Update - 46 Gallon

  I thought I would make a quick post to show how much the tank has improved since I cleaned and restarted the filter last night. I still have a lot of algae to remove and several water changes to make but you can at least see into the tank now.  My cory cats have continued to deposit eggs on the front glass today, which I'm happy they're doing so but wished they had waited till I had finished cleaning the glass. Lastly the laced leaf java fern that I didn't think would make it seems to be in much better shape than I thought.

Getting my Tanks Back in Shape Part 3 - 20 Gallon

  My 20 gallon tank needs work but it's not a priority at the moment since it has nothing living in it. It used to be the home of a red crayfish and a Giant Malaysian Prawn before that. All plants are fake but have been severely chewed on by the prior inhabitants and need to be replaced. The light is also not functioning right now. I also have a baby BiOrb that I plan on using as a betta tank once it's cleaned and a 10 gallon that needs to be set up as a quarantine tank.

Gigantor  the prawn

Sparky the crayfish

Getting my Tanks Back in Shape Part 2 - 37 Gallon

Before

After

  My 37 gallon is in much better shape but it still needs a lot of work. The filter in it is very temperamental and usually takes some work to get it to restart. Since it was already very late at night I decided to just fill the tank up and deal with the filter tomorrow.
  This aquarium has no live plants and the only fish are one Cuvier Bichir and an Albino Trinidad Plecostomus which is quickly out growing this tank.

Getting My Tanks Back In Shape part 1 - 46 Gallon

  So my tank maintenance (and my blogging) have gone downhill since my last post over a year and a half ago. I could blame it on money problems or just general crappy life stuff, but those are just excuses. The truth is that I've been failing the little guys in my care for a while now and it's time to either fix that or give up the hobby.

  Above is a picture of my 46 gallon bow front as it looks now. I've been slowly scraping the algae off the glass all week and finally managed to clear up most of the front. This picture was taken just after I filled up the tank and restarted the filter, so the water is very cloudy. I'm planning on doing a water change later in the week after I get paid and buy more water conditioner.

  Most of the plants you see in the earlier pictures are now gone. All that remains are a couple of Jungle Vallisneria and a variation of Java Fern that's not looking too good. The only remaining fish are one Sunburst Platy and seven Albino Cory Cats (the original four I bought in 2005 and three of their offspring).

 The images above are of the sides of the tank that still have a great deal of algae on them.
  Before I had even started any of this tonight the corys felt the need to lay more eggs as you can see in the picture below. I guess I'll have to wait and see if any hatch before I clean the front glass further.