Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Looking through water

Well, it took over two hours, and stressed our poor fish out to the point where Zippy the oto looked albino when we finally put him back in the tank, and the yoyos were splashing about unhappily in the container where I stored them as I tore the tank apart, but the tank is now a bright vision of colour! Click each photo below for the larger version.



Two before shots (above and below). The background is new, but I thought I would slide it in for a night to see how it looked. Dinosaurs! :) But you can see the deterioration of the plants, and the general dullness of the tank. I siphoned out two containers of water (about 2L in each, and put the platies, Sherman, and the blue snail in one, and the yoyos, Zippy (Mike caught him), and the new orange snail in the other. It was a process! They did not want to be caught, and when they were, they didn't want to swim out of the net into the container! But eventually they were all out of the tank and on the table with towels overtop to try to keep them calm. Then the work began!





First, all the plants out! Doing this made me realize why the cryps did well, and the others really didn't. The cryps had root systems nearly a foot long, whereas most of the others, even though they'd been there more time, didn't have developed root systems at all. Alas, plants and I... After the wood pieces got transported to the sink for subsequent brushing, I did a very good gravel vacuum (above and below), which I never could do with plants in there. Oh, the gunk! I was ashamed... but by the time I got down to two inches of water above the gravel, the siphon was running relatively clear, and wasn't stirring up clouds of brown stuff whenever I stuck it in the gravel. With two inches of water above the gravel, I stopped. I removed the filter and heater, and cleaned them both, scrubbing the algae off as best I could with an unused nailbrush. The wood pieces and rock got the same treatment, albeit a little more gently. I also scrubbed at the glass, though I did miss some spots near the bottom I'll have to deal with when I do a water change. Then it was time to redecorate!





I thought about going natural. But then I realized that I'd tried the natural thing. It was time to liven thing up! So I went pink and blue, with one centrepiece green motif (above). And then, we couldn't help but give in to a little bit of kitsch (below).





The new arrangment (above). And yes, we decided to go with the happy reef fish rather than the dinosaurs this time around. I can always change it. :)



Are the fish happy with it? Well, Zippy started getting his colour back right away once he got in the tank, and the yoyos seem pleased that I left them their favourite hidey hole in the one piece of wood. Both snails were out immediately after being put in the tank, and the platies hung out together. As for Sherman? He went to his favourite corner and looked at his reflection.



So that is the story of my tank rebuilding! And for good measure, since I also changed up the betta tanks, here are pictures of Ducati and Beamer (top and bottom), delightfully posing with their new silk plants.



2 comments:

Sheila

Cool! Nice job. A little kitsch is always good. =D Can't wait to see it on the weekend. See you soon!

Anonymous

What a colourful fish tank! I like it...

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