What I did today

[Guppy Guy]

So today I did a water change on my 10 gallon guppy tank. Before you tell me how overstocked it is, just know that it has been like that for over 18 months and I have had no problems except for an occasional Ph drop.

First step is to gravel vac. Everyone knows how to do this so I won’t go into detail.

Next is to propagate any plants or move them. I moved a small amazon sword to my 3 gallon aqua phonics tank, which it has been a long time since it was used for that. Now I found out that it works great to grow plants in the top(pathos, duckweed, salvaina). I have heard that swords can be grown out of water, so I will give it a try. It’s called my experimental tank for a reason!😉(I will post about this going into the perks of it soon)

I move all excess plants to my 30 gallon tank and grow them from there. When that gets too full, I make a trip to my LFS with enough plants for a new can of fish food, filter replacements, or more commonly, another plant!

I didn’t do it this time, but I will also clean my HOB filter. I have long since abandoned using filter cartridges, and stuck an Aquaclear 50 sponge in the filter, trimmed it to size, got a round sponge thingy for saltwater tanks as a pre-filter, and stuck the excess from the aquaclear sponge in there to hold it in place. $10 that lasts forever with the occasional clean, vs $20 every 3 months for filter cartridges that don’t work. What it the clear winner?(the aquaclear is clear😒)

Lastly, I fill the tank back up with Seachem Prime treated tap water, and mark my Water Change Chart you can find here.

Feel free to post your questions and comments below.

Oh, one more thing. All but one of my plants are real. The one fake plant is in there to hold the java moss in place. Helps tidy things up a ton.

 

 

[Guppysnail]

No such thing as too many guppies 😁

[lefty o]

looks good. as long as the water quality stays okay, it isnt over stocked.