I finished the 5ft rescape today. Started last night about 8pm Friday night, pulled up at 2am Sat morning (pulling plants, catching fish, draining water, removing old substrate, fully cleaning tank, getting wood just how i wanted it *L*, put in layer of laterite and dino duno, wash new gravel and put in). Started again around 8am finished around 4ish (adding 350 litres of water by the cup full, sorting and planting, clean filter and get the 'darn' thing to go again *L*, turn heater on) so approx 14 hours of work, but i love it lol

Some pics

Clean tank and playing with wood to get it where i like it


After laterite, dino dung and gravel added


Still planting, so only 4ft T8 light running


Finished ~ T8's and T5's running


Now i'm just waiting for it to come upto temperature before adding some fish in.

The cories will not be returning (shocking for digging and knocking out new plants), now the yoyo loaches (diggers, and i dont want them messing my substrate *L*), nor the larger clown loaches (just started punching holes in my plant leaves), i'm going to trade these for smaller clown loaches (small enough to do no harm!

Oh and a suprise *L* I bought a very large peppermint bristlenose male months ago, hadnt seen it since i put it in there...thankfully it is still alive and i am VERY happy to see him!!!

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Water is clearing, scuse reflections on glass in spots, i had room lights on (OH working in here *L*)

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Looks great! I probably would have emptied the first round of water and re-filled it, since I hate waiting for it to clear up...but it looks great now.

What was your reason for rescaping/breaking down your old tank? Better substrate? Just bored? New plants?

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--->Pictures of my 75g Amazon tank<----

Nice aquascaspe!

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

Dmaaaaax ~ Re-emptying it would have wasted 350 litres of water, My house runs mostly on tank water and being on water restrictions due to very little rain, i really i just couldn't justify that, anyway 2 days to clear isnt all that long

I originally was pulling it down to drop the substrate level down, topping with gravel a few times made it come up too high, i wasnt happy with how much tank space i was losing. Then i thought, well its gonna have to have everything removed to remove the old (RichGro & red gravel), i may as well pull it all out and restart with a totally different substrate (laterite, Dino Dung & black gravel).

It has opened the space up i wanted, and i'm really liking the look. Fish have better colour with the black gravel. Though some fish will not be going back into the tank, the yoyos are going, they dig to nearly half their body length, and i dont want them stirring up the substrate. I was going to remove the clowns too, but i just couldnt do it, i'll just deal with the odd hole in a plant leaf *L* The male BN will be kept out for breeding with the new female i got. The cories wont be returning either at least until the plants have established themselves.

Petlover ~ Thank you

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Seems some of the inhabitants are quite pleased with the new look

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Wow spawning already! Nice....are you gonna cut the leaf and move it to a quarintine tank?

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--->Pictures of my 75g Amazon tank<----

No, they will stay in there. All my spare tanks are taken with BN pairs or fry, so no room to house Angel fry at present

Ya never know they may manage to get a few through, last time the laid the yoyos had a lovely feed of caviar *L*. The yoyos arent in there now.

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

An updated pic ~ scuse the flash mark, i'll get a better pic when i got more time



I'll be adding a bit more gravel for depth, if the loaches ruffle the current gravel in some places they a rewarded with a clay cloud (from the dino dung)

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

My angel layed a bunch of eggs on the glass on on out thermometer. Unfortunately I only have 1 angel so no males. She still guarded them from the Discus and CAEs for about a week....poor thing.

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--->Pictures of my 75g Amazon tank<----

New pic ~ taken today

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Updated pic ~ tank now 8 weeks old

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Awesome !!!! Thanks for sharing that journey.

Coming along very nicely, your tank is beautiful.

May I make one suggestion? You should put those pics in your gallery here:
Aquarium Gallery - Alasse Gallery

Thank you both

MediaHound ~ Oopps sorry, didnt realise they are meant to go there, i'll get onto it

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1x350L Cichlids, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Angel breeding pair, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

keeps on lookin better and better!

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

What a truly beautiful aquarium!

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2 Tanks Currently:
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85 Gallon:
1 Blood Parrotfish
1 Albino Tiger Oscar
2 Tinfoil Barbs
1 pleco
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20 Gallon Planted:
6 Australian Rainbows