Well, i don’t know how to start this, so i’ll just dive right in.  I’ve been an aquarium entheusiast most of my life.  i’ve always loved the peaceful tranquility that an aquarium brings to whatever room its in.  My dream for the longest time was to have a aquarium wall ( an aquarium the width,not height, of a wall, that you could look through into the next room).  Being a home owner, and knowing that that actually entails, i’ve re-adjusted my dream ( at least until i become a multi-billionaire, and can build the house around said aquarium.

We have had an aquarium going in our place of residence ( i saw that instead of house, as i’ve moved twice since i started having aquariums, 2 appartments now my house ) for a little over 10 years.  In that time, we’ve had at one time or another a 10 gallon, 25 gallon, a 77 gallon ( current, and main tank ), and one of those kritter containers ( betta show bowls, that also houses Aquatic frogs ).

Aquarium at the beginning of the reset

Which brings me to this post.  Since we have had kids, we haven’t spent nearly enough time caring for the tank as we should have, but kept it going.  It was on life support, but the fish kept on going, some would die of old age, and were not replaced.  About a month ago, discussing with my wife, we agreed, that since the boys were getting older and more independant we had more time to get back to caring for the tank.  Maintenance isn’t that bad ( the larger the tank the easier the maintenance ), and is about 30 minutes every other week, and maybe an addition 30 minutes once a month to clean the fitler.  Feeding isn’t an issue, as i do it when i feed my dog and takes but a second or two. Our filter was(i don’t know if it still is) top of the line, to avoid potential maintenance problems.

So it is with this mindset that we did a massive cleaning 4 weeks ago,  filter, 50% water change, the works.  The filter was disgusting, but being so understocked, the effect on the fish was relatively negligeable.  The inhabitants at that time were 2 clown loaches, 1 female Kribensis, 2 bristlenose pleco’s and 1 cherry barb.  That few fish in a 77 gallon tank that’s 4′ long, might as well call it empty.  3 weeks ago, we went out and started looking for new inhabitants, we were debating what to add, as we didn’t know what direction we wanted to go.  We settled on adding 3 tiny ( these things are ridiculously small compared to our other 2 ) clown loaches and a half dozen Congo Tetra’s, a fish we’ve had before and really appreciated for the colours, size and overall behavior ( swim in a pack, move alot around the tank, not very aggressive towards other fish ).  Fast forward 2 weeks, another water change, all inhabitants seem to be getting along, and what a difference having more fish in the tank makes.  Today my wife added another half dozen congo tetra’s, bringing out total to 12 congo’s.  We are now looking for another schooling fish to add, that has a different colour palette, to contrast the colours in the tank.