What Did You Do To Your Tank/s Today?

daizeUK said:
Got distracted while my 35L was refiling and came back to a flooded kitchen.
That's gotta suck. If you ever want to diy something joey came up with an water "alarm" pretty intriguing
 
This is a few days late, but I finally set up my 8' tank. Have been checking it every day to make sure there are no leaks (having constant nightmares about 900 litres of water flooding my front room), but so far so good.
 
50% wc on 200l, 300l and 400l tanks and washed 20kg of fine gravel and added it to new tank.
 
40% WC on the 200l (I've been a bit slack, but the fish seem happy). Cleanout of the canister filter. Noticed my java moss is starting to colonise one of my rocks (yay!).
 
Mystery Snail egg nest count (4 on the 130l, 1 on the 200l).
 
Had a laugh at my Harlequin Rasboras playing in the filter outflow, they seemed to be having a loop-de-loop contest.
 
Well, got my water change water ready Saturday night, R/O corrected with pro discus mineral. Left circulating and heating overnight, normal 50ltrs I change twice a week. Yesterday morning sat looking into my tank wondering how the hell I'm gonna get on top of this bba and black hair algae?? So, over an hour spent cutting gently away trimming off all the bba I could. Long job as I have roughly 40 anubias, crypts, swords, aponagetens, ferns etc, no stem plants at all. Next, scrubbing all the leaves and stems I could get to. I can only gravel clean a 4" strip across the front of the tank, everywhere else is too densely planted, so cleaned that after scrubbing glass. Water change next. Now, that's been my ritual since I got this algael problem couple of months ago.
Have read extensively and had lots of advice on here regarding bba. Most points towards fluctuations in co2, poor flow and surface ripple. Co2 levels and surface ripple are a little at odds with each other. Last week I pushed up my co2 a little too high, discus were definitely not happy! So I turned the spray bar returning the co2 upwards for surface ripple, it had been pointing diagonally down and out flowing through plants. The fish picked up after an hour or so. That night I changed things around. I switched the spray bar to the other externals return. The now open return with my inline diffuser on was extended down midway into tank with a y piece on the end sending the flow in two different directions to distribute the very fine mist of co2. All fish fine since.
Now, after water change yday, I thought the spray bar return, only 12" long, was too short and the flow across a little too aggressive, so I added a second which has increased the length of rippling surface but its alot more gentle. I also have returns coming in from my nitrate filter and UV. These are at opposite ends and now point to the corners and downwards towards the plants, again helping movement through them. I have an eheim surface skimmer that keeps any surface films to a minimum. A small eheim circulation pump at the back 2" off the bottom ensures good movement across the rear of the tank. Safe to say, I think, circulation won't be a factor in the bba now. All that's left to do is match the co2 output to the adjusted surface movement, gradually keeping close eye on the drop checker.
I made a big decision yesterday. On my previous tank from which all fish came, I ran Purigen in the filter even tho I use r/o and do plenty of water changes. I decided when setting up this tank I was going to drop the purigen and use peat in the filter coupled with black water extract, to create a proper amazon biotope. However, opinions were mixed when I sort them as to what would benefit the fish most, so after much pondering I stuck with the purigen. I've now removed it and gone to the peat and Blackwater extract option.
Just have to see how things go then......
 
60% WC on the Angel tank, most plants out, some old plants in & some new plants in. 5 wood out, 3 wood in lol Looking smicko!!
 
Wood added to the 3ft planted (1 piece had some adjustments with the saw!), some wood removed.
 
Cleaned out 2 external filters, changed jeans, did 25% water changes on 4 tanks (of the 8!) must be crackers. Tried to work out a way of running a tank down but none of the fish are compatible with other tank fishes (sigh). Wished I hadn't been so enthusiastic about fish 20 years ago. Made tea (washed mucky hands first), drank tea, walked dogs, ate dinner, fed fish and that's another day gone.
 
50% water changes on all three tanks.  I came back from holiday yesterday to a bit of an algae fest and the half-eaten remains of my oldest fish, Poppy.  Poor girl, I knew she wouldn't last much longer, wish I'd been there for the end.
 
50% reset day.  Rescaped. The preparing the tank to move....
 
Today i did a 50% WC on some tanks. (tomorrow the rest get changed)
The outside goldie tank got a full pull down, change of substrate, change of decor and refilled, currently fishless while the sand settles and tank clears
 
Alasse said:
Today i did a 50% WC on some tanks. (tomorrow the rest get changed)
The outside goldie tank got a full pull down, change of substrate, change of decor and refilled, currently fishless while the sand settles and tank clears
Keep this thread alive lol
 
Yesterday
 
90%WC and tidy up substrate on 4ft goldie tank
60%WC and substrate vacuum on pep colony tank. Remove larger pep fry to holding net
50%WC and substrate tidy on 2.6ft gourami tank
25%WC and substrate vacuum on 2ft Endler tank, remove spare male endlers, remove 8 females to another tank
Setup and stock bowl
Trim HM in 3ft
 
Today
50%WC on 3ft planted
50% WC on 2.6ft shellie tank
70%WC on 2.6ft BN breeding tank
Pull down and clean nano yellow cherry tank - getting a simpler rescape
50%WC on 5ft angel tank
Small substrate clean % WC on pep bn tank
 
Today I detached my external Eheim 2128 filter & took into the garden.... poured the filter water into a bucket - lightly rinsed out the 3 baskets of media in the filter water - rinsed the course blue pad the same way - then replaced/put a new fine white sponge at the top. I then gave the filter shell/lid a general rub/clean with a cloth - then sprayed all the moving parts - hinges, rubber seals etc... with Eheim Neutral spray.
 
Job done!
 
It's coming up to 10 years old soon...
 

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