My Tank Overhaul with Pics!!

**themusician** · 05-05-2008, 10:21 PM

I've posted a couple of times lately about problems I've encountered overhauling my tank, but now it's finished, and in thanks for your advice I want to show you pictures!

The history on this tank: It's a 20H that I set up last September. It was my first tank since I was a kid (and those were disasters), so I was completely obsessed with it for awhile. Sometime in November things started going wrong. I bought three new cories to add to the two I had, and I still don't know if they introduced something or what, but my fish started acting lethargic, gasping, and dying. I came to you all and you were as baffled as me because my water quality was excellent. I lost a tetra and two cories.

In the midst of all this, I took a trip home (across country) to see my family for Christmas. My pet-sitter pulled out at the last minute and I tried everything, including trying to find somebody to take my fish permanently, but no luck. I eventually got a friend of mine to watch over them for me while I was gone.

When I got back, it was a mess. I had lost another cory that had set off an ammonia spike in the tank. The water level was low, one of my platies had dropsy, bad, and everything was just generally falling apart. My friend did not follow any of my instructions while I was gone. Still a bit of a sore subject.

I cleaned up and took care of sick fish, but never had time to do any major maintenance on the tank until recently. Finally, about two weeks ago, I got sick of the algae and the dying plants and I ripped them all out. I replaced everything in the tank except the gravel and the fish, and you can see the result in the last couple pictures. I'm very pleased and I'm just hoping that everything fills in the way I want it to.

Pictures are (in order): the tank originally, the tank at its worst (right before a water change), after ripping everything out, and two pictures of the new set up.

**MandyL** · 05-05-2008, 10:28 PM

It looks really nice! Good job sticking with it and fixing the problems. Is it possible to move your heater and filter to the left so the plants hide them?

**Minderella83** · 05-05-2008, 10:32 PM

in the last pics, what are the little small plants on the right side.

**themusician** · 05-05-2008, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by MandyL

It looks really nice! Good job sticking with it and fixing the problems. Is it possible to move your heater and filter to the left so the plants hide them?

It's definitely possible. There's not much plant to hide them at the moment, but hopefully it will grow in. Thanks for the suggestion!

And the small plants on the right side are "narrow leaf micro sword" according to the tag that was on the pot. I've read that there are several kinds of micro sword, so I don't know which ones these are...but oh well. I'm hoping they will spread and create a lawn effect on that side.