Please do not tell me who invented the tall hex tank

[KittenFishMom]

I put this in off topic because it is so wacky, I didn’t think it fit anyplace else.

Tonight, after I hauled in 4 gallons of cold bottled spring water from the garage, I carefully tested all my tanks hoping I would not need to figure out how to warm the water for a water change. The water temp was just under 65F. That is a lot of water to gentle warm to 78F. All the tanks are still overstock, so water changes happen very often.

Anyway, the water in the tanks all tested 0,0,X, so I was good until morning at least. I watch the fish and feed the tanks and watched them some more. I had given away about 30 guppies from one tank, so I decided to move about 15-20 from my 10 tall hex to my 10 regular tank. Piece of cake, right?

Well, no it wasn’t a piece of cake.  Tonight, I have a beef with whoever invented the tall hex tank. That person never needed to net small fish out of it.  I have one large Amazon Sword plant in there along with a large sponge filter, an HOB, and internal (HOB like) filter, a piece of driftwood, a heater, a Betta log, a ceramic hollow log for the khuli loachs and an extra air stone for luck. To net guppies you must dodge all this and the places where the glass sides meet, because the fish just laugh and swim out of the net, up or down, where the net is held away from the glass by one of the other sides.  I forgot to mention my fan club of snails all along the edge where the substrate meets the vertical glass and the yummy bits of yuck hang out. Any one of those snails will hold the middle of the net far enough from the glass that the fish can swim out of side. And when you get a few snails working together, the fish laugh as they swim out.

At first things were going OK, I was getting a lot of empty nets, but had also put about ten guppies in the container hanging on the side of the tank. Then my net snagged a leaf of the Amazon Sword. I had used one of the planters from ACO, So I wasn’t too concerned. That was until I tried to slide the plant back in the planter and saw a ton of roots. I hadn’t thought about how well the roots were growing in that water with all those growing guppies. Ok, no problem, I’ll take the planter out and just plant the plant in the substrate.

That is when things got interesting. I picked up the planter and months of yuck flew into the water from under the planter.  Now I have a plant with a ton of dripping roots in one hand and a wet planter covered in snails and yuck in the other hand and my nice clean tested water disappearing within a cloud of, of, well to put it simply, of cloudiness. The fish in the hang on the tank container are having a good laugh as I look around for good places to put the plant and planter so I can try to make things better.  I quickly grumble under my breath and put the stuff down and move the captured fish to the other tank and came back to try to plant the plant one handed. My short sleeved shirt’s short sleeve proved to be too long and very wet. I waited a bit for the water to clear to see I had planted the plant sideways and had also kicked up a bunch more cloudiness. I mumbled under my breath again and stuck both arms in and got the plant upright and the water much dirtier.

At this point my water for water changes was too cold to use, and I was running low of filter media. I found a piece of old cotton muslin that I had just washed and dried and snapped as much cat hair off as I could and folded it to cover a colander and got my sweet spouse to hold that and the end of the siphon, while I siphoned the tank water through the cloth into a 5-gallon bucket. My spouse doesn’t understand why I keep fish, but he likes to humor me. After we got most of the water into the bucket, I folded my last piece of filter media into my largest net and used a cup to filter the still warm water from the bucket through the net back into the tank.

At this point in time, the water looks clear, and the fish are swimming around wondering what that wacky human will be doing next.

If I ever meet the person who invented the tall hex tank I’m going to through a handful of cloudiness at them !

Edited September 26, 2022 by KittenFishMom

[Guppysnail]

I microwave a small dish of water and add it when I need to gently warm water. 

[KittenFishMom]

Morning update. I tested the water last night before bed, and everything was OK. The water looks clear this morning, and the fish are swimming happily. I will test the water before I feed the fish.  The plant even looks good. I hope I didn't bump the khuli loaches while I was planting the plant. I'm hope they felt the movement in the water and hide behind some of the IAL in the tank. 

@Guppysnail I had thought about mixing the cold water with some microwaved water in a bucket. I only had one clean bucket, and I don't like to toss the water I take out of a tank until I am sure everything worked right. I guess I could have used a pot from the kitchen, but at that point in the confusion, my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders. I did replace the last gallon with a bottle of spring water because the tank was full of warm water, and the water in the bottom of the bucket was not very clean.

[Anjum]

The struggle is real 😂 I have the same problem with my 10 g bowfront, which is (was) heavily planted. I had 3 guppies & a SAE in there & just moved them last weekend to the new 20L. I had to take out a couple plants to get the guppies. But I had to take out almost all of the plants, plus the big rocks & the sponge filter, and get my husband's help to get the SAE out. SAEs do NOT like to be caught. They hide for days afterward. Poor guy. 

[drewzero1]

Wow, that sounds like a struggle! I gave away a 55 and a 15 column partially because they were taller than arms' length and I didn't want to deal with that any more. When I broke down the 15 there was so much poop in the gravel. 🤮

When I upgraded from my 20L to 40B I had to tear the place apart to catch my bronze cories. They're quick and really blend in with black sand. It's been almost a year and they still dive for cover when they see me 😢

[PineSong]

I know your pain, even though I don't own a hex tank I can picture exactly what you're talking about. I can picture my head exploding, too.

[Patrick_G]

I feel your pain! Netting fish from any planted tank is difficult, but it’s almost impossible in the tall skinny ones. 

[KittenFishMom]

I must add a note: The hex is very hard because of the 6 corners., but the half cylinder is impossible unless you can really reach and see the flat side on the back. I would NEVER buy a FULL cylinder after netting fish in the half cylinder!

I think I am going to start putting food in the net to feed them. Maybe Repashy. I use to feed my kittenfish baby brine shrimp mixed with fry food in nets to keep the big fish from getting at it. I would hold the net a bit more than a kittenfish wide from the glass and they would swim in from every direction and eat like piglets.  I think Bill got videos of them swarming into the net. Visitor got such a laugh out of watching them. When they were even smaller, they looked like they were nursing from the long dropper I used.

[drewzero1]

Why are manhole covers round?--Because manholes are round. I think we need to create a net with a rounded edge to match a rounded tank. But food in the net also sounds like a really good idea. In fact, forget the net, I used to have mollies that would swim into my cupped hand to get food. 😆

I've had some success with leaving the net in the tank for a minute to let the fish get used to it. That worked well for catching the WCMM out of my patio pond, when chasing them around would just stir up the muck on the bottom.

[KittenFishMom]

@drewzero1 Chasing the fish into the net with a hand, and then covering the net with the hand works to some extent in the half cylinder, if you have good footing. Being 5'2", it can get tricky.

On 9/27/2022 at 7:53 PM, PineSong said:

 head exploding

@PineSong I wondered what that popping sound was.