kaz petts
Fishaholic
Hi all,
What a day I have had!!!
This morning I decided that my tank was due a really good clean out. Total overhaul and yet another redesign.
Here is what happened.
Took the kids to school this morning. When I got home I made a start on giving my tank a really good clean out. (Not too much that the good bacteria is cleaned away but good enough to clean out most of the crap that had gathered in the gravel)
I decided that the best way of doing this would be to remove all plants and bog wood and cave from the tank. I did not put the bog wood in the bucket with water in as I need this for the fish
It is very difficult for me to find my Clown Loaches at the best of times and today was no exception. I fished some of my more curious fish out of the tank to avoid sucking them up the gravel vaccum, this included one of my Clown Loaches, the other one was nowhere to be seen, I assumed that it had hidden itself in the gravel.
I put the heater in the bucket which I had placed the majority of my fish in and put a towel over the bucket whilst me and a friend nipped out to go and get some more bog wood. (We had been out about an hour)
On return I refilled the tank with water that had been stood and had reached room temp. I have to admit I added a little warm water as well to aid the progress of temp for the water as there was still a few fish in the tank including my plecs
I put the bog wood back into the tank along with the new stuff which was already soaked. I started putting the plants and fish back into the water when I spotted out of the corner of my eye my missing Clown Loach, it must have been in the original piece of bog wood that I had taken out, and it was lying motionless on the bin liner I had put on the floor to put all wet items onto whilst cleaning the tank (bear in mind as well that the wood had been out of the water for over an hour.) I picked the fish up, it was still wet and floppy so I placed it in the bucket with the remaining fish to see if it would show any signs of life once back in water (thankfully it did, it flapped a fin. Just as well I was watching closely as I wouldn't have noticed other wise.) I gave the fish a little rub and it kind of swam off, it swam funny for a while, on it's side, upside down, you name it and it did it! Eventually it sank to the bottom of the bucket on it's side breathing very heavily. After a few seconds it righted itself and sat at the bottom of the bucket for ages.
I put it back in the tank with the rest of the fish, it swam off to a corner where it remained for about 10 minutes before making an appearance. I put loads of stress coat in the tank to act as dechlorinator and stress relief for all the fish.
Within an hour of me putting it back in the community tank it was swimming around with the rest of the fish as if nothing had happened!!!!
I went to work at 1pm and on returning at 8.30pm I found that my little terror of a baby had turned everything off at the mains, filter, lights and heater.
Thankfully our room is quite warm so the temp did not drop to a critical level, however because there hasn't been a filter on for most of the day I now have Ammonia and Nitrite in the tank. Luckily I suppose in a way the ammonia is low (however the Nitrite is quite high but I also have NitrAtes in the tank). I have done another small water change this evening and have put another submersable filter in the tank.
At the moment I have a Fluval 3 and Fluval 2 running in the tank. I may leave it this way permenantly, I don't know yet.
I will post pics eventually of the brand new tank layout. I have reduced the amount of plants, (well it looks that way, I have trimmed some of them so they are not taking over the tank).
I am hopeing to see both clown loaches tomorrow morning. I have only seen one since I got home and that was the one that I didn't nearly kill. However the one that I nearly killed is the one I don't see much of anyway, I will know tomorrow morning if it is ok as it will come out and swim with the other one.
(sorry about the long post guys!!)
Kaz
What a day I have had!!!
This morning I decided that my tank was due a really good clean out. Total overhaul and yet another redesign.
Here is what happened.
Took the kids to school this morning. When I got home I made a start on giving my tank a really good clean out. (Not too much that the good bacteria is cleaned away but good enough to clean out most of the crap that had gathered in the gravel)
I decided that the best way of doing this would be to remove all plants and bog wood and cave from the tank. I did not put the bog wood in the bucket with water in as I need this for the fish
It is very difficult for me to find my Clown Loaches at the best of times and today was no exception. I fished some of my more curious fish out of the tank to avoid sucking them up the gravel vaccum, this included one of my Clown Loaches, the other one was nowhere to be seen, I assumed that it had hidden itself in the gravel.
I put the heater in the bucket which I had placed the majority of my fish in and put a towel over the bucket whilst me and a friend nipped out to go and get some more bog wood. (We had been out about an hour)
On return I refilled the tank with water that had been stood and had reached room temp. I have to admit I added a little warm water as well to aid the progress of temp for the water as there was still a few fish in the tank including my plecs
I put the bog wood back into the tank along with the new stuff which was already soaked. I started putting the plants and fish back into the water when I spotted out of the corner of my eye my missing Clown Loach, it must have been in the original piece of bog wood that I had taken out, and it was lying motionless on the bin liner I had put on the floor to put all wet items onto whilst cleaning the tank (bear in mind as well that the wood had been out of the water for over an hour.) I picked the fish up, it was still wet and floppy so I placed it in the bucket with the remaining fish to see if it would show any signs of life once back in water (thankfully it did, it flapped a fin. Just as well I was watching closely as I wouldn't have noticed other wise.) I gave the fish a little rub and it kind of swam off, it swam funny for a while, on it's side, upside down, you name it and it did it! Eventually it sank to the bottom of the bucket on it's side breathing very heavily. After a few seconds it righted itself and sat at the bottom of the bucket for ages.
I put it back in the tank with the rest of the fish, it swam off to a corner where it remained for about 10 minutes before making an appearance. I put loads of stress coat in the tank to act as dechlorinator and stress relief for all the fish.
Within an hour of me putting it back in the community tank it was swimming around with the rest of the fish as if nothing had happened!!!!
I went to work at 1pm and on returning at 8.30pm I found that my little terror of a baby had turned everything off at the mains, filter, lights and heater.
Thankfully our room is quite warm so the temp did not drop to a critical level, however because there hasn't been a filter on for most of the day I now have Ammonia and Nitrite in the tank. Luckily I suppose in a way the ammonia is low (however the Nitrite is quite high but I also have NitrAtes in the tank). I have done another small water change this evening and have put another submersable filter in the tank.
At the moment I have a Fluval 3 and Fluval 2 running in the tank. I may leave it this way permenantly, I don't know yet.
I will post pics eventually of the brand new tank layout. I have reduced the amount of plants, (well it looks that way, I have trimmed some of them so they are not taking over the tank).
I am hopeing to see both clown loaches tomorrow morning. I have only seen one since I got home and that was the one that I didn't nearly kill. However the one that I nearly killed is the one I don't see much of anyway, I will know tomorrow morning if it is ok as it will come out and swim with the other one.
(sorry about the long post guys!!)
Kaz
Good thing I take cleaning slowly... 
But, it sounds like you had one heck of a day!
