# Re-doing your/my tank...Going Natural With PICS



## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

*INTRO *
Just to pre-warn any readers this is my total process of going from resin decor, fake caves with treasure inside including a air stone for bubble effects, and gravel completely unnatural and some what an amateur look; to sand substrate, natural rocks and a complete over haul on the tank to achieve a natural look! I have also previously adjusted my water parameters over the last month to achieve more natural water to match more of a Lake Malawi feel for the fish and now have them at: PH 8.2, NO2 0ppm, Ammonia 0ppm, GH 34, KH 22, and NO3 5ppm. I did this prior to changing the tank because I wanted them to be acclimated and comfortable to reduce stress before the major change. I changed my PH from 7.6 to the 8.2 no more than .2 every week. This will be a long post so please bare with me and I hope that it helps others "Go Natural"...Here we go...

*THE BEGINNING AND SUBSTRATE *
The first thing I did was decide that I wanted to take my tank to the next level. I was so intrigued by members tanks that looked so natural and beautiful. The fish looked happier and the tanks looked amazing. So the next thing was doing my research on substrates and what Lake Malawi was like which I found out very quickly that no where on the lakes surface was there aquarium style gravel lol hence the gravel must go. Not only was it unnatural but it also became very messy and housed a lot of my fish "by product" that I couldn't always get out with a vac. I spent probably three weeks looking around for different types of sand like natural beach sand, PFS (pool filter sand), Eco-complete, and other types of sand that I found at places like Zoo Sand, Pool Stores, LFS, beaches (which you have to be careful of b/c some places it's illegal to collect sand from beaches), and places like Lowes and Home Depot. Things that I took into consideration were price (of course), granule sizes (including consistency), color, cleanliness (including the time of cleaning it), and just the general quality of the product or sand. I ended up choosing between PFS and a multi purpose sand usually used in construction. Though PFS was still more cheap than most I looked into (about 10 USD for 80lbs) I wasn't that impressed with the color and how consistent the grains where. I then started leaning more towards the multi purpose where the price was even cheaper (4 USD per 60lbs), the color was more interesting and more natural looking, and the grains were less consistent which I feel gives it an even more natural look. I ended up getting one bag of the Multi Purpose sand from H.D. for just over 4 USD which was plenty for my 55g. Below is a picture of the bag for those who are more visual.









*CLEANING THE SUBSTRATE*
Now that I have my substrate I wanted to clean it asap b/c at this point I was really getting antsy about setting up my tank. I had read many articles about cleaning and preparing the sand for the tank so I was prepared with materials and set up the cleaning area in advance.
I used a 5g bucket, a hose, and a double lined 55g trash bag. Here is a picture of all the stuff I used:








I will mention now that this was a bit of a long process but you will not want to short cut any part of cleaning your sand as it will save you headaches down the line from anything from keeping fungus and parasites out of your tank to just the cloudiness clearing up quicker when adding the sand to the tank. I will also mention that I used water from a facet outside of the house but all my water is treated and the chlorine isn't in the water. If you are doing this your self you will want to add water conditioner to the sand as you wash it the final time to make sure all the chlorine is out. I started by adding 2.5g of water to the 5g bucket which is important b/c as you add sand to the water already in the bucket the larger grains will fall to the bottom faster and all the grains of sand will run through the water which helps wash off dirt and separate anything that floats, super fine grains, or anything that isn't sand. 








I then added enough sand to push the water up to about the 4g mark on the bucket and immediately noticed the importance of adding the water first as you can see the dirt and other impurities floating on the top and the water turning brown.
























After this initial adding of the sand to the previously added water, I dumped that water out just to get rid of the floating dirt and impurities that were already accumulating on the top of the water. I then added more water via hose till it came up to the 4g mark again and used my hands to stir up the sand making sure that I was getting all the way down to the bottom of the sand.








After this stirring I then tilted the bucket to about a 45 degree angle and started to drain the water out. As it drained out I used the hose holding my finger over the end to add water pressure (can also been done with a spray end) to help flush the sand around and properly clean the sand. After about five minutes of this continuous flushing I then tilted the bucket back up to let the sand settle and to get an idea of how the cleaning is coming. 
















I then continued this process about four to five times till the water that was flushing out of the bucket turned to clear water. Also I continued to tilt the bucket up to get an idea of how quick the sand was settling back down and the quality of water that was left once it did settle. Once the water that was flushed out was clear and the sand settled quickly leaving clear water behind I was confident that that batch was done. You can also judge this by stirring up the sand with your hands once it settles and seeing if it then clouds your water or just settles back down leaving clear water as shown below. When I was done with each batch I dumped it into the double bagged 55g bag to store it while cleaning other batches. This process took me between and hour to an hour and half to clean 60lbs. I also did this process first because the sand will hold temperature very well and if you are cleaning with cold/hot water or the climate you live in is extreme it will raise or lower the temp of the sand and you will want to let the bag of sand sit in room temperature for at least 24 hours to make sure that the sand when added to the tank doesn't affect the tanks temp as well! 

















*ROCKS AND CLEANING THEM*
This along with all the other process of changing my tank is something that I did a lot of research on. I found that certain rocks can actually change the water parameters of your tank overtime which can be dangerous for your fish. I then decided that I didn't want to take this chance and just steer away from those rocks like Limestone, Texas Holey Rock, etc. I live in Florida so rocks aren't really found easily unless you go to a landscaping company or are made of money and can buy super expensive rock from LFS. I am not made of money and didn't really like the idea of just going to the landscaping yard to hand pick rocks so I used this in my advantage and made an exploration out of it. I knew that I had a trip coming up to the Appalachian Mountains and planned on rock hunting while there. I was amazed by the selection of rocks that I found and brought back somewhere around 250-300lbs of rock. Some can be seen below and all were found while hiking or off-roading on dirt trails. 
















Once I got home I was ready to start cleaning them and getting the dirt off so I could see the treasure that I have found. I started by using a toothbrush and hose to get in the cracks and most of the surface dirt off. I did this about three times each rock letting them completely dry off each time. After the third time I got two large pasta pots and start both of them with boiling water. Once all the rocks had dried the third time I took the boiling water and dumped it over the rocks as a final shock to anything living on the rocks as I was previously using cold water. I then borrowed my neighbors pressure washer and used that as a final clean up on the rocks. The pressure helped remove anything in cracks the toothbrush couldn't reach or anything that was really anchored on the surface! Total process took me a couple hours as I wanted to make sure I wasn't adding anything to the tank that would harm my fish. I also was unsure of some of the rocks that I had collected and it seemed to resemble limestone. I didn't want any limestone in my tank as I wanted to be in control of my PH and didn't want any other variables to consider. I found a very simple way to test for limestone. I took pure white vinegar and a q-tip and dipped the q-tip in the vinegar. I then squeezed one drop of the vinegar out on the rocks of question to see if the vinegar bubbled up or not. If the vinegar bubbled up the rock was made of something that would influence my water parameters, but because I got no bubbles I was sure the rocks were good to go.

*SETTING UP THE ROCKS*
This was one of the processes of the make over that took the longest! If you considering adding rocks to an already established tank this is something that you will want to do out of the tank so that you aren't constantly moving rocks around taking the chance of crushing one of your fish if you lose your grip. What I did was brought all my rocks inside from outside to make sure they weren't influenced by any other contaminates or chemicals as we have a lawn service weekly that sprays chemicals. I then laid out a towel in the dimensions of the tank. I knew that I wanted my largest rock in the middle to serve almost as a background so laid that down first. I then added the larger rocks to the left and right and stacked the other rocks accordingly till I like it. I changed the set up quite a few times till I made it as usable to the fish and the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye! Below are some pictures of the process:

























*FINALLY THE TANK*
One of the most important things that I have learned from this whole experience is that you should always be well prepared for whatever step you are preforming! So learning this in previous steps I made sure that I had everything that I was going to need and would possibly need for this step on hand and ready. I had my spare ten gallon tank and another five gallon bucket close to the main tank ready for the fish removal and to hold some of the water that was already established to add back to the tank so that I wouldn't stress the bacteria too much seeing that I was removing all substrate and most everything else from the tank. I started by siphoning about 30 gallons of water from the tank figuring that less water in the tank will make for easier fish catching. I added 10 of the gallons to my spare tank and 5 gallons to the bucket that I had on hand. I then siphoned the gravel to remove as much waste as I could in the next 3 five gallon bucket loads. The next step I took was removing my big decor from the tank and placed them on the towel I was using for the rocks so that my carpet didn't get wet. I then picked the plants that I knew I wanted to keep for the new set up and placed them in the 10g tank with existing tank water and 5g bucket to keep them wet so that the bacteria on them would stay and be stressed as little as possible. Once the decor and plants were removed all that was left was my fish and gravel. I then removed all my fish putting them in either the tank or bucket according to aggression levels and species. I then put a towel over the ten gallon tank and the bucket to reduce further stress on the fish. 








To remove the gravel I used a cup that I made small holes in the bottom of to drain water as I scooped it out. The first two or three scoops I took I put in a media bag to help seed the new tank and avoid a mini cycle. Once I filled up the media bag with the established gravel I put it in the ten gallon tank. I put the rest of the gravel in a 55g trash bag same as I used for the sand. Once the gravel was removed the water was quite cloudy and dirty so I let it settle for a half hour or so so that I could siphon it out to start my new tank with as much established clean water as possible. I tried to make this part of the process as quick as possible as I didn't want to keep my fish out of the main tank for too long prolonging the stressed time.

Once I siphoned out the dirt that was left in my tank that had settled on the bottom I was left with reasonably clean water probably about 10 gallons plus the 15 or so gallons my fish are now in to add back to the tank, again to avoid a mini cycle. You will want to make sure that your filters still have water in them as well and it hasn't all siphoned out during this process so that they don't dry up and kills all the bacteria in them (Very Important). I also didn't clean anything off the sides of my tank during this as well to try and keep my tank as established as possible and to most it would seem like a good time to clean everything including glass but you want to keep as much as the bacteria in your tank as possible so I just removed the stuff didn't clean anything but the dirty water and fish poo from the bottom of the bare tank when the water settled. The next step is considered optional but from what I have read and heard from those who have a heavily rocked tank it is a must. I then got my piece of pre-cut egg crate that I got from H.D. (for about 11 USD) when buying my sand. The piece was large enough that when cut in half I had two pieces that would perfectly fit a 55g tank so I was getting two for the price of one and have an extra one on hand for the next tank or replacement of this one. When cutting the egg crate take in consideration the thickness of the glass as I didn't and had to slim it down once I tried to add it to the tank.

I now have nothing but the 10 gallons of water in my tank and laid in my piece of egg crate. You will then want to have a rock or something heavy enough to hold the egg crate in place as most of these products will float and will make this process pointless if you have sand under the egg crate between the tank and egg crate. I then used the same cup I used to remove the gravel to scoop out the sand from the bag and add it to the tank. I added the sand in the tank uniformly so that it filled up the egg crate but that I could still see the outline of it as I wanted my large base rocks to sit directly on the egg crate to avoid rocks shifting when the fish excavated the sand. Below are pics of these stages. 
































Once I added in my base rocks that I already knew where going to be the base of my rock work and the only rocks that would truly be sitting right on the substrate; I added in the rest of the sand. Be careful that when you are getting the sand behind or around the base rocks that you don't lift them up too much to get sand behind them as the sand will likely fall under the rock making this step pointless. I then added all of the remaining sand to the tank where I now have about 1-1.5 inches of sand above my egg crate that measured .25 of an inch. You can see in the picture below that the water still got quite cloudy from the sand even after extensive rinsing making the sand cleaning step even more important!









After making sure that the rocks were where I wanted them and that they were secure in the position by the sand I took the plants I saved from my last set up (still in the 10g and 5g holding the fish) and added them to the tank where they looked the best and buried them as deep as I could in the sand. Then I started adding the rest of the rock. I took pictures when the rocks were out of the tank and set up the way that I liked them so that I would have a reference point to look back on when setting them up in the tank. This was also very helpful and I suggest anyone doing this to take pictures of the way they set it up as well as it was useful time and time again when placing in the rocks. I still made some modifications to the set up as I placed them in proving even more that you should really take your time when first setting up the rocks outside of the tank and expect to even change them again when adding them to the tank! Now I was ready to start adding the water back to the tank and with the picture below you can see the rocks set up plants in and the water starting to settle out already which more water will help with as well!








When adding in the water I was careful to leave enough room for the 15g of water that I saved from the tank to add in established water and again try to avoid the mini cycle. Once I was at the point of adding in the existing water I moved the fish in the 5g bucket to the 10g tank as they wouldn't be in there much longer anyways. I then added that 5 gallons of water to the tank and the water was then settled and high enough to cut my filters back on. When changing your substrate to sand you will want to make sure that the sand is well settled before cutting on the filter as sand particles can damage your filter motor and you will be in the market for a new filter if you use it to try and settle your sand. I let the filters run for about a half hour to help clear up the water and make sure everything is stable. This was the time that I tested all my parameters to make sure everything is in order to add the fish and please don't forget to check the temp as stated before if you weren't careful about keeping the sand it can change the temp of your tank water if not kept in room temp. This was also the time that I added in the media sack with the established gravel. I kept that in for a little over a week to make sure that it had done its job with avoiding a mini cycle. Below is the pics of the tank fish added and water still a bit cloudy I will then show before and after pics. Total project cost Sand: 4 USD Egg crate: 11 USD Rocks: Free, Total: 15 USD and About 12 total hours of time!









*BEFORE AND AFTER PICS*
Here is where I show you the difference of the tank that I originally set up to the more natural look that I was trying to achieve. I hope that this has been helpful and expect to have comments good and bad on how I did or anything that I left out or something that I might should have done different. Thanks for reading the thread and I look forward to responses!

*BEFORE*

































*AFTER*


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

Looks real good, nice job on the makeover and the explanation of all of the steps! :thumb: I think if you add a black background to the tank now, it will be even that much better.


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

Yeah I will be adding the background next still have some ideas on my mind weather to go with a black background or something else but def needs one! I also have changed my lighting and gone from the bluish tint of the Power Glo to the more natural simulation of sunlight with the Life-Glo. The pics are with Power-Glo so I might post some of the Life-Glo when I add the background! Thanks for the comments!


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## roffels (Jul 27, 2010)

looks awesome man ... gotta let my brain take a breather after reading all that lol ....... good info .... i did everything exactly as you said lol (but that was before i did this) .... i am also gunna do a black background with mine i think im just going to spray paint a huge piece of cardboard and cut it to fit the back of the tank (outside) .... i superbly cleaned my sand its only been 3 hours since i filled the tank for the first time with sand and its almost clear .. i have 2 70 gallon filters running (so a total of 600gph so it cleans 90 gallons 6.67 times in an hour) and 2 power heads also for extra circulation ..... i think im going to get more rocks to add to the tank because i thought it would look good if i left a 6-12 inch space at the end of my tank of no rocks but it dosnt looks to great after getting it all set up lol


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

yeah my water cleared up pretty quick as well as I'm filtering close to 700 gph on my 55g! I spent a lot of time configuring my rocks before I added them to the tank to make sure when I added them I wasn't going to want to move them for some time. I might add more rocks but won't move any that are down now! Thanks for the comments!


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

i hate to be a jerk, but when you say natural, I expect more than just natrual decor, but a more natural look to it as well, and i just don't get that here

that is one huge rock though


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

You are not being a jerk and I was expecting criticism good and bad so its ok. When you say you don't get the natural look what could be done IYO to make it seem more natural. I know that the rocks look a bit placed but I just don't like the tanks that look like they have a pile of rocks in the tank I was trying to make it look naturally good if that makes since and not like a five year old just dropped rocks in anywhere and it is just one big pile of rocks i guess. And yes that is a big rock it is quite heavy and was a task not only collecting it my self but adding it to my tank my self as well lol


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## roffels (Jul 27, 2010)

i didnt do the pile of rocks but i kinda did at the same time lol but i also did strategically place them but i think i did a really good job at making it look natural and letting them have alot of caves and places the can go back and forth through the pile ... i just want to ad more rocks because it looks silly with no end at the wall of rocks lol i think i did a good job for placing them all right and liking it in one shot  will post picture soon

until then have a good night


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

Look forward to pics! maybe I should add more rocks to mine to make it look less placed and more random?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

well in nature, rocks just fall, there is no hand placing them, nothing to ballance them, so when they are stacked the way you have them on the sides, it's very unatural looking, plus the multiple types of rocks not only together, but alternating is not natural looking, usually you hav rocks of similar type and size next to each other then progressing into smaller or larger sizes, then to different types of rocks sometimes

those flat pieces are just so out of place, even more so than the varying sizes









this is one of mine, not completely random, but not overly designed either, cohesive rock types, and cohesive sizes and general shapes of the rocks


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

GotCichlids? said:


> When you say you don't get the natural look what could be done IYO to make it seem more natural.


Here are some all-rock tanks that look VERY natural in my opinion. I think the key with all is that the rocks are very similar in colour and shape. Small rocks in front of large rocks enhance the feeling of depth. Rocks lean on each other in nature, but they seldom form piles and shelves.

member gherlevi:









member johnlabbe:









member Adirondack Blues:









kevin

P.S. I think your effort shows and your new aquascape looks miles better!


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

Thanks and I wanted to get it closer to natural than what I did have and I think that I achieved that for the most part. As far as the pics of other tanks that you have shown I see the difference esp with the first and the last tank as those are Mbuna tanks which would be better examples to compare to mine. The middle tank seems to be a Hap/Peacock tank and the rockscape and much more sparse where most of those species are open water swimmers though some are rock dwellers. But even with that said I do get the idea that you are trying to make and that note is def taken.


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

I'm going to be doing a WC today as the NO3 jumped up quickly I think b/c of using the old water from the bottom of the tank so I will re-work my rocks when I do that and post an updated pic see what everyone thinks still haven't gotten a background but at least you will be able to see the new lighting as well...


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

Well here's the update: 
I did my weekly WC and started messing with the rocks and removed the slate rocks to at least have the same size and style rocks in the rockscape. I also changed my lighting from a bluish tint to something that simulates natural sunlight much better. Here is the pics I think it looks better and more natural let me know what you think!

Front:









Right:









Right side:









Left:









Left Side:


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## pomi (Oct 13, 2009)

Nice fish and tank, but the natural look you want to achieve is shadowed by those plants. Also, the rocks should not be so sharp looking. Here are some vids I watched before I went to find some rocks for my tank. They are from the lake, filmed in different areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDgoPKHz ... hizTLB9gyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1yTmjE5 ... z0SjeKvZmU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0bxGjET ... 8svbutyFys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Hv2MbT ... bhqq7Vel54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emxa_Z8E ... 2MtxzZnL5o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bb7q3L7 ... S_twsq3xFg

Cheers!


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## electyellowdude (Feb 18, 2010)

i think there are 2 problems with it. you need to take the plants out and put a solid colored background on it and it will look 1000x better!! :thumb:


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

yeah thanks Yellow I have seriously been contemplating taking out the plants and def going to add a solid black background. When I was setting up the tank I thought about not even adding the plants in but if you read my "novel" of a thread in the beginning I was really adding in the plants as a method to avoid a mini cycle as they had established bacteria on them from my old set up and seeing that I literally took out everything else I was hoping that, that and the gravel I used to seed the tank would be enough with hopes of removing the plants in a week or two when I knew my bacteria was strong enough again! I will post pics of the tank with black background and no plants soon hopefully this weekend! So far ammonia and NO2 still reading 0ppm so I think I have successfully avoided the mini cycle monster  hope I didn't just jinx my self haha thanks for the posts guys/gals


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## zeus108 (May 1, 2010)

Ok here is my two cents....  I think it is more important to build the tank to what species you have and what you are trying to get your cichlids to do. For instance many people have plecos in there tank but no drift wood not even hidden behind rocks. Plecos get a great deal of nutrician from drift wood and it helps them to be healthy. Also some cichlids requier shells some times a certain rock can intice a cichlid to breed. Also in my experience fake plants are a great source for algae which some cichlids love to eat off. So yes it is important to have a tank that looks great but it is even more important the cichlids are happy. I think all the tanks look great. Who would want every tank to look the same that shows no individuality. Would you buy a car because everyone else on a forum loves it? Of course not you are the one that has to be happy with it. Well just some food for thought...... 8)


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## gilberbt (Aug 1, 2009)

I really like the look of your tank. I just did the same thing to mine several months ago and I am glad I did. My rocks are very similar to yours too, just a little darker, and I think they look great and as long as they are not too sharp your fish will be fine. If some seem too sharp you can bang another rock on any sharp edges to dull them down if needed.

I know people either love or hate them, but I am experimenting with live plants in my show tank now and it may be something you want to try if you like the look of plants but donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want fake plants (since you are going natural in your tank). Personally I think it softens the look of the rocks and the fish seem to like them too. At first it was a pain because my plants where always getting dug up. After about a month or so they stopped digging them up and I couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t figure out why until I tried to move some around and realized that the roots had intertwined into the egg crate under the sand and now I havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t had any dislodged in over 2 months now.

Anyway, good luck with your tank and great job documenting this process.


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