Finally tearing down ugly 57g, building new 36g to replace it!

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AdoraBelle Dearheart

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I've finally got around to a job I've been wanting to do for about two years now, but other life issues kept delaying things.
I've been meaning to juggle tanks around, but meant selling lots of babies, juggling stock to different tanks in order to move others, and will be tearing down and getting rid of old hideous 57g at last.

Previous tanks and stock:
15.5g/60 L = shrimp, female guppies

15.5g/60 L = ototcinclus, breeding pygmy cory colony, five elderly male guppies, left over from guppy breeding, retired.

57g/215 L = Inherited tank, used to be terribly overstocked with the elderly remaining members of tetra schools, trio of huge 6 or more year old mollies and their constant offspring, two yoyo loaches, zebra danios, two bronze cories, various mollies and platies, and probably more I can't remember right now. Was hugely overstocked and mismatched.
Now has three glowlights, one cardinal, one neon, two black neons, school of bronze cories and six sterbai's, three male blue platies, two young L183 starlight plecos, red cherry shrimp colony, 5 amanos, breeder box with 40-50 cory fry, 6 cory youngsters left from last spawn.


I finally managed to rehome the last of the endless livebearer fry that were being produced by my last breeding female guppy, and she has passed away (sip) so no more unexpected spawns and desperately trying to find homes for them all!

Of course, then my bronze cories spawned again, and I have 40-50 babies to move to a larger tank now, along with the six babies I still have from their last spawn that I need to rehome...

The 57g/215 L in all it's ugly glory;
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It's an ugly ancient AquaOne with old massive box filters built into the massive hood (no longer working). This was my father's tank, but now that he's in his 80s, he couldn't manage it anymore. I now live with and care for my folks since they're elderly and disabled, and I took over maintaining this tank for him. Doing water changes, learning about the fish he had (and what a nightmare his stocking was), adding loads of live plants. He was happy to still have his fish, without having to do the heavy work anymore. Since I'd moved around a lot before and already had a cat, a parrot and a dog, I hadn't had a tank of my own before. Just grown up as a kid with my dad always having a tank, and learning a little about them since we were an animal mad family with lots of pets, and my parents had long had an aviaries and aquatics business, then a pet shop.

However, fish had been my mom's area of expertise, my dad was the bird guy. But he's old school stubborn and believed in keeping tanks the old school way! Regarded water changes as dangerous, didn't test water, mixed soft and hard water fish (in a hard water area), and worst of all - believed that the filter needed turning off now and again, "to rest the motor" :eek: We bumped heads a lot when I took over maintenance, and he shook his head over test results and seeing me do large water chances which I had to do slowly and gradually increasing the amounts over weeks, to avoid old tank syndrome since nitrates were so high, it took many water changes to make the results readable on the API freshwater kit. They were off the charts! I honestly don't know how the fish survived, and the 5 year old huge black/silver mollies continued to breed and produce super hardy fry. He got so grumpy about water changes, I ended up sneaking to do secret W/Cs while he napped or at night :rofl:

I loathe this tank. It's hideous. He'd painted the back pane of glass with this ugly pale green colour which gives the whole tank a nasty greenish hue and makes taking photos difficult too. Scratched front glass; he'd glued a carpet tile(??) to the left side pane, and glued a weird messily applied white strip of plastic to the front pane to hide the waterline. After I'd maintained it for a while, I decided I wanted a little tank of my own. Got my first 15.5g planning to have a little breeding guppy colony and maybe some shrimp. My LFS agreed to take any fry I produced once old enough to sell, so I was set!

So this was my first attempt - caring for folks and reducing my work hours meant my budget was tight, so I buy second hand tanks. Not the prettiest, but I loved them, and they've changed and evolved as I've learned and the tanks became established. I still have these two 60 L tanks right now;
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Then I needed to add a second tank and eventually a third tank, so I could separate male and female guppies and fry:
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Once I'd had these for a while and was really into the hobby, often going to my LFS to bring them batches of guppy, platy and molly babies, dad sat me down and said he'd like to give me his tank. Aaarrgh! lol. Including wanting me to move it into my room... I really didn't want this tank! Apart from it being ugly, the height is just a few inches too tall for me to comfortably clean the substrate. I have to stand on a stool to reach the back (and I'm 5'9", not short), and it's just enough to make my back hurt every time I do a water change. Plus it would mean getting rid of or finding more space for my own tanks!

But he'd decided he wanted the tank gone so he could use the space for something else. So I had some serious planning to do, since my tanks were fully stocked, and his was overstocked... wasn't sure how to do this.

I ended up taking all the mollies to the store except the original three, and a younger male female molly pair of their offspring; a lovely jet black male and silvery female, since I really wanted to keep this healthy, hardly and pretty line going. They were black mollies, likely a sailfin hybrid I was told, but also had silver and even blue dappling. Was hard to get a good photo of them, but I was very attached to these guys since they'd been in that tank for so long, reached an easy 4-5 inches, and produced some beautiful fry that sold well at the store. They'd also happily be handfed, swimming right into my palm to snag bloodworms.

To get an idea of their size, compare them to the size of the adult guppy above and the gravid female santa platy in front of them!
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Sadly, the trio were getting on, and gradually passed from old age over a span of a few months.
I told dad that since all the tanks were fully stocked, it would take time to sort this out and take down his tank. I stopped purposefully breeding guppies, but wanted to keep and retire my original adults until they passed, so the last few females continued producing fry for a long time. By this point I also had my breeding colony of pygmy cories, which I absolutely won't give up, nor the bronze and sterbai cories.

There had been two bronze cories in my dad's tank before I'd moved home, so when I took over maintenance I'd bought 4 more to bump their school up. Those four spawned while in quarantine, so I had to quickly learn how to raise cory fry! The two bronze cories became much more active and happier once they had some more friends. They've now spawned four times, lol.
He still had the remains of his previous tetra schools, so I decided to let them stay since it was all they'd known and couldn't really be re-homed as they were elderly, the rest of their schools having died off already. Just the odd pick-a-mix of random tetra species left. Re-homed the young fish like the platies and other mollies, but it was still heavily stocked.

Disaster happened when dad decided to turn off the main overhead filter on the tank without telling me. Wanting to "rest the motor". Since it's hidden in the hood, output at the back of the tank and obscured by plant, I hadn't noticed until the water became murky and cloudy, and I found a dead zebra danio. Then another. Then one of the botia... I panicked and tested the water while beginning large water changes, not knowing why there was an ammonia spike happening, and fish continued to die. I was heartbroken to lose the young mollies I'd kept, the last of the line from that trio, and cried over losing both botia. By the time I realised the main filter was off, we'd lost dozens of fish and I'd done dozens of large water changes trying to save them. Dad said he'd turned it off a few days ago to rest the motor, and that they'd seemed fine at first. I'd thought I'd broken him of that habit, having stressed that modern motors didn't need resting, and that it was essential to keep it on. I think the plants and small filter I'd added for surface disturbance kept it okay for a day or two, but of course the heavily stocked tank couldn't cope without the main filter.

There were survivors though... thankfully my cories made it, and the few tetra listed at the top, which are still here. Tough as old boots those ones are. So the overstocking problem was solved, but in the worst way possible :-(


So now the new plan. I've bought a 34g/127 L tank which I've cleaned and plan to set up tomorrow! Will add photos of it then. This one is intended for the cories, plecos and retired tetras/platies.
Sadly, I've had to tear down this tank to make space;
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Because I cannot part with my breeding pygmies. So I had to tear down the above one, and move my pygmy tank to another cabinet to make space for the 34g. The pygmy tank isn't looking quite so pretty at the moment as it did in this pic, but the fish are still thriving, spawning and producing fry, so I can always tidy it later! The five elderly male retired guppies are living here too now.
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So that's the current plan! Set up new 34g, tidy up and keep the pygmy 15.5g. Go from four tanks, to two.

I have a feeling that I won't be able to stick to just two tanks for very long... That's just not how Multiple Tank Syndrome works! ;)

Will be adding progress photos here as I build the 34g - no real clue how I want it to look yet... Haven't settled on substrate choice, have various wood pieces I want to include, and of course, will be buying more plants! I also have a little ciano 15 L cube tank I snagged for a fiver that is itching for a little shrimp colony. Maybe some scarlet badis or something!

ETA: Forgot to mention! I also just got a 20g I plant to use to upgrade and rescape for the pygmies since they reproduce so much. I need to stop buying tanks!
 
This all sounds great :D Its so great to scroll through your pictures and see how your tanks have improved through the story too! Looking forward to seeing what the new set ups look like!

Wills
 
Just removed 21 dead cory fry from the breeder box :-(
They'd all been doing so well, I'd got a bit relaxed about them thriving. Always a mistake. Have heard that these sudden mass die offs are commonly a bacteria infection. Pretty sure it's not food, since I've been feeding 3-4 times a day, on a mix of baby brine shrimp, live microworms, and crushed powdered bug bites. I had added some sand from the parent tank a while ago, but just added more.

There are still a lot that are alive, active, swimming and looking well, so I hope the die off is over. But we'll see. It's always a gut punch when you lose some, but this has been my largest spawn, and also largest die off. So pretty bummed out.
 
EDITED: Complete Plant List
On the good news front though, have a black background for the 34g tank on the way, and the really exciting part of building a new tank - ordered a bunch of new plants! :D

On the way are - red root floaters! Have wanted these for the longest time.
Hyrophilia pinnatifida
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Lobelia cardinalis (tried this once before and failed, but giving it a second go)
Lilaaeopsis novea-zealandia
Bolbitis heudelotii
Echinodorus horemanii Green
----------
Crinum calamistratum
Alternanthera sessilis
Lagenandra meeboldii Red
Microsorum pteropus sp. Windlov.
--------
Weeping moss
Anubius barteri coffeefolia

And for the other tank;
cryptocoryne nevelli
Hottonia palustris - Water Violet
Aponogeton henkelianus (madagascar lace bulb)
A crypt surprise for £2.99 - Labelled only "mixed crpt, Brown"
and a lucky dip aquarium plant (get a surprise for £1) - Turned out to Echinodus 'Rose'
---------------
* Water sprite
*Murdannia keisak
*Limnophila heterophylla
*Limnophila hippuridoides
*Elodea densa
*Nymphoides hydrophylla Taiwan
*Hygrophila polysperma Rosenervig
 
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Sorry for photo quality, should have taken these during daylight hours. But these will do for now.
Water is little murky since I don't have a filter set up on here yet.
The tank itself:
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This is the part I really don't like... the top has this uneven black rubbery silicone. Makes sense since the hood for it is really tight, and would hide this, but I don't want to use that hood since it's ugly, and I want an open top or acrylic/glass lid. Anyone ever removed stuff like this before? I only want to remove the bit around the rim of the tank of course, not the sides! Lol. I did find a small part of the excess would come away when cut with a stanley blade, but I'd be concerned about scratching the glass, and whether this would leave an ugly residue anyway. @Wills , or @Colin_T do you have any ideas?
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Got this awesome wood piece when LFS closed down, in exchange for baby bronze cories that sold almost immediately! While I was still there. That was nice, getting to talk to the new owners and see they were going to a good home. As soon as I saw the cave like curve underneath this piece, I could just picture how much the plecos and perhaps the cories would love it!
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I'd quite like to create a scape where there's a tall amount of wood on one side, the dragonstone pieces around it, leading to an open area on the right. Have a lot of pieces of the same type of wood that I could stack, but not sure how to do that safely. Do people screw them together? Just balance them? If screwed together, I'd be concerned about cleaning properly and nasties gathering in the gaps. If just balanced, concern about anything falling and injuring/trapping a fish.
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Ignore the stick-like piece to the right, that won't be staying. Although do people ever mix different types of wood in one scape? I think I need to watch a lot of George Farmers vids over the next few days! This won't be the arrangement either, have some other pieces that aren't ready to add yet, and this isn't pretty! Just wanted to give the idea that I'd like to pile some pieces onto the cave like piece in the top photos. It has an almost flat top which helps.

Is this making sense? I'd really, really appreciate any tips from people with more aquascaping talent!!! I have no natural talent and haven't researched the rule of thirds and all that stuff, or read/seen enough scaping stuff. Regretting that now! @Byron ? @Naughts ?
 
Sorry for photo quality, should have taken these during daylight hours. But these will do for now.
Water is little murky since I don't have a filter set up on here yet.
The tank itself:
View attachment 159764


This is the part I really don't like... the top has this uneven black rubbery silicone. Makes sense since the hood for it is really tight, and would hide this, but I don't want to use that hood since it's ugly, and I want an open top or acrylic/glass lid. Anyone ever removed stuff like this before? I only want to remove the bit around the rim of the tank of course, not the sides! Lol. I did find a small part of the excess would come away when cut with a stanley blade, but I'd be concerned about scratching the glass, and whether this would leave an ugly residue anyway. @Wills , or @Colin_T do you have any ideas?
View attachment 159766

Got this awesome wood piece when LFS closed down, in exchange for baby bronze cories that sold almost immediately! While I was still there. That was nice, getting to talk to the new owners and see they were going to a good home. As soon as I saw the cave like curve underneath this piece, I could just picture how much the plecos and perhaps the cories would love it!
View attachment 159765

I'd quite like to create a scape where there's a tall amount of wood on one side, the dragonstone pieces around it, leading to an open area on the right. Have a lot of pieces of the same type of wood that I could stack, but not sure how to do that safely. Do people screw them together? Just balance them? If screwed together, I'd be concerned about cleaning properly and nasties gathering in the gaps. If just balanced, concern about anything falling and injuring/trapping a fish.
View attachment 159767View attachment 159768

Ignore the stick-like piece to the right, that won't be staying. Although do people ever mix different types of wood in one scape? I think I need to watch a lot of George Farmers vids over the next few days! This won't be the arrangement either, have some other pieces that aren't ready to add yet, and this isn't pretty! Just wanted to give the idea that I'd like to pile some pieces onto the cave like piece in the top photos. It has an almost flat top which helps.

Is this making sense? I'd really, really appreciate any tips from people with more aquascaping talent!!! I have no natural talent and haven't researched the rule of thirds and all that stuff, or read/seen enough scaping stuff. Regretting that now! @Byron ? @Naughts ?
I would give you advice but I have none to give :) Its looking really good and I cant wait to see the end result!
 
Sorry for photo quality, should have taken these during daylight hours. But these will do for now.
Water is little murky since I don't have a filter set up on here yet.
The tank itself:
View attachment 159764


This is the part I really don't like... the top has this uneven black rubbery silicone. Makes sense since the hood for it is really tight, and would hide this, but I don't want to use that hood since it's ugly, and I want an open top or acrylic/glass lid. Anyone ever removed stuff like this before? I only want to remove the bit around the rim of the tank of course, not the sides! Lol. I did find a small part of the excess would come away when cut with a stanley blade, but I'd be concerned about scratching the glass, and whether this would leave an ugly residue anyway. @Wills , or @Colin_T do you have any ideas?
View attachment 159766

Got this awesome wood piece when LFS closed down, in exchange for baby bronze cories that sold almost immediately! While I was still there. That was nice, getting to talk to the new owners and see they were going to a good home. As soon as I saw the cave like curve underneath this piece, I could just picture how much the plecos and perhaps the cories would love it!
View attachment 159765

I'd quite like to create a scape where there's a tall amount of wood on one side, the dragonstone pieces around it, leading to an open area on the right. Have a lot of pieces of the same type of wood that I could stack, but not sure how to do that safely. Do people screw them together? Just balance them? If screwed together, I'd be concerned about cleaning properly and nasties gathering in the gaps. If just balanced, concern about anything falling and injuring/trapping a fish.
View attachment 159767View attachment 159768

Ignore the stick-like piece to the right, that won't be staying. Although do people ever mix different types of wood in one scape? I think I need to watch a lot of George Farmers vids over the next few days! This won't be the arrangement either, have some other pieces that aren't ready to add yet, and this isn't pretty! Just wanted to give the idea that I'd like to pile some pieces onto the cave like piece in the top photos. It has an almost flat top which helps.

Is this making sense? I'd really, really appreciate any tips from people with more aquascaping talent!!! I have no natural talent and haven't researched the rule of thirds and all that stuff, or read/seen enough scaping stuff. Regretting that now! @Byron ? @Naughts ?
Which tank is this sorry? Looks ace, reminds me of the scape I had in mind when I first went about doing my 52g. That was based on something I saw on tropica website's "inspiration" section which I still think is a brilliant source.

It was this one if I remember rightly

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Securing hardscape in place can be achieved a number of different ways and depends on the material in question of course. Superglue, screws and simply just burying into substrate. Do not be concerned about build up of organics, they serve their own beneficial purpose in the nitrogen cycle. So long as you have reasonable flow around the tank. Saying that, my son's Betta has chunks of wood piled around and only a sponge filter, barely any flow at all. Its perfect for Lucky though, mimics his habitat of still water etc. Looking forward to seeing this develop.. will it have its own post separate from your dad's 57g?
 
@mbsqw1d Really good to see you! :drinks: How are things with you?

This tank is new, 34g, got it because I don't want my dad's 57g, so he wants it emptied and sold/dumped/moved/gone. My cories are in the 57 right now, along with the remaining few tetra from when he stocked that tank.

So I got this tank when I spotted it on gumtree. The dimensions he gave me made me think it was 37g, but since getting and measuring it, it's actually 34. That should still be okay for 15 cories and the two bristlenose sized plecs, right?
Sorry, have been feeling really low (and Rocky's comments didn't help), and then I watched this vid by Green Aqua,
and it really sapped my motivation as well. All the things he describes as basically essential for a beautiful tank, I don't have and cannot afford! He kinda sneered at people "not wanting to invest in their hobby" because they won't buy a proper CO2 system, an RO system, expensive plant light, and aqua soil etc. Never mind that many of us truly cannot afford these things!
So I'm not feeling very inspired when it comes to the scape, feels a bit pointless. But new plants arrive in a few days, so I really should get on with it.
 
I absolutely love it so far such a strong layout! As said above you can screw them together with stainless steel screws or have you ever seen the tissue paper/ cigarette filter and super glue technique?

Definitely keep the twigs in too! They look great, you can only tell at the start IMO eventually it all blends in and goes darker. You can also grow moss or anubias on them to help it blend if you get any lines or bits not quite right.

Interesting you have looked at Green Aqua, I really like them but I know where you are coming from but interestingly I think they have been on a bit of a journey over the last year (I think that vid is a bit older than that) where their approach to 'low tech' tanks and, lets call them fish first tanks has changed because they are embracing that side of the hobby more. George Farmer went in the same direction too with his Discus realising soil and Co2 were not the best thing for them and kind of evaluating what he did in the hobby regarding fish keeping going forward, he has always been a good source of info for all kinds of scaping. He is properly one of my heros in life generally let alone when it comes to the hobby.

The other person you have to check out is MD Fishtanks, not sure if you've mentioned him before but I bet you would love his channel. His fish keeping is not perfect but he is learning! But his tanks are undeniably amazing and I've learned loads from him that I'd never have thought of. I think you'll prefer him massively from Green Aqua but also dont write them off as there is a lot of good stuff on there, I really like their visiting speakers and watching them set up the hard scapes is really interesting.

I've hit the follow button on here now too so will be following closely :)

Wills
 
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I absolutely love it so far such a strong layout! As said above you can screw them together with stainless steel screws or have you ever seen the tissue paper/ cigarette filter and super glue technique?
Definitely keep the twigs in too! They look great, you can only tell at the start IMO eventually it all blends in and goes darker. You can also grow moss or anubias on them to help it blend if you get any lines or bits not quite right.

I haven't seen that technique, what is it? I have cig filters and superglue!! Also have plants I can use to hide the joins!
Interesting you have looked at Green Aqua, I really like them but I know where you are coming from but interestingly I think they have been on a bit of a journey over the last year (I think that vid is a bit older than that) where their approach to 'low tech' tanks and, lets call them fish first tanks has changed because they are embracing that side of the hobby more. George Farmer went in the same direction too with his Discus realising soil and Co2 were not the best thing for them and kind of evaluating what he did in the hobby regarding fish keeping going forward, he has always been a good source of info for all kinds of scaping. He is properly one of my heros in life generally let alone when it comes to the hobby.

The other person you have to check out is MD Fishtanks, not sure if you've mentioned him before but I bet you would love his channel. His fish keeping is not perfect but he is learning! But his tanks are undeniably amazing and I've learned loads from him that I'd never have thought of. I think you'll prefer him massively from Green Aqua but also dont write them off as there is a lot of good stuff on there, I really like their visiting speakers and watching them set up the hard scapes is really interesting.

I've admired Green Aqua videos before just for the "planted tank porn" lol element. Just enjoying looking at them creating these amazing scapes. Their talent is undeniable, and most of their videos were great. This was the first tutorial of theirs I'd looked up though, and it came at a bad time for my current mood lets just say! Not the most encouraging vid for low tech folks, but I guess that isn't their market really.
I did/have watched some MD Fishtanks too! I like him. Haven't seen tons of his stuff (nor Green Aquas, to be fair) but had seen enough to know he makes beautiful tanks, and his videos were encouraging after watching the GA one. His method of just getting stuck in and seeing how it turns out, rather than planning down to the last detail, was good for someone in my shoes as well!
I've hit the follow button on here now too so will be following closely :)

Wills

You're a sweetheart, thank you :) :flowers:
 
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I haven't seen that technique, what is it? I have cig filters and superglue!! Also have plants I can use to hide the joins!


I've admired Green Aqua videos before just for the "planted tank porn" lol element. Just enjoying looking at them creating these amazing scapes. Their talent is undeniable, and most of their videos were great. This was the first tutorial of theirs I'd looked up though, and it came at a bad time for my current mood lets just say! Not the most encouraging vid for low tech folks, but I guess that isn't their market really.
I did/have watched some MD Fishtanks too! I like him. Haven't seen tons of his stuff (nor Green Aquas, to be fair) but had seen enough to know he makes beautiful tanks, and his videos were encouraging after watching the GA one. His method of just getting stuck in and seeing how it turns out, rather than planning down to the last detail, was good for someone in my shoes as well!


You're a sweetheart, thank you :) :flowers:

Have a look at this :) Juris is a good channel to follow too - he is more high tech but loads to learn from him.

Wills
 
Well the nylon media bags and new plants arrived! So no more excuses, will need to crack on with setting up the hardscape and the substrate so I can get to planting - don't want to leave the plants sweating in their plastic too long.

Wish me luck! Will post photos once I have any progress to show
 
Well the nylon media bags and new plants arrived! So no more excuses, will need to crack on with setting up the hardscape and the substrate so I can get to planting - don't want to leave the plants sweating in their plastic too long.

Wish me luck! Will post photos once I have any progress to show
Awesome!
 
I got this cool looking wood piece a while ago, added it to my oto tank. Really liked the look of it, and it came from a fish store, but it quickly grew this fuzz all over it.

DSCF2040.JPG


Not the usual biofilm, this was more like a fungus. Didn't affect the fish or water parameters, but it didn't go away either. I removed the piece and scrubbed it with salt, and tried again, but the fuzzy stuff grew back again. So I removed it again, and decided to leave it to soak in a water tub in the garden for the rest of summer and then the winter. I then didn't need it for any tanks, so it's actually been out there since 2020.
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I uncovered it while checking for hardscape for this new set up, and the bark is actually peeling off of it now. Looks even cooler without the bark! I'm now helping the rest of the bark to come off, and I'm hoping that without the bark, it won't produce excess nutrients/sap/whatever it was that produced the gross furry stuff now.
 
Great news that you are ready to go :D Just remember to enjoy it and you don't have to get it right first time its a process. But make sure you get some music on or TV, snacks to hand etc make it a bit of an event!

Do you have the list of plants you are going to be putting in? Would be interesting to see :)

Wills
 

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