Changing from Planted to BB

[aussieant32]

Hi All

Basically my mrs accidentally wiped out the 4 discus in my tank. Long story but she accidentally tipped an entire container of food in there and didn't want to tell me in case I got mad, now this was very late one night and I didn't notice until morning and the damage was done, changed about 150% of water in 2 days and still ammonia was around 3 and nitrites around 5, sadly the fish did not make it.

Now I have experience keeping discus, have kept them for around 5-6 years so now that my tank is empty I want to convert my tank to BB. Is it just a case of emptying the tank, removing gravel etc, rinsing and refilling? I want to keep my filter running as much as I can so I am thinking of buying a really large container to sit the inlet and outlet in while I clean the tank.

Is that pretty much it? Empty, clean, refill, re install filters and heaters and run/test until the water is right again?

[ILLUSN]

if you use a big hose (25mm or bigger) you can just siphon out the substrate and then refill with water, that way you wont nrrd to shut anything down.

[aussieant32]

thank you, I would like to give the tank a really good scrub, its been running for abut 8 years.

How long would my bacteria etc last with the filter off?

[Merrilyn]

So long as you keep feeding the bacteria in the filter with some form of ammonia, you should be right for days, or even weeks. Finding the right ammonia is going to be a problem. We used to be able to buy a clear ammonia from the supermarket years ago.

Unfortunately somebody discovered it could be used for making bombs or something, so it was removed from sale. All we can get now cloudy ammonia, with an added detergent. Useless in an aquarium set up.

You can buy powdered ammonia from some online aquarium suppliers, which is my preferred method when doing a fishless cycle in a new tank, or you can resort to a nice stinky green prawn, and as it rots down, it will produce ammonia that you filter can use.

Another source of ammonia, is to just put in a heap of fish food and let it rot, as you have unfortunately already discovered.

When your tank is ready to set up again, give your filter a good rinse in dechlorinated water to get rid of the stink and the excess food, before running your clean tank water through it.

So long as you add fish to the tank within a day or so of adding your filter, you should be right.

[swampy1972]

thank you, I would like to give the tank a really good scrub, its been running for abut 8 years.

How long would my bacteria etc last with the filter off?

Simple answer - several hours..

If you set yourself up to do your scrub out and refill as one process, your filter will be fine.

I moved house last week and had an active barebottom tank. To emtpy the tank I just put the filter return line on a hose that ran to a drain - effectively using the filter as a pump to empty the tank thereby letting the filter run for as long as possible. Once the tank was emptied the filter was obviously switched off for the time it took to load the tank and stand in a trailer, move it, set it up in the new place and refill it = about 3hrs.

I didn't lose any fish, more importantly it didn't cause a mini-cycle!

[aussieant32]

thanks very much swampy! Will look to get it underway over the next few days and make sure everything is in place to get it filled and running ASAP

[aussieant32]

hi all

just let you know that this morning I got up early and now have a BB tank. Looking great. Gave the filter a good clean and will see if my levels are ok or if I am going have a cycle.

Cheers all

[swampy1972]

hi all

just let you know that this morning I got up early and now have a BB tank. Looking great. Gave the filter a good clean and will see if my levels are ok or if I am going have a cycle.

Cheers all

Hopefully you just rinsed the media in tank water...

It always pays to keep a close eye on your paramaters over the next few days just to be sure. Good luck with the new setup

[aussieant32]

yes it was in old tank water

Here are my parameters after 10 hours of this morning's refills. (I know quite a few are not valid, but I wanted to try out all the tests in my new Sera Master kit, going forward I will just post the relevant ones, the ones in bold)
PH: 7.0
KH: 2
GH: 4
Chlorine: 0
Iron: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonium: 0.004
Ammonia: 0.5
Phosphate: 0

Will monitor it over the next few days to see if it is cycling or if I have gotten away with it!