90-gallon Update
My last post was way back in May of last year, and a lot (of really good stuff) has gone on in my personal life since then, including my tremendous wedding and an incredible two weeks in Italy and France. It has truly been a roller coaster of the most incredible kind this past year or so.
Needless to say, however, my tank has borne the brunt of my negligence. I had some pictures of the tank back in mid- July that I never posted, so I think I'll start with those pictures first, a sort of then and now...
First, lets look at the tank on July 14 last year. I picked three pictures that show slightly different aspects of the tank, so I will start with the one that focuses a little more on the lush carpet of staurogyne repens along the foreground.
If you're wondering what the little blue box is, by the way, it is an enclosure where I deposit the babies as I find them, to keep them from getting sucked into the filtration system.
It took a lot of work to get that lush carpet of staurogyne repens you see here, and there is more to the tale of this staurogyne repens that I will detail in a future post. If you look carefully, however, you can see that I was already letting things go. There are some strands of algae on top of the vals.
That repens looks lush here too, but it badly needed a little trim too, and boy did it get one this past weekend! I only hope it's not too late. I'm pretty confident they'll be fine. We'll see.
I really love the broad, bright green leaves of these Amazon swords. They grew even more lush soon after this picture was taken. Believe it or not, I have kept this particular line for about twelve years, and I have brought them bac from the brink on more than one occasion.
Speaking of bringing them back form the brink, about 20 baby ancistrus (aka bristlenose plecos) got out of the blue plastic and mesh breeding container you see in the top right side. Somehow, the separator fell to the bottom of the tank instead of staying at the top. The suction cups went bad or something, but either way, the baby ancistrus all escaped into the tank, and when I neglected to feed them - I decided to let them go hungry for a while because their waste was throwing off the water chemistry too much - they started in on the Amazon swords. You'll see some of that damage later.
Ancistrus have another downside: They are known to poop - a lot - and having over 25 or so in a 90-gallon tank is never going to be a good idea unless you are making regular large water changes. I'm paying the price for my negligence though, believe me!
7 months later...
I stopped taking care of the tank as much, and I have paid the price. I should have taken pictures before I started cleaning up, but I thought of it too late. Now let's take a look at what's left after cleaning things up a little, following seven months of neglect.
Here's one of the (cute!)little bastards below, probably taking a break from munching on my swords.
Though you can't see it well in these pictures, I trimmed most of the staurogyne repens really hard, as evidenced by the cropped bare stems int he pictures below. The staurogyne in the picture above, however, was spared for a week. I just got tired of trimming and replanting.
I'm working with 48 linear inches of staurogyne for a carpet. It can take hours to trim and replant.
The bottom of their stems had gone bare from being drowned out by the leaves above them, but now that they are exposed to light, and I'm hitting the tank with ferts again, I fully expect them to bounce right back.
Believe it or not, I've seen worse, like when a strange disease (a least it seemed like a disease) melted the repens to the point that I thought I was going to to lose it all, only to see it come back in less than a month.
Here are a couple pictures of the tank a week later (March 2). You can see that the plants are starting to recover and their colors are getting stronger.
Anyway, it's time to post this long-awaited and highly unanticipated update... finally! 😃 We'll take a look at the fish room next time. I promise. I've got some updates on that too, coming soon...
First, lets look at the tank on July 14 last year. I picked three pictures that show slightly different aspects of the tank, so I will start with the one that focuses a little more on the lush carpet of staurogyne repens along the foreground.
If you're wondering what the little blue box is, by the way, it is an enclosure where I deposit the babies as I find them, to keep them from getting sucked into the filtration system.
It took a lot of work to get that lush carpet of staurogyne repens you see here, and there is more to the tale of this staurogyne repens that I will detail in a future post. If you look carefully, however, you can see that I was already letting things go. There are some strands of algae on top of the vals.
That repens looks lush here too, but it badly needed a little trim too, and boy did it get one this past weekend! I only hope it's not too late. I'm pretty confident they'll be fine. We'll see.
Speaking of bringing them back form the brink, about 20 baby ancistrus (aka bristlenose plecos) got out of the blue plastic and mesh breeding container you see in the top right side. Somehow, the separator fell to the bottom of the tank instead of staying at the top. The suction cups went bad or something, but either way, the baby ancistrus all escaped into the tank, and when I neglected to feed them - I decided to let them go hungry for a while because their waste was throwing off the water chemistry too much - they started in on the Amazon swords. You'll see some of that damage later.
Ancistrus have another downside: They are known to poop - a lot - and having over 25 or so in a 90-gallon tank is never going to be a good idea unless you are making regular large water changes. I'm paying the price for my negligence though, believe me!
7 months later...
I stopped taking care of the tank as much, and I have paid the price. I should have taken pictures before I started cleaning up, but I thought of it too late. Now let's take a look at what's left after cleaning things up a little, following seven months of neglect.
Looking at it now, it doesn't seem so bad. I mostly see just a lot of yellowing of the leaves, which was to be expected. After all, I hadn't added any liquid fertilizer in about six months and had only topped off the tank from time to time instead of doing regular water changes. That's also what saved it from being drowned in algae. I had also trimmed much of the damaged parts of the jungle vals, which were looking rather shredded before, so the picture really does not do the damage justice. However, the following picture shows a closeup some of the damaged leaves of the sword plants.
Here's one of the (cute!)little bastards below, probably taking a break from munching on my swords.
Though you can't see it well in these pictures, I trimmed most of the staurogyne repens really hard, as evidenced by the cropped bare stems int he pictures below. The staurogyne in the picture above, however, was spared for a week. I just got tired of trimming and replanting.
I'm working with 48 linear inches of staurogyne for a carpet. It can take hours to trim and replant.
The bottom of their stems had gone bare from being drowned out by the leaves above them, but now that they are exposed to light, and I'm hitting the tank with ferts again, I fully expect them to bounce right back.
Believe it or not, I've seen worse, like when a strange disease (a least it seemed like a disease) melted the repens to the point that I thought I was going to to lose it all, only to see it come back in less than a month.
Here are a couple pictures of the tank a week later (March 2). You can see that the plants are starting to recover and their colors are getting stronger.
Keep those elbows wet!
