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I posted here a while ago about planning to redesign my tank and I finally got through it. Decided to put together a long, long post telling about this entire experience. I will go step by step, share some lessons learnt and share the rough budget. Hope at some point this post is helpful to someone planning to do the same. A disclaimer: I am not a pro and I did mess up a few things.
The redesign took me almost 11 hours spread over the weekend with most work done on Sunday.
On Saturday I dislodged the swamp monster and washed the sand. It was a good idea to do it on Saturday, because it is not a complex task, but it still takes time to rinse 30 kg of sand. The things in the green bucket are nylon socks filled with sand. This was an awesome idea and I am still happy I did that, because they are much more helpful to hold wood submerged than stones. You will see how they work in the finished photos.
In this photo, the tank looks even worse than it normally did, because I had just removed old Juwel filter column and discovered years worth of gunk underneath. This was some poor planning, because the next day all this gunk floating would make catching the fish extra fun. No amount of syphoning or vacuuming could fix it, so I just had to accept the fate. It was still better than removing the old filter on Saturday than squeezing it into Sunday. I had Oase BioMaster 850 running in parallel with the built-in Juwel filter for more than a year, so I was not worried about cycle crashing (I was very, very wrong).
Then was catching the fish. Man. I have no photos of that process. I wish I had no memories of the process either. Catching grey corys in muddy water is one thing, but catching large fast panicking clowns who refused being caught was an entirely different experience. Over the past few years I have overlooked the fact that the clowns outgrew all my nets, so I had to wait until there was less then 10 centimetres of water left, and use a colander. I never knew they could jump so high out of water, so a lot of screaming and cursing was involved. I managed to get them all out safely, connected the filter to the container and closed it with a lid.
Gluing the plants was not that hard, I used plant glue and I had some plastic plant pins lying around, so I used them for extra security in difficult spots. I knew what pieces go where in the tank, so I started by placing the largest plants in the back and finished with tiny clusters of anubias nana petit in the front. It took some time, so I had to spray the plants with water from time to time.
I removed last of the water and old soil using a plastic dustpan, scraped everything from the old algae and wiped it clean with vinegar and paper towels. A container of panicking fish is in the bottom left corner of the photo.
Then I added the fresh sand, positioned the driftwood, pressed it down it with the sand-filled socks, and started filling the tank and moving the fish back using the colander. I did not want to pour a lot of water from the container because I did not want to re-introduce the mud and gunk, but I should have done it: the fish looked stressed until the point I reconnected the filter and it pumped some old water into the tank. Then they relaxed a bit. You don't see much fish in this photo, because everyone promptly went into hiding. Two weeks in, they love their new habitat and I am quite happy with the result.
Bonus photo: celebrating with some rolls as a middle finger to the loaches who gave me the hardest time.
- nylon socks with sand are the neatest thing to fix the driftwood in place, much better than rocks
- don't merge redesign with other changes: removing my old filter column a day before made the entire process so much messier
- have a net that fits your fish, what was I even thinking about?
- monitor water after the reset. I got careless and three days in I had a cycle crash. I noticed the fish breathing hard, tested the water and saw oxygen at 1 mg/L and Nitrites at 0.8 mg/L (nitrates and ammonium were fine). Did a water change, monitored the water for a few days and now it is fine, but I'm lucky I was working from home that day and I my laptop was on the dinner table
The contractors' price does not look outrageous. I saved some money on the hardscape when I decided to skip the dragon stone entirely and just use the driftwood. I also paid a less for the plants, because I took a little bit of everything instead and got a leftover discount. But, overall, I saved more than half by doing the redesign myself, and I like the finished look a lot. It is just as I wanted and it is all designed for the fish that I like (even after what I went through catching them).
Special thanks to everyone who commented on my previous redesign threads.
Some context
I setup my 350L tank in late 2022. I had never had interest in the hobby, but a family we knew was leaving the country and they were giving away a 15L tank with some corys, neons, and what I thought were some ugly tiger barbs. My wife decided to adopt the tank under a strict condition that I would never have to touch it (because fish, yikes) and then she left to visit her family for two weeks. Long story short, the barbs turned out to be baby clown loaches, the tank is now 350L and it is now mine. It has survived ich, gill worms, diatoms, my depression, cancer, black beard algae, and years of my experiments and rookie mistakes. So by September I decided that it deserves an upgrade.The redesign took me almost 11 hours spread over the weekend with most work done on Sunday.
Saturday
The swamp monster has been marinating in our bathtub since Thursday evening. Huge kudos to wife who never objected to having to remove it from the bath every time we needed to shower. This was worth it: by Sunday, the monster was still buoyant, but at least it became manageable.On Saturday I dislodged the swamp monster and washed the sand. It was a good idea to do it on Saturday, because it is not a complex task, but it still takes time to rinse 30 kg of sand. The things in the green bucket are nylon socks filled with sand. This was an awesome idea and I am still happy I did that, because they are much more helpful to hold wood submerged than stones. You will see how they work in the finished photos.
In this photo, the tank looks even worse than it normally did, because I had just removed old Juwel filter column and discovered years worth of gunk underneath. This was some poor planning, because the next day all this gunk floating would make catching the fish extra fun. No amount of syphoning or vacuuming could fix it, so I just had to accept the fate. It was still better than removing the old filter on Saturday than squeezing it into Sunday. I had Oase BioMaster 850 running in parallel with the built-in Juwel filter for more than a year, so I was not worried about cycle crashing (I was very, very wrong).
Sunday
On Sunday morning, I started draining the water. Some went to the large plastic container that was going to be a temporary residence for the fish. I was trying to minimize the time the fish had to spend in the container, so while the water was pouring out, I started working on driftwood and plants. Cleaning the rhizomes, removing all the mineral cotton, and rinsing everything took much longer than expected.Then was catching the fish. Man. I have no photos of that process. I wish I had no memories of the process either. Catching grey corys in muddy water is one thing, but catching large fast panicking clowns who refused being caught was an entirely different experience. Over the past few years I have overlooked the fact that the clowns outgrew all my nets, so I had to wait until there was less then 10 centimetres of water left, and use a colander. I never knew they could jump so high out of water, so a lot of screaming and cursing was involved. I managed to get them all out safely, connected the filter to the container and closed it with a lid.
Gluing the plants was not that hard, I used plant glue and I had some plastic plant pins lying around, so I used them for extra security in difficult spots. I knew what pieces go where in the tank, so I started by placing the largest plants in the back and finished with tiny clusters of anubias nana petit in the front. It took some time, so I had to spray the plants with water from time to time.
I removed last of the water and old soil using a plastic dustpan, scraped everything from the old algae and wiped it clean with vinegar and paper towels. A container of panicking fish is in the bottom left corner of the photo.
Then I added the fresh sand, positioned the driftwood, pressed it down it with the sand-filled socks, and started filling the tank and moving the fish back using the colander. I did not want to pour a lot of water from the container because I did not want to re-introduce the mud and gunk, but I should have done it: the fish looked stressed until the point I reconnected the filter and it pumped some old water into the tank. Then they relaxed a bit. You don't see much fish in this photo, because everyone promptly went into hiding. Two weeks in, they love their new habitat and I am quite happy with the result.
Bonus photo: celebrating with some rolls as a middle finger to the loaches who gave me the hardest time.
Lessons learnt
- for someone who is not a pro, that's a two days job with some prep work- nylon socks with sand are the neatest thing to fix the driftwood in place, much better than rocks
- don't merge redesign with other changes: removing my old filter column a day before made the entire process so much messier
- have a net that fits your fish, what was I even thinking about?
- monitor water after the reset. I got careless and three days in I had a cycle crash. I noticed the fish breathing hard, tested the water and saw oxygen at 1 mg/L and Nitrites at 0.8 mg/L (nitrates and ammonium were fine). Did a water change, monitored the water for a few days and now it is fine, but I'm lucky I was working from home that day and I my laptop was on the dinner table
Costs
I still have the initial estimate from the contractors that ghosted me, so I now can compare.| My actual spend | Contractor estimate | |
|---|---|---|
| Wood + sand / hardscape | 4,655 CZK ≈ $218 | 10,975 CZK ≈ $513 |
| Plants | 4,275 CZK ≈ $200 | 6,180 CZK ≈ $289 |
| Extras | 766 CZK ≈ $36 | 665 CZK ≈ $31 |
| Labour | - | 6,000 CZK ≈ $281 |
| Total | 9,696 CZK ≈ $453 | 23,820 CZK ≈ $1,114 |
The contractors' price does not look outrageous. I saved some money on the hardscape when I decided to skip the dragon stone entirely and just use the driftwood. I also paid a less for the plants, because I took a little bit of everything instead and got a leftover discount. But, overall, I saved more than half by doing the redesign myself, and I like the finished look a lot. It is just as I wanted and it is all designed for the fish that I like (even after what I went through catching them).
Special thanks to everyone who commented on my previous redesign threads.
