My Rejuvenation Journal.

[Joshwainwright]

Hey,

In the last month or so I have lost interest in aquatics and kind of neglected my tank, only seeing to it when necessary. No water changes would be made, the tank wouldn't be cleaned and snails have made a new home. Despite all this, my guppies have thrived and I have quite a lot of fry. Anyway, recently my filter has decided to stop working on me, this has triggered me to decide to spend more time and effort on my aquarium as it is in quite a state at the minute.



The first thing I plan to do is go out and buy a Fluval 205 external filter, I will be buying this from pets at home as I don't want to risk leaving my fish without a filter running. When I get this filter home please prepare to answer a lot of questions as it will be the first external filter I will have had, therefore I am not very knowledged about them. I will post pictures of me setting it up as soon as my camera decides to stop playing up.

Some other ideas I have:

• Try get rid of my algae problems
• Make my tank more appealing to the eye
• Get some more interesting fish
• Clean the green/black stuff of my hood (whatever it is)

And for when this project is complete:

• Set up a fry tank

NEW PLAN
Wait for new filter whilst doing regular water changes
Set new filter up with mature media in bottom
Wait for media to become mature
Buy new "ornaments", sand, backdrop and a heater for my 20L
Empty 80L and set 20L up
Clean 80L and set up with new stuff
Throw a few guppies in the 80L
Get some corys
BINGOOOOOOO!

I need help with ideas for a theme though

 

[chrisbassist]

I'd focus on making it interesting rather than adding fry tank. Find fish you really like and restock based on that...
Rescape to give you something different to look at.

 

[Joshwainwright]

Yeah, I do need to rescape at some point but I am going to try clean all the gravel first, because due to my recent lack of care whenever you move something, a giant cloud of dirt forms. I can't be bothered emptying my whole tank ect. so I will just do it slowly...

 

[karin]

Hi there.
Definitely get that filter up and running. THEN get to work on your gravel. I would take out that blue/purple plant in the center.... kind of drab and then more greenery real or fake and some more rock or wood.

What size is the tank? Maybe do a theme? Cichilds?

Have fun above all.

 

[Harlequins]

Good move getting the external,once its up and running,before cleaning the gravel,get a scrapper and clean the inside of the glass of algae,this normally falls to the bottom,so therefore can be stucked up with a gravel clean...

Rescape would be good,you could always move the fry into a plastic tub so save them getting sucked up.add more greenery?.

Do you just have guppies?

Snails can be a pain,try to remove has many has possibly,and feed less.

Decide what future stock you want and research them before buying.Corys are fab fish,although if you decide to get them,it might be worth while changing to sand....

Good luck and let us know how it goes

 

[Joshwainwright]

Just got back from town, It appears my local PAH do not have any external filters in stock, so I have just bought a fluval 205 online (Ebay). The only problem is I will not have a filter for the next 2/3 days, which I am very concerned about.

Will the bacteria in my media die if it is not circulated with oxygenated water? - That would be really bad

Hi there.
I would take out that blue/purple plant in the center....

I have the blue, plastic plant in the middle so the fry have a hiding spot...

What size is the tank? Maybe do a theme? Cichilds?

It is a 80L tank. I don't really know what to do, before I have just had guppies and a few easy to keep fish.

Do you just have guppies?

I have guppies and a few neon tetras, not very exciting to be honest.

Decide what future stock you want and research them before buying.Corys are fab fish,although if you decide to get them,it might be worth while changing to sand....

I'm getting rather fond of sand, I think it looks a lot better. The only problem I have is I don't really want to empty the whole of my tank and start again...

 

[plecoperson]

If it were me, I would get rid of any plastic plants, and replace them with real plants and bog wood, maybe some rocks. Changing gravel to sand is too much effort for me with an established tank having done it once before, so I would keep that unless you want to give away all the fish and start again. I'd rescape it, clean it as much as possible, and then start adding more variety of fish although Im coming around to the idea of guppies as my mum has them but Id get a variety of livebearers and rasboras to give some variety in shape, size and colour. If I didnt have the guppies, i'd have dwarf gouramis as the focal point. But in your setup for the guppies, id either have a species only tank with lots of guppies or mix it up with some tetras/swordtails/rasboras etc.

 

[Joshwainwright]

I'm going to attempt making it into a cory tank, and have my guppys in a separate, 20L tank. I'll wait for my new filter, add some mature media and then wait until its fully mature. Then, I am going to empty my 80L and redo it all with sand as a substrate and corys. Also, I am going to attempt keeping some plants healthy in the long run, seeing as they usually die on me.

 

[Ben M]

hi, changing from gravel to sand is really easy. you don't have to empty the tank. you can use play sand from argos, toys r us, or any other garden/DIY store. it's much cheaper than the stuff from the fish shops. firstly, wash the sand: half fill a bucket with sand and squirt a hose in really powerfully to mix it all up. when the bucket it full, leave it for a few seconds for the sand to settle, then tip the dirty water out. repeat until the water is clear. then, when you have washed the sand, put the fish and ornaments/plants in another container/tank, and scoop all of the gravel out. leave the tank for a while for all of the rubbish to settle to the bottom, then, when the water is crystal clear, syphon the debris out of the bottom. then, turn off the filter to stop it from sucking up any sand, add the sand, leave to settle, then, turn filter back on, top up the water and mix up the sand a bit to get rid of any air bubbles, and to equalise the temperature of the cold water in the sand with the tank water. then add fish and ornaments/plants. regularly mix up the sand to stop any pockets of gas building up, and you could get a few Malaysian trumpet snails to mix up the sand.

 

[BethK]

Ohh subsrate sand, I brought 2 (2k each) bags of pure white and normal off ebay for £7 (with p&p)

That way, if you get sand, you could get some cute corys to go in there?

 

[Joshwainwright]

Thanks for the advice pest control.

I plant to buy the sand from argos at £2.99 per bag, dirt cheap.
I think I'm just going to empty the tank fully despite the extra work as I have a lot of gunk around the hood and top edges of my tank due to the air stones I use at the moment. When I get restarted however I plan to abandon using air stones.

By the way, do you have any design ideas you could help me out with for the tank as so far I have only made a decision on planting some Amozon Swords and some Java Ferns. I do have a medium/small piece of bogwood but it isn't that interesting therefore I am beginning to dislike it.

That way, if you get sand, you could get some cute corys to go in there?

I do plan to house corys

 

[BethK]

If you have a Maidenhead Aquatics near you, pop in there for bogwood. They will allow you to purchase the bogwood from their tanks. Some other LFS might let you do that too. The price is exactly the same for those pieces with or without moss growing on it

You can get dirt cheap moss balls off ebay.

How about some sort of lilly?

You can by gray slate or roof tiles, break them up and build little hide outs or mounds with them. Maybe make some sort of bamboo fencing, or I think Lucky Bamboo might be ok submerged but you may have to check with the plant section on the forum.

I love designing, can't wait to get myself a bigger tank!

 

[Joshwainwright]

I could probably keep the bogwood, just position it differntly. The only thing is it seems to have changed colour over the past however gone and has turned a green/brown rather than the brow in used to be (if that makes sense?)

To be honest I think I'm going to scrap it and look for some sort of slate/pot, that would look quite good...

 

[Joshwainwright]

Just looked in the garage at the huge selection of equipment I had donated a few years ago, Discovered quite a few pieces of slate that would look rather good when cleaned up. I would still need some sort of centre piece though.

Also, I just had a nice conversation with my mum, and she is considering getting a tall, hexagonal aquarium for downstairs

 

[Joshwainwright]

The kind of layout I am thinking about...
Does need some more eye candy...