[bereninga]

Love this story! Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up AND have pictures with it. There's always that struggle w/ algae that binds us together. There's barely ever a tank that has zero algae, and I think we can always win small battles against it, but the war never ends.

It's so true that there are times when you want to just totally give up, but once the tank looks good it all feels worth the struggle.

Taking care of a planted tank is art. Even our best tanks never feel good enough until we look back at them sometimes and say, "Wow, that was a great tank." The journey to having a nice tank is the best part of this hobby. If you ever achieve your perfect tank, then the hobby will end up just being boring.

Thanks again for sharing this!

Bump:

Wow, that was fun to read. I saw a lot of things here that i went through. The hagen. ladder the lighting from a lamp.... i can relate a lot. Started keeping a planted tank at age 13 now I'm 28. Just look how far you came!

LOL Yes, the Hagen ladder was one of my favorite parts because I remember having that when I first started doing CO2. I started nearly 9 years ago, and I too know how it feels to have real life make you neglect your tank. But the fun part about getting back into it is seeing how much has changed.