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My little stinker son... (I say it with love)
I'm afraid I over-estimated his self-control over his impulsive
four-year-old nature, and left the magnetic scraper in the tank (with the
*front* glass sandwiched between the two halves) overnight. Next day, I
unknowingly went to continue my futile attempt at scraping the green spot,
and SHCRRRR... I stopped immediately, but it was too late. I pulled the
magnet from my side just enough to see that in between the glass and the
business half of the scraper was basically a whole layer of Flourite. Upon
closer inspection of the glass, I realized that the damage from my short
pass with the scraper was not the first.
Well, after a few minutes of considering boxing Jimmy up and shipping him
off to Japan, I decided that maybe it was sort of a blessing in disguise...
The green spot really had gotten to the point where scraping was a lost
cause. I had used an expired credit card and a lot of muscle the night
before, and it didn't help one bit. The only thing that did seem to work
was using the blunt end of the stainless-steel tweezers I use to plant, but
it would take me hours just to get a few square inches of the glass
cleaned, that way. Even then, I was thinking that bleach would be the only
solution (in a manner of speaking) to my green spot problem.
I actually have another 5.5-gallon tank which houses only some female
bettas and dying plant cuttings. I can't recall ever having scratches in
it, so I could just switch one for the other and all would be well again.
However, I'm not sure of the best way to go about this... I realize that
I'm virtually starting from scratch (no pun intended); at least I don't
have to deal with the mess of new Flourite ;-). Should I reserve most of
the water from the tank to prevent shock to the flora/fauna? I imagine I'll
have to trim off a lot of the roots from the plants to make re-planting
even possible... Does this mean I should cut back on the fertilizers in the
new set-up for a few weeks, or should I just go ahead and continue with the
same dosages? Ugh - I'm exhausted just thinking about doing all of this. If
it were just fish, it wouldn't be so bad. Planting can be so trying on the
nerves. Better do this while the kids are out of the house, or they'll be
learning many naughty words from Mommy... ;-)
It could be worse... I could've happened to a *much larger* tank. Jimmy
would be in Siberia, then.
Any tips to help make this go as smoothly as possible will be very much
appreciated. Thanks!
-Naomi