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God damnit fish, if I net two of you to move back into the tank that doesn't mean you should use your buddy as a springboard to jump out and escape! Hopefully that 4 foot fall doesn't wind up killing that tiger barb  Also I never did find that ghost shrimp. Probably either eaten or lost underneath the bookcase that sits next to my tank  More reasons to setup a 2nd tank for a colony of cherries I suppose.
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Jul 21, 2013 01:15
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Red Red Red posted:I've had my tank for 4 months and its been perfectly stable, I started getting some green algae about a month and a half ago and added an algae eater to it, no algae since. Well 2 days ago the water started going from perfectly clear to really yellow and cloudy today. The fish were at the very top looking like they were gasping for air. You could confirm if its a nitrate spike by testing the water. One of the other things that can cause sudden cloudiness is a bacterial bloom. Aside from what you're doing, add some non iodized salt to your water. A heaped teaspoon should do for your tank size. Also when you said you changed the filter, did you replace it with a new uncycled one?
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Jul 21, 2013 02:02
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The test did confirm its a nitrate spike. I did replace the filter withe a new one. Was that a mistake?
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Jul 21, 2013 15:03
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The problem when you replace a filter in smaller tanks is that is where all your beneficial bacteria are mostly at. There are beneficial bacteria everywhere, plants, gravel other surfaces etc. but the bulk being in your filter. When you change the filter out for a new one you are practically starting from scratch again but you have the benefit of having at least some bacteria already in there so it is not like a brand spanking new tank. Either way it is almost like a mini-cycle so your tank parameters out of whack causing the situation you are experiencing. Other's will probably help me out here correcting me where I am off or offering their own suggestions. But my solution to that is I always add a product called FlorinBacter when I swap out the filters in my nano tanks where I keep my bettas. I used that same product to cycle my 20L, my 55 and my sister's 37 and not a single fish was lost. The 20L was more worrisome because it was the aquarium I used to start my red cherry colony and that would have been a disaster if I had the tank parameters go sideways on me. I was turned on to that product by a friend of mine who breeds and sells tropicals and he swears by it. Also another route you may consider, get a mesh bag they sell for adding the bio media and add a handful into it. Keep it in the tank hanging off the back somewhere out of the way. You now have a bacteria colony in place so when you change the filter you are not removing the massive amount all at once. I actually keep a bag in my 20L which is the longest established tank and whenever I break down one of the nano tanks I drop it into the tank to jump start the colony.
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Jul 21, 2013 15:23
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 I received the corkscrew vals about a month ago from Shakenbaker. I think there's at least a 33% increase in node number since I got them. They're a really cool plant and remind me a lot of kelp. Seeing new leaves poking through the substrate makes me so happy!! Also, check out how gross white substrate on top of potting soil looks! I should've paid the extra $2 for the bag of black sand. -_- The fuzzy blob of stuff on the left is my taiwan moss. I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. I was thinking of taking a small ceramic pot, breaking it in half, and tying the moss onto it making a cute hidey hole for my shrimp--but then my betta ate all of them so there went that idea. I'm letting things grow a little wild right now. I don't have the time or resources to invest in cooler things for my tank. As far as the light goes, I've had early stages of BGA in my tank since day one, only about 3 or 4 months ago. The bulb is rated as 5700K which, as far as I know, is within the daylight range. Maybe it's a bad bulb or a bad brand. I'll try switching it with the other bulb and see if that makes a difference.
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Jul 21, 2013 19:52
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Aww my little vals, making it out there in the world. I'm like a proud papa  Kinda jealous you can get clover to grow, my attempts with it went south pretty quickly. Never got any growth from them, and they eventually just withered down to the point I pulled them up and tossed them. I'd love to be able to get something like a carpet of them going, such a neat looking little plant. You mentioned wishing you'd gone for black sand instead of the white, which got me wondering what everyone here does for their substrates in general? When I got back into the hobby last year I spent a fair bit of time trying to see where I could save a few bucks since if you go buy substrates from the store they get costly pretty quickly. I knew I wanted to go planted off the bat so I got nice light and planned for soil under sand, and wound up buying pool filter sand to do that tank. It's off-white in color, largish grain size for sand and looks very natural, akin to riverbed white. The 50lbs bag I bought cost me $7.00, and so I've still got enough to do a decent sized tank out in the shed. It also cleaned up very fast, not much particulate floating off of it at all. My betta's tank has Safe-T-Sorb in it for substrate. It's baked fuller's earth, reddish-brown in color and about the size of standard gravel. I originally bought it to use as an additive in the soil for my other tanks since it's basically a poor man's laterite but figured I'd give it a shot as a substrate itself. It's got good exchange to it, so if you're fancy pants you can pre-load it with fertilizer by soaking it in a water/fertilizer mix. It also works as-is, since it'll soak up whatever's around and then your rooted plants can pull out whatever they need back out of it. Again, nice and cheap with a 40lbs bag going for about $5 at Tractor Supply. There's more than one kind, so go with the green label since it's just the fired clay. Wanted black sand for my 75 both because I wanted something different and I thought it would hide some of the mulm and such better than the white sand in the 55. Wound up going with Black Diamond blasting sand, which is actually coal slag but is totally inert. I got the finest grain I could find at the store at the time and it's very fine sand, much finer than the pool filter sand. It's not uniformly one color of black so it actually looks pretty natural. It's pretty close to Tahitian moon sand, really. Bought two 50lbs bags of it, for a total of $16.00, again at the local Tractor Supply. For the little betta tank I set up for my sister, I did something less natural and more flashy, and bought some crushed garnet. Again, it's inert so it's safe, but it obviously does not look natural at all. It's maroon in color, but it's definitely sand-looking since it's crystalline. I think I payed about a $20 for 25lbs for it, ordering it off of eBay from a company that sells sandblasting supplies. Just wash it like you would any sand and it's good to go. It certainly makes a statement, I think. I really want to one day make a gaudy as all hell tank with that stuff, white rocks, and African cichlids. One day... So does anyone else get some bizarre enjoyment from sand and junk, or am I a nut?
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Jul 22, 2013 05:43
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I need help with an algae problem. I have a 5 gallon tank that gets sun from about 7-10am, has a light on a timer, and one real plant so far (anubias nana). How can I stop this algae? I clean it off but it keeps coming back, so I'm guessing plant more?
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Jul 22, 2013 06:20
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Yeah, that's a fair bit of light, judging from the reflection. What time was that photo taken? I'd ask how long the artificial lights are on, but the position of the algae pretty much suggests that its the sunlight doing all of it, unless your artificial lights are somehow in front of the tank. Try find ways to cut down on the sunlight, even partially and see if that doesnt help. More plants can help slow it down, but the light seems like it'll still cause a lot of your algae.
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Jul 22, 2013 06:26
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SynthOrange posted:Yeah, that's a fair bit of light, judging from the reflection. What time was that photo taken? I'd ask how long the artificial lights are on, but the position of the algae pretty much suggests that its the sunlight doing all of it, unless your artificial lights are somehow in front of the tank. Try find ways to cut down on the sunlight, even partially and see if that doesnt help. More plants can help slow it down, but the light seems like it'll still cause a lot of your algae. That photo was taken around 1PM yesterday. It gets direct sun in the hours I said before but it's a rather large window that is completely unblocked (3rd floor of my building). I just checked out the window and, despite owning this place for a year, just realized the massive window has blinds. I'm going to shut them for a few days during the day and see if it helps. Also, is the the kind of algae that is fine to just simply wipe off? That's what I've been doing. Also more real plants to come regardless. My fish loves to lay on the anubias.
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Jul 22, 2013 13:17
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I'm getting ready to set up a 55 gallon tank and I was hoping for some stocking advice. I want to have a school of rummynose tetras, a bunch of cory cats, and a bushy nose pleco. I'd also like to have some sort of larger fish that can be kept solitary that has good color and will get along with all the smaller fish in the tank. It'll be fairly heavily planted, but most likely without anything that would need co2 injection for now. Anyone have suggestions for a good centerpiece fish?
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Jul 22, 2013 18:01
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Sostratos posted:I'm getting ready to set up a 55 gallon tank and I was hoping for some stocking advice. I want to have a school of rummynose tetras, a bunch of cory cats, and a bushy nose pleco. I'd also like to have some sort of larger fish that can be kept solitary that has good color and will get along with all the smaller fish in the tank. It'll be fairly heavily planted, but most likely without anything that would need co2 injection for now. Anyone have suggestions for a good centerpiece fish? Might consider a blue gourami. They have have nice color. They can get 3-4 inches. Even if it wanted to, it couldn't catch the rummynose and they won't give a crap about the cories or pleco as they're top dwellers. Paradise fish is along those same lines. They are a little smaller.
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Jul 22, 2013 20:55
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Belated thanks for the pleco tips. Can't get the other fish to be uninterested in the wafers, but am feeding him some yummy veg and he seems to be doing okay. I was worried about fin nipping but doesn't look like that is happening and other than having to fight for the wafers, the other fish leave him alone. Picked up some wood for him to hide out better in too!
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Jul 22, 2013 22:19
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I would love to buy zebra plecos one day when I'm in an apartment that'll let me have a tank big enough for 'em. I love those little guys. Even if someone sells at a price I don't like, I just mention that I'll think it over or come back later. It just seems really counterproductive to be rude to someone selling an incredibly rare fish. I prefer darker substrate because most fish color up better living in it. But I'm weird.
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Jul 22, 2013 22:26
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Shakenbaker posted:Kinda jealous you can get clover to grow, my attempts with it went south pretty quickly. Never got any growth from them, and they eventually just withered down to the point I pulled them up and tossed them. I'd love to be able to get something like a carpet of them going, such a neat looking little plant. Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that the clover is doing as well as it is! All of my bacopa and most of my wisteria melted but somehow I get clover to grow?  The problem I have with my substrate is that it doesn't look very natural and, with how messy of a planter I am, the potting soil comes up and makes the tank look unkempt. But whatever! Can't change it now! At the end of the day, substrate is just something for me to shove my plants into... UNTIL I GET ANOTHER TANK!!! then I'll probably care more about the Gestalt of the aquarium rather than just the plants and buy a 50lb bag of pool filter sand or something.
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Jul 22, 2013 23:21
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cheese posted:So my little container pond has been up and running for a few days now. Few week update  Just been toping up with water and throwing in a pinch of fish food every day or two. Water mint is taking over and has to be pruned, the duckweed is spreading like crazy and the hyacinths have tripled in numbers. Loving it.
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Jul 23, 2013 00:49
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^ Wow I love the way that looks. I've been looking for some parrots feather and hyacinth..if you ever have any trimmings youre tossing, Id love to nab some! I went to the LFS store with no intention of buying fish but ended up adding to the cory party. Sigh. And picked up some mystery fish.  I've got C trilineatus, delphax, leucomelas, reticulatus, rabauti (i think), and now arcuatus. Got pygmies in another tank, but its about time i get some darn sterbais and pandas. mystery fish if anyone wants to give a shot at ID. silvery tetras, one with a yellow/red irid spot, the other reaaaaaaaaaaaally looks like a black neon but not.
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Jul 23, 2013 02:18
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durrneez posted:Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that the clover is doing as well as it is! All of my bacopa and most of my wisteria melted but somehow I get clover to grow? I feel you on being a messy planter. I hear tell that those long metal tweezers are great for keeping your planting neat since they're a lot smaller than fingers are, but I can't speak from experience. What I always tell myself is that nature doesn't have many ponds with pristine bottoms either, seems to help  On the apisto eggs front from the other day, I see no sign of fry and my female's colors are back to normal. Not sure if it's the water or something else I'm missing. Bah.
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Jul 23, 2013 02:30
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Malalol posted:
Which one is the sucker on the right with the whiskers? My mom got one of those (along with a school of neon tetras) from a friend who was tired of his tank. The fish adapted well to her 25g tank, but it's already the tank's largest resident and seems to be growing bigger.
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Jul 23, 2013 02:51
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Both of those white ones are albino bristlenose pleco. the whiskery one is the male. They only get about 4, maybe 5 inches long.
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Jul 23, 2013 03:04
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Thanks for the quick answer. Looking through Google images, that's definitely what we've got. It's nice to know that he won't outgrow the tank. He's a neat fish.
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Jul 23, 2013 03:10
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Yeah my albino bristlenose has quite a bit or personality and has earned the nickname "Fishtronaut" after he survived a little adventure on the kitchen floor and being batted at by one of my cats. He jumped out of the glass I had him in while I was moving him to a new tank. I know that their behavior is schooling related but I'm fascinated by the social behavior of my guppies. It's like a soap opera  Or a trailer park.
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Jul 23, 2013 03:26
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Malalol posted:^ Wow I love the way that looks. I've been looking for some parrots feather and hyacinth..if you ever have any trimmings youre tossing, Id love to nab some! What are those brown balls???
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Jul 23, 2013 05:11
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http://www.hydroponics-simplified.com/leca.html Thats what they look like to me. Never seen them used as substrate though!
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Jul 23, 2013 05:23
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Yeah, it was uh, substrate in a bathroom caddy type cup for emersed plants. Then it fell and balls went everywhere and was just too lazy to ever pick those stupid things back up. Tried shoving most in just one side of the tank, hah. I also used it in my hob.
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Jul 23, 2013 06:00
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I have snails in my tank, and I don't know what kind they are  . They are very tiny and so far I've seen 4 of them. I'm guessing they were in the anubia I bought almost 2 weeks ago, unless they grow very slow, then they might've hitched a ride in the hornwort I was given. I'm starting to have a bit of an algae issue and was thinking of buying a nerite snail, but I wonder if I should wait until these snails grow, or dispose of them to avoid a snail infestation. what do you guys suggest?
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Jul 23, 2013 06:21
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Do they look like this? http://www.planetinverts.com/pond_snail.html If so, I like to squish them against the glass when my fish is nearby and watch him eat the snails! Sorry if it's from the hornwort. At least it's free protein for your fish.  You won't wake up tomorrow and omg! suddenly have a bazillion snails. Pond snails are, in my opinion, pretty harmless as far as pests go. It's up to you to squish them or not.I like the way LECA looks, like those delicious coated peanuts!  Malalol posted:Yeah, it was uh, substrate in a bathroom caddy type cup for emersed plants. Then it fell and balls went everywhere and was just too lazy to ever pick those stupid things back up. Tried shoving most in just one side of the tank, hah. I also used it in my hob. That's a pretty ingenious way of growing emersed plants!
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Jul 23, 2013 07:02
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durrneez posted:Do they look like this? They are really tiny right now and the shell is transluscent. They are barely bigger than a pencil tip. I'll try to take a picture with my crappy camera and if it comes out ok, I'll post it. Edit: I found another one that was bigger and the shell looks like that snail in the link. I also saw a smaller one devour an algae spot in the acrylic front panel of the tank. It was so to see its tiny mouth move. Are these pond snails good algae eaters, or will they eventually just roam in the gravel?
Chido fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Jul 23, 2013 |
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Jul 23, 2013 07:13
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I will be setting up my first tank, a 24 gallon, in a few months. I plan to have 10 rummynosed tetras, 10 cherry shrimp, and maybe 4 cories? Difficulty: I am an american in Germany and names are in German except for words like tetra that have no translation. Also going to add one or two plants like the java fern. Here is the place I will be buying all the living stuff from: http://www.zoobecker.de/index.php/aquariumpflanzen The tank should be here in a month or two, and it will take a while after that to get it set up and cycled, but I am especially looking forward to the shrimp!
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Jul 23, 2013 12:13
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So all the sweet parts for my plant/cichlid tank have been ordered except for a water hardness test kit and the flora/fauna! I can wait till I get this thing really up and going, the filter has been going since I got it and the lights are very nice as it stands. The water testing kit I got didn't have a water hardness test and I was wondering is there a quick way to test the hardness and lower it? Will my CO2 injector affect it or just the pH?
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Jul 23, 2013 21:39
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Water hardness is a result of dissolved minerals, usually Ca++ and Mg++. CO2 will only affect the pH not the hardness. I used to have pretty hard water in my first tank. I lowered it by mixing conditioned tap with RO water. Can't wait to see your tank once you have it up!
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Jul 23, 2013 23:16
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I've got a spare 10 gallon tank laying around, so I figured I'd get it up and running as a planted shrimp tank. My go-to filter has always been AquaClear, but I feel like that would be less a filter and more a shrimp blender in this case. Any recommendations?
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Jul 24, 2013 00:35
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As long as you have a pre-filter for it, you should do fine. As an extra precaution on my own HOB filter, I've got a chunk of foam that fits around the intake to keep shrimp and snails out. Doesnt stop them from grazing on it though, they just love the filter doing most of the work for them. Otherwise an air driven sponge filter if you want something that'll guarantee no casualties.
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Jul 24, 2013 00:44
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durrneez posted:Can't wait to see your tank once you have it up! Hope you like bleached skulls and bones.
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Jul 24, 2013 01:59
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Got a text from my sister today. Turns out that snails, you know, multiply like rabbits. So I stopped by the pet store to get her an assassin snail since I know no where around where she lives carries them, so I'll just mail it to her. I browsed the store like usual, the dudes at the counter tilted their head at one of the tanks for me to check something out. They have licorice gourami. Tweediei and deissneri.  I should just start keeping a few spare tanks set up and empty...
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Jul 25, 2013 00:07
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Anyone have any advice on how to make the top O-ring on a Magnum 350 stick? Mine came loose, so the filter has no suction...which I found out after about 11 gallons of water from the zebra tank got into the carpet. I swear some days you can't loving win. No local stores carry these part.
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Jul 25, 2013 23:55
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Tried liberally applying vaseline or teflon tape? Its not a permanent solution, but should hold for awhile.
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Jul 25, 2013 23:59
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB6-t-WHxPA Cory party? CORY PARTY! I'm not good at uh, keeping track of what fish I actually own but the latest count is 18 cories. I also dont know how to make ipad videos not so long and skinny  Ive got..false juliis, reticulated, skunk, elegant, delphax, rabauti, leucomelas. They spend hours doing the swimming up and down thing at the side of the tank so it looks like a ferris wheel of cories.  there are never enough cories.  Also managed an ID for these 2 things..they are simply Brass/gold tetras! Apparently, the typical silvery fish you see is a wild caught fish- the pigment is to deter parasites? And farmed brass tetras dont have that issue so they look totally different. And really really nice, if you ask me. The problem is that they school with my white clouds who have similar striping vs the actual brass tetras I have in my tank too.
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Jul 26, 2013 23:43
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Scoping out my chosen fish store for when I set up my tank and I saw some Galaxy Rasbora/Celestial Pearl Danio and they were sooo pretty! http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/the-celestial-pearl-danio-a-cautionary-tale.htm Not my pic, stole it from the internets: 
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Jul 27, 2013 20:23
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^I love cpds! nanofish are the best. I really think you need a small tank with good lighting to make them shine. I had smaller fish in a 20 and they looked *okay* ..once I dumped em into a 72 with low lighting it was just like..what fish? Their colours dont come out at all.  My babies! I had an incident with a failed spawn(nest fell apart, daddy dont care) so I ended up removing the 2 fish and leaving the tank to sit with no filter/light anything. only to discover a month later when I finally decided to dump the tank that..babies  where did they come from. mostly half dying really tiny things. I managed to salvage the largest ones and they are doing super now. Actual feeding + water changes and theyve been growing like crazy. Theyre gunna be HMxHMPK, Im hoping they grow up healthy and not fked up because of my total neglect Theres about 7 or so that I can count which is a completely fine number for me to concentrate on.edit: A few more betta ramblings. I'm not sure what I should be concentrating on..this spawn was supposed to be a more..form fixer. The male has great fins, the female has some excessive finnage that are messy but I like her body. I saw an EE HMPK that I really really wanted to pick up to maybe possibly incorporate EE genes into these babies if they turn out well and then just somehow linebreed that to bring the EE fins out. But I passed. I'm so new at this and people generally suggest working on colour from solid lines but to me, that is boring. I would rather work on some nicer formed fish but seeing where their mixed colours take me.  the parents, hes got a slopey head, so maybe theyll balance out. Malalol fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jul 28, 2013 |
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Jul 28, 2013 00:46
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:44 |
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Yeah, cpds kind of need a small tank and some odd care. Atleast for me, even when there was 15 of them, they were skittish. More importantly, they like heavily planted aquariums, so you end up with the "what fish" problem. Tank looked good from a 'scape point of view, but the fish to make it where not to be found. Check out the postted blue-eye. No experience, but look pretty cool too. From what I've read, are also more outgoing as well. Really though, I think I should have gone for cichlids. Dropped the flow so I'm not blasting my fish around, and now it seems there is almost no water movement in the tank. Lessons learned, don't use a saltwater tank in freshwater. JuffoWup fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jul 28, 2013 |
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Jul 28, 2013 01:37
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