aquarium tear downs

[Meredith]

I am in the process of moving out fish from my 55 to a 20 gallon, the 55 is going to be totally redone. But I noticed that it seems like no matter how many water changes I do, the tank always looks scungy. I realized that even if I were not drastically changing the look of the 55, I would probably need to do a total tear down and clean the thing out (the last time this happened was about a year ago) Does anyone else do this on a regular basis?

 

[DeFeKt]

lol funny that, just did it about 1/2 hr ago on a 20 gal gt breeding tank.
but had another tank and filter to put straight in it's place so it was relativly easy besides having to wait for the painted black background to dry.

on average I probly do it once every 8-12 months just to freshen things up and get the algae out of all those hard-to-reach places.

Although the 100gal needs one now as I have been a bit lazy with maintanace over the christmas break, but nothing a couple of quick water changes and rub the gunk off the glass couldn't fix. Not looking forward to trying to get something down inbetween the side drop filter glasses though. the 3mm gap is going to be the killer..

Matt.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Nope, I don't. Need to be aware that everytime you do a complete teardown, you may need to re-cycle the tank, and if you don't, could have some dead fish. (Unless you keep your cycled filter going in another tank til it's time to install in the cleaned tank)

What do you mean by scrungy? Is it too much fish poo or excess food, or is it just mainly cosmetic, like wanting a new look?

Also, have you thought about pool filter sand? Looks natural and you can do some really nice setups with driftwood, plants, ornaments, etc.

 

[Meredith]

I like the moon sand, it will be moved to the 20, and play sand will go in 55 when its ready. The whole thing just looks dirty to me. I know I will go through another cycle in the 55 (hopefully it will be quick though, I am not changing out any of the filter media) I am sure my dislike of the tank right now has a lot to do with my snail outbreak and the darn BBA.
It just looks like it needs a good scrubbing. Thats the best way to describe it.