# Difficulty in planting an established tank.



## Rikis (Apr 15, 2010)

Hello everyone,

Recently, our Hammers Cobalt Crayfish died and while we miss her trouble making shenanigans (such as rearranging our plastic plants, knocking over our vase decoration, etc), we are able to see a silver lining. We can now have real life plants without fear of their roots being dug up, or their stems being cut by mischievous claws. The only problem being in how easy it would be in planting some live specimens in a tank that's already been established.

Would we have to remove all the fish and add more gravel (the gravel depth is between an inch and two inches? Or remove the gravel we have (it's a little on the coarse side) and add new gravel? I do believe that the fish would enjoy real plants, but would the stress of being in a bucket while we set up their remodeled home be too much?

I do realize I'd have to change the lighting (we have a 29 gallon tank and the lights are 20W/18K), add some supplements to aid in growth, etc, but that's minimal if my aforementioned fears are correct.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

6700K bulbs


no you can remove it all and add new substrate without a problem, It took me 4 hours to do a 75g a few weeks back just exactly the way you are describing.

Do not cut corners on quality but the stuff isnt cheap for the most part if you get it from the store. 

I used 5g buckets, you should use two, get lids as well.

for your tank use 2 5g buckets, fill em with tank water, put the fish in one bucket and some in the other to balance them out and have lower bioloads in them while they are sitting, take the tank outside, dump and rinse it out, use a big yellow sponge or a green weenie (the one with a sponge and scrubber) and scrub it out good with plain water. take it inside, put the substrate in(i recommend eco complete) put your driftwood and rocks in first(resin decor doesnt not look good in a planted tank unless completely covered in thick moss) then your plants, then fill it up, you can use the bio-magnet clarifier that comes with it once the tank is full, stir it up a bit then net out the big crap, drain 10 g out of the tank and then pour your buckets in the tank slowly, netting the fish out first, turn the filter on and you are good. 
You are not hurting the filter bacteria when you do this and the tank is pretty much good to go. watch it a bit but as long as its at temp you arent hurting the bioload and if anything you will be in a mini cycle but the plants should take care of that before it starts.


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## mk4gti (Jun 15, 2010)

Yeah ive removed gravel and repalced it. I would recomend a substrate for planted tanks, i use eco complete, it can be pricey but right now petco.com has it for 15.99 for a 20 lb bag. Free shipping on orders over 75$


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Do you want a full blown planted tank, or just some nice plants? You could leave the gravel where it is and buy java moss, java ferns and anubais, they are not the fastest growing plants but will happily grow attatched to pieces of wood or rock and can look very nice. A bit more light would be better but you could could probably grow those plants with the light you have and no supplements.

If you redo the tank, the fish won't get as stressed out as you think. I find it helps to keep the bucket fairly dark and give them some thing to hide behind while they are waiting.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

The absolute beautiful thing about eco-complete is that no rinsing is required and the tank doesn't get that cloudy. Clear in less than 2hrs. Worth every bit of the extra cost for those reasons alone.


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## Rikis (Apr 15, 2010)

Thank you all for your answers, very appreciated! I think for now, I will start with the Java Moss and Java Ferns, seeing how well I do with those simple to care for plants will let me know if I am ready for the more complex plants that require special attention. I did a quick read up on both plants and it seems I'd have to get rid of the Ferns once I got other plants that require powerful lighting as the Ferns seem to actually be damaged by it, but that's ok considering the work that I'd have to do anyways.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I've found Java fern still does ok under medium light, only if you go for high light it may suffer. Anubais also tolerates very low light, there are lots of cultivars these days and I find it one of the hardest plants to kill.


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