Lady Hobbs
03-10-2007, 02:24 PM
What a night!
I changed my 20 gallon over to sand with no hitch at all and never even took the fish out to do so. Easy as pie.
But then...........
I thought I would get my 29 gallon ready for planting so stripped the tank and moved my grumpy angelfish into the big tank with the others. (They only fought about 4 hours this time!)
I then ventured into the land of OZ and the night from HELL. I never planned to be an expert here but I had read about planting with Laterite extensionally so thought it might go fair.
I mixed the laterite with sand and pressed it into the bottom of the tank as I had read. I know gravel will hold plants down better than sand so decided to top this clay mess with .......what else.......my blue gravel.
I then filled the tank. OH MY GAWD! I knew there would be some clouding but I never expected tomato soup. I run my pump for at least 2 hours and this tomato soup only continued to worsen. It would settle back down on the top of my lovely gravel where it should not be (or will put too much iron in the tank.)
By now, all my filter floss is bright red and only sprewing more of this stuff back into the tank. (By nights end, I had changed the floss 3 times.)
I decided I had to change the water to clear this mess up but with each fill-up, it was worse. I was so p***** off by now that I decided to remove the whole mess totally.
Mind you, I have 3 tanks sitting not 18 inches from my bed and I also have my computer to squeeze by so need to be fairly careful with water here and I have zero room to work in. Add your hood, lights, decorations, power cords, buckets, cleaning supplies and you have about 2 1/2 inches to work in.
I am thankful for getting that Python when I did as this tank needed to be drained 6 times and refilled! I ended up removing everything and dumping it all. Sand, gravel and clay were everywhere in my bathroom by this time.
Dropped the hood light in the water twice and on the floor once.
Python fell out of the tank and sprewed water all over my bedroom floor and bedspread. Why does water have to run UNDER the bed?
I had that god awful red clay on my walls, smeared all over the tank, in my bathroom sink, tub and all over my towels.
Just when I thought I had the tank done and turned on the filters again, out sprews all this red crap so another water change and another floss change. Out I haul the Python AGAIN for water change number 7.
While I am doing this, the pump on the tank I had added sand to stops. Probably got a piece of sand in it but it took forever to get it going again.
The wood I siliconed to slate has now given way and floating at the surface. Second time this hasn't worked.
I am banging around here trying to get this stuff done for the evening and hear this banging on my wall. I look at the clock and here it is, 2:30 in the morning and my poor neighbor had to be kept up half the night with this. I totally lost track of time! SOOOO embarrassed.
I have no idea of where I will be planting all these plants that are coming.
And now I have to go clean my house which is destroyed!
I changed my 20 gallon over to sand with no hitch at all and never even took the fish out to do so. Easy as pie.
But then...........
I thought I would get my 29 gallon ready for planting so stripped the tank and moved my grumpy angelfish into the big tank with the others. (They only fought about 4 hours this time!)
I then ventured into the land of OZ and the night from HELL. I never planned to be an expert here but I had read about planting with Laterite extensionally so thought it might go fair.
I mixed the laterite with sand and pressed it into the bottom of the tank as I had read. I know gravel will hold plants down better than sand so decided to top this clay mess with .......what else.......my blue gravel.
I then filled the tank. OH MY GAWD! I knew there would be some clouding but I never expected tomato soup. I run my pump for at least 2 hours and this tomato soup only continued to worsen. It would settle back down on the top of my lovely gravel where it should not be (or will put too much iron in the tank.)
By now, all my filter floss is bright red and only sprewing more of this stuff back into the tank. (By nights end, I had changed the floss 3 times.)
I decided I had to change the water to clear this mess up but with each fill-up, it was worse. I was so p***** off by now that I decided to remove the whole mess totally.
Mind you, I have 3 tanks sitting not 18 inches from my bed and I also have my computer to squeeze by so need to be fairly careful with water here and I have zero room to work in. Add your hood, lights, decorations, power cords, buckets, cleaning supplies and you have about 2 1/2 inches to work in.
I am thankful for getting that Python when I did as this tank needed to be drained 6 times and refilled! I ended up removing everything and dumping it all. Sand, gravel and clay were everywhere in my bathroom by this time.
Dropped the hood light in the water twice and on the floor once.
Python fell out of the tank and sprewed water all over my bedroom floor and bedspread. Why does water have to run UNDER the bed?
I had that god awful red clay on my walls, smeared all over the tank, in my bathroom sink, tub and all over my towels.
Just when I thought I had the tank done and turned on the filters again, out sprews all this red crap so another water change and another floss change. Out I haul the Python AGAIN for water change number 7.
While I am doing this, the pump on the tank I had added sand to stops. Probably got a piece of sand in it but it took forever to get it going again.
The wood I siliconed to slate has now given way and floating at the surface. Second time this hasn't worked.
I am banging around here trying to get this stuff done for the evening and hear this banging on my wall. I look at the clock and here it is, 2:30 in the morning and my poor neighbor had to be kept up half the night with this. I totally lost track of time! SOOOO embarrassed.
I have no idea of where I will be planting all these plants that are coming.
And now I have to go clean my house which is destroyed!