On Mon, 09 Jun 2003 12:53:53 -0600, Chuck Gadd wrote:

I've had a few emails from people inquiring about my recent absence
around here. Nothing bad was going on, I just had a bunch of work
and family stuff to take care of, and I wasn't feeling very interested
in my tanks. For the most part, I just fed the tanks every day and
that was about it. The 75g was left overgrown, and spot algae had
covered most of the glass.

Finally I gave the 75g some much needed attention. Pulled out every
single plant, did a good cleaning on the gravel, and re-arranged the
tank. I suspect the new look of the tank will jump start things for
me.

In the time the tank was neglected, several species of plants seemed
to have disappeared completely from the tank. These include my
Pearlweed, Baby Tears ( a tiny bit left floating, might recover),
Hygro, and Windelov Java Fern. I had a big rock completely covered
with Windelov JF, and now it's a rock with a few old roots attached.
I did find one small windelov JF plant that was ok, so it might
re-establish itself.

Here's a picture of the tank. The water is still very cloudy, and I
haven't even really cleaned the outside glass all the way, but it'll
give a general idea of the new layout. In the next day or two, I'll
actually get around to updating my website with new good pictures!

http://dev1.cfxc.com/chuck/tank030609.jpg

The piece of driftwood laying flat near the center of the tank just
settled there while I was cleaning, and I noticed that it looked good
that way.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua

Hi Chuck:

I'm curious, and I was planning to post the question to the list, when
one does a major cleaning/re-design of a planted tank it is necessary
to remove the fish in order to do so?

I'm asking because I have a 120g 24x48x24 inch tank and I would like
to re-design it by moving plants and building and installing a slate
landscape. I cannot move the fish because this is the only tank I
have.

Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated.

Robin