neverendingninja

...my 55gal finally has eco-complete!

What a chore...it went something like this.

Remove light and hood
Remove all plants from tank
Siphon 10 gallons into spare 10gal tank
Add thin layer of substrate to 10gal tank
Remove both filters, install on 10gal tank
Install heater on 10gal tank
Catch fish, put in 10gal tank
Drain all but 5 inches of water from 55gal tank
Remove gravel to 5gal buckets...dump in woods
Add ice cold Eco-Complete(just arrived on my doorstep this morning)
Add 15gal of fresh, slightly warmer water
Wait for mulm to settle out
Plant big plants(dwarf lily, swords, anubias)
Add enough water to reach filter intake
Allow filter to run and remove particulate matter
Add stem plants and ground cover
Fill tank, minus 10 gallons
Add 5 gallons of original water, stored in 10gal with fish
Catch fish and place in 55gal tank
Add remaining 5gal
Bag up original substrate added to 10gal and let rest on bottom of 55gal

All in all it took me about 4 hours. Like I said...my back hurts I'll get some pictures up later once the water clears a bit more.

It was worth it...heres a picture of the finished product


I think that photo pretty much sums it up. You can see my male apisto in the bottom left corner, and to the right of him is my Rineloricaria catfish, further to the right, you can barely see the bristles of my BN catfish poking out of a flower pot, and all the way to the right is my male Bolivian ram. The female Keyhole Cichlid would not stay in any of the shots(the above photo is stitched).

Butterfly

LOL! congrats on having it done
Carol

Jim

Oh wow, I feel your pain, I did the exact thing when I rebuilt my bowfront the last time, except for the ice cold eco...lol. After I hurt for a couple days. I hope yours comes out as nice as mine finally did, and I can't wait to see pictures.

neverendingninja

bump for pictures

rileyrk190

Great tank ! Where did you find plants so big?!? The ones from my lfs are really tiny.

neverendingninja

I've been growing those plants for 6+ months now, just not in eco-complete. I had them in regular inert gravel.

rileyrk190

Oh.. lol. great work in growing them then!

Gozer_1

Looking fantastic. Your plants will love it I'm sure.

COBettaCouple

Looks great!

Jim

OK, I'm glad you said that, because i did the same... if your plants act like mine did, you're probably going to get some fertalizer burn marks for a bit. After living in plain gravel, eco is like going from hamberger to prime rib! Anyway, I just wanted to warn you and tell you I wouldn't worry about it too much, mine did the same thing, but the new leaves came in as green and healthy as you could ask for.

neverendingninja

Well, apparently all that moving around got the Apistogrammas excited, as they bred last night...I think they did pretty soon after the transfer, actually, and I just didn't realize til later in the night.

Jim

really? Excellent! You must have done something they really liked! It's amazing how much fish respond to a natural environment, isn't it?