Old Tank Rebuild & Questions

Hello All,

As proud as I have been of my hugely planted aquarium it has had problems. I have a 55g that has been extremely heavily planted with both aquarium plants and terrestrial plants.





I have not been able to keep a new fish alive in there for at least a year. I have a few ancient goruamis as well as a clown loach and a Kuhli loach. New fish last 1-3 weeks and then begin to die. The water all tests perfectly according to hardness, ph, nitrites, and nitrates. It is the most pristine aquarium I have ever maintained. Why wouldn't it be with 5 fish and enough vines to circle the room twice?

At any rate, I decided it was time to empty the whole thing and start from scratch.

I have new gravel and will clean all the aquarium plants before I put them back in. I will wash and clean the gigantic root balls as best I can, too. There are two main plants growing in the room. The larger of the two has a root mass that is approximately as tall as the tank and about 14" wide. It was under the gravel all the way from front to back as well. The other root mass is about half that size but still quite massive.

If anyone has done this kind of replanting before, what is the best way to keep the vines alive? They are all Pothos and Philodendron with some bamboo.

I would like to keep as many of the plants alive as possible.

Does anyone see any obvious problems with the setup I had that may have caused the problems?

At first I thought it was available oxygen because the air breathing goruamis survived but the loaches should have died. The other fish that died out were all small schools of common LFS stock. I'd add 6-12 fish every 6 months or so and none lasted except for one persistent tiger barb.

I'd welcome any suggestions, observations, or advice. Thanks,
Nate

Here are a couple pictures I took after writing my plea.

The root wad: a tiger barb's private Sargasso Sea.

The whole tank, full of roots.

The plants I have removed so far. Well established java fern, a carpet of val, bamboo, and some Philodendron.

Byron,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'll certainly do some checking before replanting. I have some philodendron in my large tank as well. I'll check tonight and pull them tomorrow if I can find it anywhere. I'll update this thread with anything reputable I find. At this point, even if I don't find anything conclusive I may remove it.

I bought gravel from a landscaping place many years ago. I have a bucket of unused gravel left over from that original purchase. I have one piece of wood that has 10 year old java fern on it. I guess it is time to dump the wood and replant what I can.

Other than that I have one piece of lace/lava rock in there. If it were your tank would you put that one piece back in?

Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know what happens.

Nate

That didn't take long: first Google search turned back articles. 100% of which said philodendron are poisonous to all house pets as well as humans. I can't imagine something that is poisonous to all mammals would be healthy for fish.

Thank you very much for the warning.

Jason,

I thought this same thing a while back. I introduced a homemade venturi air intake before the impeller in my pump. The water is very heavily aerated as it turns over about 5 times an hour. I was so happy when I solved the problem I thought I had. It turns out the school of fish I bought the following weekend all died as well.

I think that is the main reason this tank got so out of control. I felt loss each time I introduced 6-12 new fish to their deaths. I put off getting new fish because I hadn't fixed anything and I put off fixing because I didn't know what was wrong.

I'll keep you informed as to what happens next.

Nate

Update:

I took out all the philodendron from both my fish tanks. I took out all the gravel and dumped it. I did a couple 100% water changes along the way. I rinsed every root and vine. My wife and I moved the tank across the room to where it would get better early morning direct sun and more natural light throughout the day.


This is the tank after the move. The vines had all been coiled up to move.


Another shot. The longest vine is about 40' long.


The tank: reassembled and the vines lovingly hung on the wall.



A close shot of the tank itself. It still only has 5 fish in it.

The roots are all buried under the gravel. The vines that had lost their leaves are now under the gravel as well. New roots will sprout from each node in the vine. I have no idea what will happen over the next few years to this tank. I have replanted a few dozen val along the back 1" of the tank and will harvest any that starts growing closer than the back 1/3rd. I have decided I have had enough of densely planted aquariums for a while. I'll leave this one mostly terrestrial and I'll check each new addition for poison before adding it.

Anyway, here it is. I am looking forward to turning what is formally the dining room into something more useful. It will now be a tea and aquarium sitting room.

Nate