Update, at last

So where were we?

The last entry I think we had just moved in the huge six foot tank. Well, that didn't end... well. After filling it, buying a new pump and putting in sand and bogwood I inspected it and found that where the idiot mover had dropped it (Yep! What a guy!) there was a big chip in the corner. Despite it being reinforced internally, I just wasn't going to take the risk, especially with a little one cruising around sticking her fingers in everything, and long story short we got rid of it and decided that after everything we had been through, we would just buy new. 

We ordered another six footer, slightly thinner and more in keeping with out current furniture. It was not cheap, but the moment it arrived I knew it was a better decision; a better fit and much more pleasing on the eye. Stupidly I didn't take any photos of it empty! But here it is just after we started to set it up.

Annoyingly, it wasn't plain sailing from the start. The bulkheads on the sump dripped no matter what we did, meaning we had to empty the weir and take apart the pipe work multiple times. In the end, we bought some gold label sealant and used it instead of the gaskets supplied, and that did the trick immeadiately. I hope we don't have to take the pipe work apart! We fit four T8 lights and then the starter just mysteriously stopped working so now there are just two, which won't do long term for the plants  although obviously the fish don't care.

After a few days of running the tank empty, we added the wood, plants and then fish. It wasn't much to look at because it was so murky for a while until I got a new powerhead. Here is a picture, a week or so on. Apologies for all the crud, it needs a bit of a clean!

We moved over:

7 Siamese Algae Eaters

7 Pentazona Barbs

7 Glowlight Tetra

7 Cardinal Tetra

7 Dwarf Chain Loaches

6 Yo Yo Loaches

6 Cories (5 albino one peppered)

3 Bosemani Rainbows

2 Dwarf Neon Rainbows 

2 BN Plecs

2 Angels

2 Swordtails

1 Platy

1 Clown Plec

1 Blue Phantom Plec

1 Plucky Harlequin Rasbora

1 Ancient Danio

As you can see, quite a mishmash!

Before adding any old fish to the tank, we added six new Platies. Canaries, if you will. They all survived the experience (thank goodness) so are now happily living beside their new chums.

I've also added:

3 Red Rainbows

3 Blue Rainbows

4 Bosemani Rainbows

4 Rainbows that I can't quite ID... Possibly Madagascan but with a slightly different tail??

4 Dwarf Neon Rainbows

I wouldn't normally have added to many fish - the first six last week and twelve yesterday - but the ones yesterday were an absolute bargain. Just £2.50 each for the larger rainbows and £3 for the dwarf neons. Take that, Maidenhead Aquatics and your ridiculous prices! After losing so many (six red rainbows, four Bosemani and TEN dwarf neons!) in our tank disaster, being able to up the number for a reasonable cost seemed like a very good idea. They're all only juveniles at the moment so you can completely understand why they sit in the display tanks for so long.

I'll try to get some pictures of them if I can!

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...