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What's the word on a cheapish light for a standard 10 gallon tank? I'm setting up an old tank of mine for my classroom. Today I transferred a few plants from home and loled out loud at how pathetically inadequate the old florescent light obviously was when I turned it on.
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Aug 23, 2023 02:15
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Prof. Banks posted:What's the word on a cheapish light for a standard 10 gallon tank? So far the hygger I bought has been holding up. Can’t speak too much about longevity as I’ve only had it for about 5 months. Also, it might burn down my house in the near future with how hot it runs. The version I have is also a bitch to program (programmable version). Otherwise it’s been great bang for buck.
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Aug 23, 2023 03:06
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Ugh i hate idiots. So in AZ, crayfish are illegal. All live ones are illegal because they are invasive and have filled the lakes. So you can't have any, at all. And Game and Fish comes down like a loving hammer if they find you have them. My friend was an idiot, got in the cloning crayfish, and sold them on craigslist; they found out. They fined him heavily (he almost went to jail) and nuked all of his tanks. All of them dead. So now there's always some moron on a local aquarium page asking for "freshwater lobster" with all kinds of cray pics. And when I tell them no, they're all illegal, the slap fights start. You should never engage with idiots, I know, because they will beat you with experience. And so many people insist they got the poo poo for free from pet stores (doesn't change the law) and that I'm being a Karen by telling people they're illegal, and of course when I tell them to literally Google "crayfish illegal AZ" the top 50 results are why they are illegal, or to just look on the gov website, then they get even more bitchy. Fine! DO IT. loving get illegal animals AND POST PICS WITH YOUR FULL NAME. Nothing bad can happen! The agency loving does sting operations on this poo poo! Trust someone who has seen this all happen before, what could go wrong? If you have illegal animals, don't be loving stupid and post them!
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Aug 23, 2023 03:32
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Rated PG-34 posted:So far the hygger I bought has been holding up. Can’t speak too much about longevity as I’ve only had it for about 5 months. Also, it might burn down my house in the near future with how hot it runs. The version I have is also a bitch to program (programmable version). Otherwise it’s been great bang for buck. I've been running a non-programmable 3-button remote one since 2020, and another since 2021 it's good
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Aug 23, 2023 03:37
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Cowslips Warren posted:Ugh i hate idiots.
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Aug 23, 2023 05:22
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Rated PG-34 posted:So far the hygger I bought has been holding up. Can’t speak too much about longevity as I’ve only had it for about 5 months. Also, it might burn down my house in the near future with how hot it runs. The version I have is also a bitch to program (programmable version). Otherwise it’s been great bang for buck. Ok Comboomer posted:I've been running a non-programmable 3-button remote one since 2020, and another since 2021 Ok, that's what I've heard, but you never know how much a company is throwing money around to shill their stuff. Since this will be at school, I'll need a timer for the weekend, so I'll probably go with the programmable one and just deal with the annoyance.
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Aug 23, 2023 06:26
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Cowslips Warren posted:Ugh i hate idiots. God drat, what part of Apache junction do you live in? Sorry, I haven’t lived in Arizona (mesa, actually), for 18 years, but illegal crayfish breeding sounds like the most AJ-redneck-trailer trash thing I can think of.
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Aug 24, 2023 03:09
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I was trying to clear my siphon tube of water by blowing in it, and forgot the other end was still in the tank. All the fish came to the surface to see what's going on and I got a pretty good representation of the population in my 20 gallon tank Looking like 25+ of the ~35 that hatched are still kicking I think I have two with deformed flippers, one starboard and one port. Otherwise all very healthy This image prompted me to switch from bubbler only, to sponge filter. Did a 30%+ water change yesterday around noon, gave the water a day to let everything stabilize, and today turned on the sponge filter I was considering turning the filter on earlier but was worried about the daphnia not having enough to eat. Well I got some sticky green hair algae and the daphnia are getting stuck, so probably time to enable the filter. I rescued a daphnia from the alge and will work on recovering my population there. I tried adding yeast but every time I do that the population collapses and cyanobacteria takes over my colony flasks
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Aug 24, 2023 21:49
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Welp, I've got clownfish eggs. I suddenly feel very underprepared. 
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Aug 26, 2023 20:08
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Those eggs have eyes! I’m pretty sure I saw a video a while ago where a guy bred his clownfish, let me see if I can find it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_x0kb65sz4 Maybe helpful?
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Aug 26, 2023 21:29
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Sockser posted:Got some plant fertilizer for my tank (Seachem Flourish) and noticed it has trace amounts of copper. Given that my tank(s) have shrimp and snails, that sketches me out. Googling says that it should be "fine" but I'd really rather not chance it. Is there a goon-recommended plant fertilizer? I used that for ages with my shrimp and snails, its fine.
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Aug 27, 2023 09:18
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Stoca Zola posted:Those eggs have eyes! I'll check it out! My issue is my rotifer culture is not really going strong at the moment. Last time i harvested it I must've done something wrong, since it's still very very green. I have the phytoplankton down, I think, but not the rotifer bit. But I set some old tank water out in a bin to grow stuff, and I ordered more rotifers. They've already laid a second clutch of eggs, so hopefully I'm going to have as many shots at it as I need. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 02:18
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DeadlyMuffin posted:My issue is my rotifer culture is not really going strong at the moment. Rotifer culture died when Tumblr banned porn, IMO
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Aug 28, 2023 06:12
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My second tank is approximately set up. Woo. Has filter media from my other tank and some API quickstart added, means I should be good to start stocking fish in it relatively soon, yeah? 
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Aug 28, 2023 07:01
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Sockser posted:My second tank is approximately set up. Woo. I like trying to get a good number of plants established before adding fish since that helps smooth out any spikes in chemistry. Otherwise, if your plants aren’t doing well their dying leaves will make things worse. Looks like bacopa on the right so that should pick up fairly quickly, I think once it starts growing upwards towards the light I’d be more comfortable about adding fish. If you don’t add too many fish at a time that helps too. Are you just using the small sponge filter or do you have more filtration?
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Aug 28, 2023 08:46
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By "soon" I meant somewhere mid-next week when I get back from holiday travel Was hoping I'd be able to get away with that small sponge filter and some plants Tank is only going to have 5 or so guppies and a bunch of shrimp in it so bioload should be fairly minimal
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Aug 28, 2023 15:45
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Sockser posted:By "soon" I meant somewhere mid-next week when I get back from holiday travel unless you have 5 male guppies, you will soon have many many guppies.
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Aug 28, 2023 19:49
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I saw a batch of baby guppies. Then the neons snacked. Really. I need to just buy a breeding container. Plus, the male died mysteriously. So she's a loner. But she loves to watch what's going on. I think she's my favorite guppy.
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Aug 29, 2023 07:56
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Aerofallosov posted:I saw a batch of baby guppies. Then the neons snacked. Really. I need to just buy a breeding container. Plus, the male died mysteriously. So she's a loner. But she loves to watch what's going on. I think she's my favorite guppy.
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Aug 29, 2023 18:22
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I’d heard guppies would reliably eat guppy fry, but mine never did. It might depend on how much cover there is in the tank, because my guppy fry seem pretty smart about getting to cover.
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Sep 3, 2023 05:47
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Stoca Zola posted:I’d heard guppies would reliably eat guppy fry, but mine never did. It might depend on how much cover there is in the tank, because my guppy fry seem pretty smart about getting to cover. I do have a lot of plants, and they're not full guppy. They're hybridized with endlers. Apparently they're less prone to eating fry. Anyway, here's a video of my jungle tank https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCd32Ouzdqg
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Sep 3, 2023 07:32
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Any recs for online shops for live freshwater in the NE? Shipping is brutal from most of the recommended places I found and I’m not really happy with my local stores right now.
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Sep 4, 2023 23:47
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Any recs for online shops for live freshwater in the NE? Shipping is brutal from most of the recommended places I found and I’m not really happy with my local stores right now. Not NE but aquahuna has good flat rate shipping prices. My celestial pearl danios are still going strong after 5 months or whatever it’s been. Edit: I’m located in Connecticut and they ship from Washington I think. nwin fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 5, 2023 00:35
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I usually use Aqua Huna or aquatic arts. Though, I want to go to a few shkrimps when it's not shipped in triple degree heat.
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Sep 5, 2023 08:19
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B33rChiller posted:Yeah, uh, about that. Have you ever tried side-lighting your guppies? I don't mean permanently, but holding a second light from the side while they're still top lit? Mine can look kind of ordinary, a few orange and black spots, the occasional dash of white, but with side lighting, most of mine are also beautiful iridescent purple. Makes me wonder if they themselves can see that colouration.
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Sep 5, 2023 11:30
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Stoca Zola posted:Have you ever tried side-lighting your guppies? I don't mean permanently, but holding a second light from the side while they're still top lit? Mine can look kind of ordinary, a few orange and black spots, the occasional dash of white, but with side lighting, most of mine are also beautiful iridescent purple. Makes me wonder if they themselves can see that colouration.
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Sep 5, 2023 12:56
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Looking at upgrading from a smallish filter box to a significantly larger canister filter for my patio koi pond. Two questions: Is UV actually helpful, or is it gimmicky? If I over-size the canister unit, will it remain as effective at, like, 50% flow-capacity? Or even less? The units all specify maximum flow rate, just wondering if there’s a practical minimum I should also consider. I’d like to over-size it if there’s no downside so I can expand later.
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Sep 9, 2023 19:07
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UV cleared up my outdoor stock pond in about a week despite being in direct sun 8 hours a day
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Sep 9, 2023 20:28
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Bad Munki posted:Is UV actually helpful, or is it gimmicky? It kills whatever is in the water column. If that is what you need, it's a good tool for the job. If you have high nutrient levels and are growing algae on all your plants I don't think it'll do much. If you have green water it'll kill the floating algae, which is why people like them for ponds.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:19
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It is pretty hard to overfilter, unless you have like a max Fluval on a 2 gallon tank. Blender.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:24
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I certainly had a major bloom over the summer but managed to deal with it with some barley extract and such. That being said, I’m not opposed to adding UV to the mix if it can actually be helpful. Mostly what I’m looking at is the capacity of the system. My current pond is all of 250-300 gallons, and shallow because of that. I plan to drain it this winter (it freezes solid as is, I’ll be over-wintering the fish elsewhere), and dig it deeper, maybe wider as well. So that’ll take me up to 500ish. Later, we have a patio plan that’ll raise the grade there enough to easily add another 18” depth. At that point, I’m looking at, like, 1000 gallons. So, my thought is to get a canister that has a high enough max flow to accommodate the 1000 (I’m looking at units specced for up to 2000-3000), but only run it on my current pump that is sized for the current pond at 1/4 that volume. I feel like that shouldn’t be an issue at all? Just means a larger filter surface area in the canister and maybe an over-sized UV light, with the water passing through slower than it might normally. Anyhow, anyone see any obvious issues here? Is this a patently terrible idea and I should aim more for right-sizing my canister? e: Cowslips Warren posted:It is pretty hard to overfilter, unless you have like a max Fluval on a 2 gallon tank. Blender.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:31
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The problem with oversizing your UV (supposedly) is that if you have a UV light rated for 1000 gal and you have 1000 gal, it will nuke 98% of the green alge in the water column. If you have a 400 gallon and use a UV light rated for 2000 gallon you're going to totally sterilize the water, which is not good for the ecosystem. For my ~450 gallon I had this thing $70 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZD6KGN5/  It's a combo pump and UV, it was more than adequate, bordering on overkill; it's probably adequate for 500-750 gal IMO In my 150 gallon stock pond (with ~120 gal water) I use this thing $40 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V26V5MS/  It's adequate for my needs right now Might want to consider adding daphnia to the pond two weeks before adding the fish to establish a population
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Sep 9, 2023 23:16
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As I understand, you’ll want to size the uv light to the pump you use and the amount of water you want to clarify.
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Sep 10, 2023 03:59
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We're going to get an aquarium for our son's 6th birthday and have him help us with the upkeep. There's one at his kindergarten and he loves it. We're considering the 9 Gallon Fluval Flex: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073WYWY97/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A26YHQTHC323GD&psc=1 Looking for any advice for what mix of fish to buy; any products or brands that goons recommend or recommend avoiding; basically any advice welcome. Cornuto fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Sep 11, 2023 |
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Sep 11, 2023 00:01
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Cornuto posted:We're going to get an aquarium for our son's 6th birthday and have him help us with the upkeep. There's one at his kindergarten and he loves it. that’s dummy expensive for a 10gal, but it’s a nice all-in-one. If you’re in the States, Petco is having their semi-annual tank sale all month and you can get a lovely rimless 10gal (the ones with a plastic base are preferable, as they don’t need a mat to stop the bottom from cracking) for $27. Lots of other rimmed and cube rimless tanks too. You could go much bigger for less money than the all-in-one, which would 1) give you many more fish options 2) give you a buffer with regards to water parameters, which is always nice on a first tank. I wouldn’t go smaller than 10 gallons for him, personally, unless he wanted to keep something specific like cherry shrimps, probably between 20-60 gallons is a good sweet spot for most beginners and it gives you the option to get fish that get bigger (most common hobby fish do, unless you’re sticking to danios and guppies, etc) Depending on what you stock it with you could then add either a HoB filter (we like the FLUVAL Aquaclear, but there are other good ones too like the Seachem Tidal line, which is especially good for saltwater) or a sponge filter (or internal or canister, it’s really up to you and what you want the tank to hold). I’d go with real plants instead of fake plants: those can be had at Petco for $6.50 with price matching to the website, or you can order nicer stuff from places like Buceplant.com. Buceplant is also where I ordered my Blue Dream neocaridinia shrimp, which I’ve been extremely happy with.
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Sep 11, 2023 00:17
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Ok Comboomer posted:that’s dummy expensive for a 10gal, but it’s a nice all-in-one. Agree with this. I started with a 5 gallon and my current 29 gallon is so much easier. More work for a water change and setup, but it takes a whole lot more time to spiral out of control. The Petco tanks can be quite nice if you pick the right one and have the space. As far as getting started, a betta fish is a really nice starter, but it does limit you significantly for other fish to put in the tank. They’re very sensitive to other fish. If you’re fine with the betta and a couple of smaller schooling fish (neon tetras, rasboras, and like a bushy pleco), it’s a very beginner friendly setup. Regardless of the stated above, if you have a decent, non-chain local fish store I’d go by yourself and ask for recs on starter fish and what fish will live well together. If they’re a good store, the employees should seem knowledgeable and since they likely care about fish will want to make sure they set you up with stuff that’s easy and can live together.
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Sep 11, 2023 01:35
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Cornuto posted:We're going to get an aquarium for our son's 6th birthday and have him help us with the upkeep. There's one at his kindergarten and he loves it. first thing i tell anyone is to google how the nitrogen cycle works. after you figure that out, i think a 20g is a good place to start, start it with a few tetras (the bigger ones) so if he ever upgrades down the line they can co-exist with bigger fish. I'm also assuming you mean to start with freshwater. If your doing saltwater thats a whole other set of problems
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Sep 11, 2023 01:59
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I bought a fluval flex over the summer, same 9 gallon size, but I'm black. I've been very happy with it so far. I have kinda kicked myself for not getting the bigger 14 gallon one, but the 9 has not given me issues. Its bowed front is quite nice looking and it's very quiet. The light is good enough to keep the plants I bought going well. I can definitely recommend it if you don't want to mess with all the work trying to research and piece out one of your own. I filled mine with fluval stratum, a few pieces of dragon stone, the aforementioned plants, four neocaridina shrimp, four neon tetras, a half dozen pygmy corydora catfish, and about four dozen ramshorn and bladder snails that hitchhiked in on the plants. I'll eventually replace the two neons that died the couple days after purchase and maybe add either a guppy or a honey gourami. I've also been working on piecing together a new/old setup for my classroom using an old tank and a mixture of the old pieces: tank, filter, thermometer, and maybe heater (I haven't tested it yet) and new pieces: light, stratum, and hardscape. Of the two, the pieced together one is going to be cheaper and would still be even if I had to buy it all new, but the flex has been much easier and has been waaaay easier to get looking really nice. I may very well eventually upgrade to the 32 gallon one if I keep liking it.
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Sep 11, 2023 02:19
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I know people here order from buceplant, but I feel like something must be wrong. I loaded a cart with 10 shrimp and a single plant and the two types of shipping listed were both over $50. I'm in the US and not in any exotic, hard to get to location. What the hell.
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Sep 13, 2023 01:37
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Prof. Banks posted:I know people here order from buceplant, but I feel like something must be wrong. I loaded a cart with 10 shrimp and a single plant and the two types of shipping listed were both over $50. I'm in the US and not in any exotic, hard to get to location. What the hell. Try aquahuna for livestock. They ship via usps.
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Sep 13, 2023 05:08
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