PaulThaAsian
- #1
This will be lengthy. I will go through what I did to upgrade my 10G to a 20 Long.
Prep work:
1. Soaked Ohko (Dragon) stone/new driftwood/Bonzi for over a week in RO water.
2. Rinsed sand and Fluval Stratum in buckets in tap water
3. Boiled new driftwood for an hour to leach out more tannins/sanitize. I boiled the Bonzi for 20mins as directed.
4. Cleaned 20 long inside and out
5. Bought and cut a form floor mat to the width and length of the tank. Went to 5 below(a fancy dollar store essentially) and bought it. Then cut it with a sharp knife but found out later scissors worked just as well.
Day of:
1. Removed 50% of the water from my 10G into 2 buckets (25/25)
2. Removed most plants, stone, and driftwood and placed it in 2 buckets. 1 for plants
3. Removed snails, shrimp, and fish and put them in the other bucket with a heater and air stone
4. Turned off a canister filter and air stone and lifted the tank from the shelf it was on to a table
5. Placed 20 long on the shelf and put sand in the corner to help raise the left side. (I had mentioned in another post that I wanted to raise it without going nuts and buying more fluval stratum. The pool sand I had worked perfectly. Since I had a rimmed tank I made sure that the sand did not build up past the bottom rim because I didn't want that to show in the tank. See the photos.
6. Placed new rinsed Fluval into the tank. First over the sand to build up the sides then on the rest of the tank. I also added a small amount of RO water to help keep sand in place.
7. Covered the rest of the bottom with fluval.
8. Started to scape the tank by putting the bonzi on top of the mound. Used drift wood to prop up the ohko stone to keep it from falling and to create little half tunnels and open caves
9. Used some ohko stone in the middle propped up and in a semi circle around the mound to keep things from shifting in the future
10. Because I didn't have a better way I started to scoop out fluval from the other tank and placed it in the 20 long
11. Places some of the 10G flat Seiryu stone under the substrate to make it higher. on the right side.
12. Added RO water which if anyone knows Stratum it dirties up quite a bit so I did it slow
and an hour for everything to settle.
13. Placed and turned on the canister/ Placed air stone and heater in the back.
14. Placed root tabs in various areas
15. Separated floating plants, cut roots that were too long, Planted everything. (Some of my plants are in quarantine right now because of an outbreak of black algae. The shrimp cleaned up most prior to the move but I am just going to plant those later after I black it out)
16. Placed driftwood and stone from the 10G.
18. Remineralized the water, which I hadn't been doing up until this point.
19. Added more RO water
20. Added livestock
21. Cut a top using a $50 Polycarbonate sheet. ( I accidentally cut too short so I had to cut a second piece to cover the rest. It actually worked out great because now I have a long and short top that I can slide side to side instead of taking the whole top off to do water changes or maintenance )
22. Placed the lighting I had from the 10G and Just bought a new lighting fixture for it because I bought it for a normal 20G before I decided to switch.
See all the photos. I got too into the whole thing and forgot to take pics while I was doing it lol so all I have is the start and finish. Starting to think I should have sanded the right side instead of using substrate but I wanted to add plants to that side anyway... maybe another time.
Please share any and all thoughts! Did I do something wrong? Should I have don't something a different way? What should I stock it with now? I have 3 endlers, 5 shrimp(plus babies), and 3 nerites.
Prep work:
1. Soaked Ohko (Dragon) stone/new driftwood/Bonzi for over a week in RO water.
2. Rinsed sand and Fluval Stratum in buckets in tap water
3. Boiled new driftwood for an hour to leach out more tannins/sanitize. I boiled the Bonzi for 20mins as directed.
4. Cleaned 20 long inside and out
5. Bought and cut a form floor mat to the width and length of the tank. Went to 5 below(a fancy dollar store essentially) and bought it. Then cut it with a sharp knife but found out later scissors worked just as well.
Day of:
1. Removed 50% of the water from my 10G into 2 buckets (25/25)
2. Removed most plants, stone, and driftwood and placed it in 2 buckets. 1 for plants
3. Removed snails, shrimp, and fish and put them in the other bucket with a heater and air stone
4. Turned off a canister filter and air stone and lifted the tank from the shelf it was on to a table
5. Placed 20 long on the shelf and put sand in the corner to help raise the left side. (I had mentioned in another post that I wanted to raise it without going nuts and buying more fluval stratum. The pool sand I had worked perfectly. Since I had a rimmed tank I made sure that the sand did not build up past the bottom rim because I didn't want that to show in the tank. See the photos.
6. Placed new rinsed Fluval into the tank. First over the sand to build up the sides then on the rest of the tank. I also added a small amount of RO water to help keep sand in place.
7. Covered the rest of the bottom with fluval.
8. Started to scape the tank by putting the bonzi on top of the mound. Used drift wood to prop up the ohko stone to keep it from falling and to create little half tunnels and open caves
9. Used some ohko stone in the middle propped up and in a semi circle around the mound to keep things from shifting in the future
10. Because I didn't have a better way I started to scoop out fluval from the other tank and placed it in the 20 long
11. Places some of the 10G flat Seiryu stone under the substrate to make it higher. on the right side.
12. Added RO water which if anyone knows Stratum it dirties up quite a bit so I did it slow
and an hour for everything to settle.
13. Placed and turned on the canister/ Placed air stone and heater in the back.
14. Placed root tabs in various areas
15. Separated floating plants, cut roots that were too long, Planted everything. (Some of my plants are in quarantine right now because of an outbreak of black algae. The shrimp cleaned up most prior to the move but I am just going to plant those later after I black it out)
16. Placed driftwood and stone from the 10G.
18. Remineralized the water, which I hadn't been doing up until this point.
19. Added more RO water
20. Added livestock
21. Cut a top using a $50 Polycarbonate sheet. ( I accidentally cut too short so I had to cut a second piece to cover the rest. It actually worked out great because now I have a long and short top that I can slide side to side instead of taking the whole top off to do water changes or maintenance )
22. Placed the lighting I had from the 10G and Just bought a new lighting fixture for it because I bought it for a normal 20G before I decided to switch.
See all the photos. I got too into the whole thing and forgot to take pics while I was doing it lol so all I have is the start and finish. Starting to think I should have sanded the right side instead of using substrate but I wanted to add plants to that side anyway... maybe another time.
Please share any and all thoughts! Did I do something wrong? Should I have don't something a different way? What should I stock it with now? I have 3 endlers, 5 shrimp(plus babies), and 3 nerites.
