Regenerating A Old, Dying Fish Tank.

[ChrisChrisChris]

Ok an update is needed!

Sadly i lost the blue male guppy, his tail fin just seems to disintegrated and his swimming wall effected then i found him RIP.

The pleco's fins have regrown nicely, his redness has gone and white spot on all fish seems to have cleared up(WS3 - Melachite green i believe it contains).

THe pleco is still hindered by some slimey type glue on his body, i assume its slime disease and it gives an effect of white spot as the sand in my tank sticks to him(-1 point for having sand in a tank when it comes to diagnosis).

Today my yellow female(I believe) has given birth to 9 babies, sadly it got 2 of them upon birth (So much for "releasing a hormone to stop it eating its babies"....Yeah right, what rubbish).
My red female is very fat, squaring off to give birth soon i imagine.
My red male seems good too.

So thats all the 4 fish in the tank.

Ooooh and from the last 26, 1 baby survived and is growing nicely

So its been a battle, but its going ok and my tanks looking better. Seems i have alot of limescale on the back and sides which still needs to be removed and sand needs replenishing a bit (Water changes you lose a little).

Then i'll get cracking on plants.

I plan to borrow some Elodea from a friends tank, place it in fish tank water in a well lit area in my garden and i hope that that will grow like weeds which i can then use to populate my tank.
Also i assume(Must check this) that i could use normal plant fertislier on it, then give it a good clean in fresh tank water(From a water change) leave it for 24hours to repirate then place it into my tank? Essentially creating loads of Elodea, without trying to grow it in my fish tank(with fish!) allowing me to use cheaper plant fertiliser?

 

[Alind]

If you get a chance to wash your tank do it with table salt,it removes all calcium scales.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

All limescale?

I'm very tempted to cycle my spare tank, put the fish into it, then completely reclean this larger tank using salt etc as its horrible seeing limescale!

I thought only acid's got rid of lime scale type marks(as arn't they calcium?)

Red fish dropped alot of babies over a 16hour period.

Came down in the morning and saw a few, caught them from 11am onwards more we're dropping untill around 5 oclock when i went out.
I then returned at 1am and 2 more we're freely swimming around (without a full stomach/lump attached to them - So it must of been an hour or more). Then from 2am onwards untill 5am the mummy was giving birth, my girlfriend and sister got to witness it so they we're pleased.
It's quite amusing to see them tumble out of its bottom and try to swim, like a Bambi fish!

We have around 20-24 babies, 2 passed away which is expected.

NOw i need to find a fluval O-Ring and propeller cover for my fluval 403 as its slightly damaged.

 

[OldMan47]

Lime scale can be scrubbed with salt for removal. Salt is a safe chemical for the fish because it is easily rinsed from the tank and it is a mild abrasive for removing deposits. If I want to remove scale deposits on an empty tank, I often start by scaring away as much as I can followed by use of vinegar as the acid to attack the deposit and soften it. Once the deposit has been softened, salt is not a bad abrasive to finish things up. Vinegar, like salt, is easy to rinse out of the tank and make i t safe again for fish.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

So you use salt as an abrasive, you dont dissolve it and let the water sit(thats what i interpretted it as which is why i was confused).

Ok i may do that then on my acrylic tank, then move the fish across then hopefully empty and maybe even turn my current tank around due to some scratches and limescale.

My water must be very hard, i had the water running down the back wall for a week and its now full of limescale

 

[OldMan47]

Don't use abrasives on an acrylic tank. You don't want the acrylic to become scratched at all. For acrylic, all bets are off. You need to hear from someone who has actually cleaned one effectively, not from me.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

My scratched/limescaled tank is glass.

My acrylic tank is sat empty at the moment, although limescale is on the filter, guess i can dip that in vinegar for a few days i suppose?

 

[OldMan47]

A vinegar soak for the limescale on a filter is OK but again most are made of plastic and should only be scrubbed if you don't mind scratching.