Evelyn1919

hi guys!
well i'm thinking of completely changing my tank so i need new decorations & new gravel. i still want to wait a few more weeks before doing this but i need advice on how to do it because i don't want to mess up with the nitrogen cycle.

i know a lot of the beneficial bacteria is in the gravel and decorations so i want to do this little by little but how?
i was thinking first i'll start with the decorations:
take some out and replace it with new ones and wait a week or two and do the rest. here is how i was planning it-i'll take the castle and the bridge out and put in some of the new stuff, two weeks later i'll take the car and some gravel out and i'll replace it with other decorations.

now the gravel:
how i h don't have a clue how to do this... i'll be replacing all of it and i don't know how to keep all the bacteria in the new one. i was thinking doing half the gravel first and then doing the other half but my b/f said it is too much work and that we should just do it all at once but i told him i would ask here for some advice.
please if anyone has done this before please please advice!!!

i have new fish!!! i gave away 10 red tail rasboras and this is what i have now (which i think is still a little overstocked):
75 gallon tank
-8 neon tetras
-4 cherry barbs
-1 rainbow shark
-10 tiger barbs
-5 longfin rosy barbs

here are my readings as of last night:
ammonia: .25
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10-20
pH: 6

my pH went down really low is this going to harm my fish? they seem fine with it but the pH used to be about 7.

last night after testing my water and noticing that the ammonia went up high i did a 50% water change and added a lot of stress coat to protect the fish. i checked them this morning and they are all doing fine. i'll be checking for ammonia again when i get home and probably i'll do another water change.

well this post was all about changing the tank but of course i will be waiting until everything goes back to normal.

also my b/f said that maybe we can just change everything and then just add bio-spira or the new tetra stuff so which would be better? and if i do this then should i put the fish in a bucket while i'm doing it or can they stay in the tank while changing everything?

also i'll be needing a cave for my rainbow shark (which some people here recommend) so i was thinking of building him one with rocks and stuff but my b/f said we need to glue it together and he said we should use silicone? would that work?

thanks for all your help!

OHHH!!! and sorry about such a looooooong post

Evelyn

ps: here is a picture of my tank and if anybody lives in New York and would like to pick up the things i'm getting rid of please let me know. **NO CHARGE** you just need to pick it up, otherwise it will be posted on craigslist as soon as i have all the new stuff.

Attached Images

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Shawnie

IMO you will probably get a mini cycle but just be ready for it...I would take out all the gravel and hang it off the inside of the tank in some pantyhose or some kind of net...keep it totally submerged in the water ...for some reason having ammonia readings now, you already are in a mini cycle so id go for it while you have the readings, keep daily water changes and deffinately keep the stress coat or vita chem going...make sure if you have tap water you are using some kind of conditioner goodluck!

Evelyn1919

i use stress coat as a water conditioner but last night i put in a LOT more just to help the fish.

tzqng8

Shawnie makes a great suggestion. Get some of the gravel from the tank now and put it into some pantyhose. Knot the pantyhose up and hang it from the hood of the tank. This will allow the bacteria to remain present in the water but still put your new gravel down. Just let it hang there for a while (weeks). Once your tank is verified as being completely cycled, begin removing some of the gravel. But do it in stages. Maybe 25% of the gravel a week until it is all gone and the pantyhose can be removed.

Your ideas for the decorations sound good.

If you want to use Tetra SafeStart and put everything new in all at once, that should work as well. Just make sure you have enough to treat the whole tank (more than 100 ml).

There is special epoxy to use with an aquarium. You can find some here.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

peacemaker92

Wow! Your aquarium is beautiful! I wish I was in New York! Well, good luck with the new stuff!