20 gallon fresh water aquarium update *Before and After Pics Here Now*

[Crabber85]

Last night I finally got my 20 gallon fresh water aquarium re-done with all new aqua-scaping, the sand bottom that was using has been replaced with dark brown gravel to allow for more oxygen flow through the bacterial bed and I also put in fresh Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil since the stuff only lasts about six months my plants had begun to melt back due to a lack of ferts present at the roots.The my new aqua-scaping theme(river bed) also includes small smooth river stones to complete the river bed look as they set off the color of my fish and also provide some contrast to the green of the Amazon Sword plants I have in the tank.I'll post a before and after shot when the water clears up a bit more which should be in the next day or so at the rate its clearing up already.It took me from 10 o'clock pm to just after 2 am to get all the fish and decor out, completely drain the water which I kept back a gallon of it to seed the new water with, to scrape out 98% of the existing sand and potting soil I kept back a little of the old just to seed the new potting soil and gravel bed with, add the new potting soil and wet it down to keep it from floating, add the new gravel base as a cap to prevent the potting soil from escaping and clouding up the water severely, fill up the aquarium with new dechlorinated water and to add the fish back in.I had to turn the filters, air stone and heater back on for forty-five minutes to bring the water up to 75 degrees and to filter some of the excess nutrients out so as not to shock my fish when I added them back in.

[Crabber85]

I thought I had a relatively new pic of the aquarium when it had the sand cap over the potting soil but my camera deleted it along with a ton of others from a previous vacation. I can't believe this, I've got a couple of pictures on my phone that I could use but they wont show up in my email due to the format that they use....I'll keep working on it and see if I can come up with something.

[Crabber85]

I've found one I can use its not very new but it shows the sand bottom pretty well.

[Tetra4CClyPtus]

Looking good

[Crabber85]

I'm going to try to get a pic of the new setup on here tonight so you can see the difference.

[Crabber85]

Here is the new River theme.I just replaced the bulb in the overhead light with a HO or high output daylight reef bulb meant for promoting the growth of delicate micro algae, corals and plants because the light you see is coming from a year old bulb that wasn't quite as good at promoting plant growth and had started to loose its intensity due to age.@Jenok, you remember when I told you that sand was a bad idea in planted aquariums because it doesn't allow for air flow to the roots well when I pulled the tank apart to re-do it and put fresh organic potting soil in it I noticed that some of plants had root rot due to the absence of oxygen deep down where they were at.The odor coming from the tank was obnoxious to say the least because the sand had trapped the anaerobic bacteria on the bottom and wouldn't allow for enough oxygen to seep in to keep this harmful bacteria in check, it nearly knocked my head off but I powered through it and now the tank is smelling better and looking way better, less algae on the decor and glass and the water is staying clearer.

[jenok]

Love it! Took me a while to see the fish though.