water parametres.

I like to remove fish, it IS stressful to be in the tank while great changes are occurring - depending on type of fish or individual personalities, some fish manage this well, others become so stressed that disease becomes an issue in the weeks post-rescape.
(I had one experience where massive fish deaths occurred when I pulled a deep rooted plant up from the substrate, not a lot of mulm was released into the tank, but obviously some noxious gases were - I didn't smell anything, but lost a large school of (wild) cardinals almost immediately, cories passed away over the next weeks, a few shrimp survived ... now I just remove livestock when I'm planning anything major).

Any food safe bin works for keeping fish while rescaping, I like to move the filter over as well & then take my time with tank upheavals :)

As Alexander mentions, bleach is a great cleaner, I usually also soak cleaned materials in a bucket with 10-20X dechlor - after thorough rinsing with water.
Wood can be boiled or run through a dishwasher (it's not actually used for anything so no soap residue), a good scrub & spraying down with peroxide &/or liquid carbon will also dramatically reduce algae etc - let wood "sit" with the peroxide/LC for 10 - 60min. If you have deep layers of algae, then repeat treatments, with a thorough scrub in between.
Algae crew will usually control most types of young algae.

Substrate algae can usually controlled by just turning over the top layer under - this is another reason I like to remove all livestock & hardscape, I don't worry about minimizing mulm etc released into the tank as I can just run continuous water changes (refill hose & drain hose running at same time while keeping overall water level low - I use a python water change system & Seachem Prime).

You can also look at recovering plants by setting up an emerse growth propagator (similar to the dry start methods used) - new growth will be relatively rapid & free of algae.

I hope circumstances have improved for you now.
 
When I did a properly planned reshape on my tank a few years ago I removed the fish into bins, placed the heaters and filter inlet/outlet in the bins to keep the filters running. I removed the plants and hardscape onto plastic sheeting. To clean the substrate for reuse (I have too much to replace) I drained the tank down to few inches of water using a small pond pump and hose. I connected another hose to the tap and used the force of the water and a stick to stir up the substrate. Lots of muck was stirred up. The water was constantly being removed by the pump as I was working but I had to stop from time to time to let it catch up. I have a big tank so had lots of room to work in. I continued to pump water through the substrate until the worse to the muck was released. I allowed the substrate to settle and did another big water change the. I put lots of root tabs into the substrate before replanting.

I did daily water changed for about two weeks afterwards as I assumed that cleaning the substrate with tap water removed beneficial bacteria from it.

More recently, I disturbed a lot of the substrate with the fish in the tank and did a big water change afterwards. I ended up with a dead fish a few days later and a couple more were sick
 
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