whats the best way to tear down a NPT and then reassemble and change substrate?
I recently moved into a bigger place, and had to do a tear-down and rebuild on my 30 gallon.
First step, of course, is getting as much of the critters out as you can.
Then I actually drained my tank before uprooting any plants, and saved the water in 1-gallon jugs (about 20 of them). Then, I removed the plants to a second bucket of tank water for transport. I finished draining off the water, then saved some of the soil from the tank (with a little bit of water) in a third bucket.
When setting the tank back up, I used new soil, then capped it with about half an inch of the soil from the original tank, then the gravel. Planted and filled with the 20 or so jugs I had, then added fish and topped with treated tapwater.
I had no cycle in the new tank, just a small bacterial bloom, and no critter loss. I was quite pleased with myself.
