Here's what happens when you don't do tank maintenance!

[Billsgate]

Some pictures, hadn't done maintenance in 2-3 months (I did do pwc, but no plant pruning)

Oh, btw, this tank is 18.5 gallons and has an astounding 15 Watts of light above the tank.

As you can see, some plants dislike my water and start crawling their way out:

Complete tank shot:

Plants I don't need anymore:

Plants that will be replanted:

After maintenance (as you can see, I carefully planted my cuttings in the lower right corner. This was done by grabbing hold of them and stomping them down into the gravel ):

 

[greenmaji]

That looked like some serious growth problems there Thomas!
How did you get your foot in there to stomp the cuttings into the gravel? JK!
I still cant see the fish if there is any!..LOL
Good post!

 

[Billsgate]

Oh there are fish in there! 3 otocinclus, 3 female guppies, 1 male guppy, and around 20-30 guppy offspring, ranging from 1 day to 1 month of age.
Have to get rid of some fry soon.....don't know how yet, since my other fish don't eat them. I'll try the lfs to see if they want some free feeders...

 

[Zezmo]

I used to toss my clipping in the trash, until I found out my local Aquarium Society has a monthly auction at thier meetings. Now I take my clippings there to make $$$. If they don't sell... well they were headed to the trash anyways.

 

[czcz]

Is this your natural tank (no powered filtration)? It looks great.

 

[Billsgate]

There is very low current in there, all the bad stuff is taken up by the plants, so I don't need lot's of filtration. There's an overflow box in there with an old little pump.

Water parameters are always 0 am, 0 nitrites and 0-5 nitrates.

It doesn't really look great I want to redo it soon........it's just a bunch of plants in there, but that's it I hardly see my fish!
I'm going to set it up with smaller plants, that don't get that tall, maybe some bigger ones in a corner.

 

[dnaelting]

Lots o' plant growth. Fish must like it.

 

[Fluff]

My tanks get like that (like right now). Especially the floating dw. I usually just toss the plants but lately I've been giving it away to whoever will take them, and throwing some in my ponds. The koi love it.

 

[gheitman]

I get duckweed only when I let the plant nutrients get way out of balance. If I fertilize my plants as I normally do then the duckweed just goes away.

When I have too many plants I trade them in to the LFS for credit. I have been their main source of African fern for the last month or so and made more than $50 from just those. I've also traded in some Anubias and Cryptocoryne wendtii "red". Right now I'm growing moss balls (very slowly) which I intend to trade in.

 

[Billsgate]

I would trade in my plants, but I think the quality is too low to sell them back to the lfs. I mean, the grow well, but they grow too thinly in comparisson with the plants I see at my lfs.

The duckweed started with maybe 2 or 3 leaves that hitchhiked on some new plants I got from the lfs several months ago, and I've scooped out allot of full tanksurfaces since then.....I could start dosing all necesairry ferts, but that really is too much work for me right now. Someday I'll start doing that and have Pretty planted tanks

I do think the fish enjoy the excessive plant growth, my otos are always busy cleaning, and my baby guppies have great chances of surviving, but not that that is too positive

 

[ace1uno_00]

wow. that was a really cool before and after pic. i like that.

 

[Toirtis]

I liked it before pruning...