May 31: Swapping out the Tank

Back on May 15, I wrote about how our fish tank was slowly being taken over by aquatic snails. Well, we purchased some snail-ridding chemical, but after reading about the negative impact it can have on the entire tank, we decided not to use it. Instead, today, we removed the fish, drained the entire tank, scooped out all of the gravel and stone in the bottom, took the tank outside, scrubbed it down, added brand new gravel, threw in a couple of new decorative structures and some fake plants, refilled the tank, and put the fish back in. Whew! Oh, and we also put a new filter on the tank. Please keep your fingers crossed that we got rid of every last one of those little buggers. If not, I think we're just going to give the fish back to the pet store and start raising snails instead.