Forestpisces
Fish Herder
Right i know i have not been on the forum in about two weeks but believe me i have my reasons and they are as follows:
After i posted 2 weeks ago about my seriouse concerns for the health of Radish in his tank that had hit a mini cycle i was in despair ,little guy's tail was clamping and going dark at the ends and i feared fin rot but i decided to risk it and not go with meds (all will be explained), despite my best efforts and vigorouse 3 times daily water changes i took water stats and was absoloutely horrifyed to find that the ammonia reading was off the chart!! I was frantic! i immediately decided this needed drastic action and despite needing to go to work that night i told my boss that i just wouldnt be able to for "personal" reasons, i know that sounds awful but i love radish so much and i rescued him, he's a special little guy and my first tropical fish (along with the captain who shall be mentioned later). It was time to get seriouse.
So i filled a large vase with clean de chlorinated water and put radish in there whilst i removed the decore and rocks etc; After removing 90% of the water i fell on my stairs whilst carrying one of the buckets and have seriousely bruised my knee, water went all over my sand coloured carpet and i felt the night just couldnt get any worse ( i am still limping from the injury) i hobbled back to the tank and wearily i chucked my filter in a bucket of tank water along with my heater and after about 45 mins of effort netted all 3 kuhlis and put them in their too as well as radish.
Then to my horror i realised my filter wasnt working! It had played up before but i had given it a good smack and it had whirred back to life only this time i was sure it was gone for good. After another hour i found myself desperate and close to tears just willing my little water baby to survive he looked so weak and un happy i was welling up and panicking as i just dont have the money to buy a new filter so in sheer frustration i threw the ### thing at the floor. Then after calming myself for a minuit i thought to myself " I am not giving up!".
It was at this point at which my mother found me wet, injured and almost in tears she took one look at me and said
"Right explain exactly what the problem is and we are going to sort this out"
I love my mom
So i did and she helped me carry ( i hobbled) the tank into the bathroom were we took out all the sand which had now mixed with the soil underneath it , i had been planning to eventually turn it into a planted tank but hadnt got round to it since the mini cycle and the underlay of soil had given me nothing but greif since i put it in. It looked like we were going to have to chuck it out but i wasnt keen on making it a bare bottomed tank and then having to go through this whole process again to add substrate so we decided to wash the sand clean, yup i know it sounds impossible but thats exactly what we did. Mom found an old netting table cover (a christmas preasant from my nan
) that we used to strain the water and sand through till the water ran clear we then put it back in the tank and made it deeper towards the back of the tank. I was worried about the sand making the water cloudy when we added the water because of the disturbance so my mother ( A SAINT!) came up with an ingenious idea that i would recomend to anyone!
She found a large plastic bag that coverd the bottom of the tank and laid in over the sand making sure it was all coverd then we filled the tank 1/4 of the way and carried- again i hobbled- it back to my bedroom and put it back on the windowsill, she then removed the bag and i added my decore and stones etc, then we filled it up carefully causing as little disturbace as possible and added the heater back.
Then came the filter situation i told my mom and she instantly picked it out of the bucket fiddled with it a minuit shoved it in the bucket again and it sprang into life!!! I was so happy i could have kissed her!
So after putting the filter back i added my darling poor Radish and Saab,Fup and Knot( the loaches) to the tank and everyone was instantly happier! And the water was crystal clear.
So as an update within 2 days Radishes tail had completely healed and has even grown longer as when i got him he was still young and his fins were still growing out, he is now as feisty and curious as ever and still helps me with his still very frequent water changes, and the ammonia level is being kept DOWN
. I love him so much and knowing i did the right thing by not medicating him and taking all those hours to set the tank right again gives me a real sense of pride.
The Captain is getting more active evey day and has discoverd that his coconut cave (which i specially made for the tanks) is a great sleeping spot, he normally spends his day sitting or playing in the current of his filter or sitting on the heater. He will even come to the surface for food now which is such and improvement considering i honestly didnt think he'd last the week when i rescued him for my partner, but he's still hear and is showing no sighns of leaving us soon
So overall an eventfull few weeks and very emotional at that. Sorry for the long post but i finally wanted to tell my story and get it off my chest.
What do you guys have to say to all that!
After i posted 2 weeks ago about my seriouse concerns for the health of Radish in his tank that had hit a mini cycle i was in despair ,little guy's tail was clamping and going dark at the ends and i feared fin rot but i decided to risk it and not go with meds (all will be explained), despite my best efforts and vigorouse 3 times daily water changes i took water stats and was absoloutely horrifyed to find that the ammonia reading was off the chart!! I was frantic! i immediately decided this needed drastic action and despite needing to go to work that night i told my boss that i just wouldnt be able to for "personal" reasons, i know that sounds awful but i love radish so much and i rescued him, he's a special little guy and my first tropical fish (along with the captain who shall be mentioned later). It was time to get seriouse.
So i filled a large vase with clean de chlorinated water and put radish in there whilst i removed the decore and rocks etc; After removing 90% of the water i fell on my stairs whilst carrying one of the buckets and have seriousely bruised my knee, water went all over my sand coloured carpet and i felt the night just couldnt get any worse ( i am still limping from the injury) i hobbled back to the tank and wearily i chucked my filter in a bucket of tank water along with my heater and after about 45 mins of effort netted all 3 kuhlis and put them in their too as well as radish.
Then to my horror i realised my filter wasnt working! It had played up before but i had given it a good smack and it had whirred back to life only this time i was sure it was gone for good. After another hour i found myself desperate and close to tears just willing my little water baby to survive he looked so weak and un happy i was welling up and panicking as i just dont have the money to buy a new filter so in sheer frustration i threw the ### thing at the floor. Then after calming myself for a minuit i thought to myself " I am not giving up!".
It was at this point at which my mother found me wet, injured and almost in tears she took one look at me and said
"Right explain exactly what the problem is and we are going to sort this out"
I love my mom
So i did and she helped me carry ( i hobbled) the tank into the bathroom were we took out all the sand which had now mixed with the soil underneath it , i had been planning to eventually turn it into a planted tank but hadnt got round to it since the mini cycle and the underlay of soil had given me nothing but greif since i put it in. It looked like we were going to have to chuck it out but i wasnt keen on making it a bare bottomed tank and then having to go through this whole process again to add substrate so we decided to wash the sand clean, yup i know it sounds impossible but thats exactly what we did. Mom found an old netting table cover (a christmas preasant from my nan
) that we used to strain the water and sand through till the water ran clear we then put it back in the tank and made it deeper towards the back of the tank. I was worried about the sand making the water cloudy when we added the water because of the disturbance so my mother ( A SAINT!) came up with an ingenious idea that i would recomend to anyone!She found a large plastic bag that coverd the bottom of the tank and laid in over the sand making sure it was all coverd then we filled the tank 1/4 of the way and carried- again i hobbled- it back to my bedroom and put it back on the windowsill, she then removed the bag and i added my decore and stones etc, then we filled it up carefully causing as little disturbace as possible and added the heater back.
Then came the filter situation i told my mom and she instantly picked it out of the bucket fiddled with it a minuit shoved it in the bucket again and it sprang into life!!! I was so happy i could have kissed her!
So after putting the filter back i added my darling poor Radish and Saab,Fup and Knot( the loaches) to the tank and everyone was instantly happier! And the water was crystal clear.
So as an update within 2 days Radishes tail had completely healed and has even grown longer as when i got him he was still young and his fins were still growing out, he is now as feisty and curious as ever and still helps me with his still very frequent water changes, and the ammonia level is being kept DOWN
. I love him so much and knowing i did the right thing by not medicating him and taking all those hours to set the tank right again gives me a real sense of pride. The Captain is getting more active evey day and has discoverd that his coconut cave (which i specially made for the tanks) is a great sleeping spot, he normally spends his day sitting or playing in the current of his filter or sitting on the heater. He will even come to the surface for food now which is such and improvement considering i honestly didnt think he'd last the week when i rescued him for my partner, but he's still hear and is showing no sighns of leaving us soon
So overall an eventfull few weeks and very emotional at that. Sorry for the long post but i finally wanted to tell my story and get it off my chest.
What do you guys have to say to all that!
