I recently converted my 125 gallon tank from mbuna to an all male peacock and hap setup
with mostly juveniles.
When I did that, I removed most of the hardscape and kept only a few large pieces because peacocks
and haps don't require the extensive rockwork and hiding spaces that mbuna do.
But the more I looked at it, the more boring and empty it looked.
I don't have a 3D background in my tank and the back is painted black, so the hardscape
is the only decoration I have other than the fish.
I decided to add some of my previous rock back in, and I stacked it up against the back
of the tank to see if I would like it better.
Ultimately, I didn't.
It looked ok, but I had to sacrifice the circular flow from my 3 filters that I've come to really
like.
I also grew tired of the hodgepodge of different rock types and colors.
I decided to take it all out and get some new rock.
Now I would never buy rocks from a local fish store due to the inflated prices.
Instead I headed to a local landscaping wholesaler and found some for 19 cents a pound that were
exactly what I wanted.
I bought 250 pounds for around $50 US.
Here you can see me prepping the tank and removing all of the old rockwork.
I then did a quick pass with the python water changer to clean the waste from the substate
while I had everything out of there.
Once that was done I hooked up my 400 gallon per hour pump to the python tube to drain
the tank to around the halfway mark.
Then comes the fun part.
I had already laid out the rocks in groups of large, medium, and small on the floor but
I hadn't really done any planning of the layout.
I knew I wanted them piled in one long row, with room in front and behind them for water
flow.
I started with the large rocks and placed them into the tank, making sure to move the
substrate out from underneath.
It's important that these big rocks lay flat on the bottom with no wiggling, as they serve
as the foundation for the upper layers.
I went through all of the large rocks, then the medium, then the small, each time making
sure I was happy with the way they looked but also making sure they weren't easy to
topple.
I then dosed the tank with Seachem Prime and refilled it just as I would after any normal
water change.
If only it went this fast.
The last step was to turn the filters back on, add some Seachem Clarity, replace the
canopy, and wait for the water to clear up.
Again, this is sped up considerably.
This is the end result, a day later.
There are a couple of things I will need to tweak, but overall I'm really happy with how
it turned out.
I love the color of the rock and it's uniformity.
It almost makes the tank look like it's in greyscale except for the fish.
Please let me know what you think in the comments, and if you enjoyed this video please click
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