Fish Tank

[Lee]

A whole afternoon spent cleaning the fish tank 

So here's a story - About 10 years ago I bought a tropical fish tank (3 ft wide), set it up with filter, heater, ornaments etc. took great care in cleaning, measuring out chemicals, keeping tank at correct temperature.
Bought some fish (nothing too expensive), small ones Tetras mainly.
Fish never seemed to last long, about 6 months usually so had to re-stock quite often.
Was told it was probably because I had too many fish (10-20) for the size of the tank.

About 5 years ago with a tank with only about 5 fish in, I bought 10 Guppies (5 male and 5 female).
In that time the cleaning, Chemical routine has faded, Now only clean it about 3 times a year when water level drops, just put a dollop of each chemical in, and top up the water.
Just noticed today the heater had stopped working so water was 16°C, should be 22-28°C, luckily just a fuse.

The thing is despite my lack of care over the last few years, I've probably now got about 200 -300 Guppies? they breed, they eat their dead!! self sustaining 

1: Took everything out, left the fish swimming in gravy 

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2: Everything back, clean water. Hopefully clear in a few hours.

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[Dave]

That looks like a big tank Lee.

You've done a good job of the cleaning...are you Mr Hinch 

[BriansBrain]

That first pic look really yucky 

But the cleaned it looks great - well done   

[Lee]

Just a quick vid to show fish seem happy 

Picture Quality a bit rough as I thought 28mb was a bit much for a 13 second video, so reduced it to 1.4mb 
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[BriansBrain]

Wow they move about a lot 

[Lee]

Wow they move about a lot 

Everytime I go near them they think they are getting fed 

[BriansBrain]

Everytime I go near them they think they are getting fed 

OK = Understand 

[Lee]

Tank cleaned again, had left it far too long this time so was pretty grubby although the fish didn't seem to care.
Main problem with leaving it that long is I have snails, not sure where they came from but usually don't cause any problem.
This time the little buggers had been rapid breeding, must have got rid of several hundred of the larger ones 10-20mm long, and everything was smothered in tiny baby ones, probably sucked up tens of thousands of them?
I believe they are called trumpet snails, like tiny ice cream cones (hopefully not actual cone snails which are venomous) 
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After spending many hours cleaning yesterday, and giving any snails left over chance to come out (these ones like sunshine and plaster themselves all over the front glass), I've just got all my junk (ornaments) back in, so not totally clear water as I don't remove the fish during cleaning and there is still some dirt in the stones.
Hopefully by tomorrow the filter will do it's job and everything will be clear for a few months?

Slightly blocky video as the larger file didn't work?
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[Dave]

There's a lot of fish in there Lee 

[Lee]

Just an update, having given the tank a good clean a couple of weeks ago the snail problem has increased?
Have declared war on them over the last week, they come out at night and smother the glass.
So every night it's the syphon sucking the little buggers up and clearing every one I can find.
Have spent the last 4 nights doing it and every night they are back?
Seem to mass produce to make up the numbers 
Just looked again and it's as if I'd never touched them 

Here's the last 4 nights worth

[BriansBrain]

Oh dear....... Snails = not good 

[Dave]

Just an update, having given the tank a good clean a couple of weeks ago the snail problem has increased?
Have declared war on them over the last week, they come out at night and smother the glass.
So every night it's the syphon sucking the little buggers up and clearing every one I can find.
Have spent the last 4 nights doing it and every night they are back?
Seem to mass produce to make up the numbers 
Just looked again and it's as if I'd never touched them 

Here's the last 4 nights worth

Don't the snails have a natural predator that would eat the baby ones but not the fish?