Hi, please forgive if this post gets a little long winded, but I would like to throw out a little history.

I first got interested in aquariums about 9 years ago when my wife brought home a little 2 1/2 gallon tank with a beta and a cory cat in it.

within a couple years the hobby grew to where I had a 55 gallon with a school of 12 tiger barbs as well as an assortment of other barbs, loaches, pictus cats and a common pleco. I was also running a second 55 gallon with a madagascar black beauty (paratalapia polleni), as well as a 40 gallon with a few natives (blugill and a mud cat) and a 10 gallon with a few assorted tetras. And dont forget about the pond of goldfish and koi.

Then, it all went south. My daughter asked if she could keep the 10 gallon in her room. that ended badly. My godmother offered to buy the 40 gallon as a replacement for her tank that she gave away. My wife slipped and fell in the pond and broke her foot, she asked me to get rid of it. So the fish went into my mother in laws pond and the hole was turned into a flower bed. Then not one but both of my 55 gallon tanks broke. the one with the barbs cracked, and the one with the black beauty broke the top frame in the midd rail.

I went from 4 tanks and a pond to nothing in the space of a year.

that was 3 years ago.

last week, I was moving some things around and found some of my fish keeping supplies. and said to myself, "self, you need to fix that tank, and get it back up and running"...

...mission accomplished.

The topframe of my only remaining 55 gallon tank is replaced, and today I spent several hours cleaning, and filling.
As of now, the filters are all running (penguin 330, penguin 170, and a penguin 125) the air pump is running, the heater seems to be turning on and off normaly, the lights are on timers and it appears to be leak free.

I used to do fishless cycling, but i guess i am a little impatient. So I am going to let it run for a couple days to let the temp stabilize, and clear any chlorine from the water. Then the plan is to get some plants and some platys and beggin the cycle.

I used to post on a couple other aquarium forums but they are all inactive now. I found this one and see it gets regular posts and chatroom activity. looks like a good place to slip in.

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