time for a tear down :(

[fishorama]

I've had my 75g set up since 2012, Different fish, plants & decor over the years. Angels, cool peppermint loaches, adopted rummynose tetras, bronze corys & BN plecos to name a few. I'm down to 4? BN offspring & a surprise cory without any friends left. I've dealt with BBA, BGA (twice) & hair algae, ugh!

Now I'm ready to start over if my carpool club friend will still take the plecos & someone in my club has bronze corys for my lonely male. His friend died 6 weeks ago, the last of my gift corys. Poor boy, he's not happy alone.

My amazon swords are not happy either. The BNs chew the leaves & dig into the sand. by their roots. A cryptocoryne miracle, 3 kinds have come back to life after being MIA for 3 years!! So I'd like to save them, crypts are my fav plants.

A big project right at the start of NFL football (tomorrow, go Eagles!), but little by little I need to start working toward a better tank...& some botia type loaches, I miss them so much!!

Mostly I'm just complaining, but suggestions would be welcome

 

[GaryE]

So a tear down or just a reset? Ar you cleaning it out and starting from scratch? Your crypts will be mad at you if you do.

A lot of people get into making aquarium changes at this time of year. Winter is coming, and here, the days are shortening. I think it's natural to want to hunker down with a beautiful tank. Get those fish rehomed and you can gradually build it to where you want it to be. NFL football shouldn't interfere - you could build a tank from scratch and then aquascape it in the long breaks between plays in that sport. It's a project, but it can be gradual.

You move a plant, add a rock, move out the fish you don't want to good homes, add some Botia, and there you have it.

 

[fishorama]

I think there are sword roots everywhere! So when I pull them up, I bet all the plants will be uprooted. I can't vacuum the sand well & just want to get it back to really clean & not try to pick out all the leftover root bits. It'll be easier out of the tank & hopefully I can get rid of the latest cyano too.

The crypts are a bit of a miracle. When I had bba I picked off infected leaves but of course any new leaves got it too. I left the roots but kind of forgot about them. They had no leaves for a couple years through all the various algae! Then this year they came back! So did a few "jungle vals" I thought I'd gotten rid of a few years earlier.

After all the tear down & cleaning, it should be gradual fun. Find wood & rocks in the garage & yard. Part of that fun will be deciding which loaches I want! I have old favorites I love to have again & 1s I haven't kept yet. Winter tends to be "loach season" so I hope to be ready with appropriate decor & plants firmly rooted if I choose possible diggers.

Got to go, my team is on now.