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Posted by Ieyasu on July 18, 2008, 10:10 pm
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>I recently took a year-long vacation and came home to find that my
>moderately planted 55 gallon tank had not been taken care of for the past 8
>months.
>
> The water had all evaporated except for about 6". My Eheim canister
> filter was turned off. Submersible heater was about 50% exposed and still
> plugged in. Both bulbs in my compact fluorescent fixture were burnt out.
> There were dead plants and algae everywhere. There was a layer of mulm
> over everything. All inhabitants of the tank were still alive (1
> otocinclus, 3 amano shrimp, hundreds of trumpet snails).
>
> I unplugged the heater, cleaned out the filter (had a horrible smell of
> rotten eggs), refilled the tank, and did a 50% water change every day for
> a week. The second week I changed 50% of the water the first day, and 25%
> every day after. I continued to vacuum the gravel and remove dead plant
> matter. At the end of the second week, I cleaned out the filter again.
> Weeks 3 and 4 were much the same, except that I didn't clean out the
> filter until the end of the fourth week.
>
> Week 5 I ordered new bulbs for my compact flo fixture. In the meantime, I
> set up my old regular flourescent fixture to see if the plants would start
> coming back to life. My plant life consisted of several lucens and lutea
> crypts, dwarf sag, java ferns, java moss, and a large moss ball. The
> dwarf sag and java moss were almost completely dead. The lucens crypts
> were barely hanging on. The lutea crypts and the moss ball had almost
> completely taken over the entire tank.
>
> I uprooted all the lutea crypts and replanted them along the back of the
> tank (NOT AN EASY TASK!). I cleaned up the moss ball, throwing most of
> the "moss" away as it had grown over everything and looked like it was
> killing the dwarf sag, and replanted the dwarf sag.
>
> Week 6 I ordered a bunch of new plants (mostly Italian Vallisneria) and 6
> killifish. The fish arrived in healthy condition, but quickly contracted
> a case of fin/tail rot and what appeared to be some kind of fungus on
> their mouths. 7 days of dosing with Pimafix/Melafix and a little salt,
> and the fish are definitely on the mend and looking healthy.
> Unfortunately, during the course of the treatment my otocinclus (who had
> survived quite nicely up until this point) died. I suspect this was due
> to a combination of changing water parameters, introducing new fish that
> caught a disease, and the presence of salt in the water.
>
> It's now week 7 and my compact flo's are set up along with my CO2 system.
> The plants are definitely coming back to life, and the killis have finally
> started to settle in - but there's been a huge outbreak of planaria and a
> bunch of algae growing on the glass. I'm now doing a 25% water change
> once per week with a 10% change every other day. Hopefully things will
> settle down soon.
>
> Any kind of advice or comments are welcome.
>
> I will followup with pictures to alt.binaries.aquaria in a couple days.
>
> -I
Forgot to crosspost to misc group for the Google users.
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>moderately planted 55 gallon tank had not been taken care of for the past 8
>months.
>
> The water had all evaporated except for about 6". My Eheim canister
> filter was turned off. Submersible heater was about 50% exposed and still
> plugged in. Both bulbs in my compact fluorescent fixture were burnt out.
> There were dead plants and algae everywhere. There was a layer of mulm
> over everything. All inhabitants of the tank were still alive (1
> otocinclus, 3 amano shrimp, hundreds of trumpet snails).
>
> I unplugged the heater, cleaned out the filter (had a horrible smell of
> rotten eggs), refilled the tank, and did a 50% water change every day for
> a week. The second week I changed 50% of the water the first day, and 25%
> every day after. I continued to vacuum the gravel and remove dead plant
> matter. At the end of the second week, I cleaned out the filter again.
> Weeks 3 and 4 were much the same, except that I didn't clean out the
> filter until the end of the fourth week.
>
> Week 5 I ordered new bulbs for my compact flo fixture. In the meantime, I
> set up my old regular flourescent fixture to see if the plants would start
> coming back to life. My plant life consisted of several lucens and lutea
> crypts, dwarf sag, java ferns, java moss, and a large moss ball. The
> dwarf sag and java moss were almost completely dead. The lucens crypts
> were barely hanging on. The lutea crypts and the moss ball had almost
> completely taken over the entire tank.
>
> I uprooted all the lutea crypts and replanted them along the back of the
> tank (NOT AN EASY TASK!). I cleaned up the moss ball, throwing most of
> the "moss" away as it had grown over everything and looked like it was
> killing the dwarf sag, and replanted the dwarf sag.
>
> Week 6 I ordered a bunch of new plants (mostly Italian Vallisneria) and 6
> killifish. The fish arrived in healthy condition, but quickly contracted
> a case of fin/tail rot and what appeared to be some kind of fungus on
> their mouths. 7 days of dosing with Pimafix/Melafix and a little salt,
> and the fish are definitely on the mend and looking healthy.
> Unfortunately, during the course of the treatment my otocinclus (who had
> survived quite nicely up until this point) died. I suspect this was due
> to a combination of changing water parameters, introducing new fish that
> caught a disease, and the presence of salt in the water.
>
> It's now week 7 and my compact flo's are set up along with my CO2 system.
> The plants are definitely coming back to life, and the killis have finally
> started to settle in - but there's been a huge outbreak of planaria and a
> bunch of algae growing on the glass. I'm now doing a 25% water change
> once per week with a 10% change every other day. Hopefully things will
> settle down soon.
>
> Any kind of advice or comments are welcome.
>
> I will followup with pictures to alt.binaries.aquaria in a couple days.
>
> -I