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Anyone have experience using peat to lower water hardness? Still in the process of getting my 40B setup for apistos, and so far I've got several pieces of driftwood with java moss and java fern, plus a bunch of catappa leaves on the way. Our tap water is pretty hard, so I'm thinking I might need to add peat as well. Can I get by with stuffing it in a mesh bag and dropping it into the tank, or does it need water flowing through it to make a difference? Apistos like extremely little water movement, so I wasn't planning to use anything but a sponge filter, but I could add a corner box filter as well full of peat if that is the best way to do it.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:21
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So I'm pretty sure my emerald cories went on a mating frenzy and now my tank is covered in what I assume are cory cat eggs. What's the chance they will hatch into baby cories with no intervention? I honestly don't care if the other fish eat them (neon tetras, x-ray tetras, an otto cat, and a bristlenose pleco) but it would be kind of cool to have some little bebes swimming around.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:01
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SynthOrange posted:Children work the same way You can sell the fish or trade them. Unlike children where most civilized countries have these silly laws. WTF BEES posted:So I'm pretty sure my emerald cories went on a mating frenzy and now my tank is covered in what I assume are cory cat eggs. What's the chance they will hatch into baby cories with no intervention? I honestly don't care if the other fish eat them (neon tetras, x-ray tetras, an otto cat, and a bristlenose pleco) but it would be kind of cool to have some little bebes swimming around. Oh they will hatch if they are not eaten. My peppered cories got busy within a week of adding them and I have ten right now. The German Blue Rams ate the eggs but a few managed to survive. Every time they would lay eggs though those GBR's were jonny on the spot quick to eat them. demonR6 fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 23:55
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Ok some pics. Built this stand on Tuesday.  IMG_0794.jpg by meramsey, on FlickrHere it is with the 40g breeder on top and the 20g long on the middle shelf, sitting next to my 120g frontosa tank.  IMG_0797.jpg by meramsey, on FlickrAnd a somewhat closer shot showing the driftwood and plants.  IMG_0800.jpg by meramsey, on FlickrI've got a 3 foot shop light on order to replace the 4 footer, hate the way that hangs over the side. Also ordered 25 black neon tetras today from my LFS, they should be in by next weekend. Waiting on the catappa leaves to arrive before I move the apistos in.
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Jun 7, 2014 00:19
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Goldmund posted:Also ordered 25 black neon tetras today from my LFS, they should be in by next weekend. Waiting on the catappa leaves to arrive before I move the apistos in. Oh poo poo, you needed Indian Almond Leaves? If you are in the states I have some the next time you are inclined to need some and do not want to order overseas if that is what you are doing now.
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Jun 7, 2014 00:42
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WTF BEES posted:So I'm pretty sure my emerald cories went on a mating frenzy and now my tank is covered in what I assume are cory cat eggs. What's the chance they will hatch into baby cories with no intervention? I honestly don't care if the other fish eat them (neon tetras, x-ray tetras, an otto cat, and a bristlenose pleco) but it would be kind of cool to have some little bebes swimming around. I have 4 corys. Eggs on the glass is a regular fixture. Betta lurves him some snacks! Then one died, so now I have 3 corys. More eggs the next week like clockwork, and the week after that, and the week after that. They took a break over the winter, but there were still eggs on the glass at least once a month. Big fat full happy betta. Cue springtime, egg frenzy starts up again. Betta's more than happy to gobble up his delicious egg treats. Now, I admit to being slightly negligent with this tank. The betta does such a fantastic job that I have 5 corys. ... wait what? When did I add more? ... why is that one so tiny (and cute omg squee) and why are there three of them, all different sizes, none of which can be more than a week old?  I have... I'm pretty sure I have 7 corys. I think. Slacker betta. 
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Jun 7, 2014 01:08
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demonR6 posted:Oh poo poo, you needed Indian Almond Leaves? If you are in the states I have some the next time you are inclined to need some and do not want to order overseas if that is what you are doing now. Awesome, I will definitely take you up on that!
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Jun 7, 2014 01:17
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Well, my Platy's nice and fat again and hiding in cover, I think she's going to drop soon. It'll be interesting to see if any of these survive. There's one still swimming around left over from the last batch, it likes to hide in the roots of a bamboo stalk and joust the shrimp that comes around every so often. Mollies are getting plump too. All but 10 of the last fry are gone, given away to friends at work (one of whom decided he wanted to see what Mollies tasted like...). Looks like about five of the remaining fry are males, so I'm gonna have to do something to keep them from fighting should they get big.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:28
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WTF BEES posted:So I'm pretty sure my emerald cories went on a mating frenzy and now my tank is covered in what I assume are cory cat eggs. What's the chance they will hatch into baby cories with no intervention? I honestly don't care if the other fish eat them (neon tetras, x-ray tetras, an otto cat, and a bristlenose pleco) but it would be kind of cool to have some little bebes swimming around. My four pepper cats turned into 10 and then when I was smart enough to check the underground filter plate I had over 20. Traded ten of them for a little store credit.
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Jun 7, 2014 03:50
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So recently I have heard from a few customers at work (I think two different people) that have said color-enhancing trpical flakes are actually not good for fish. What are your guys' opinions on this? I've read that feeding it can cause burns in color, but if fed with a regular flake, it is a great diet. Are there any color-enhancing fish flakes that are dangerous, while some are more natural? I don't know enough about fish as far as their diet goes, so it has made me pretty curious.
MrConfusedTurkey fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 01:43
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So I bought some of those brackish snails that aren't supposed to breed in fresh water. They are hard workers and have done a decent job playing clean up crew. Nothing has been added to the tank in over six months but water and food. I got baby snails all the sudden. Cute little snails that look suspiciously like the other snails. Hrm....
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Jun 8, 2014 05:28
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What, nerites? Weird. As for colour enhancing fish food, who knows. There's a billion varieties on the market. I so far just fed my fish pellets from Hikari which do contain 'colour enhancement' as one of the benefits on the packaging, but I've never had anything bad happen to my fish. Or at least not diet related at least.
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Jun 8, 2014 09:55
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LingcodKilla posted:So I bought some of those brackish snails that aren't supposed to breed in fresh water. They are hard workers and have done a decent job playing clean up crew. Nothing has been added to the tank in over six months but water and food. It begins... MrConfusedTurkey posted:So recently I have heard from a few customers at work (I think two different people) that have said color-enhancing trpical flakes are actually not good for fish. What are your guys' opinions on this? I've read that feeding it can cause burns in color, but if fed with a regular flake, it is a great diet. Are there any color-enhancing fish flakes that are dangerous, while some are more natural? I don't know enough about fish as far as their diet goes, so it has made me pretty curious. Dunno about it. I've never used it myself. I stick to some regular flake food I got at Walmart, Tetrafin Tropical, and on occasion as a special treat I drop in a few pellets from the guinea pig's stash since Mollies and Platies are omnivores. They go nuts for it. Every now and again the algae eater and the shrimp are quick enough and get in on one too My Mollies have no shame, either. Had a few friends over last night and one looked in the tank "Hey, what are those two doing?". There they were, right up front near the glass "Well....they're...loving." V Assassin snails? SocketWrench fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 12:58
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Actually I appear to be totally hosed. I can't believe this is the first one I've noticed on the glass but I am totally infested with some sort of snail with a long spiral shell. I found one sort of big one half buried in my substrate and about roughly 10 billion little ones all over. Sigh.... Time for a loach.
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Jun 8, 2014 14:23
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Oh dear. Sounds like malaysian trumpets. Dont worry, numbers will fall off once they eventually exhaust most of the edible detritus in the gravel. Eventually.
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Jun 8, 2014 16:25
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LingcodKilla posted:Actually I appear to be totally hosed. I can't believe this is the first one I've noticed on the glass but I am totally infested with some sort of snail with a long spiral shell. I found one sort of big one half buried in my substrate and about roughly 10 billion little ones all over. I love MTS, they're awesome little guys. Might be worth baiting them out and selling them on Ebay, there's always nutters like me who buy snails on purpose.
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Jun 8, 2014 16:42
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Seriously I havnt introduced anything in over six months. So weird. Well if they are actually cleaning I may as well let them be for a bit. Good for the soil more or less?
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Jun 8, 2014 17:02
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LingcodKilla posted:Seriously I havnt introduced anything in over six months. So weird. Well if they are actually cleaning I may as well let them be for a bit. Good for the soil more or less? If they're MTS then yes. They're really amazing as far as cleanup goes. They'll spend most of their time hiding in the substrate and if you've got soil, they stir it up a bit so you avoid getting pockets of swamp gas. So long as you don't just toss loads of food at them they're not really that much of a pest but if you do overfeed you will definitely notice a growing horde.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:37
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Shakenbaker posted:If they're MTS then yes. Whats the preferred loach for general control of them? I got pepper cats, neons and a pair of big ol' angels.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:41
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LingcodKilla posted:Whats the preferred loach for general control of them? I got pepper cats, neons and a pair of big ol' angels. Dunno about loaches but I was given a cichlid tank and I've been trying in vain to introduce snails, the featherfin catfish and cichlids are bloody voracious.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:56
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LingcodKilla posted:Whats the preferred loach for general control of them? I got pepper cats, neons and a pair of big ol' angels. Depends on the tank. I've got some yoyos in my 75, but they get too big for a small tank. If you're in a small tank, dwarf chain loaches may be the best option. Have to remember loaches are social critters though, so you'll want to buy a few of them.
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Jun 8, 2014 21:35
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I bought the three keyhole cichlids and put them in my panda cory/neon tetra tank. They may one day eat neons but they are pretty tiny so I won't have to worry about that for quite a while. They are size blue damselfish you usually see in pet stores. 
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Jun 8, 2014 21:50
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Apistos are settling in to their new tank. Can't wait to get some almond leaves and the black neon tetras added. DSC_7558.jpg by meramsey, on Flickr DSC_7562.jpg by meramsey, on Flickr DSC_7570.jpg by meramsey, on Flickr
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Jun 8, 2014 22:48
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LingcodKilla posted:Whats the preferred loach for general control of them? I got pepper cats, neons and a pair of big ol' angels. Assassin snails are one option. As for loaches, chain loaches are the smallest. Mine do a good job of keeping my tank mostly pest free. All snail control critters will happily chow on your brackish snails though.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:39
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Or just do as suggested. Stop over feeding. Most likely, the mts hitched a ride on some plants and just didn't have enough food to make a noise.
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Jun 9, 2014 05:39
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Yeah, it's possible that a single baby hitched a ride. Since it's a burrower you didnt see it forever. Then one day it's old enough to reproduce then blam, see thread title.
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Jun 9, 2014 05:42
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Yeah. My angels were breeding and getting mega antsy with the neons and cats. Time to move them back in since they stopped with the hanky panky. That should help with the possibly over feeding.
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Jun 9, 2014 06:00
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It's probably time to break down my mini 3.5g tank. Dont know what the hell's going on but my shrimp keep dying in it, no new babies. Only thing that grows reliably in it are the peacock moss and snails.
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Jun 9, 2014 06:14
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This may sound like an odd question, but how does a power outage affect your tank setup? Are there wee little emergency generators, just in case?
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Jun 11, 2014 15:30
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Angelic Panacea posted:This may sound like an odd question, but how does a power outage affect your tank setup? Are there wee little emergency generators, just in case? I keep a few battery powered air pumps on hand, that should be enough to handle anything but a multiple day outage.
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Jun 11, 2014 17:01
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Angelic Panacea posted:This may sound like an odd question, but how does a power outage affect your tank setup? Are there wee little emergency generators, just in case? Depends on the outage and setup. I pretty much always run two filters a tank, one of which is a sponge filter. Means that I'll always have bacteria alive, even after a long outage. Planted versus unplanted is also factor, because the plants will do some of your filtration work as well as buy you time on the oxygen levels. I live in Florida, and we kinda have a lot of thunderstorms here so frequently I'll lose power, sometimes a more than once a week but usually not for very long. My fish come through just fine.
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Jun 12, 2014 00:24
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Those are both lovely ideas, thank you! Your fish are lucky to have you both. 
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Jun 12, 2014 01:17
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I am utterly stunned. I've kept my lights low for a few weeks to try combat a persistent algae problem on one of my anubias plants. The surface floating frogbit protested by completely dissolving. There's no trace of it left.
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Jun 12, 2014 05:44
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SynthOrange posted:I am utterly stunned. I've kept my lights low for a few weeks to try combat a persistent algae problem on one of my anubias plants. The surface floating frogbit protested by completely dissolving. There's no trace of it left. Frogbit couldn't bear to lose its friend and dove in front of the bullet instead.
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Jun 12, 2014 05:47
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SynthOrange posted:I am utterly stunned. I've kept my lights low for a few weeks to try combat a persistent algae problem on one of my anubias plants. The surface floating frogbit protested by completely dissolving. There's no trace of it left. Quick, market your new age technology as a $50 fix to killing frogbit! You'll make millions. "Just replace with this light, and your frogbit will be gone in no time!"
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Jun 12, 2014 05:53
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SynthOrange posted:I am utterly stunned. I've kept my lights low for a few weeks to try combat a persistent algae problem on one of my anubias plants. The surface floating frogbit protested by completely dissolving. There's no trace of it left. I lost all mine the same way but I tossed a spoonful of it in a barrel pond/mosquitobreeding ground and now my barrel is nothing but frogbit, that stuff loves direct sunlight.
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Jun 12, 2014 06:22
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Why would getting rid of frogbit be hard? They're about as big as a golf ball and free floating. Just scoop 'em out. I cull all but three or four every week, specifically because I like having them grow and suck up nutrients.
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Jun 12, 2014 07:11
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Eifert Posting posted:Why would getting rid of frogbit be hard? They're about as big as a golf ball and free floating. Just scoop 'em out. I cull all but three or four every week, specifically because I like having them grow and suck up nutrients. Frogbit is not nearly as bad as salvina or worse salvina minima. If that ever makes it into your tank, it is nearly as bad as a snail infestation.
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Jun 12, 2014 13:49
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Angelic Panacea posted:This may sound like an odd question, but how does a power outage affect your tank setup? Are there wee little emergency generators, just in case? I have a ups hooked up to my computer. If the power stays off for more than a few minute, I turn the computer off and turn the ups off. After an hour or so, it is transfered over (they are in the same room) to the aquarium to power it till the battery dies or power is restored. I'll be adding a small ups eventually for the aquarium itself.
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Jun 12, 2014 17:30
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demonR6 posted:Frogbit is not nearly as bad as salvina or worse salvina minima. If that ever makes it into your tank, it is nearly as bad as a snail infestation. I'm not sure if salvina minima is worse than duckweed. Salvina does stick to your arm like you would not believe though. I did wind up with a pair of flagfish that cleared the surface of a 55 gallon of the stuff once, though, so opinions may vary.
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Jun 13, 2014 05:39
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