Forgotten tank!

[Nerine]

When I moved to Canada, I had to leave all my tanks behind, I sold most, left a 20 and a 125 up and running

The 20 was taken down after the inhabitants passed on (just guppies!) and the 125 had a goldfish and lots of tetras...welllllllllllll goldfish is STILL alive! and one tetra left (probably a descendant of the original fish) and before anyone says "omg goldfish and tetras?!" no - they do NOT mix well...but the goldfish was in dire need of water and that was the only water at the time!

So the 125 was left running for the past 11 years...it was taken care of until 4 years ago when my Grandmother passed on,  the SF aquarium club came in and saved everything and took away some fish...and since then people have just topped off the tank, doing a water change once in a blue moon and changed the filter ONCE. (yuck) So that's 4 years of crust, and yuck
My brother in law couldn't even get the top of the tank off it was so "glued" on with water deposits! and the water so green you couldn't see the fish until he came up pressed against the glass!!
My dear sister has taken control, fixed the fluval 404's, did a water change, and did some regular tidying up around it, and the tank looks awesome already! the water is clearing up in the past few days. My grandfather is very happy that the tank is almost back to it's original glory and looking forward to adding fish!
He used to breed bettas back in the day and did a lot of fish shows! My grandparents love of fish is what brought me into this hobby and I'm happy to see that my grandfather is back in it! It will hopefully give him something to do again instead of just sitting and watching tv!!!

[Laura]

Glad that it's bringing your grandad some joy again. It's great to rediscover a hobby.  So was it one goldie in a 125 for 4 years?

[Nerine]

Yes! He's a tiny guy too...it was a rescue from the petstore, one of those returns that they don't really take back type of deal! so you'd think he'd be huge, but he's maybe only 6 inches max but he's a happy fella now that his tank is cleaned up too!

I just wish I had before and after photos! I was chatting on skype with them while they did the clean up and it was amazing the condition the tank and filters were in!! My sister kept teasing saying they were going to add more fish in after lunch! but this week they should be able to add more fish! hope to get some photos to post

[sas]

Nice, it's always exciting to salvage a tank and return
it to it's former condition.
Your grandpa will be very happy.

[exv152]

Yes please, photos would be good. Never heard of a tank going that long without maintenance.

[Nerine]

Then you haven't been at my house

I have stories to tell!!

Our best forgotten tank story is one that was in the basement...we had 40+ tanks growing up and it was a tank on the floor, and the basement flooded a LOT...we thought all the fish were out, and just left the stale water in it (yeah bad I know) and turns out one day...after a nasty flood we go in and dump the tank out, I hear lots of screaming and find that Grandma found a giant pl*co inside the tank, not in great shape, but it was alive!! and rather large! it'd been living in murky water for about a year....and just eating whatever (might have consumed a few cats??) poor thing survived being dumped on the lawn and scooped up and tossed into a bucket of water...he went on to live for several more years too

I have a couple of poor quality photos my sister sent me I will post!

[dpatte]

i have often had nightmares of forgotten tanks - like finding one I had set up when I was in college 35 years ago. In the dream I go - 'oh my gawd - the *firemouth* tank from *college*' (replace *firemouth* with any species, and *college* with some place I had an aquarium in my life.) . And I find the tank and there are still firemouths in it, but they are very old. Like me, I guess LOL.

[Nerine]

Here are the pics!

1st photo - is the rim of the tank
2nd photo is after it's clean
3rd photo is the tank after they started cleaning it...she said it was much worse than this!! the light was 'glued' to the top and same with the wooden canopy, and the glass was 'glued' to the tank!!

the photos with deposits is AFTER they started cleaning it!!

[exv152]

  wawaweewa!