55g Rebuild

mcordelia said:

wow, that is a pretty striking difference! it looks like based in the first image of the three you posted that the damage was on the cornea, as opposed to the lens, which is where cataracts normally develop (at least that is how I understand the definition of a cataract). In humans, the cornea turns over very quickly so it could very well be that it is not a permanent damage? one can hope.....
I know humans and fish share very few things in terms of biology, but one can speculate...

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Yeah, hers looked more on the surface. A couple of my weitzmani are looking a bit better too.

The one CW028 is still my worst affected

Fingers n fins crossed for you here. Best of luck.

Blind cherry barb lady came out was trying to eat. Theyre adapting, and some fish are improving

Tank is still going uphill.
Some of my vals are trying to come back too. My hornwort on the right side has taken off very well.


3 of my weitzmani cories have regained their eyesight, as has one CW028 cory. But still 4 trilineatus cories, 1 weitzmani cory, 1 CW028 and the cherry barbs are still affected but improving.

New growth on my hygro rosanaverig, the nice pink tones are gone though.


No melt from my crypts


Moneywort doing good


My Taiwan lily melted a bit but has been recovering and growing a new leaf this week.


Anubias Hastifolia pearling after a water change.


This CW028 is affected in his other eye still


Napoensis taking advantage of the plants


Derpy hoplo also lounging around. Barbels are grown completely back now.


My male cherry barb is affected in both eyes but he has some sight as he reacts to movement and will chase off the teenage boy melon barbs too. However, hes also not sure whether he wants to be bright red or his usual weird brown colour.



And one of the blind ladies



But at least the cherry barbs are coming out more.

The teenage boy melon barbs have started squaring off against one another and today were being chased off by the cherry boy lol



And a brief 30s video of the tank post water change tonight

Fixed up a bit more plants on the right side since the hornwort just was bent on floating instead of staying anchored. Got more anubias, can't go wrong there. Couple more pieces of driftwood added to that side too. Small changes since a couple fish are still blind or part blind.
Had to move my ozelot sword, getting shaded out by the other swords and is barely hanging on lol I'm gonna let it grow a bit before deciding a more permanent placement for it. Leaf litter too.
Changed filtration to a Fluval Fx4 canister.
Also, the melon barbs are removed from this tank, they were becoming incredibly aggressive towards my other fish and relentlessly chased them when they tried to hide. This is a no no with blind fish.
I'm sad to see them go, but its for the best.


Some videos

first up, blind barbs and their spawning attempts

And a video of the entire tank, with a successful spawning from the cherry barbs at the beginning

Best story ever: this morning, hubby and I were laying in bed and our son was building a tower of stacking cups on my side of the mattress. He then grabbed my phone and asked for doggy videos, and I was like, no doggy videos this morning. Then he was like "fish videos!" And I said I would look. I noticed you had posted a video about oats or charlie, and I showed that to him and his response was: "woooow", so we watched that video twice then he wanted more, so I showed the barbs video, and he squealed and did a happy dance!!! We then watched then barbs another 4 times after which he proceeded to make the most foul, smelly poop in recent memory.... So that was the end of our morning cuddles.

But, thank you for making our morning amazing!!! That "wow" and happy dance definitely made my day

Bonus: he watched the hoplo video on your channel while I was changing him which almost gave me enough time to work through the level 4 disaster that was down there haha

mcordelia said:

Best story ever: this morning, hubby and I were laying in bed and our son was building a tower of stacking cups on my side of the mattress. He then grabbed my phone and asked for doggy videos, and I was like, no doggy videos this morning. Then he was like "fish videos!" And I said I would look. I noticed you had posted a video about oats or charlie, and I showed that to him and his response was: "woooow", so we watched that video twice then he wanted more, so I showed the barbs video, and he squealed and did a happy dance!!! We then watched then barbs another 4 times after which he proceeded to make the most foul, smelly poop in recent memory.... So that was the end of our morning cuddles.

But, thank you for making our morning amazing!!! That "wow" and happy dance definitely made my day

Bonus: he watched the hoplo video on your channel while I was changing him which almost gave me enough time to work through the level 4 disaster that was down there haha

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Oof i don't miss the days before potty training!
But im really happy that the videos could bring some entertainment! Should show him the loach one haha

Will do! I'll let you know what he thinks!!

As promised:

This morning, he again asked for fish videos, and I was prepared with your loach video! Unfortunately, it was not a hit lol. I don't think he understood what was going on in the video, might have been too small and not colorful enough lol. So we watched the barbs a few more times.

I have to say though, I'm not sure what specifically it is about your barb video that he likes, because I also showed him @mbsqw1d 's odessa barb video which I thought would have been even more of a hit because of the bright colors, but he wasn't that into it. He just likes the cherry barb and hoplo videos lol. I think it's a combination of the. Having music and the fish interacting with the plants/leaves that does it for him somehow.

Anyway, figured I would update you, and I for one am not at all disappointed by this recent interest in fish videos

Added some new plant, pretty sure is ludwigia palustris green, but ill be making a thread to identify it for sure.
No more melon barbs, they went back home.
Added black emperor tetras instead which are a fantastic fish

Really like how the tetras move in the tank, you have a lot more midwater action now compared to the older videos fun!!!

How do you like the new version of things?

NCaquatics said:

So, for those who aren't aware, I had to completely gut my 55 gallon due to hand sanitizer contamination, wiping out some of my fish.
Husband helped me Scrub the tank, rinse it all out, get it all cleaned up.

New filter, new filter media, new substrate, new heater, new driftwood, and new rocks.
A cycled sponge filter from another tank will be added once my fish return to it. Right now the fish are in a tote with said filter and carbon.

After sitting all week in a tote of water and carbon and being washed, my plants are moved back. Now I've got the tank all re set up, im going to let the filter run to clear out the cloudy sand water, let the plants adapt to the change, and maybe if all is well, later this week I can add my surviving fish back.


I plan on putting the heater and sponge filter in the far right corner, with a rock stack around it as an accent to the left side of the scape. Perhaps a few anubias in it too.
View attachment 120792


Close up of the hardscape.
Rocks stacked around with driftwood (elm root) and moss on top. Formed a natural cave im hoping my BN pleco will enjoy.
View attachment 120793

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Wow looks great! Can't wait to see it all mature! Great aquarium

mcordelia said:

Really like how the tetras move in the tank, you have a lot more midwater action now compared to the older videos fun!!!

How do you like the new version of things?

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Liking it a lot, still don't think my vals are gonna come back anytime soon, oh well lol

I moved my Taiwan lily though over to where the gap between the two sides are. It'll fill in nice there. I think it was getting shaded out. Was originally on the farthest left.

Though for some reason my anubias plants are being a pain.
I propagated one plant by cutting it, kept 6 leaves+ on each side.

Yeah no... both sides then rotted.

Then one I didn't even touch at all rotted. Like I killed its friend so it just gave up the will to live lol
Not my taller ones, it was the barteri, got one small bit left, but im eyeing that one expecting it to follow suit too lol

Haha,I hope the last anubias pulls through! I'm so glad you're liking where the tank is headed! I think it looks beautiful

mcordelia said:

Haha,I hope the last anubias pulls through! I'm so glad you're liking where the tank is headed! I think it looks beautiful

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And the canister helps too, the plants aren't being pushed under water constantly from a HOB, since the canister outflow is under the surface, so my floating sprite and hornwort are happy to float slowly and not make a mess everywhere. Im even starting to get some duckweed surviving (i kill that stuff all the time)

The one anubias attached to the rocks, it was doing so well, new leaves grown on it, then poof suddenly the base of all the stems turned black and mush. Like within days of the other one going.