Rescaping my 4 ft tank

[Savant]

I have a 4 feet tank that will need to be rescaped at some point.

This was formerly set up to be a high tech planted tank, but it didnt work out... Given the recent complusive pleco/cory collecting, I will have to reshape the tank to provide them the plecs with more real estate (driftwood/caves) and open space for the corys.

The tank currently houses quite a large number of plecos, corys and some rummynose tetras... I am thinking of doing the scape (shifting the driftwood/caves) without removing the fauna.

Is there any danger in doing so?

Also, anyone saw any good scapes involving amount of drift wood, river rocks, low tech flora, that is suitable for plecos/corys that I can use for inspiration...

[torque6]

Savant, its pretty much the same as doing renovations with you in the house , i posted a topic on this last time, but no one responded.

[Savant]

Renovations with me in there, hmmmn... I guess I will want to be there to supervise, as for living within, its a can-do but will not be comfortable...

I have issues with scooping all the fishes out as they have proved to be pretty hard to catch. Further, I do not even think that the scaping can be done within a day. I can probably commit 2-3 hours max to shifting the woods about...

I will leave the gravel alone tho, so there should be minimal disturbance of any silt in the substrate...

[torque6]

perhaps i have less fauna to worry about. I usually catch them and place them in my temp tank before proceeding to any scape changes. I scape with no water by the way. Once that is done, I top up the water and proceed to a 12hr acclimate exercise again. Its tedious but i havent lost any faunas this way.

[Shadow]

it depend on how major is your rescaping? If it just shifting little bit here and there, you probably can get away with it. However if it is major scaping which include pulling out most of the plant and replant it, it would be saver without the fauna inside.

[AquaObsession]

Ask yourself, if I had 1 hino shrimp inside, will I leave it inside. Of course not. So golden rule is to take out the fauna, house in a well setup temporary tank, and do your rescape. Do your water change, and let it run a while before adding the fauna again to the tank.


However, I have a different experience myself, which should not be taken as an example.
My latest major rescape on my 4 feet tank was yesterday. Took out bogwoods, uprooted all my crypts and vallisneria, clear some of the algae at the front between my lapis sand and glass. In other words, big mess. But I turn off my filter, and did a 90% water change to take out most of the dirt. No casualties. But my fishes are rummy nose tetra, ottos, black neons, nothing expensive to say. In my previous big big rescape, I've left all my fishes/shrimps inside as well. Thing for me, if I have to take out fishes, I have to take out the hardscape (woods) because I find it hard to catch 100+ fish with all these things inside.

When I did try to keep them in a temp tank, I fail. This is because I did not take proper step of setting up a temp tank.

It's how hardy and healthy your fish are as well, I think. Mine are well fed, very responsive, and used to 90% water change (straight from the tap) most of the time. Only thing I add is a good anti chroline solution.

In theory, housing the fish in a temp tank is better. It avoid the stress etc etc. But what if someone has to take out the wood to catch them, or not use how to catch them and stress them further. Compared to someone who handle the rescape with great care, no matter how major it is. Of course, for taking out substrate, you have to take out the fish.

best way. handle with care!

Cheers, Christophe

Sorry for long writing, I am so bored at work these days.