Effects Of Replanting An Entire Tank

[Swlws]

So I know the risks of adding too many fish at one time can cause a mini cycle to start, but what effect would adding too many plants cause, and more so, taking too many plants out of a stable tank?

Details (if anyone wants to hear my full sob story ): my 4 foot tank has been running around 10 months now and weekly tests show it is very stable, even nitrates are less than 10 with regular water changes (10% weekly, 20% month end making it 50% a month) and copious amounts of nitrate draining anacharis... so much so that I often can not even see my fish I want to remove all of it (keeping handfuls only in my Betta tanks, they LOVE it) and at the same time add a couple young plants so that my tank doesn't become completely barren but I don't want to do it all at once if I'm going to cause a mini cycle. Suggestions? Comments? Ideas? Else come Monday, I will see what happens myself

• PS: a side note to any new aquarist out there deciding between planted and not planted... just recently being new myself, I highly recommend planted tanks to start up, especially the "weeds" of an aquarium (at least to start) since they are very helpful in minimizing the heartbreak of loosing fish when learning to deal with the dreaded nitrogen cycle on your first tank, I am not so proud that I can't admit my "waterweeds" saved my fish at least twice in the beginning!

 

[BusterBot28]

Are you only taking out the anacharis? Could you show a pic of the tanks?

 

[Swlws]

Are you only taking out the anacharis? Could you show a pic of the tanks?

I'll take a pic when I'm home but yes, just anacharis will be removed from my 4ft so I can turn it into a display tank and not a pond that it is, about 2 weeks ago I took out enough to half fill a 5g bucket, there's at least that much to twice as much more still in the tank left in there will be +-100 duckweed that I regularly toss and 3 amazon swords that exceed the height of my tank plus whatever new plants I pick up.

 

[BusterBot28]

I'll take a pic when I'm home but yes, just anacharis will be removed from my 4ft so I can turn it into a display tank and not a pond that it is, about 2 weeks ago I took out enough to half fill a 5g bucket, there's at least that much to twice as much more still in the tank left in there will be +-100 duckweed that I regularly toss and 3 amazon swords that exceed the height of my tank plus whatever new plants I pick up.

You shouldn’t have to worry about a mini cycle. I wish I had that much plant growth in my tanks!

 

[Swlws]

So I went and dumped another half of what I had left and bundled the remaining anacharis into a ball (roughly 12 inches diameter now) and bunched it behind the driftwood

Next step is getting some new plants tomorrow and filling up this void space in the tank

*edit- by the way, there is 4 Pearl Gouramis, 3 Bristlenose, 6 Panda Cory's and a Betta in there... they're STILL masters at hiding

 

[kallililly1973]

Great looking tank. You could have cut them about an inch from the sand and let them regrow and you can also float them around. The only thing i can think of is your nitrates may go up a bit if you remove that many plants ( as you said the Anacharis are nitrate consuming machines ). I would test once you remove them and see where the levels are at and you may need to up your WC schedule to 40-50% weekly. Good luck!

 

[Swlws]

Great looking tank. You could have cut them about an inch from the sand and let them regrow and you can also float them around. The only thing i can think of is your nitrates may go up a bit if you remove that many plants ( as you said the Anacharis are nitrate consuming machines ). I would test once you remove them and see where the levels are at and you may need to up your WC schedule to 40-50% weekly. Good luck!

Thanks I was thinking the same thing, nitrates I definitely expect to go up, at least until the other plants I get settled in.