Jared Andrews

Let the chaos begin. The test results posted above are after I moved a bunch of sand around and switched out the filter.

One thing I was worried about was that disrupting the sand ~could~ release ammonia and other trapped gases into the water. This is something I have read about online, tho I don't think my tank is mature enough nor my sand deep enough for this be a factor. Still I was concerned about the possibility.

Despite all the chaos I created in the left side of the tank, it didn't seem to bother the fish or shrimp. In fact, they kept wanting to get in the middle of things. There were a few berried shrimp I noted during this process and as far as I can tell, none of them got so stressed that they dropped eggs.

To make room for the shrimp hide, I did end out removing one substrate bag from the left side. It's interesting to note that rotellas I planted by weighing down had indeed sent their roots into the substrate bag. You can see the shrimp hide in the background here.