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Well i decided to make my tank a "show tank" and spent hours doing it and £30 on new plants, little was i to know this would only las 11 days all because of one naughty fish.

It will move rocks and pebels up to the size of a mobile phone, plants last about 4 days before there shreaded.

The fish in question is an 7" Iporangensis Geophagus (Earth Eater) its name is Headache and this is why....

The tank is 4ft long so only half of it is in the pic.

My tank after i spent 5 Hours Aqua-sculpting



My tank after 2 days WTF (He is in the middle of the pic)



My tank after 11 Days (He is off to the left)



My tank after i ripped it all out so i can clean the tank and start again ](*,)



This is the naughty chunky little fellow


I will pop up some pics of my sand and smooth rocks, (Simple and un-wreckable). 8-[

That's one whopper of an Eartheater(Earthmover) just doing what comes naturally to him. Have you considered potting your plants and piling stones around the top of the pots. It might be some help. Then "decorate the rest of his tank so that however he rearranges things it will still be acceptable to you. At least he isn't a triggerfish. They do the same thing but can bite throught airline and heater electrical wires in two. Sometime they even shatter heaters. So it could be worse.

You could even have an oscar. Ive had oscars rearrange the entire aquarium, and then while their at it become curious and smash heaters and then 1" plastic tubing in the back.

But i would agree with the above, try stacking large stones on top, ive had that deter some very determined jack dempsies.

Ok well i made the switch from gravel to sand, i did it over a week, and its a bit cloudy but that should settle,

Here's what i have done...
Notice there are no heaters, filters and such like, well there are i have put them on there side at the back, near the top so when your stood infront of it there is no viewable equipment in there to wreck the look.

I cleaned the filter and pulled out the gravel and the tank went super cloudy but after 2 hours i got it all out, the method i used was to use my large net,

i did 3 30% water changes over a week and then i sucked up all the poo and removed everything from the tank and put all the equipment at the top and aimed the nozzles of the powerhead for maximum water flow.

I washed 2 bags of Silica Sand in a bucket until the water ran clear, about 12 fillups of the bucket (use warm water as cold water cools the sand so when it goes in it caused a sharp drop in temp), i filled up my net and then lowered it into the tank and tipped it out at one end.#

After about 20 minutes i had a masive mound at one end which i pushed down the tank to make sure i did not bury an little critters. once this was done i added the rocks and fed them.

This was done with all the fish in and they are fine. Its just hard to get the guts to start.

Here are 3 pics...







Ill get some pics when it settles.

I also got some new fish so here is my stocking list...

1x Iporangensis Geophagus (Earth Eater)
1x L022 Pleco
1x L001 Pleco
2x Tiger Pleco
4x Clown Loach
5x Congo Tetra
1x Marble Loach
2x Colbolt Gouramis
1x Apple Snail

Put the bogwood back in; with all those pleco's in there it's a must.

sidguppy
Please look in pic 3, i have left a large piece of Bogwood in there just for the pleco's,

I'm not that thoughtless,

No matter what setup i have there is always bogwood in there,

Decided to re do my tank again as the Congo Tetras kept getting stuck in the fake plants and the pl*co and Clown loaches needed somware to hide during the day.

A lot have said "Whats the point in bulding a tank where the fish hide all day and come out at night, you never get to see them" which i reply well i know there in there and happy as they will feel safe and come out when it suits them opposed to forcing them to be out.

If you look closly there is a 3ft pipe under the rock pile, with 5 ways out (one at each end and 3 pointing up).

Also replaced the filter media (Putting the existing foam in the bottom of the filer to colonise the new foam) and changed the angle of water flow.

Heres the new setup