An evening well spent....I HOPE !

Emg

Emg

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Jan 16, 2005
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Northeast Connecticut
emgstanks.blogspot.com
I finally couldn't stand the algae in my 29 anymore !

I picked up a couple of bags of echo-complete for planted aquariums (you can get a 20lb bag at BigAlsOnline for only 22$...and that's including shipping !!)

I removed the gravel I had in there which was just a mix of regular brown gravel, flourite and a bit of echo-complete around the roots of some of the plants (my lame attempt at helping them out a bit with minimal effort :rolleyes: )

I put a 10gallon on the floor next to the tank and filled it up with water from the 29....put the filter in there and the heater and the fish. I also took all the plants and put them in the 10 as well.

Completely emptied the 29, removing ALL the gravel. I scrubbed the sides of the tank, doing the best I could to remove all the algae.

Dumped the 2 bags of Echo-Complete in the tank and filled it about 1/3 full. I completely went through ALL the plants very carefully, removing all leaves that had any trace of algae on them, cleaned and trimmed the roots and put forth my best aquascaping efforts....tossing in a piece of driftwood I had in my little 2 gallon tank...I put a smaller piece in there to replace it.

As far as the filter....it's a penguin 170 bio-wheel...I replaced the cartridge in it..seeing as how the one that was in there has about used up it's rinse milage...I"m not too worried about a cycle...I'll probably get a minimal one, but I'll keep an eye on it and do water changes as needed. The substrate I added is supposed to have bio-stuff in it to ease the cycle..and with the bio-wheel I have on there...shouldn't be a large issue...guess I'll find out !

For stock I have 5 prestella tetra, 2 half dollar size angels, 2 otos and 1 german blue ram..(I recently lost her partner)

well, I"m tempted to put a pic up, but I think I'll wait till the cloud settles....I'll go for the full effect on this one....(heehee)

I don't know why I wrote this all out except that it's late and I'm bored...lol....I guess maybe this could help someone down the road who may have to do the same thing if for other reasons... :huh:

That's as good an excuse as any I guess..... :D

OK...talked me into it.......here's a pic, cloud and all......


I have my female blue ram in the hangon tank..she has an injury on her pec fin..not sure how it happened, but think someone is getting a bit overly playfull in the tank, just have to figure out who it is...
evilgrin0028.gif

(Yes, it is late...)
 
Good work. Bet you are glad now that you did all that work huh? I would be.

I've been thinking about doing the same thing though, except I'll be emptying a 55 gal which has river bed pale gravel in right now, i want to make it a planted tank, possibly a biotope of some kind, preferably an amzon one. But we'll see how that will come along. Gotta buy all the plants and substrate....oh well what can i say, it's a new year, lotsa room for improvements. :clap: :dance2:
 
Thanks Roan and Yuri,

I don't know about aquascape queen....lol...I have seen some awesome tanks here that way outclass any of mine !

Yuri, when you do that biotope....save up and put every plant you ever dreamed of having in the tank all at once ! If you add them all right off the bat, and alot of them, instead of a few at a time, you'll get the upper hand on the algae.

I think I'm going to get a khuli loach for this tank....toss in some shrimp, if I can find some amanos or cherries...it would be nice to have a little shoal of corys if I could get a hold of some of the pygmy types...but I don't want to overload this thing ! I may add another filter to it, just for ha haas....
 
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OH BOY !! Am I ever glad I changed out that nasty gravel from this tank !!!

BEFORE...this pic doesn't show all the algae I had in this tank !! Needless to say, I didn't take any pics of THAT stuff !!.......(these are thumbnails, click on them for bigger pics)



AFTER:


The first pic was taken with my OLD camera...the last two I took with the new one I got for Christmas this year.....I'm still trying to figure out how to set it properly. They're a little dark, but still look pretty good I think !! I SO prefer the dark substrate to that ugly brown stuff....hope this takes care of the algae issue, since this substrate gets the plants off to a good start..and with the CO2 and ferts I'll be adding...it should do ok....one can only hope !
 
Wow so much better. The difference is amazing. The plants really stand out and look healthy and those dark pebbles look way better on the black substrate.
 
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