Perdition to paradise (hopefully)

[greying_mantis]

documenting my progress to keep myself accountable

Tank: 266 litre Rena, 120x40x60cm (ext.)

Occupants: synodontis ocellifer (George) synodontis nigrita (Talbot), synodontis petricola or lucipinnis (2), Congo tetra (3m 2f)

Day 5475(ish)/Day 7 - The Story So Far

The tank has been looking very sorry for itself. I have seriously neglected it over the last few years due to a combination of disability and life stressors. In turn, it had become a stressor - a great, heaving brainslug of shame and disappointment. There is algae everywhere. Most of the plants have died or at least spiralled down into a sort of liminal existence. The lights are flickering ominously. Deep breath.

The first step toward rehabilitating it was getting access by clearing the clutter I had been “storing” on the lid and disincentivising myself from adding more by replacing the solid cover with two light, somewhat bendy sheets of clear plastic. Then, I upgraded the old T8s to a Twinstar 120G, reorganised the hardscape, added some more plants and scraped the algae off the front.

Plants: vallisneria sp., cryptocoryne wendtii, c. undulatus, c. nevellii, hygrophillia corymbosa, echinodorus atlandsberg, anubia barteri caladiifolia, anubias sp., leptochilus pteropus, taxiphyllum barbieri

I’ve also added some tradescantia and scindapsus cuttings to a breeding trap, hoping they’ll enjoy the high nutrient availability (foreshadowing).

I expect the new “scape” to last only a short while. The synos are busy uprooting plants and knocking the lighter pieces of wood around. I had purchased some JBL ProHaru Universal adhesive, assuming it was some sort of cyanoacrylate. I was very wrong. The stuff is sticky, black and gets everywhere. It does not want to be used on wet things, no matter what the packaging says. I’m sure it is wonderful for its best use case but I neither had the right job for it nor the temperament to use it. It is now in the bin and some proper cyanoacrylate gel is on the way.

I have also realised I need much deeper substrate - I am cursing myself for throwing half the current substrate out when we moved the tank 13 years ago. I think I was worried about “toxic anaerobic pockets” or something equally dubious. I have hopes of getting a reedfish At Some Point so I should probably plan my substrate around that. Which means sand. Which means trying to work out whether to top my current substrate or replace it entirely. The idea of taking the entire tank apart is daunting - I don’t fancy ending up in a massive flare from the sheer physical effort. And we also have the issue of water parameters…

Today I tested the water.

It could be, uh, better.

Test Results:
pH 6.4 (or lower)
Nitrate level yikes

It was as deeply red as the test could go. Time for dilutions with distilled water. 4/5, 3/5, 2/5, 1/5 all still crimson. Ah. Time to ask the resident chemist for their input. He talks me through serial dilutions. 1/25, still crimson but perhaps a little lighter. Oh dear. 1/125 we finally get a good orange. 1/625 we get a solid (English) mustard yellow. Acknowledging that we’re really pushing the capability of both the test reagents and our equipment, we settle on an educated estimate of ~1000ppm.

At this point it should be obvious to everyone that I have not done a proper water change in a very, very long time. Granted, nitrate levels are both difficult to measure accurately with typical aquarium test kits and safe nitrate levels may well be far higher than typically advised (and my test kit is old) but I am taking this result as my best proxy for general “water quality” and I think the most ethical thing to do is assume the water quality in the tank is dogsh*t. Fortunately the current inhabitants have grown up in and alongside the increasingly “mature” water but it would be deeply irresponsible to add anyone new to the tank until this is sorted. But sorting it isn’t as simple as a couple of big water changes. This needs to be a slow, careful effort to avoid shocking the fish. And me. I don’t fancy a weeks-long flare up of exhaustion, migraines, malaise and loosey-goosey joints because I lugged one too many buckets of water.

Fortunately, the plants will love their nutrient bath but I don’t think I can count on them to sort this for me. The Chemist and I have planned out a water change schedule that takes around two weeks and changes 10-20% a day. We’ll test again in a week and adjust as necessary. That should get us back to comfortable levels without stressing anyone too much and will hopefully replenish the tank with all sorts of minerals that have probably long since been exhausted. And it should slowly raise the pH back up to tap water levels (around 7.4) from whatever yellow-green hell they are currently residing in.

I have more plants on the way but I think I will hold off adding them for now. I can set up a small grow tank that should tide them over for a few weeks. Adding them now would help with the water quality but I am still concerned about the substrate issue so don’t want to add plants who’ll then get yanked around again in a week or so. Any insights here would be great, I have another thread on the subject wiggles eyebrows enticingly.

So, water change one done. Nitrate level ~900ppm.

Wish me luck.

 

[bazz]

Hi, and good luck!
I think this could quite easily be brought back round without the need of a complete strip down.
Keep us posted and we can offer advice along the way.
I presume your first point of attack is to clean the glass, hardscape and equipment. Substrate could be added gradually if time is not of the essence, I'm sure the Synodontis will assist in levelling it out, or you could remove the hardscape and the smaller plants and do it all in one hit. Either way, I've used in the past and much more recently, a jug and a length of guttering down pipe, of course there are plenty of other methods but I never even got my hands wet.

And me. I don’t fancy a weeks-long flare up of exhaustion, migraines, malaise and loosey-goosey joints because I lugged one too many buckets of water

There really is no need to be doing this anymore, I use syphon out and pump back from a prepped container in the kitchen, but something along the lines of the Python Python No Spill Aquarium Siphon | From Aquacadabra may be worth the investment and more suitable for your application. I've not carried a bucket of water change water for almost 20 years.
Look forward to seeing an improvement whatever course of action you take.
Cheers!

 

[greying_mantis]

Hi, and good luck!
[…]
I presume your first point of attack is to clean the glass, hardscape and equipment.
[…]
There really is no need to be doing this anymore, I use syphon out and pump back from a prepped container in the kitchen, but something along the lines of the Python Python No Spill Aquarium Siphon | From Aquacadabra may be worth the investment and more suitable for your application. I've not carried a bucket of water change water for almost 20 years.

Thanks for the encouragement, bazz 🙂

I forgot to mention I gave the canister filter some gentle maintenance, it was a bit gunky but not too bad as it was one of the few jobs I had kept up with, at least when I noticed a reduction in output flow.

I wasn’t planning to give everything much more of a scrub, as I didn’t think the various coatings of algae would be contributing to water quality issues and they should(?) subside naturally with the addition of more plants and eventually a clean up crew (once the water is back under control, if the synos don’t eat them, etc). I’m not aiming for visually pristine, just healthy and with good plant growth. If this seems foolish, please let me know what I have misunderstood 😅

I have my eye on a python. I rather balked at the price but you’re right, it’s such an energy saver and could make the difference between me managing this tank and not. Looks like I’m saving up again.

 

[megwattscreative]

Hiya, welcome to UKAPS! Thanks for the honesty. My advice would be to keep doing what ya doing, add in a bunch more emergent plants (pothos, tradescantia, peace lilies etc). They're brilliant for filtration and won't be bothered by the synodontis. Just be aware the water will turbo boost them, so you will be left with some very large houseplants at the end 😉

Ps. I like @bazz idea with the drain pipe - might have to do that in my tank. If you're aiming for slow growing, easily maintained plants, there's no harm in capping with play sand - that's my only substrate. I recommend giving it a very good wash beforehand.

 

[greying_mantis]

Day 9
Third remedial water change done. Algae is quickly growing back on the front glass - I should educate myself about the different types. The lights are currently set to 6hrs on, 4hrs off, 6hrs on, 8hrs off so I’ll keep monitoring to see if I need to adjust that down. Play sand ordered. Baby crypts re-planted for the nth time (thanks G & T). Possibly some new growth on the old Java ferns - they had died back to rhizome and a few tiny pin-head leaves but we might have some recovery underway. Second batch of plants should be arriving in a couple of days. Not much else to report.

 

[greying_mantis]

Hiya, welcome to UKAPS! Thanks for the honesty. My advice would be to keep doing what ya doing, add in a bunch more emergent plants (pothos, tradescantia, peace lilies etc). They're brilliant for filtration and won't be bothered by the synodontis. Just be aware the water will turbo boost them, so you will be left with some very large houseplants at the end 😉

Ps. I like @bazz idea with the drain pipe - might have to do that in my tank. If you're aiming for slow growing, easily maintained plants, there's no harm in capping with play sand - that's my only substrate. I recommend giving it a very good wash beforehand.

Thanks for the welcome 🙂

I’ve added a bunch more emergent cuttings. The tradescantia have propagated well in water for me before but they don’t seem to like the tank so I’ll keep playing there to see what they need to be happy (they’re just dumped in a breeding trap atm). The scindapsus are loving it, though.

I’m going for play sand - I’ve used it before so I’m prepared to rinse it. And rinse it. And rinse it. And…

 

[greying_mantis]

Day 10
Fourth remedial water change done.

One of the two smaller synos is feeling his(?) oats and quite relentlessly chasing the other. I suspect it’s male chasing a female - she’s looking rather done with the whole thing. She has loads of places to hide but he is very good at ferreting her out of whatever hole she’s slunk off to. I’ll keep an eye on things - I don’t want to cause more stress by yanking either of them out but he is being an absolute pest. The chasing was occasional before but has definitely increased in intensity since the rehab process started. They could do with 2-3 more friends which may spread his attention around a bit more but that will have to wait until the water is sorted.

New plants arrived and small “nursery” tank set up. Most of the salvinia minima from the last batch has browned and curled up. I’ve scooped that out and added it to the nursery. Hopefully the gentler flow and lack of nibbly tetra will help it recover.

The sand also arrived. One bag rinsed this evening.

I’m eyeing up some nice wood to give the tank some more structure - something tall and branched that’ll look nice with vallis waving behind/through it. Maybe. Composition is not my strong suit.

It’s really good to be getting back into the swing of things.

 

[greying_mantis]

Day 11
5th water change done.

I’ve not seen as much chasing from the male syno today. So far. (Edit: spoke too soon, he kicked off again this evening)

Bought a nice bit of wood, after scouring the garden and cursing myself for disposing of our aged fruit tree prunings. They’d been sat outside for years and had some really good shapes. Every time I throw “clutter” away I find a use for it a while later. Still, I have a pretty great piece of azalea coming.

Sketched something very rough out on paper. My partner says she can tell whats’s-what but I suspect she’s just humouring me 😂 though she’s as excited as I am to see this tank come back to life.

Definite signs of regrowth on the old Java fern and the new moss has little green tips of fresh growth.

 

[greying_mantis]

Stock update
After much squinting and peering, I think I have one female synodontis lucipinnis and one male synodontis petricola. He seems to have an axillary pore, she does not. She’s also rather redder and has larger, more irregular spots. I seem to recall he was sold as petricola and she was sold simply as “dwarf synodontis”. I am unsure whether this means the chasing is thus rivalry/territory or could still be breeding behaviour.

 

[greying_mantis]

Day 12
6th w/c done.

Algae scraper arrived today - my first one with a blade instead of a scrubbing pad. Absolute game changer. That green spot algae came right off. The back of the tank is clear for the first time in years, and I didn’t get up to my tits in water while doing it. Now I just need to get those water stains from behind the tank…

Speaking of algae, it’s starting to cover the “new” (read: had been in storage) hardscape. I am giving zero f**ks and letting it do its thing. It’ll go (or won’t) when the tank balances out. The new-new wood is arriving in the next couple days so things will get rearranged/removed again anyway.

Tiny new leaves on the melted crypts. I think they’ll be OK. The sword is looking sad despite being sat right on top of a root tab, so we’ll see what happens. I’ve never managed to keep swords alive, even when this tank was living its glory days.

The old pirate ship is back in its rightful spot above the tank. A souvenir from a childhood panto role. It’s got to be coming up 30 years old - not bad for a bit of painted cardboard. It’s kitsch but it’s uniquely my kitsch and I love it.

 

[PABrooks]

Enjoyed reading your journal, especially appreciate your sense of humour and gift for writing! I’ve got no advice to give as I’m only just starting out and haven’t got much of a scooby….apart from what I’ve read.

I did hear/see Tommy from Green Aqua say that he (or it’s good practice) to hide the roots of Anubias/Epithytes when gluing them to wood/rock. Because, apparently, the roots are very prone to getting algae on them.

This was after I’ve more than profusely glued my Anubias with roots on full show ! Oh the shame of it… (I do hope they’re not embarrassed) so with the addition of the white seachem flourish glue I’m expecting some unwanted covering! There was me thinking I was clever and giving it a more ‘natural’ look.

Any hew, enjoy your clear water tank revival and I look forward to seeing the pics 🙂 Paul

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

There was me thinking I was clever and giving it a more ‘natural’ look.

You can add some moss when you are gluing.

Because, apparently, the roots are very prone to getting algae on them.

I'm guessing that is only if the light is fairly intense, mine are usually tucked in the jungle and they have white roots.

The sword is looking sad despite being sat right on top of a root tab, so we’ll see what happens. I’ve never managed to keep swords alive, even when this tank was living its glory days.

<"https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Echinodorusbleheri(071BDT)/4513">? Really difficult to kill.

cheers Darrel

 

[Connswater]

Speaking of algae,

I don't know if I have advice as such just some suggestions you may or may not think helpful.

Couple of preliminaries, your pH seemed remarkably low for York. Yorkshire tea and all that, brewed for hard water. I would have expected a pH of 8. I'm sure you are right that high Nitrate was decidedly unhelpful.

I would not use an air stone when using quite intense light, it just gasses off all the limited CO2 in a non injected tank, if you feel the fish might need aeration try the pump on timer from about half way through the dark phase until the tank is lit. With good light, even without injecting CO2 tough plants (hard water loving plants?) should provide a lot of O2.

Consider getting some decent floating plants, given the shape of the tank I would fancy water lettuce and Indian fern, but success is almost certain with frogbit and salvinia, once growing harvest twice a week and watch Nitrate levels drop. And the floaters will tell you if you need to add some sequestered Iron, in hard water you surely do. Emerged plants, and yes, terrestrial plants with their roots in the water, will suck up Nitrates but the latter are slow to get started and floating plants grow very fast and suck up copious quantities of Nitrate, in fact give them a month or two if you regularly harvest and you will be delighted with the amount of Nitrate that is taken out of the system.

I think our tank is under filtered, I noted what you said about disability issues, as an ageing bloke I now find some bits of kit a bit too much, so I am not recommending for you or me, some huge external filter, but, on-line store, All Pond Solutions sell a cheap HOB without a trickle facility which,has decent turnover and half decent capacity, you might want to ditch all the fiddly internal compartments and put some foam and a Nitrate absorbing resin into the chamber and run a HOB and an internal, if you get into a habit of cleaning the filter media in one filter one fortnight and the other the following fortnight, water quality will be maintained.

The sword probably needs Iron, that is my best guess, root tabs are helpful but if you have Nitrate >10 ppm (which I am sure you still do) it will suck up Nitrate, get its CO2 requirements largely from the water hardness (biogenic decalcification) and grow if there is enough Iron and light.

You could consider hiding or softening the hardware with some more giant vallis or hygrophila ploysperma - both will grow without injected CO2 and in hard water if there is good light and nutrition.

Best of luck.

 

[greying_mantis]

Enjoyed reading your journal, especially appreciate your sense of humour and gift for writing! I’ve got no advice to give as I’m only just starting out and haven’t got much of a scooby….apart from what I’ve read.
[...]
Any hew, enjoy your clear water tank revival and I look forward to seeing the pics 🙂 Paul

Thanks Paul, that's nice of you to say 🙂

Because, apparently, the roots are very prone to getting algae on them.

Yes, my two old anubias have been reduced to rhizome and (very) green roots. I've not yet diagnosed what knocked them back, the old light should have been sufficient but I did neglect to clean algae off the leaves so perhaps they just weren't able to thrive. The rhizomes are firm though, so I'm hoping they put out some new leaves. I don't know if algae on the roots is a problem per se - does it inhibit their ability to do necessary "rooty things"? I'm not at all bothered by the look.

<"https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Echinodorusbleheri(071BDT)/4513">? Really difficult to kill.

Challenge accepted 😉

Couple of preliminaries, your pH seemed remarkably low for York. Yorkshire tea and all that, brewed for hard water. I would have expected a pH of 8. I'm sure you are right that high Nitrate was decidedly unhelpful.

It is very low - bottomed out the test kit so I don't know what it actually is. I assume the nitrate is dragging it down, I'll get the resident chemist to explain why tomorrow. The tap water tested lower than expected as well, though not that low. Old kit, maybe. I seem to remember the tap water being around 8 when I tested previously.

I would not use an air stone when using quite intense lit, it just gasses off all the limited CO2 in a non injected tank, if you feel the fish might need aeration try the pump on timer from about half way through the dark phase until the tank is lit. With good light, even without injecting CO2 tough plants (hard water loving plants?) should provide a lot of O2.

Thanks, this didn't occur to me. I have a spare timer so try it set for overnight use. The fish haven't been telling me they need more aeration but I had the kit already so figured it couldn't hurt.

Consider getting some decent floating plants

Already on it. Amazon frogbit in the grow tank, I'm only holding off adding it because I expect to re-arrange the tank again in a few days so I'm keeping the newest plants aside for now to save yanking them around too much.

I think our tank is under filtered, I noted what you said about disability issues, as an ageing bloke I now find some bits of kit a bit too much, so I am not recommending for you or me, some huge external filter

I have a Filstar XP3 running. It's rated at something like 1300 lph. The internal filter is mostly there for flow.

The sword probably needs Iron

It's sat on top of an iron rich root tab. Hopefully it'll settle once it's had a chance to establish.

You could consider hiding or softening the hardware with some more giant vallis or hygrophila ploysperma

That's pretty much the plan 🙂

 

[greying_mantis]

Day 13
W/c 7 done.

Rinsed the second bag of sand. Cleaned out the internal filter - I only really have it in there for flow so I might replace it with a simple pump or powerhead. A consideration (and expense) for another time.

I’ve had to separate the two small synos. His chasing has turned nasty and she’s quite scratched up. The little nursery tank is now also a hospital tank - thank god for plants and an abundance of mature filter media. I hope that when I rescape and plant it’ll create enough change in the tank to reset their dynamic, though it was change that seems to have caused this in the first place. We’ll see. In the meantime, she can rest and heal.

New plants (in nursery tank):
Limnobium laevigatum, hydrocotyle leucocephala, vallisneria asiatica, limnophila sessiliflora, anubias nana, anubias hastifolia, anubias congensis

 

[Connswater]

Filstar XP3 running

I half suspected you might have more filters on the tank - if the Nitrates prove problematic again, you have the capacity with such a filter to use a resin to chemically reduce Nitrate.
Good selection of plants for the refurbishment. You might yet need to add Iron to the water column, time will tell. Best wishes.