Here Fishie Fishie Fishie

Over the years I have set up and torn down numerous aquariums by scavenging stuff my dad's old 10 gallon one and buying whatever else I wanted to add. I don't claim to be good at it but I do find the fish relaxing and pretty to look at. I have a (not well used) season pass to the Georgia Aquarium and a (not used in a long time) PADI dive certification which I also like to use to look at fish. When in my preteen/teen years is when the aquarium fascination started and I still remember the morning ritual of racing the cat. At the time my tanks tended to consist of a couple plastic plants, fake wood and swordtails, black mollies, guppies and neon tetras. Well for whatever reason, swordtails seem to like to jump out. Many mornings I would hear the plastic "thump" where the fish had literally jumped up, lifted the lid on the way out and fell to the floor. That sound would cause both myself and the cat to make a beeline for the end of the hallway where the tank was located. Amazingly, I would usually win that race, scoop him up and drop him back into the tank. After so many years my memory is spotty on this but I think this was fairly common. I still have no idea WHY the stupid fish kept jumping out but it did. When in college I had a tank that I would drain almost dry and carry back and forth in the car at the end of the year. I am sure fish like roadtrips... Once I moved to Georgia, it was a number of years before I decided to set one up again but I decided to branch out. I decided I wanted to use live plants, which was a first, and go for a more natural setup with more background and fewer fish. That happened in fits and spurts since the plants simply did not survive in my tank due to my lack of maintenance and/or the poor quality of the light. I tried adding plant food and a "plant light" but never had a lot of luck and would end up pulling all the plants out every few months and replacing them. After growing tired of this routine, last fall I decided to upgrade my aquarium.

OK, to be honest, what I REALLY decided was that I wanted to install a reef tank, but after researching costs I decided to upgrade the planted aquarium instead while still buying things I could use later if I changed it over, such as high quality lighting and powerheads.

So last fall, I started working on it. I roughly followed a general guide I found online after getting a new bigger tank, light and filter as well as substrate, driftwood and plants. I think things turned out pretty good and here is the finished product.





Well, fast forward about 7-8 months. The freaking tank is a disaster. The algae is winning (sorry, no pictures before I actually started trying to clean it up). It is coating everything. It looks kinda cool actually with the plush green carpet but it is really a nasty film that I simply cannot stop. I cleaned it out and it grew back. I changed the light timers to give less light and it grew back. I changed the light timers to give more light and it grew back. I dramatically cut off all parts of the plants that had algae and it grew back. I removed all the plants and it grew back. I removed EVERYTHING but the fish and it grew back. I added algae killing chemicals and it grew back. I purchased a UV Sterilizer and it grew back. I removed the fish (don't worry, they are still living in a crappy temporary tank next to the tv) emptied the tank entirely scrubbed the driftwood and rebuilt it from scratch and it grew back. Essentially, no matter what I do it will slowly grow back over a couple weeks or less.

::sigh:: Well I have to assume that the only thing left to "eliminate" is sunlight. That confuses me since the old tank was in the same place for close to two years and never had this problem. Plus the new one made it a while (though it was fall/winter/spring) before this started happening in it. The problem I have is complicated.

The aquarium is in the basement so it gets limited light anyway however...

1. ...there are a lot of windows so it really COULD be getting too much light, especially in the morning hours when the sun is at the best angle to cause problems...
   
2. ...so I need to find someplace out of the light to put it that is...
   
3. ...out of reach of the cats and...
   
4. ...not able to be knocked over by the dogs on those rare occasions when they sneak down the stairs...
   
5. ...plus is not in my way and...
   
6. ...is near some power outlets.
   

Wish me luck. Step one is find a location and come up with a table/stand/etc to put it on. Maybe I should throw the old fake plants into the temporary tank since the fish may still be there for a while longer...