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.
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.