Neglected to New - Coming Back Log

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey AA Members, I am back.

After losing interest in the hobby for over a year now, from being too busy worrying about more important things, it is now summer and I have some free time and i'm working on getting back into the aquariums.

I have a lot of work to do to fix my tanks back up, and i'm going to keep those log going on my clean-up adventure.

I'll be posting some pictures of what the tanks look like now, be as critical as you want they look horrible compared to where they were and might be asking some questions haha.

I'll be updating as much as I can, hopefully all my fish are still alive in the mess

-Ben

 

[Aquarium1]

Following, again lol (I love popcorn) lol

 

[corrado33]

Hm, sounds like a great "adventure". Are your tanks currently still set up? I would assume so. I think everyone goes through that period in their life where they just don't have the time for their aquariums any more. They grow stale, don't offer any excitement anymore. You just do the minimum to make them work. I'm glad you've gotten over it! Looking forward to seeing the pics.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Following, again lol (I love popcorn) lol

Haha great!

Hm, sounds like a great "adventure". Are your tanks currently still set up? I would assume so. I think everyone goes through that period in their life where they just don't have the time for their aquariums any more. They grow stale, don't offer any excitement anymore. You just do the minimum to make them work. I'm glad you've gotten over it! Looking forward to seeing the pics.

Yeah I have a 55G, very dirty filled with too many convicts to count. A 20G that has one sp of plant now that took over the tank with some interesting fish in it, but the plants are pretty much the only structure I have in it besides a few rocks. A 20G long that was a very beautiful setup, you can see old pictures if you click the orange link in my sig, but now looks horrible, and a 5G planted tank that is full of hair algae and a few suriving yellow shrimp I had from my selling days. Oh and another 20G long that was filled with fish from my 60G leak that i'm guessing my raphel cat ate a lot of my small fish.

I'll have specific details tomorrow with pictures, its almost midnight so its a little late to start working on them. Haha

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Update - June 23rd, 2010

Here are all of my before pictures before I begin the clean up. Like I said they are really bad so any critical comments are pointless because I already know haha

5 Gallon Planted
Few yellow shrimp and snails

20 Gallon Planted
Leaf Fish, 3 Peppered Cories, 2 Algae Eaters, 1 Common Pleco, 1 khuli loach

20 Gallon Long Holder Tank (60G leaked and had to put fish in here)
1 raphel cat, 1 blue gourami (Had a lot more fish but raphel ate them all they were small schooling fish)

20 Gallon Long Planted
2 algae eats, 1 BN pleco, 7-8 pygmy cories, 9 white mountain minnows, bunch of RCS

55G Convict Breeder (To be turned into predator setup)
Adult breeding pair and many 2"+ babies.


Thats why they are right now, hopefully they will look a lot better in near future.

 

[Aquarium1]

I have faith in ya. What kind of plant is that in the first one?
Anyway, with algae, I'd recommend getting some razor blades and scraping it off, works like a charm, as long as its glass. Also, might help to refill the tanks lol (after some pwcs). How come that one 20g is only half full?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I have faith in ya. What kind of plant is that in the first one?
Anyway, with algae, I'd recommend getting some razor blades and scraping it off, works like a charm, as long as its glass. Also, might help to refill the tanks lol (after some pwcs). How come that one 20g is only half full?

The plant is red foxtail i'm pretty sure. Some what red stems with green prickely soft leaves. I'm suprised how well its going in there it looks very healthy. This tank is also amazingly clear and clean aswell and the filter isn't even running, just a lot of hair algae in it.

For the algae I have this special sponge with a handle on it that works better and faster then any razorblades I use to use, I use razorblades for calcium build up on the top most of the time.

I'm waiting to refil the tanks till I clean them haha.

And for the 20G being half filled, I don't understand if it's the tank placement or what but that tank seems to evaporate water very fast, compared to all my other tanks. I'm looking around for a lid to fit to hopefully reduce it. My temp is the same as all my other tanks so I don't know.

 

[Aquarium1]

Ok, just wanted to make sure. Probably be best to start with the smaller tanks first, then work your way up. Good luck

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Ok, just wanted to make sure. Probably be best to start with the smaller tanks first, then work your way up. Good luck

Thanks, yeah i'm no nooby at this at all I know what i'm doing haha. I'm just a bit lazy and need some a good motive to get started lol.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Following along!!

 

[corrado33]

With the right lighting, and just a tiny sprucing up, that 20 gallon long planted would be beautiful. I bet you could get it done in two hours. It has a ton of potential the way it is. I can tell you knew what you were doing before you got lazy. (Besides, who else but an aquarium freak would have 6 tanks?)

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

With the right lighting, and just a tiny sprucing up, that 20 gallon long planted would be beautiful. I bet you could get it done in two hours. It has a ton of potential the way it is. I can tell you knew what you were doing before you got lazy. (Besides, who else but an aquarium freak would have 6 tanks?)

Yeah if you want to see it at it's peak where it was you can click on the Shallow Stream link in my sig, it use to look awesome.

Yeah I use to have 7 aquariums now im down to 5.

 

[logansmomma1228]

How did you get the water to look like that ? I know some people have tricks to give it an amber glow, I forget what the term was for it. Turbid water I think?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

How did you get the water to look like that ? I know some people have tricks to give it an amber glow, I forget what the term was for it. Turbid water I think?

I got it from using natural driftwood that was from my local river. I never boiled it just rocked it down into one tank then when it was water logged moved it to the other and the color eventually bled out over course of time.