[Robert H]

With the holidays fast approaching, I find myself looking at my aquariums and wondering what I can do to make them look better before family and friends come to visit. Its a little stressfull!

I am curious if I am the only one that thinks this way, and what other people do to make their tanks the best they can be... massive trimming, re scaping, an extra plant to accent the aquascape just right, things a long that line. Do you do anything special?

 

[Church]

First of all a nice trimming, that's a given. Second of all, I bust out the UV clarifier and run that for a few days to make everything nice and sparkly (doing that as I type this, actually). Then I replace the polishing pad in the canister, to keep everything nice and sparkly for a little while longer. Then I bleach the hell out of the diffuser. Manually remove empty snail shells from the substrate, and remove as many living snails as possible (just because they offset what is normally an all-black substrate). That sort of thing.

Basically, it's like, I do all the extra things that you know make a bit of a difference in looks, but normally don't do all the time because it's not like people are going to be coming by and looking at the tank. Except, during the holidays, people WILL be coming by and seeing the tanks.

But yeah, I've got the UV going right now, just hooked it up 10 minutes ago, because we are going to be having Thanksgiving dinner here this year, and that means there will be dozens of people sitting down to eat turkey about 10 feet from one of my tanks, and I want the water to be that kind of sparkly that it only gets from UV clarifiers and micron filters.

 

[jmhart]

Robert,

I succumb to the same impulses to make my tanks look good, not just during the holidays, but pretty much any time I have a crowd coming over. Depending on how well I've kept up with my maintenance, this usually involves a small trim and a decent water change/water top off.

I rarely consider a large rescape unless I'm doing it weeks ahead of time.

And of course, the obligatory glass cleaning.

 

[blackandyellow]

I also try to "shine" them before having visitors, just because it has become the centerpiece of my home. I don´t rescape, I trim if necessary, but what I absolutely do is a big water change and clean up glass inside and out.

 

[yikesjason]

A big part of getting the tank ready for company for me is wiping hand and face prints from my 2 yr old. Also, since I have an open top tank, I net off any loose leaves or anything floating on the surface.

 

[Robert H]

So general maintenance issues, but nothing to drastic. I'm thinking of changing out a c02 diffusor for a reactor in an effort to bump the c02 up a little, and adding another T5 strip light to try and perk the plants up a bit more and get my HC carpet a little thicker. I 'm also stressing about some algae. I spent an hour with a long pair of tweezers picking out strands of algae! Am I obssessed?

 

[yikesjason]

Yes Robert, you are obsessed.

 

[Jeff5614]

I become even more anal than usual about the tank this time of year. I tend to over trim to get everything "just right". Then when I step back and look I'm like "what have I done". It seems that the plants do better when I keep my hands out more days than I put them in the tank so I'm trying my best to resist the urge to over obsess this year and just keep it at the usual level of obsession.

Good topic, btw, Robert.

 

[urbguy]

With the holidays fast approaching, I find myself looking at my aquariums and wondering what I can do to make them look better before family and friends come to visit. Its a little stressfull!

I am curious if I am the only one that thinks this way, and what other people do to make their tanks the best they can be... massive trimming, re scaping, an extra plant to accent the aquascape just right, things a long that line. Do you do anything special?

I have to say, this is one of best thread ideas ever. With ppl coming over, the last thing I want is a tank full of gunk and stuff. Since thanksgiving and christmas isn't spent at my house, as we travel, I kind of feel sad and happy at the same time. Sad about not being able to show off my tank, happy about not worrying about going through the hassle of cooking and just all the mess lol. again, this is a great thread idea. But if i were to have ppl over, a massive trimming won't just cut it, no pun intended lol. I'd do some rescaping and maybe do a little bit of stocking?

 

[kyle3]

bare minimum i do a top off and glass scrape. but if i have a little warning I like to do a full water change and a good trim. I also try not to feed the fish until company is here- everyone likes to see the fish go bananas for their food.

cheers-k

 

[NJAquaBarren]

I just used my h.o.b. Uv steriizer for the first tome yesterday. Combined it with glass scrubbing. Boy, it really does sparkle. You weren't kidding church.

 

[Church]

I know, I'm looking at the end result right now myself, and if it weren't for the CO2 bubbles I'd almost think there was no water in this tank at all!