Disaster!

So, after a nice day spent visiting a few new fish shops we had not been to before, my husband and I went out on a nice dog walk with the pram. When we returned and hour later there was a bit of a smell...and on walking into the living room we realised that it was emanating from the extremely wet carpet. On further inspection, it became clear that the culprit was the fluval filter on the 240l tank which had come apart at the seal and pumped around 150l of water all over the living room. The fish were happily swimming in about a third of their tank water and it was quite obvious that the carpet was not going to survive so we ripped up as much as we could. 

The next day we realised we could no longer stand the smell from under the fish tank and it had to move. It gave me a chance do do a stock take of all the fish, currently; 

 7 Bosemani Rainbows 

6 New Guinea Red Rainbows 

12 Dwarf Neon Rainbows 

6 Yo Yo loaches (possibly a different species - they're getting very big!)

4 Siamese Algae Eaters (made light work of the black beard algae...love these little fellas!)

2 Bristlenose Plecs 

5 Harlequins 

9 Cardinal Tetra 

Sadly the cories seemed to die, one after the other, until there were only a few left which got moved to the 200l. Possibly of old age as they were among the first fish we got around four years ago now. The angel also got moved and is enjoying trying to spawn with her friend, also a female...

The wood and plants have just been dumped in as the move was a looong job and we had to wait until the baby was in bed to start. But here are a few (pretty rubbish) pictures of the tank after we had re-set it up in it's temporary spot in the hall. One down, one to go...

Picture update!

Superfish Wave 15

With One-Eyed Willie the Betta, 7 teeny pygmy cories and two assassin snails!



Roma 200

Lookng pretty good if I do say so myself; it's amazing how far the plants have come on!



Roma 240

Currently minus Viv the angel who is in quarantine at the moment - possibly finrot or whitespot but doesn't seem to be going away, or getting any worse?? I am keeping a close eye on him/her...

There are so many plants in the 200 but in the 240 I actually have a good idea of what's in there! There are vallis and giant vallis at the back, also a crinium thaianum (onion bulb plant) which apparently is a good one if your fish like to nibble as it tastes foul - this one has recently split into two bulbs so I have one at each end. The three plants that are the same at the front are cryptocoryne wendtii (crypts). There is a bit of stairgrass and what I think is a variety of bacopa at the back, and big anubias on wood right in the middle. The most recent additions are an amazon sword or echinodorus in the middle/left back and a water violet or (hottonia palustris) in the right hand front corner. There is lots of amazon frogbit floating and the fish love swimming through the long roots. There is also a load of duckweed which the fish love as it provides them cover - I am not so in love with the duckweed as it spreads so quickly but as it does it is removing nitrate from the water, and it's easy enough to scoop out.

The Roma 240 has landed!

So before Christmas, I sent my other half an email with an ebay link for a 240 litre tank about 40 minutes away. It was a very good price due I imagine to it being fully stocked. Anyway much to my surprise, he encouraged me to bid, so I did...and I won! Hurrah.

Fast forward to the start of January, and it was time to pick up the tank! It took several hours to bag all the fish, empty and completely break down the tank, and several cars to move it all, but I got there in the end thanks to the help of my wonderful husband, the previous owner who was extremely patient, and my cousin and her husband who helped transport the tank and cabinet.

We got back to our house about 2.30 in the afternoon in the knowledge that my brother in law and family were shortly scheduled to descend on us, so got to work right away. I am pleased to say that all the fish survived the ordeal, and they seem to be doing really well in their new home. Unfortunately as the whole things was a bit rushed and little lives depended on it going as quickly as possible, I didn't have time to take pictures, but after a few hours it was all in place, and it looked like this:

The stocking has been played around with a fair bit, and is is a mixture of old and new;

21 cardinal tetra
1 angel
1 dwarf gourami
6 loaches
6 cories
7 harlequins
6 red rainbows
2 very bristley bristlenose plecs!

I set up the co2 a week later and am waiting for a new glass diffuser to arrive, as I don't like the JBl ones. It was much easier the second time round! We have since added in a background and it looks like this:

I really like it, and am very glad I went for it. I have been monitoring the water stats and even though we had to move two external filters there has been no sign of any ammonia or nitrite, which is very lucky and a huge relief. We have done one large water change so far, another one is scheduled for tomorrow. It isn't actually too much hard work compared to the two tanks it replaced. In the 200l, there is now;

1 angel
8 danios
5 male guppies
7 five banded barbs
7 glolwlight tetras
7 dwarf chain loaches
1 BN plec
1 blue phantom plec
1 clown plec

I apologise for the state of the pictures, they are a bit blurry I'm afraid! However I hope it shows how well the co2 is working, the plants look fab and I am so glad we did it.

...we rehomed two BN plecs, ten rummynose, several platies and a krib much quicker than I was expecting and broke down the 125l, which has now been sold, and the 65l which we are intending to keep as a spare/quarantine. (Update: we got rid of this one too in a house cleansing exercise!).

That takes our total tanks down to four, including the betta tank and the kitchen tank which currently houses two elderly guppies and some platy fry.
So what is next? Well my plan is to enjoy the fish and the plants for a while, and not add any more fish or change any of the stock. I absolutely love my tanks, they are a fantastic thing to watch and now wherever I go, any living room without a tank looks like a room wasted!