pitt420dude
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hi everybody (this is going to be a long post),
My name is Heath and I've been a member here a long time but haven't posted in about 3-4 years. The cycle I refer to in my title is my own personal fish-keeping cycle. I have a 22 month old daughter now named Abigail, and due to her arrival and moving, I got rid of my 55 gallon planted aquarium. I now only have a 10 gal and a 20 gal long. (I sold the 55 gal to a friend and it is in his law office and I can still see it!!!)
I will get real into my aquariums for a year or two, and then a year or two will go by and I pay little to no attention to them whatsoever besides the bare minimum feeding and cleaning.
Well I am on an upswing again. About a month ago I lost my pride and joy. He was a full-grown male Texas Cichlid named Killer. He was awesome and VERY aggressive. He was rescued by me initially from a very bad situation: my frat brother had no food for him, a crappy filter and half the water evaporated. He was raised in my tank, and he unfortunately died in my tank.
I was away in Mexico for 10 days (dirt-biking down the entire baja peninsula) and his filter stopped working (mostly due to not being cleaned by me for a long while) and I think he suffocated because the water wasn't moving. This really upset me because his under gravel filter powerhead was busted for months and I never got it fixed because of the other filter. Since the other filter broke down while I was away I felt completely responsible for his death. Illness, old age, and parameter issues are sad but "better" reasons to lose a fish. This death I feel was just due to my own lazyness and inattentiveness to him.
I was really upset. I never cried before when a fish died but he was a friend and this was my fault. He had a lot of personality. I always would dare my friends to hold their pinky in his tank for 5 seconds and NOBODY ever successfully did it. He knocked my dad's sunglasses out of his hand one time when my dad was testing him, lol.
My wife called me in Mexico and I told her to do a big PWC and put an airstone in but I think it was too late. He was the only fish I ever buried, I planted a Japanese fingerlace maple above the place where I buried him. I had my wife and daughter and two friends over to help me plant the tree. I said a few words and that was it. Hopefully the tree will last a very very long time. You can see a younger version of him in my profile pic. I had him for 8 years in a 20 gal, long aquarium.
I gutted the aquarium, lost the UGF, trashed the gravel, bought a new Aquaclear 50, and fixed the other HOB filter that clogged. I bought a 20 lb bag of eco-complete and am doing a fishless cycle now using a half of a shrimp and a big handful of gravel from my LFS as seeding material for the filters. I used a razor and scraped the glass as best I could. I used distilled white vinegar to get rid of the gunk (calcium, lime, etc.). I am starting completely new. Nothing except the tank itself and the old filter are being re-used. It looks great, but slightly used, which it is so I'm fine with it.
I really don't know what I'll do yet with a 20gal long. I'll tell you this much though, I LOOOOVE having only a 20 gal tank. The last time I have payed a tank this much attention was my 55 gal planted and it was sooo expensive. This stuff is cheap cheap cheap. My aquaclear 50 was only 35 bucks and the eco-complete only 25 or so. I may get another bag or supplement it with black sand but haven't decided.
I know I want a community tank of tropical freshwater fish. I loved Killer and miss him. It was especially therapeutic cleaning his tank and thinking of him while doing it; but I won't lie: I've been thinking over the past year or two of what I would do with it once he passed.
I stopped by my LFS (Elmer's in Pittsburgh) and they graciously gave me two big handfuls of gravel as seeding material for my filters. I dumped the gravel in there, lost the charcoal that came with my aquaclear and replaced it with more bio-media. I have it at 78 degrees with two filters running, half a shrimp in there and an air-stone so my guess is 10days and my biological bacteria filter will be ready to go. I'll stock slowly.
I'm interested to see how many of my old friends are still active in here. Purrbox, happygirl, Antiasang, meegosh are all people I haven't spoken to in a long time. It's good to be back again and I'm just sad it is under this pretense. At least it is exciting to be at this part of my cycle again.
Any tips for stocking? The only thing I'm sure of is that I will go planted and do want a community tank. It will be all-natural too. Rocks, plants and fish.
Thanks for reading!
-Heath
My name is Heath and I've been a member here a long time but haven't posted in about 3-4 years. The cycle I refer to in my title is my own personal fish-keeping cycle. I have a 22 month old daughter now named Abigail, and due to her arrival and moving, I got rid of my 55 gallon planted aquarium. I now only have a 10 gal and a 20 gal long. (I sold the 55 gal to a friend and it is in his law office and I can still see it!!!)
I will get real into my aquariums for a year or two, and then a year or two will go by and I pay little to no attention to them whatsoever besides the bare minimum feeding and cleaning.
Well I am on an upswing again. About a month ago I lost my pride and joy. He was a full-grown male Texas Cichlid named Killer. He was awesome and VERY aggressive. He was rescued by me initially from a very bad situation: my frat brother had no food for him, a crappy filter and half the water evaporated. He was raised in my tank, and he unfortunately died in my tank.
I was away in Mexico for 10 days (dirt-biking down the entire baja peninsula) and his filter stopped working (mostly due to not being cleaned by me for a long while) and I think he suffocated because the water wasn't moving. This really upset me because his under gravel filter powerhead was busted for months and I never got it fixed because of the other filter. Since the other filter broke down while I was away I felt completely responsible for his death. Illness, old age, and parameter issues are sad but "better" reasons to lose a fish. This death I feel was just due to my own lazyness and inattentiveness to him.
I was really upset. I never cried before when a fish died but he was a friend and this was my fault. He had a lot of personality. I always would dare my friends to hold their pinky in his tank for 5 seconds and NOBODY ever successfully did it. He knocked my dad's sunglasses out of his hand one time when my dad was testing him, lol.
My wife called me in Mexico and I told her to do a big PWC and put an airstone in but I think it was too late. He was the only fish I ever buried, I planted a Japanese fingerlace maple above the place where I buried him. I had my wife and daughter and two friends over to help me plant the tree. I said a few words and that was it. Hopefully the tree will last a very very long time. You can see a younger version of him in my profile pic. I had him for 8 years in a 20 gal, long aquarium.
I gutted the aquarium, lost the UGF, trashed the gravel, bought a new Aquaclear 50, and fixed the other HOB filter that clogged. I bought a 20 lb bag of eco-complete and am doing a fishless cycle now using a half of a shrimp and a big handful of gravel from my LFS as seeding material for the filters. I used a razor and scraped the glass as best I could. I used distilled white vinegar to get rid of the gunk (calcium, lime, etc.). I am starting completely new. Nothing except the tank itself and the old filter are being re-used. It looks great, but slightly used, which it is so I'm fine with it.
I really don't know what I'll do yet with a 20gal long. I'll tell you this much though, I LOOOOVE having only a 20 gal tank. The last time I have payed a tank this much attention was my 55 gal planted and it was sooo expensive. This stuff is cheap cheap cheap. My aquaclear 50 was only 35 bucks and the eco-complete only 25 or so. I may get another bag or supplement it with black sand but haven't decided.
I know I want a community tank of tropical freshwater fish. I loved Killer and miss him. It was especially therapeutic cleaning his tank and thinking of him while doing it; but I won't lie: I've been thinking over the past year or two of what I would do with it once he passed.
I stopped by my LFS (Elmer's in Pittsburgh) and they graciously gave me two big handfuls of gravel as seeding material for my filters. I dumped the gravel in there, lost the charcoal that came with my aquaclear and replaced it with more bio-media. I have it at 78 degrees with two filters running, half a shrimp in there and an air-stone so my guess is 10days and my biological bacteria filter will be ready to go. I'll stock slowly.
I'm interested to see how many of my old friends are still active in here. Purrbox, happygirl, Antiasang, meegosh are all people I haven't spoken to in a long time. It's good to be back again and I'm just sad it is under this pretense. At least it is exciting to be at this part of my cycle again.
Any tips for stocking? The only thing I'm sure of is that I will go planted and do want a community tank. It will be all-natural too. Rocks, plants and fish.
Thanks for reading!
-Heath
