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Journal 120 Dutch Ft. Yugang Reactor (Horizontal CO2 Reactor)

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@Unexpected when I changed my substrate I followed what @Mr.Shenanagins did with his. I took out my plants in individual Tupperware with tank water, netted out the fish and put them in a bucket with a bubbler, and drained the tank of water as low as I could get it, with the filter off. I then used a shop vac to suck out all the old substrate, it took around 15 minutes to get my 75 gallon 95% clean of the old sub. I still had to wipe some out but it was a breeze. If you have a spare shop vac dedicated for nastiness I would recommend it. It made a painful job super easy. The Shop vac was pretty heavy after and since you tank has more substrate than mine you might have to dump it a few times.
Excellent idea, and I do have a small one for dirty jobs.
 
Purely to keep the water a bit clearer as I remove the substrate. It’s going to get cloudy.
Yep do expect it. I could barely see the fish...but it actually cleared up pretty quickly for me.
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Alrighty, after many weeks I can see I’m 99% free of GDA. I cheated and just ran my old UV nonstop and that took care of the problem. I also added more 30ppi sponge just in case I needed more surface area.

Following my strategy, I’ve jammed the tank too full of species and I’m finally getting a bit of mass. I’m trying 2 different plants for my moss wall and I’m leaning towards the H. Japan as it’s just a bit darker and has better texture.

I was going to switch substrates today but I think I’ll wait for tomorrow so my wife can do it while I drink beer and supervise 😆.

Hopefully the next photos are with the BDBS installed.
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I might dig mine out of the attic tomorrow. I “think” it’s going away but I thought before…..
I love UV, at the end of the day, nothing gets the water clearer with some extra protection as a bonus. Is it the end all be all, no...but the benefits are obvious.
 
Can't wait to see your progress. I can learn a lot from you I'm sure.

I've been searching for BDBS in Australia, can not find any. I thought coal slag would be easy to source over here, but it's not.

Any suggestions for something similar, a black fine gravel perhaps?
 
done, easiest swap in my entire short career.
Nice to see how you do it, I did similar half a year ago and plan to repeat perhaps every year. I kept fish in the tank while I sucked substrate out, always dechlorinated water I was working with and kept my filter and all peripherals connected but powered down. Planted back with cleaned soil, and never had any trouble with the tank restarting. I lost no fish (perhaps a few shrimp), had no algae problems.
 
Can't wait to see your progress. I can learn a lot from you I'm sure.

I've been searching for BDBS in Australia, can not find any. I thought coal slag would be easy to source over here, but it's not.

Any suggestions for something similar, a black fine gravel perhaps?
Not sure if you have access to seachem products, but their Onyx sand is quite similar.
 
Nice to see how you do it, I did similar half a year ago and plan to repeat perhaps every year. I kept fish in the tank while I sucked substrate out, always dechlorinated water I was working with and kept my filter and all peripherals connected but powered down. Planted back with cleaned soil, and never had any trouble with the tank restarting. I lost no fish (perhaps a few shrimp), had no algae problems.
Fingers crossed with the no algae. I did a huge water change where there was only about 3 inches of water from the substrate.. The pH is 6.5 as I type this. I’d imagine that’s near degassed.
 
Can't wait to see your progress. I can learn a lot from you I'm sure.

I've been searching for BDBS in Australia, can not find any. I thought coal slag would be easy to source over here, but it's not.

Any suggestions for something similar, a black fine gravel perhaps?
The only other thing that comes to mind is the Seachem Florite?
 

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