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Don't gently caress with pH and hardness, it is more trouble than it's worth. a pH of 6 is perfect for blackwater fish, and lots of killifish like the softer water, as do a lot of smaller cories and lots of dwarf non rift lake cichlids.
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Mar 12, 2024 01:09
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Hadlock posted:Ph was just under 6 this morning again. Since the morning of the 7th when that was posted, having added the 1tsp of sodium bicarbonate, and vacuuming up a bunch of sludge, it's been solidly north of 7.6 (looks like 7.8ph on my card) Yeah I'm not trying to chase a specific pH but if I drain a 10 gallon tank of pH < 6, add 4 gal pH 8.0 and then have ~7 but 12 hours later it's back down again to < 6.0 there's probably something fucky with the tank. Let me mention again the room smelled horrific so it's not like I was idly trying to change the pH; the room smelled awful when I opened the door, something was off gassing from the tank so I tested the ph and it was lower than I've ever seen it But yeah since removing a bunch of sludge and adding the baking soda it seems to have stabilized, and the smell went away in the last day or two
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Mar 12, 2024 01:36
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*nodding along* seems like rotting stuff, wether plants, or food, or animals, tends to lower the pH, and give off ammonia. A relatively small volume, and little buffering capacity can leave you susceptible to big swings just from nature doing its thing. It seems to me like that might be what's going on there. Through denial and error, I learned that the fish and snails both will go nuts for leftover chicken carcasses, but whatever is left needs to be removed after a day, not 2. I threw the scrap bones in , and the snails stripped the meat from between the ribs even, ate a bunch of cartilage from the joints, and even chewed some of the actual bone. Figured that's all good nutrition, but the morning of day 2, I caught a whiff of rotting meat from the tank, and yanked it all out. Took a dip, and nitrites were showing for the first time, which is a big red flag, considering my tank is way over filtered. Oopsies. Did a big water change, and everyone seems happy. Nothing seems h
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Mar 12, 2024 05:54
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Cowslips Warren posted:Don't gently caress with pH and hardness, it is more trouble than it's worth. a pH of 6 is perfect for blackwater fish, and lots of killifish like the softer water, as do a lot of smaller cories and lots of dwarf non rift lake cichlids. She wants a betta. My inclination is to say "Don't change anything in the tank. Don't vacuum, don't stir up the gravel (it's dirt under gravel), don't mess with the pH." I don't know if she has a heater, either. I think it's a 30 gallon tank. I haven't checked my own parameters in forever. Plants are growing like crazy, fish are living, shrimps and snails are reproducing. It's obviously fine.
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Mar 13, 2024 03:48
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I think I'm going to return to Oscar ownership and finally take the plunge on a 180g.
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Mar 14, 2024 02:28
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I think I'm going to return to Oscar ownership and finally take the plunge on a 180g. i have always wanted gold/red severums but my 90 is for my plecos.
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Mar 14, 2024 03:29
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I think I'm going to return to Oscar ownership and finally take the plunge on a 180g.  I freaking love Oscars, don't care how "basic" they are. A 180g oscar tank will be amazing, how many are you thinking of getting? I've got two, one in a 120g with 9 silver dollars and the other is solo in a 75g.
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Mar 14, 2024 13:36
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i got an urchin the other day for the sole purpose of hoping he would eat this gross red mat algae on all my rocks, and let me tell you, this little fucker is going to town. in a month he's gonna scrape all my rocks to clean white. that being said he's a regular Katamari. i watched him pick up a live nassarius snail and carry the fucker around. I picked him clean and then 5 minutes later he looked like this again:
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Mar 15, 2024 04:54
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i kinda miss my urchins but i do not miss the male jacking off and releasing sperm clouds every water change. or them eating my sponge filters.
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Mar 15, 2024 05:08
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Enos Cabell posted:
I don't know, I saw a tank on YT that was just 6 oscars and they all seemed to get along and exhibit interesting group behaviors. OTOH, that would be messy as hell and could fall apart the second a pair forms. I'm thinking instead that I'll probably do maybe a pair and that some other big new world cichlids. Maybe a green terror and Jack Dempsey and some firemouths/convicts. 180g sounds so big but even that can get quickly overcrowded when you're talking big bois.
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Mar 15, 2024 12:37
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Irene's shell dweller video that showed up recently in the online creator's thread has me thinking maybe I want some of those? Cute little diggers, and they seem to breed pretty easy. Talk me out of it. I have enough fish already, please.
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Mar 15, 2024 16:09
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Cowslips Warren posted:i kinda miss my urchins but i do not miss the male jacking off and releasing sperm clouds every water change. or them eating my sponge filters. That's hilarious (to read, I'm sure experiencing isn't quite as funny)
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Mar 15, 2024 18:52
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 Yoda the zebra turbo snail. He/she had a good run, about 3 years. But holy crap, what a smell dead snail is 
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Mar 16, 2024 18:48
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I have a rotting bog tub which I throw my algae and plant cuttings from my pond into, it gives the dragon fly nymphs a fighting chance and it’s also a breeding ground for disgusting rat tailed maggots, which grow into hover-flies or drone flies, a less glamorous but still important pollinator. And it still doesn’t stink as badly as a dead snail, that really is a special smell. RIP Yoda. We have had a couple of heatwaves lately which has meant warmer pond water, large quantities of spawning and many new rosy barb fry. I’m surprised more of them don’t end up in the skimmer box or eaten by dragonfly nymphs but they seem to have a good sense of self preservation. I haven’t had any bird problems either, the eel grass has grown in really nicely and so has the other water plant so there’s plenty of cover. Still a lot more algae than I’d like, but the fish of all sizes seem to use it to anchor themselves in position at night.
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Mar 16, 2024 21:42
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People like to dunk on big box stores but I just had two great experiences. My local PetSmart asked me my name and checked to see if I was on a list of convicted animal abusers, and I stopped in PetCo and they had a big sign on their comet goldfish that said "we get 14+ inches and like cool water"
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Mar 17, 2024 19:15
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:People like to dunk on big box stores but I just had two great experiences. My local PetSmart asked me my name and checked to see if I was on a list of convicted animal abusers, and I stopped in PetCo and they had a big sign on their comet goldfish that said "we get 14+ inches and like cool water" I was also pleasantly surprised at the local big pet chain when buying a comet. They asked how big my tank was (100gal patio tub), and they immediately followed up to make sure I had shade and aeration. (Yep, pole beans and shade cloths, with sponge filters). They even asked how big my tank was when buying jungle Val, LoL. Ooh, and I overheard a very responsible interaction at the local indie fish store. A customer was looking to buy a "pretty fish" to put in a bowl with nice plants as a gift for a coworker, and way eyeballing bettas. The employee gently inquired about the customer's fishkeeping experience, and explained a bit about bettas. They then went on to explain why they don't sell anything smaller than 5 gallons, and suggested a way to go about putting together a nice tall, wide vase with aquatic plants, and no animals as a gift along the same lines that would be better appreciated, but result in a lot smaller sales $ for the fish store. I was impressed with the tact they employed. B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 17, 2024 19:30
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 I got some chili rasboras a little while ago from the LFS's neocardinia tank. Since they were in a shrimp tank they weren't treated for ich and they brought it in. I tried cranking up the heat to treat but my heaters weren't up to it. So I got a 10 gallon, trimmed up my main tank's overgrowth and evacuated the snails for an ich-x treatment. Anyway, here's my new quarantine tank. Hopefully I did the replanting correctly Mistaken For Bacon fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Mar 19, 2024 |
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Mar 19, 2024 04:33
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If I have a very mature sponge filter and HOB and I move one of those over to the new tank, how long do I need to cycle the new tank for Apparently the power went out three days ago while I was out of town and the lamps have been on 24/7 algae is wildly out of control. Well it was out of control before, now it's catastrophic
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Mar 19, 2024 05:34
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Hadlock posted:If I have a very mature sponge filter and HOB and I move one of those over to the new tank, how long do I need to cycle the new tank for That should be an instant cycle, but if you're throwing a handful of sand or gravel from the established tank, that should help too. Wait, the power went out and the lights stayed on? Mistaken For Bacon posted:
Ich is usually present in all tanks, and activated by stress, so you don't treat for it until it shows up, I don't believe there's any preventative measure since it's a stress parasite. When you say quarantine tank, is that where the snails are now or the rasboras?
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Mar 19, 2024 13:06
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I set the tank up because I needed somewhere to put the snails (a Nerite and as many MTS as I could find) for a few weeks while I run ich-x in the main tank. Once that's done, I'll use it to quarantine new additions
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Mar 19, 2024 13:31
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Hadlock posted:If I have a very mature sponge filter and HOB and I move one of those over to the new tank, how long do I need to cycle the new tank for I don't know your exp level with algae, but I learned the hard way that excel kills mosses as well as algae, so watch out for that, if you decide to use glute. Digital timers? Power cycle cause it to lose memory, and stick on?
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Mar 19, 2024 17:47
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what i like to do is i have a couple sponges buried under the substrate of my tank, so if i needed to spin up a new tank quickly for quaritine or something, i can take that out and stick it in a new filter in my empty 10 gallon. i also do this with my reef tank by keeping the filters of my extra canister in my sump.
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Mar 20, 2024 02:43
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Shish is a single male betta, approximately 2.5 years old, kept in a 3.5 gallon tank. Parameters are all good at every weekly test/25% change. He suffered (I think) a case of popeye maybe two months ago, which was treated with Melafix; his eye is still cloudy but the swelling has gone down, so I think he may have injured it. The past few weeks or so, he has seemed like he's slowing down. - He's lethargic. Spending a lot of time on the bottom of the tank, and a lot of that is split between hiding in his gem and hanging out right below his favorite spot at the front of the tank, where he can be nosy and look out at everyone always. - He seems to be having trouble getting around. When it's feeding time, he swims as quickly as he can to the top of the tank but seems to struggle a bit, eats his food, and then slowly drifts back down. - Every so often, he can remain neutrallly buoyant for a few minutes at a time. - Any time he is not actively swimming, he slowly drifts down. I've been leaning toward SBD, maybe dropsy...but he is not lacking for appetite, he's not on his side or upside down, and he's got zero bloating. Y'all, what the gently caress is going on with my fish? He's not that old.
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Mar 25, 2024 19:47
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Is there anyone living in the Phoenix area who would like a big clump of Java Fern, a chunk of Anubias Coffeefolia rhisome (complete with some Bucephalandra embedded in the roots!) or a clump of Java Moss? If so send me a PM and we can hammer out the details. I have too many plants but I don't want to just throw this stuff away. Edit: A trade was made and I ended up with this big guy: 
Neitherman fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Mar 31, 2024 |
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Mar 26, 2024 19:02
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I suggest the OP add Aquarium Co-op to the list of quality vendors. I have bought lights, live plants, an air pump, sponge filters, and more from them and it's all been top-notch quality. Plus the owner Corey is a huge fish nerd and makes YouTube videos all the time about his store and the other stores he visits.
Neitherman fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 22:06
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Neitherman posted:I suggest the OP add Aquarium Co-op to the list of quality vendors. I have bought lights, live plants, an air pump, sponge filters, and more from them and it's all been top-notch quality. Plus the owner Corey is a huge fish nerd and makes YouTube videos all the time about his store and the other stores he visits. Agreed with everything except their heaters, which are not reliable.
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Mar 29, 2024 02:33
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Agreed with everything except their heaters, which are not reliable. I could be wrong, but I think they stopped selling them for that very reason.
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Mar 29, 2024 18:24
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The aquarium co-op 4-way gang valves are also defective. The rubber end stops fell apart after a couple months of use so air would just leak out.
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Mar 29, 2024 18:46
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Weembles posted:I could be wrong, but I think they stopped selling them for that very reason. I watched some of his videos, and he mentioned having problems with them so they would stop selling them. I still like their stuff. The algae sponge is really handy, since it works away hard water.
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Mar 30, 2024 02:52
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Aerofallosov posted:I watched some of his videos, and he mentioned having problems with them so they would stop selling them. That's nice to hear. Their CO2 reg set is decent.
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Mar 30, 2024 07:44
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I've never had much luck with plants in aquariums. Sometimes they do okay for a while, but eventually they yellow/brown out. Anyone have a recommendation on a liquid fertilizer for really basic stuff like amazon swords, etc? I have zero desire to mess with CO2 or anything like that, just want to mix a few real plants in with my fake ones. My FW tank is my simple refuge from my reef tank.
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Mar 30, 2024 14:07
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For an amazon sword I use root tabs from Aquarium Coop. They're basically fertilizer pills that don't hurt fish, you just shove a pill or 2 in the dirt and bury a plant nearby. For liquid fert, I use Thrive shrimp safe, but pretty much anything without copper should be sufficient, assuming your fish don't have any special requirements.
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Mar 30, 2024 14:40
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The rule of thumb that works for me is that stem plants can get nutrients through their leaves (liquid ferts), rosette plants (crypts, swords) get it through their roots so use root tabs for those. And rhizome plants grow so slow that they don't really need a ton of supplementation for nutrients. Too many nutrients for rhizome plants like anubias or java fern and the broad leaves can grow algae.
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Mar 30, 2024 16:03
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Limited experience here, but have had no issues using Jobe's fertilizer spikes, broken up into 1 or 2 cm long pieces and shoved into the gravel. Also proper aquarium root tabs, and osmocote in gel capsules. I keep pretty hardy fish, and mystery snails. Haven't had ammonia spikes or anything like that. My patio tub has probably 6 inches of plain kitty litter with a gravel/aragonite cap. I use broken up fruit tree fert spikes to feed the waterlily that lives in there with gold fish. Good results so far.
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Mar 30, 2024 16:28
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Java Fern can grow quickly, but it needs direct sunlight for 4+ hours a day. I dunno what exactly it needs but aquarium lights aren't it
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Mar 30, 2024 17:21
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Hadlock posted:Java Fern can grow quickly, but it needs direct sunlight for 4+ hours a day. I dunno what exactly it needs but aquarium lights aren't it Seems pretty bombproof, provided it doesn't get fully buried under faster growers
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Mar 30, 2024 18:59
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I've never had much luck with plants in aquariums. Sometimes they do okay for a while, but eventually they yellow/brown out. Anyone have a recommendation on a liquid fertilizer for really basic stuff like amazon swords, etc? I have zero desire to mess with CO2 or anything like that, just want to mix a few real plants in with my fake ones. My FW tank is my simple refuge from my reef tank. I get this:  And this:  I dose Flourish once or twice a week and Flourish Excel a few times a week. I dump a cap full of potassium and phosphorus in weekly as well. My anubias started flowering and my java ferns about doubled in size after I started this routine. Made my buce more buff as well.   On top of this I use the API root tabs for my scarlet temple, amazon sword, and tropica crypt. This combo has been working pretty well for me in a 46 gallon tank since I set it up last March. 
Neitherman fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Mar 30, 2024 |
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Mar 30, 2024 20:33
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I appreciate the plant info, everyone. Unrelated note: Keyhole Cichlids have vanished from the hobby. I called/visited 6 stores in my upstate NY city to include LFSs and Big-Box stores, none of them had any keyholes. Got comments like "wow, nobody has asked for those in a while" and "I can't remember the last time I saw them on the wholesale list". They aren't even listed on LiveAquaria.
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Mar 31, 2024 13:20
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Hadlock posted:Java Fern can grow quickly, but it needs direct sunlight for 4+ hours a day. I dunno what exactly it needs but aquarium lights aren't it ive managed to murder java ferns, amazon swords, and like 4 other types of fresh water plants. but what does work for me is lucky bamboo. i buy 18 inch stalks so the top sticks out just above the water line
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Mar 31, 2024 14:03
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I appreciate the plant info, everyone. Unrelated note: Keyhole Cichlids have vanished from the hobby. I called/visited 6 stores in my upstate NY city to include LFSs and Big-Box stores, none of them had any keyholes. Got comments like "wow, nobody has asked for those in a while" and "I can't remember the last time I saw them on the wholesale list". They aren't even listed on LiveAquaria. wetspot has them in stock. edit: xs size but still. edit again: https://naturalenvironmentaquatix.com/products/keyhole-cichlid never ordered from them though, no idea how good they are
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Mar 31, 2024 22:22
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