Tank Overhaul

PRichs87

I was sick of dealing with diatoms growing on plastic fake plants, tired of looking at boring black gravel, just tired of my tank looking really fake.



I decided to do a complete tank overhaul, and it is complete now, and I couldn't be happier.

Over the past few weeks I have been adding real plants to my tank and if I must say, they solely made my tank just so so SO much better. I only had about 25 pounds of gravel in my 30 gallon, so it wasn't really enough for the roots.

I went to petsmart bought more plants and decided to add sand to my whole tank, BEST decision I have made with this tank since I started it in January.

Only took me 1 hour to wash out 50 pounds of Quikrite sand from Home Depot. Used a bucket and took the hose head with a high power head attached and stuck it into the sand and dumped dirty water. My water is still a little murky, but that will clear up in time.



Can't wait for my plants to grow in, I'm so happy about that results, thank you to everyone who uses this forum, as it is in my opinion, the best resource for fish keeping and aquarium maintenance.

JohnnyD44

looks great!

iamntbatman

I like the look of the light sand with the darker gravel mixed in. I see you do have a pretty deep sand bed there, so you'll want to be sure the sand stays stirred to prevent dead spots from forming. You can either do this manually (I use an old drum stick) or you can add some Malaysian trumpet snails, which eat bits of uneaten food and other detritus and burrow through your sand and keep it stirred for you.

PRichs87

Thanks Iambatman, stirred my sand and gravel with a knife worked well enough. Water cleared up! Looks so good now, I would never do another tank with gravel or fake plants again! So Happy I'm a planted tank convert!

PRichs87

Just thought I would throw up some more pictures. Got rid of that awful looking fake tree and took the pot out, went to Home Depot and bought some Natural Slate tiles, smashed them up and used Aquarium sealant to create some slate formations for my tank.

Got some more plants and some Seachem Flourish Tabs for their roots, as some of my older plants have begun to wilt a little bit.



I'm all about DIY lately, as I've saved TONS of $$ instead of buying things at pet stores.

Romad

That's quite the transformation. Great job!

Peanut72

Looks great. I just got my tank used and has about as fake looking setup as as you can get, complete with castle, dragon and fake plants. I too want to get rid of all the plastic and do a total makeover in the tank. Looking at live plants, driftwood and rock. I like the idea of the slate tiles, that looks great. Are there any concerns with the tile containing any trace chemicals that can be harmful to the tank?

Thumbs up, I like what you have going on there.

jeaninel

Wow! I love the slate formations you made. I may have to try that myself. Tank looks nice too.

PRichs87

Make you you get 100% Natural Slate, they had it in stock at my Home Depot. You can look at the sides and see cleavage between the rock. One way you can tell that it is real slate is that it isn't all compacted looking, the person working will also be able to tell you. I got 5 square feet for $6, I obviously didn't need that much.

I just smashed them on my side walk, it will split very easily when you drop it and you will see the natural cleavage come out in the rock! Happy smashing! It was rather therapeutic!

PRichs87

Now the impatience of my plants growing in is the only thing I have to work about.