Tank Makover & New Filter

[Gothyc_samurai]

Ok this is gonna be a long post!

as some of you may know i live away at university,
i taught my dad how to look after my fish while i was away,
i said not to bother with water changes unless he has the time,
as he works really long shifts, so anyways i come back after 2 1/2 months to cloged filters and algae every where. as i say my dad does his best so.. i thought its time to upgrade filters, as i was running 3 fluvals 2plus internal filters and i took out all the gravel, so i brought a cheap fluval 303 from a LFS were i work,

strip the gravel and filters, put the old media into the new external filter, and it didnt work, SO then i took it back to see what was the problem, new gave me a new impeller and ill set it back up again after this post with some update pics,

the water went black when i took out all the gravel, put my internal filters back in and over night it was crystal clear as i added a huge carbon pouch that came with the external as media to the internal filer cartridge and it just about fit.

anyways its a 55 ish gallon tank, 48"x15"X18"

occupants are 2 leporinus fasciatus
1 lima shovel nose cat
1 labeo bicolour
1 botia modesta
2 silver dollars

enjoy the pics, i dont care if you flame me, im doing the best i can pending the current circumstances and i also threw in a pic of my tiels

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[Gothyc_samurai]

i apologise for the quality of the pics :s

 

[Paullywolly]

ugh! tough to keep fish from a distance... make sure your dad doesn't feed them a lot while you're gone.

 

[Gothyc_samurai]

yea.. lol ive only got him feeding them flake and small meal worms, so not to over polluting! and i thought this external filter, bit of a gamble BUT it sould supply better filtration and more quality water, there is this product i think its called easy balance, it reduces the amount of water changes you need to do, ill get some of that to give him to use before i go back

 

[DragonKeeper]

Nothing can replace the effectiveness of a good WC.

Keeper

 

[Gothyc_samurai]

bump update soon!

 

[tacklerat]

thats some nasty algae mate,did you lose any fish whilst away?

 

[Gothyc_samurai]

i didnt no thank god, ive moved the leporinus and the blue loach into the smaller tank for the moment, as they needed to be treated, large and small lep have heater burns and the loach has some grazes, added aq salt and uped the temp, moved arowana and giant danios into the big tank and they are doing great, divided the smaller tank, to protect my 4" fire eel and bumble bee cat fish i brought together got them both for £10! the little eel kept gettig under the divider so i pushed it deep into the gravel and all is well now. active little guy, out all the time, never hiding, never seen them available that small either

 

[Miles]

From what I understand L. Fasciatus and L. Affinis are very similiar and are maybe the same fish? Not really sure.. either one you want to consider it, they are the nasty ones that kill everything..