I've had a very difficult few months as of late, the reason why I've not been stalking the forums, unfortunately and regrettably why my tank was pretty much completely neglected without a single water change for I don't even know how long. My plants suffered the most although I did lose a few fish along the way, which I'm so sad about. I've beaten myself up a lot over the last couple of weeks, but I've decided to be kind to myself as poor mental health and emotional despair is no joke. Thankfully I'm out the other side and I'm able to now rebuild myself...and my tank!
SO! I started with tiny daily water changes until I had changed out all the water, then did a big 50% after taking out all the dead plants. The Vall didn't make it which is a tragedy but I found it a pain to maintain anyway...I've replaced it with baby Cryptocoryne Balansae and Cryptocoryne Crispatula, they should grow fairly tall at the back and at a slower rate so I'll be able to keep on top of the maintenance. Crypts just seem to do so well for me, so much so that I had to pull out some of the babies to thin it out a bit. The root systems go right across the whole of the tank and I had to break a lot of it to get them out! So I've got lots of little wiggly white worms poking out of the gravel
Here's how we're looking as of now
so sad to see it in such bad shape considering how it looked before....but anyway.
I had to get a new circulation pump as the last one died. Its actually much nicer and I've managed to angle it just right to pick up all the crud around the tank....I'm not that hot on gravel vaccing, I tend to just wiggle a finger through it now and then...so the water column is just full of dusty particles and mess. The filter was an abomination
but it's cleanish and I've shoved in some floss to pick out the fine bits, hopefully by tomorrow the water will be pristine and lovely again.
I've found an online company that cuts acrylic to bespoke dimensions, it's more than I would normally pay but I'm feeling guilty so will just grin and bear it! I want to get a black piece to go behind the tank for a background. There's no way I can pull the tank away from the wall and paint/film/etc so I figure the acrylic would be an easy way to achieve the look I want. Someone may have a better idea, let me know.
The fish are doing very well, some need a bit of fattening up so I've increased feeding for now. I've added a few more to make up the numbers and it's such a joy to see the big boys showing off and squaring up to each other.
So, there we go
