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Hadlock posted:Can you link me to some STLs I started again on my easy carbon campaign I had a huge algae outbreak, and then the PH cratered for a week despite multiple water changes, and I had a gross, funky smell. Then I sucked up all the sludge from the bottom of the tank a couple of times and added some baking soda and the PH has been > 7.5 ever since I think I had two problems 1) I hadn't ever cleaned out the sludge 2) The easy carbon kills the algae pretty fast, but I wasn't doing follow-up water changes within 24-48 hours, leaving a ton of, uh, "future nutrients" in the water I'd say I've gotten 80% of the sludge out, and with the electric water pump I'm doing water changes 2x a week, algae growth has slowed or stopped Today I grabbed some of the hair algae, which causes the java moss to sort of compress and I can pull it out of the water as a kind of "mat" which I can then cut off with scissors  Easy Carbon seems to have killed my elodea. Doesn't have any impact on the amano shrimp.
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Mar 31, 2024 22:37
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https://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/product/cleithracara-maronii/ - Not used this one, people seem to like it. But it feels hit or miss to me. Now that I think about it, I've never seen a keyhole cichlid in someone's tank.
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Apr 1, 2024 05:19
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Goldfish mint is already putting out new spring growth! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noFL0LaWUXw Vvvvv that's gorgeous! B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Apr 3, 2024 |
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Apr 1, 2024 22:32
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 Got a good picture of our crawfish or whatever he is since my wife bought him. Mini lobster? Anyway, he's a pretty boy, and very happy after we moved the fish that were bothering him to a different tank
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Apr 2, 2024 23:22
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Picked up a rimless 5.5g, put about 3" of black sand in the bottom, and a piece each of dragon stone and elephant skin and a little pile of rocks in one corner. I took a very full sponge filter from my main tank and squeezed it out a bunch into the water; water has already mostly cleared up, but the sand has a fine layer of algae from the sponge in there. I kind of think I "instant cycled" it Thinking about what to put in there, my water is about 8 and my office is typically 75F (73-78) naturally so I was thinking about doing yellow stripe sulawesi? They want a minimum of 7.8 and 76f Was thinking about doing an order of 5 sulawesi in about two weeks and see how that goes? If they survive I'll order 5 more
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Apr 4, 2024 06:15
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i have never kept suwalesi but really want to; a friend of mine is on Facebook and breeds them (look up Mike Coleman in Arizona, i can always send you his page) and his main thing about instant cycling a shrimp tank is that the shrimp will starve. They need more lived in tanks than an insta cycle one. Maybe check with him, I don't know how expensive the yellow stripes are. He does put pics up of his setups. No idea what other social media he is on. His youtube only has old vids of his freshwater pipefish breeding.
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Apr 4, 2024 14:31
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I've never ordered fish online before, but looks like this may be the time to try it. I'll have a week off in between jobs so I'll be around for the delivery. I've ordered corals and macroalgae before, but never fish.
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Apr 5, 2024 12:54
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RIP to Panda the betta, you were a good boy. He had a giant cyst on his side for the past year, which I understand samurai plakats are prone to, but he trucked along happily for a long time. Water parameters were fine, so I think the cyst was doing something internally or he just got old. Pearl the betta girl is going to move into his tank once I clean it up some. I got her as a fry and she's really developed in the past month with some blue on her fins, I bet she is going to go mostly blue when she gets into the big tank.
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Apr 6, 2024 05:15
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Welp; the fish I raised from egg, from a stock pond I instant cycled, after bringing them from NC to CA, after shipping this mid-summer from CA to NC, one has eggs attached to it now     Looks like three eggs, of which at least one appears to be fertilized. I had seen some spawning looking behavior in the last couple of days. I wasn't sure if they would breed this year as they're chronically small, wild water conditions, and been underfeeding them to keep the algae from going crazy Interestingly, I think at this size they can only lay, well 3 seems like a lot at this size, but their mouth is probably too small to eat the eggs. The mature adults outside in the stock pond are easily twice the size and will lay 20+ eggs no problem Anyways, if you're looking for an exceptionally hardy fish, these are breeding after Also, shot of my 5.5 gal desk tank. I still have a ~40 gallon tupperware storage tub that's absolutely choked with algae, water hyacnth and water lettuce, and probably ~12+ fish in there. That tupperware is getting really UV damaged and one day it's going to split down the middle and pour the water and the fish on the ground. Not as a permanent, permanent solution, but I'm thinking about putting those ricefish and killifish in the 5.5 gal tank, at least for a month until I can get a ~40 gal and consolidate all the fish.   Yes it's right by a window. And I've since suctioned up all that powder algae from the "instant cycle" (there's black substrate underneath it). It only gets direct sunlight for about an hour in the late afternoon, then the sun ducks behind a hill. I'll get a thermometer and keep an eye on it, and probably won't put a light on it. I'll throw some extra floating plants in there and... order an anubis? I might cut a ~6" section of elodea from my stock tank outside. I had good luck with Pothos in my other tank, thinking about doing that again.
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Apr 6, 2024 07:53
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 I've been wanting to get into celestial pearl danios since I learned about them, but the LFS here sells them for $12 each. So when I saw a bag of 8 at the local association auction today, I had to shoot my shot, and I came home with the lot of them for $36. I've since learned that PetSmart sells them for even less than that, but I sure feel better getting them from another hobbyist.
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Apr 8, 2024 03:08
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Neat, my HOB motor got stuck and proceeded to boil off all the water in the thing for, God knows how long, at least two days apparently I wasn't paying close attention. Presumably all the filter media in there isn't completely dead but uh yeah gonna rinse it out if I can get the motor unstuck. Looks like I ordered it in early December and never cleaned it
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Apr 9, 2024 20:59
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Mistaken For Bacon posted:
Awesome. I need a *ton* of these guys during the pandemic, but for whenever reason I can't get mine to lay. Great little fish
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Apr 9, 2024 21:22
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Awesome. I need a *ton* of these guys during the pandemic, but for whenever reason I can't get mine to lay. Great little fish  Mine are pretty happy and actually stay up near the front of the tank now. The Dwarf Emerald Rasboras are getting along with them well, also starting to hide less.
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Apr 14, 2024 02:22
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In my mind I always imagined MonsterFishKeepers vibe would be kind of.....I don't know where the people buying red tail cats and arrowanas hung out, but to my surprise it was more like the saltwater tang police x10. Which don't get me wrong, I'd rather they erred that way than the other, but jesus, you can put more than 1 oscar in a 180g.
Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Apr 14, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 12:45
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You could easily house 3 oscars in a 180g, I'd probably try to do 5 if I still had a 180g to play with.
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Apr 14, 2024 15:27
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Here's some photos of the 20G tank. Stocking is about a 10 CPDs and 10 Emerald Dwarf Rasboras, a pair of Otocinclus, 1 mystery snail, and 1 nerite snail. Plus some blue velvet shrimp (which I think are mutiplying), a handful of Caridina gracilirostris, and some of the aquatic arts Sun Orange Amano Shrimp. No CO2, no heater, so this is actually pretty low maintenance. On the plant side I've got everything from the old 10G tank, plus some Cabomba Caroliniana and Anacharis Elodea in the back. SOme jade lotus moss on the small driftwood chunk near the front - which is finally showing some new growth. I'm also now using a trio of Brazilian Pennywort stems to hold an island of red root floaters in place (and away from the surface skimmer) against the current. Originally the surface skimmer was constantly getting surrounded by floating plants - but as the Pennywort reached the surface I noticed the floating bits were doing a great job holding things in place so i went with it. Now I rarely have floaters reach the surface skimmer while the island of floaters provides shade for the shade loving plants near the middle/front of the tank while the rear (with the taller/light loving plants) gets full light.   
Warbadger fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Apr 14, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 19:25
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:In my mind I always imagined MonsterFishKeepers vibe would be kind of.....I don't know where the people buying red tail cats and arrowanas hung out, but to my surprise it was more like the saltwater tang police x10. Which don't get me wrong, I'd rather they erred that way than the other, but jesus, you can put more than 1 oscar in a 180g. Yeah it is kinda funny, you do expect MFK to be all "rawr oscars and big fish for everyone!" but instead most people are pretty chill and understanding that these are super niche fish and not everyone should have them.
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Apr 14, 2024 22:13
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I imagine basically every big fish keeper has seen at least one genuinely horrifying case of fish abuse, and that that probably has a big impact on the advice they give to strangers online. Like yeah, a responsible fish keeper can absolutely keep more than 1 oscar in an 180G, but once you've seen someone keeping 3 in a half-full 180 with water that's more ammonia than H2O by weight you're probably going to recommend that people stick with 1 in a 180G unless you already know they're responsible fish keepers.
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Apr 14, 2024 23:24
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Bloody racoon bit my floating thermometer, the shady idiot. Thankfully that's about all it could get through the net. My first 2 comets are still cruising, and a small juvenile has been out and about. The water temp in my tub hit 50 F today, and they're starting to pick at things as they browse around. The mojito mint is starting to pick up some growth too!
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Apr 15, 2024 00:53
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New aquarium. 10G Aqua Huna put their kubotai raspbora back in stock, as well as chili raspbora. And of course they had CPDs in stock. Ended up with 16 Chilis, 8 kubotai, and 8 CPD. Seems to be a good mix? It's new rock but the sponge filter has been marinating in my rice fish tank for a couple weeks now, plus I've been adding api quick start in every day and parameters have been steady. Originally I wanted to get a 40L or 40 breeder and combine them with the ricefish, but I still need to do some reorganizing to get a tank that large to fit in my home office. Based on how tiny the chilis are, I more than half are juvenile, I think I'm ok for now. I have two anubus and two java fern, with 3 and 3 more of each on the way I've read a bunch about people buying chili rasporas and they were always pale and never darkened up; when they arrived they were all super pale, almost transparent. Within about 5 minutes the fish had already darkened up considerably, and two days later they look like they do in the photos, for the most part. The other thing is, I haven't put a lamp on the tank yet, so it's been more of the "traditional" darker tank, and the tank also sits pretty far from the window so it's probably a comfortable light level?Finally it's black substrate, and sitting in front of a black TV which probably doesn't hurt their comfort level. I have only a nerrite snail in my 5.5G still haven't decided what do do with it, still thinking Sulawesi shrimp, but I want to get the raspboras settled and the tank fully cycled before I work on a new project. Kudos to whoever posted a photo of the seachem "alert" aquarium hangers, I guess they're pretty expensive but I guess they work alright, and the ammonia one is pretty accurate nice to know the tank is cycling as expected at a glance.
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Apr 15, 2024 00:58
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Warbadger posted:Here's some photos of the 20G tank. Stocking is about a 10 CPDs and 10 Emerald Dwarf Rasboras, a pair of Otocinclus, 1 mystery snail, and 1 nerite snail. Plus some blue velvet shrimp (which I think are mutiplying), a handful of Caridina gracilirostris, and some of the aquatic arts Sun Orange Amano Shrimp. No CO2, no heater, so this is actually pretty low maintenance. Is that gravel or dirt?
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Apr 21, 2024 13:46
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Moon Slayer posted:Is that gravel or dirt? Flourite Black, so a fine gravel. I considered going for an active substrate this time around but my research seemed to indicate inert substrates make it easier to maintain PH and nutrient levels (at least in the long term) and none of my selection of plants seemed to require it provided enough nutrients in the water column. So I ended up just re-using the existing substrate and mixing in a new bag of the same. As a side bonus - between keeping most of the hardscape, the substrate, and most of the filter media the tank was already cycled so the water chemistry was very stable. Still took a couple months for the biofilm and algae levels to mature and fully stabilize - had a small outbreak of BBA but otherwise smooth sailing and the Otos stayed fat and happy. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Apr 21, 2024 |
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Apr 21, 2024 23:45
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Can I get some cold water plant advice please? Whatsort of water temperatures should I be looking for in the patio tube before transplanting the following: 1.Jungle val 2. Sagitaria subulata 3. Wendelov java fern 4. Amazon sword ? In particular, I don't want to have to prune the jungle val, I'd rather yank a bunch out of my tank and get it into the tub sooner than later. I just don't want to kill it all in the attempt. The tub temp has been pretty consistently over 50F in the mornings for the past week.
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Apr 22, 2024 00:51
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So far the chilis are doing really good in my fish-in cycle 10g. pH and ammonia are stable at 6.6ph and 0ppm We've had a spell of "cold" weather here, my office getting up to about 75 during the day and then mid 60s at night means the water temp is pretty steady at about 71 with slight diurnal fluctuations which is probably good for the fish Ricefish tank has been in really good shape since I started regularly vacuuming out the sludge along the bottom. I added some accu-clear and then vacuumed up the rest of the sludge and the water has been really clear ever since I have some red rili shrimp arriving and going into the 5 gal, and attempting to do a daphnia colony again this year B33rChiller posted:Can I get some cold water plant advice please? Whatsort of water temperatures should I be looking for in the patio tube before transplanting the following: I'm not sure but I had all of my mature/established Java Fern overwinter in an outdoor above ground pond that had a thin layer of ice forming overtop. No issues at all. As long as you don't let it dry out completely it appears to be a super durable plant Mine was the regular variant not wendelov if that matters
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Apr 25, 2024 01:13
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