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Trouble Maker!
- Location
- Somewhere on the East Coast
I think unless it's going to be a while until the rocks come out of the tubs, doing a water change without having any Po4 removing devices hooked up would be a waste of effort. I just don't think much will leach out of them while in the tubs. What I would suggest is setting up a series of about three 5 gallon buckets and in series of 1st to 2nd to 3rd buckets swish the rocks vigorously to shake out as much debris as possible. If you are seeing a lot of debris still accumulating in the 3rd bucket, dump the water and add fresh SW and repeat the process. Seeing as you are not cooking your rock, you want it as clean as possible before putting it in the new tank.
Is all the rock out now? there is still some in the tank in the pics.
Once the rock is out, I would start draining the tank to a level where the fish are easily caught, this will put less stress on them than chasing them around the tank with a net. Starting with the largest, drain the water until their dorsal fins are starting to come out of the water, now they will be easily caught,once they are out, drain some more and repeat until they are all out. A Couple of 5 gallon buckets with airstones and heaters will be fine for them, cover them so they are in the dark and the buckets are out of the way and will not be disturbed, this will create the least stess for them (other than having a temporary tank set up for them).
Drain the tank, remove the sand, take down the tank and start plumbing the new one, You should already know as exact as you can, how you plan to plumb it.
Once plumbed and ready to run, I would start the rock work, do this quickly and get everything ready to run.
You want the rock on the glass so no "burrowers" will disturb the sand underneath it. You might not like it intitally and can redo it later, you don't want that rock out of water any longer than needed to prevent any die off.
Add your sand (after rinsing well, don't rinse the "Live") and cover it as much as possible with new garbage bags and start filling by pumping or dumping the water over the bags. Once you are about 1/2 to 2/3 full you should be able to SLOWLY AND CAREFULY remove the bags as to not disturb the sand. fill the rest of the tank.
Fill the tank, unless your old water was real bad, I would keep about 1/5 of it to add to the new setup.
Re acclimate the livestock.
There are many ways to do this, my way might be completely different than how others would go about it. there is no absolutely right way to do it, so take everyones advice and go with what you think will work best for you.
Is all the rock out now? there is still some in the tank in the pics.
Once the rock is out, I would start draining the tank to a level where the fish are easily caught, this will put less stress on them than chasing them around the tank with a net. Starting with the largest, drain the water until their dorsal fins are starting to come out of the water, now they will be easily caught,once they are out, drain some more and repeat until they are all out. A Couple of 5 gallon buckets with airstones and heaters will be fine for them, cover them so they are in the dark and the buckets are out of the way and will not be disturbed, this will create the least stess for them (other than having a temporary tank set up for them).
Drain the tank, remove the sand, take down the tank and start plumbing the new one, You should already know as exact as you can, how you plan to plumb it.
Once plumbed and ready to run, I would start the rock work, do this quickly and get everything ready to run.
You want the rock on the glass so no "burrowers" will disturb the sand underneath it. You might not like it intitally and can redo it later, you don't want that rock out of water any longer than needed to prevent any die off.
Add your sand (after rinsing well, don't rinse the "Live") and cover it as much as possible with new garbage bags and start filling by pumping or dumping the water over the bags. Once you are about 1/2 to 2/3 full you should be able to SLOWLY AND CAREFULY remove the bags as to not disturb the sand. fill the rest of the tank.
Fill the tank, unless your old water was real bad, I would keep about 1/5 of it to add to the new setup.
Re acclimate the livestock.
There are many ways to do this, my way might be completely different than how others would go about it. there is no absolutely right way to do it, so take everyones advice and go with what you think will work best for you.
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