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Just remember no soap or bleach. And keep the original filter media in tank water while you clean so the bacteria won't die. Or you could get a bottle of tetra safe start if you wanna ditch all the old stuff.
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Oct 5, 2015 00:09
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I'm taking a stab at cultivating moina from an online ordered starter batch. Does anyone here raise their own live fish yummies of this type? Looking for tips, tricks and advice. There's a fair amount of guidance online but so far (about 30 hours in), my batch seems to be slow going. I'm trying this in my home using a 5 gal bucket, a submersible heater and slow aeration. Feeding them yeast mixed with a pinch of spirulina powder.
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Oct 5, 2015 14:20
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Rallos posted:Just remember no soap or bleach. And keep the original filter media in tank water while you clean so the bacteria won't die. Or you could get a bottle of tetra safe start if you wanna ditch all the old stuff. Well, there isn't going to be much risk/issues just starting my seeded AquaClear on the emptied/"cleaned"/refilled tank, right? It's not gonna dump a bunch of nitrates in there, right? I'm going to rinse out all my gravel with some free time early this week. Put a bunch in a sieve, rinse it, put in a bucket, repeat. Then comes the fun process of emptying all the water, putting the heater/filter/rams into temp housing, scooping out old gravel, and attempting to replant that giant-rear end amazon sword thing. I figure I can attempt to save the rams by doing water changes in their much smaller temporary housing in an attempt to acclimate them to non-nitrate filled water and not shock them by dropping them into a new tank. But if these two poor rams die, they probably will just be ending a sad, stressed, uncomfortable life. 
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Oct 5, 2015 15:50
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I don't know what variety my water fleas were, probably daphnia, I was mailed a lively plastic bottle full and I tried seeding a number of locations where I thought they might survive, including a fairly big plastic tub with lighting, gentle aeration, no heating (population crashed), a greenwater aquarium outdoors (population crashed almost immediately, too cold), an aquarium full of moss and random bits of plant (population dwindled) and an empty milk jug with some boiled straw for organic material food source for bacteria (population lasted longest but still crashed). The big mistake I made was not making sure I had enough food source for them, I thought I could rely on my greenwater from outside but they didn't really thrive on it; at that stage I didn't realise how hard my greenwater was and it was adversely affecting them every time I fed them. Secondly I was keeping my big tub on the floor which made it hard to siphon water both for sifting to remove daphnia for feeding, and for doing water changes which I'd seen recommended for trying to keep the water parameters stable. It's pretty important to cull the big ones pretty frequently or the colony gets overcrowded. So I probably wasn't removing enough of the big ones. I was able to do it much more easily with the milk jug but it was hard to give that proper lighting. I want to try again but next time with the tub up on a shelf for better access and better ability to do gravity siphons, I am hoping there will be some ephippia at the bottom of my containers and next time I will try harder to get the hardness right. To avoid overfeeding the recommended amount is enough to make the water visibly very slightly cloudy, and they should be able to get the water clear again within one day. If it clears earlier you didn't feed enough, if longer, you fed too much. Probably a bit hard to tell in a bucket though! You're looking at fractions of teaspoons of food per day though, unless your density gets really high. ShaneB posted:Well, there isn't going to be much risk/issues just starting my seeded AquaClear on the emptied/"cleaned"/refilled tank, right? It's not gonna dump a bunch of nitrates in there, right? Your filter won't be holding nitrates unless its visibly clogged with muck and you can just rinse that off in a bucket of tank water if you need to, unless you're super violent you won't dislodge all the bacteria. When I do gravel rinses I partially fill the bucket with water and put enough gravel so you end up with something like half the depth is gravel and the other half is water (for a total of about a half full bucket!) . Then I swoosh the gravel round and round and any dust or floaters rise out and can be poured out, top the water back up, and go again. Depending on how gross the gravel is, it might need 5 or 6 rinses before the water runs clear. The original gravel I got was intended for reptiles I think so it was super dusty, normal aquarium gravel isn't that bad I don't think, and the dust/cloudiness goes away eventually anyway even if you miss some. I think you are on the right track with pre-acclimating the rams to cleaner water, as long as the big tank isn't too cold when they go back in they will most likely be fine! Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Oct 5, 2015 |
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Oct 5, 2015 16:13
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Building a stand was the easy part, now comes a multi-week process of moving, consolidating, and rearranging all my tanks. My LFS just got in a ton of well-maintained tanks and gear from a guy getting out of the hobby to become a dive instructor in Fiji, so that has helped facilitate things a ton. As of yesterday I had the following: - 120g with 7 frontosa, 3 clown loach, 3 synodontis multipunctatus and a green phantom pleco - 90g bowfront with 15ish various mbuna cichlids, 1 synodontis multi and a gold nugget pleco - 40g planted tank with 12 black neon tetras, 12 candy cane tetras, 1 apistogramma cacatuoides, 1 blue phantom pleco, 1 bristlenose pleco juvie - 29g planted tank with 4 german blue rams and 2 bristlenose pleco juvies - 55g cheesy retro plasic decorations tank with 2 angelfish, 6 denison barbs, 3 boesemani rainbow, 6 zebra loach, 2 glo-fish tetras and a breeding pair of bristlenose plecos - 40g breeding group of red empress cichlids - 40g saltwater mixed reef tank Yesterday I removed all of the gravel and decorations from the 55g, and moved the denison barbs out and into the 120g with the frontosas. Then I relocated all of the fish, driftwood, plants, and filters from the 40g and 29g planted tanks into the 55g. I also sifted the substrate in both of those tanks, and plucked out about 100 assassin snails. The 40g and 29g were both on a tall double-decker stand in my office, and tonight that will be moved downstairs into the fishroom for a QT station. In the spot where I had that stand, I will be putting a 65g tank/stand combo that I picked up cheap used from my LFS. I'll be trading in the 40g I had, and converting the 29g into a sump for the 65g. All of the fish that are presently in the 55g will be moving to the 65 once it's setup (minus the boesemani rainbows and one pair of the german blue rams, which are being rehomed). It will be heavily stocked, but with the massive filtration I should be fine. Once the 55g is empty, it will be torn down and traded in to the LFS. The 180g and QT station will go on the wall where the 55g is now. At that point I will get the 180g setup and going. I have a lot of redundant filters on my FW tanks, so I should be able to mostly skip cycling it by throwing a few seeded filters on there. I'm also picking up a 65g sump for this tank that came in on trade at my LFS. Saves me a lot of work! Once the 180g is ready to go, everybody in the 120g will be moving in. The plan is for this to be their forever home, so hopefully no more moves after this. At this point the 120g gets torn down and thoroughly cleaned. I'm about 90% sure that I'll be building a new stand for the 120g too, because I really hate the factory Marineland stands. With the 120g cleaned and set back up, I will move everyone from the 90g into the 120g. Then I will tear down and clean out the 90g, before setting it back up again. So after all of this, I should be left with the following: - 180g with frontosa / clown loaches / denison barbs / syno cats / pleco - 120g with mbuna / syno / pleco - 65g planted with pair angelfish / pair german blue rams / apisto / 2 schools of tetras / zebra loaches / plecos - 40g red empress group - 40g saltwater reef - QT / hospital station with room for 20g and 2 10g - 90g bowfront, empty and ready for something new It's going to be a ton of work, I'm tired just from writing it all out. In the end though I'll have more total water, one less tank overall, and a big empty tank ready for something fun and new to keep.
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Oct 5, 2015 17:19
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My giant spotted Sulawesi snail passed away.  (with kuhli loach)  (with ghost shrimp)  (with betta and ghost shrimp) But shortly before it passed away, it had a baby!  There are also a bunch of baby and juvenile cherry shrimp frolicking around the invert tank and still more berried females, and our effing self-cloning crayfish is still berried. It may be getting cold outside but it's springtime in my tanks...
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Oct 6, 2015 00:01
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Also I enjoy this picture very much (look to the right of the oyster decoration). And I caught this mystery snail doing some kind of fascinating snail yoga and showing off his excellent balance. I think he assumed that since he was on top of a plant then he must be near the surface of the water, so he had his air tube extended aaaaalllll the way up as far as it could possibly go, but in reality he was nowhere near the top. 
republicant fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 00:04
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This snail chat is particularly relevant to my current situation. I was doing a water change on my 40B just now and I spotted this thing: I'm completely befuddled. I haven't added a single thing - plant, fish, or otherwise - since I set the tank up in May. I have never seen a snail in the 5 months I've had the tank. Where the hell did this snail spontaneously appear from? Also, I'm curious as to what type of snail it is? Regardless, I pulled the thing out of the tank just to be safe.
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Oct 6, 2015 03:39
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Snails in your filter? Dried snail egg that was in the tank before you started, that reconstituted? It's still small because there is not much food for it to grow fast maybe?
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Oct 6, 2015 03:57
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Got some guppies to go with the mollies, and of the 4 females I got (to go with the 2 males), 3 are now dead, all with weird white patches between their dorsal fin and tail. The male molly I have is also behaving strangely, swimming around fine and normal but occasionally spasming and rolling to the left for a moment before carrying on. All my levels are in a good spot, I don't get it.
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Oct 8, 2015 00:33
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This is in quarantine, right? Right? 
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Oct 8, 2015 01:14
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SynthOrange posted:This is in quarantine, right? Nope I don't have the space or the materials for a quarantine tank. I know the problem is most likely an infectious agent, but man is it difficult to get decent descriptive information on them, or even half decent pictures of fish with them. I don't want to treat for the wrong thing and gently caress up the tank.
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Oct 8, 2015 01:22
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Coolwhoami posted:Got some guppies to go with the mollies, and of the 4 females I got (to go with the 2 males), 3 are now dead, all with weird white patches between their dorsal fin and tail. The male molly I have is also behaving strangely, swimming around fine and normal but occasionally spasming and rolling to the left for a moment before carrying on. All my levels are in a good spot, I don't get it. Stress and poor water parameters beforehand you get fish can still do a number on them after you get them. Guppies are confirming that the miracle of life is not in fact a miracle. The first batch seems to have about doubled in size, and the second one dropped today. I'm not sure if female 2 is done quite yet. I would never get these fish in male/female pairs, the male is relentless enough as it is.
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Oct 8, 2015 01:24
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Motherfuck, I just did more research and my initial instinct is right, it is almost certainly Columnaris based on some photos I have seen (white patches in the peduncle area of the fish, eventual paralysis). I had turned up the temperature in the tank to head off a suspected ich infection while also increasing gh for the mollies, and apparently in doing so I made conditions ideal for this bacteria to grow. It also explains the order that they went, as the ones that were likely more inbred (females with coloured tails somewhat like males) are more susceptible. The suggested treatments (other than bathing fish in Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate) is Furan 2 and Kanamycin, is there anything else I should use, or things I should avoid? Edit: Man I feel like a horrible person for letting this happen, those poor guppies.
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Oct 8, 2015 01:46
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Coolwhoami posted:Motherfuck, I just did more research and my initial instinct is right, it is almost certainly Columnaris based on some photos I have seen (white patches in the peduncle area of the fish, eventual paralysis). I had turned up the temperature in the tank to head off a suspected ich infection while also increasing gh for the mollies, and apparently in doing so I made conditions ideal for this bacteria to grow. It also explains the order that they went, as the ones that were likely more inbred (females with coloured tails somewhat like males) are more susceptible. The suggested treatments (other than bathing fish in Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate) is Furan 2 and Kanamycin, is there anything else I should use, or things I should avoid? Don't beat yourself up. The bitch about fish as a hobby is that most people you interact with in the real world, even those at the good stores, have either no idea what the gently caress or are just trying to get you to buy things. We all made terrible mistakes with fish for a while, and even experienced aquarists will goof sometimes. When I was a kid I had two oscars(!) in a 55 gallon tank(!!) that I would feed gambusia minnows to. Gambusia minnows that I caught out of the fishing hole behind my parent's house  Let's not talk about the 75 where I kept several schooling fish in schools of one, or the 10 gallon tank where I had a paradise fish and a loving festivum. Hell, just this year I've found out that loaches are a bunch of hellbeasts who should not be kept with anything, ever, because they will not hesitate to massacre all of their tankmates on a whim.  Fuckin' pricks. Right now you're kicking yourself because you diagnosed your fish wrong at first. Your fish that are less than two inches long and have some white bits on them. Don't worry, happens to the best of us. Well, maybe not to Fullisade but she's got fish that grow to arm's length in a billion gallons of water. Anywho, salt would be the easiest way to treat I'd think, and aquarium salt is pretty damned cheap. Look up on the dosing for your size and go to town. Be aware that if you've got things like corydoras in the tank they reeeaaally don't like salt but I don't know if you've got friends for your guppies or not. Drop that temp down which I'm sure you have already and pray for the best. Guppies are little hardasses and stand a better chance of being saved than anything else at that size, so god luck and good speed.
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Oct 8, 2015 02:40
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Shakenbaker posted:Anywho, salt would be the easiest way to treat I'd think, and aquarium salt is pretty damned cheap. Look up on the dosing for your size and go to town. Be aware that if you've got things like corydoras in the tank they reeeaaally don't like salt but I don't know if you've got friends for your guppies or not. Drop that temp down which I'm sure you have already and pray for the best. Guppies are little hardasses and stand a better chance of being saved than anything else at that size, so god luck and good speed. I'm in part kicking myself because I originally suspected Columnaris based on descriptions, but I hadn't read anything about paralysis at the time and when the first one was going she start swimming around as though she had a swimming bladder problem. Thank you though, I have been reading a lot ever since I started thinking about getting into this, and I wanted to avoid as much as I could making a lot of the newbie mistakes that result in dead or cruelty to the fish. I have a bristlenose pleco, and while I have some salt in there I don't want to increase it to a level where it would be effective against the bacteria because it would probably be pretty rough on it (especially since it is very small). I've begun treating the tank, hopefully I've gotten it in time for the other fish (remaining three guppies are all showing beginning signs of it). Next up is dealing with this snail explosion, when I took out the carbon filter there were nearly a dozen snails in the filter itself.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:27
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Shakenbaker posted:Hell, just this year I've found out that loaches are a bunch of hellbeasts who should not be kept with anything, ever, because they will not hesitate to massacre all of their tankmates on a whim. Does this happen to include kuhli loaches? I have some in my peaceful community tank and I'd be really irate if they killed all my fish one day. And speaking of fish blunders, at least you didn't manage to commit genocide and slaughter the entire contents of a tank in one go. Apparently ammonia-reducing tablets are not meant for saltwater. RIP several hundred brine shrimp As long as you have at least one survivor then things aren't as bad as they COULD be.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:31
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Shakenbaker posted:Don't beat yourself up. The bitch about fish as a hobby is that most people you interact with in the real world, even those at the good stores, have either no idea what the gently caress or are just trying to get you to buy things. We all made terrible mistakes with fish for a while, and even experienced aquarists will goof sometimes. When I was a kid I had two oscars(!) in a 55 gallon tank(!!) that I would feed gambusia minnows to. Gambusia minnows that I caught out of the fishing hole behind my parent's house Seconding this. Fish die and everyone in the hobby has accidentally ended up with dead fish at some point. I accidentally cooked some panda corys when I had to go out of town to a funeral when there was a heat wave earlier this year. There was another time when I had a betta freeze to death when I went out of town and my roommate didn't bother to tell me that the heat had stopped working. There is a lot of conflicting information on columnaris, so I can't give any real advice. Try not to feel too bad about it, most people have probably done worse. I'm going to be a little mean now: guppies are really really replaceable. All the boys do is try to mate and all the girls do is shoot out babies. I had 3 guppies 4 days ago and now I probably have about 30. In a month I'll have at least another 40. In 4 months there...there will be a lot as the first batch will be having fry of their own. Some of those will (maybe?) sell, others are going to be eaten by larger fish, and I'll probably have to cull a few myself. It is poo poo, but that's fish.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:32
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Sorry to hear about your guppy issues, Coolwhoami. In more news of the Aquarium of Theseus: Decided to take the plunge and get this thing emptied out. I filled a dark rubbermaid container halfway with treated tap water, and filled the rest via siphon from the tank, in order to halfway acclimate the rams to good water. I moved the old 50w heater, the AquaClear 110, and some ornaments into the rubbermaid as well, and put a lid loosely covering it. So those guys should be good. I then siphoned out 75% or so of the water, and began scooping out gravel with a can I put some holes into the bottom of. I did this mainly because I wanted to be able to get a better final siphon with the last bucket rather than have a ton of suspended water in gravel. It made the water filthy as I agitated the gravel, so I definitely saw more sources of my nitrate problems. Following the removal of most of the gravel, I finished off the siphon. I had to start it with my mouth for the final bucket, which was kinda gross, but worked without anything getting in my mouth. Tilting it to get the last of the water ended up working perfectly, as it filled the final bucket almost to the top as the siphon ended. I then removed the HUGE plant and plantlings and put it in a bucket of treated water. This thing has like 12" long roots. I suspect I should trim those down significantly, correct? I'd like to break it down into smaller plants of which I can create clusters of in the tank, rather than one huge-rear end dense plant that will have a hard time getting light to all the parts. Then I finished off the gravel and wiped down the remaining garbage. I noticed the tank has these thin plastic sheets with sections of raised dividers in them, which cover the entire bottom of the tank. This seemed to be great at trapping poo poo and making it hard to get at all the gravel. However, I can see it do a good job at keeping gravel in place. Is this something most tanks have? Should I just put the new gravel right on the glass? All I can see is this plastic poo poo causing more trouble than it helps, but I wanted to check with y'all if I should have something like this. So now I'm going to try to wipe off the algea on the sealed edges with some hydrogen peroxide and wipe the tank down with warm water. Tomorrow I'll put in the new substrate, fill with fresh water, and replant the plants with my new plant tongs. Then I'll hopefully be ready to get the rams and decorations back in and GET MY OWN drat FISH IN THIS THING.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:51
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Yeah, trimming the roots down is not a problem. As for that plastic layer, I should have thought of that. Would make changing out my substrate easier when the time comes.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:57
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Dogwood Fleet posted:I'm going to be a little mean now: guppies are really really replaceable. All the boys do is try to mate and all the girls do is shoot out babies. I had 3 guppies 4 days ago and now I probably have about 30. In a month I'll have at least another 40. In 4 months there...there will be a lot as the first batch will be having fry of their own. Some of those will (maybe?) sell, others are going to be eaten by larger fish, and I'll probably have to cull a few myself. It is poo poo, but that's fish. A few days ago I counted at least 10 fry swimming around in the tank, although in that same period I watched at least 3 get eaten (including one particularly dumb fry that swam almost directly into a mollies mouth). The look like guppy fry based on their longer, transparent bodies, so perhaps with time i'll see some more. I was considering getting at least one more once I get the tank clear to ensure the single female doesn't get stressed, but the nearest shop to me (which I have taken to calling the bad shop) told me they got in both male and female guppies, and then proceeded to show me a tank filled entirely with males, claiming that "Oh when we get females in they disappear quickly". I'm still quite new to this, but guppies are quite distinct sexing wise (not just the fins but the gonopodium as well), and man that irritated me.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:58
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Coolwhoami posted:I'm in part kicking myself because I originally suspected Columnaris based on descriptions, but I hadn't read anything about paralysis at the time and when the first one was going she start swimming around as though she had a swimming bladder problem. Thank you though, I have been reading a lot ever since I started thinking about getting into this, and I wanted to avoid as much as I could making a lot of the newbie mistakes that result in dead or cruelty to the fish. I know you said you don't have a whole lot of space for quarantine, but if you have counter space (or even floor space if you have a corner somewhere and don't have other pets) a small sterilite tub with a sponge filter would be the easiest way to get your guppies away from your pleco so you can treat them more thoroughly while not stressing the pleco. Alternately you can dose the whole tank at about half while watching like a hawk and then do water changes once everything's sorted out. Option A is better I think but it's understandable if you opt for B. Snail-wise, what kind are they? If you've got Malaysian trumpets then you're pretty much stuck with them forever so learn to love them. Other snails can be dealt with with but the deal is that snails flourish when you're overfeeding (the current thread title came about just after I posted a shot of my current 75 with snails running amok). Look at them as you would an overflow or blowoff valve: they will multiply to consume what goes to waste, so if you don't feed them a lot they won't be able to swarm. Alternately you can get an some assassin snails, they are very aptly named. republicant posted:Does this happen to include kuhli loaches? I have some in my peaceful community tank and I'd be really irate if they killed all my fish one day. As far as I know kuhli loaches are amazingly chill. I've kept them before while I did wind up with some empty pond snail shells they didn't ever dent the MTS in my 55 so I doubt it was them. My only gripe with kuhlis is that they're shy and it was so rare that I'd see them frolicking about. They're very pretty fish when you can actually see them though, and I loved watching them play tag  It's mostly the botia-style loaches that are problems. They get rambunctious and bored I think. I had a school of 8 or so yoyos and one day they just flipped out. When I posted about it in in the thread others chimed in that they'd had similar experiences with different species, even dwarf chain loaches if i recall correctly.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:10
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Yeah my dwarf chain loaches were chill for about 1-2 years then they flipped out and murdered everything else in their tank. Cories, snails, shrimp. The cories were the last to go and probably went when the snails got exterminated, which took a while with MTS I guess.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:14
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ShaneB posted:I noticed the tank has these thin plastic sheets with sections of raised dividers in them, which cover the entire bottom of the tank. This seemed to be great at trapping poo poo and making it hard to get at all the gravel. However, I can see it do a good job at keeping gravel in place. Is this something most tanks have? Should I just put the new gravel right on the glass? All I can see is this plastic poo poo causing more trouble than it helps, but I wanted to check with y'all if I should have something like this.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:39
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Slugworth posted:If I'm picturing it correctly, this sounds like the remnants of an undergravel filter maybe? Regardless, I would take it out. Sounds like whatever it was originally intended to be, it is now a nitrate trap. I was reading it as egg crate at first, but an undergravel filter makes more sense. Either way it isn't needed, just put whatever you're using on the glass.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:54
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Sounds like eggcrate to me. Does it look like this? It's usually used to support big rocks, so that they aren't sitting directly on the bottom glass. I agree that you should take it out, it's not serving any purpose for you.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:54
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Shakenbaker posted:I know you said you don't have a whole lot of space for quarantine, but if you have counter space (or even floor space if you have a corner somewhere and don't have other pets) a small sterilite tub with a sponge filter would be the easiest way to get your guppies away from your pleco so you can treat them more thoroughly while not stressing the pleco. Alternately you can dose the whole tank at about half while watching like a hawk and then do water changes once everything's sorted out. Option A is better I think but it's understandable if you opt for B. It's partially space, partially I am broke as gently caress, but I will see what I can manage. I am currently dosing it with the Nitrofurzone and Kanamycin, so hopefully that works out. As for the snails, I have no idea what they are, as they kind of invaded my tank as it was cycling by hitching a ride on some plants I bought. I just found this one dead at the top of the tank, which is close to as large as I've seen them get. 
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Oct 8, 2015 05:14
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I'm kind of disappointed with Aquatic Arts. All my animals survived shipping and are healthy and active, except the Sulawesi snail that died but that was probably because it had a baby + was huge and at the end of its natural life, but I placed a $139 order and nine days later it still has not shipped. They left off two Sulawesi snails on the first order so I've now been waiting 2 1/2 weeks for them. I sent them a polite but complaining email, and if they throw in a few freebies for the wait and ship immediately then I'll be happy again but if they don't ship tomorrow then the animals will not be here before next week and I'd rather just get my money back. It's disappointing since the animals seem very healthy and they have very ethical business practices, but when I'm spending hundreds of dollars on fish I want to get them as soon as possible. Super lame.
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Oct 8, 2015 05:24
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Coolwhoami posted:As for the snails, I have no idea what they are, as they kind of invaded my tank as it was cycling by hitching a ride on some plants I bought. I just found this one dead at the top of the tank, which is close to as large as I've seen them get. That looks like a standard pond snail to me, they're possibly keeling over from the medication so keep an eye on that, don't let them go rotten in your tank and foul up your water even worse. Republicant it's pretty poor if they can't even email you to let you know what's going on!
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Oct 8, 2015 05:33
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Coolwhoami posted:It's partially space, partially I am broke as gently caress, but I will see what I can manage. I am currently dosing it with the Nitrofurzone and Kanamycin, so hopefully that works out. Ahhh cheapskate aquarium stuff is something I love. You can make a sponge filter from a very cheap air pump, airline, empty water bottle, suction cups, and some sponge. Cut the bottom off the bottle and put a hole through the neck of the bottle. Put a sponge over the mouth of the bottle, and an airline through the hole in the neck. Secure to the side of the tank with cheap suction cups by cutting small cross holes in the side of the bottle, two should be plenty. You can also weight it down however you want, that would remove the need for suction cups. An airstone on the airline would make it less turbulent but it will work either way. Your snails look like the normal pond snails, not the dreaded MTS. They can be nuked with copper, but honestly I'd go the trapping method if you want to cull. Keeps them from fouling your water with a billion corpses like Stoca Zola warns agains. Snail traps are easy: cut a drink bottle in half and put some food in it, then set it on the bottom of the tank.
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Oct 8, 2015 05:41
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**Oh god, I don't want to be That Person who rants about things tangentially related to the topic but I started out trying to recommend a couple good cheap sponge filters and it turned into a very long post. When I have a good experience with a product I have this bad tendency to want to promote it to everyone so they can have good experiences with it too.** Sponge filters and air-powered filters are really awesome things to add to any and every aquarium, they do wonderful things for biological filtration and for the stability of your tank. They provide really gentle filtration and a great home for beneficial bacteria, and shrimp/snails/cories/plecos love to eat the tiny food particles that get trapped on them. Amazon has a bunch of really good sponge filters for very cheap (LFS sells the same things for a massive markup), the only catch is that they're usually add-on items so you have to buy at least $25 worth (but hey, that just gives you an excuse to stock up  ) and it's a lot more worth it if you have a Prime account (or a credit card to sign up for a one month free Prime trial).(1) http://www.amazon.com/XY-2822-Doubl...s=sponge+filter (2) http://www.amazon.com/XY-2831-Spong...s=sponge+filter (This one sells on its own, without Prime, for $2.57 + free shipping) (3) http://www.amazon.com/XY-380-Aquari...s=sponge+filter (4) http://www.amazon.com/XinYou-Aquari...s=sponge+filter (5) http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-6-Laye...s=sponge+filter (Sells on its own, $4.15 + free shipping) (6) http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Aquari...s=sponge+filter (7) http://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Noise-...s=sponge+filter (8) http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Aquari...s=sponge+filter (9) http://www.amazon.com/XY-2892-Biochemical-Sponge-Filter-Aquarium/dp/B00NATJLB2/ref=pd_sbs_199_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AVKKM7FMDNNPH52W9J1 (10) http://www.amazon.com/Bacto-surge-F...s=sponge+filter I personally own all of these except the last three. The corner kind (#5) is kind of small and I would only recommend it for a nano tank or something. #3 is fairly big and I would recommend it for a 20 gallon. #10 is an even bigger version of #3 and seems to be the biggest sponge filter available. #7 doesn't really have anything to do with "breeding" but it is pretty interesting in that it includes multi-layered filtration in an air-powered filter, and you could definitely cram some Purigen or carbon in it to include all three types of filtration (mechanical/chemical/biological). There is also a single-tiered version of it available: http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Aquari...60_SR160%2C160_ And if you like customizing things, you can buy your own empty air-powered filters and put your own things in them (carbon, Purigen, biological media, foam, ammonia binders, etc.). I have six of them that I have filled with biological media and Fluval micro-filtration pads. There are endless possibilities of things to put in them: http://www.amazon.com/Lees-Triple-Flow-Corner-Filter-Small/dp/B0002APWDS/ref=pd_sbs_199_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1BCDNSEP5CW19D5JXT3G http://www.amazon.com/Lees-Triple-Flow-Corner-Filter-Medium/dp/B0002APWE2/ref=pd_sim_199_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QVBY7RD4037XJXSEM9R http://www.amazon.com/Lees-Triple-F...60_SR124%2C160_ http://www.amazon.com/Lee%60s-Aquarium-Economy-Corner-Filter/dp/B0002APWDI/ref=pd_sim_199_12?ie=UTF8&refRID=106ZRESBN7Y6YG3CJPHB But most importantly, if you own cherry shrimp or any other kind of dwarf shrimp, especially if you would like for them to breed, they LOVE layered sponge filters. I have two of #2 up there in my 10 gallon invertebrate tank, and there are currently tons of tiny baby cherry shrimp chilling out in the layers of foam. It's like a little baby shrimp apartment. But if you're not quite ready to jump into buying a bunch of sponge filters, and if you have a power filter that has that long intake tube that dips down into the water, you can buy a prefilter sponge and basically turn your power filter into a sponge filter. It has the bonus effect of preventing small animals from getting sucked into the filter intake and injured or killed. http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Ocean...words=prefilter http://www.amazon.com/Cylinder-Shap...60_SR160%2C160_ http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-A1387-...words=prefilter But if you do jump in and get a bunch of air-powered filters, you're going to need a good air pump (or two, or three). This is my go-to for a cheap good quality air-pump. It's quiet, doesn't buzz until you want to kill yourself, and it comes with two outlets so you can power multiple things. I believe I currently have five of these pumps in operation and couldn't be more satisfied. It's rated for 60 gallon tanks and it puts out much more air than I ever got out of the cheapo Tetra pumps I used before: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Air-MA600-Pump-600/dp/B001EUJEWU/ref=lp_7937426011_1_1?srs=7937426011&ie=UTF8&qid=1444286445&sr=8-1 Sorry for the giant post but I hope maybe this will help anyone who's new to the hobby and has heard of "sponge filters" on forums but doesn't really know what they are, what they're for, or which one they should get. They really are awesome things!
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Oct 8, 2015 07:54
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Not quite sponge filter related, but you mentioned Purigen. What is it exactly?
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Oct 8, 2015 08:28
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To save some typing: http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Purigen.html It is resin beads that suck up nitrogen wastes and when it is full you can bleach it clear with plain bleach, then debleach it with dechlorinator, and use it again.
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Oct 8, 2015 09:10
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Yeah it's reusable chemical filtration media, it takes the place of carbon in your filter and seems to be a lot more efficient at removing ammonia et al from the water than carbon. I've heard it's better for plants because it doesn't remove trace minerals from the water. Also the individual Purigen beads are really really tiny so it makes your water extremely clear because the beads trap very small particles that cloud water.
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Oct 8, 2015 10:51
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I ran it for a week and didn't notice any improvment in clarity or anything else really. Maybe good for emergencies.
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Oct 8, 2015 16:29
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So I currently have these poor rams in a bootleg quarantine while I clean and re-assemble the main tank with new substrate and rearranged plants and such. Will I need to do anything to re-establish the bacteria and such in the new tank besides hooking up the old filter, putting old decorations and plants back in, and starting it up? Like I can just do that and try to re-acclimate the fish into the tank using a bag method, right? Or since it's my same water, just nitrate-free, can I just place them in there if the temperature is stable and cross my fingers? Right now they are in 50% old tank water from the non-disgusting part of the tank, and 50% fresh water, with the filter running and decorations from the old tank in there.
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Oct 8, 2015 16:41
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ShaneB posted:So I currently have these poor rams in a bootleg quarantine while I clean and re-assemble the main tank with new substrate and rearranged plants and such. Remember to dechlorinate the fresh water in your tank before you put the old filter on and assuming temperatures are about the same you should be okay to just drop them in.
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Oct 8, 2015 16:45
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Rallos posted:Remember to dechlorinate the fresh water in your tank before you put the old filter on and assuming temperatures are about the same you should be okay to just drop them in. Yeah I'm kind of obsessive about the Prime. I've even soaked the driftwood I'm putting in there for a week+ in prime'd water. It finally has stopped leeching tannins so I'm hyped for a more natural aquascape.
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Oct 8, 2015 16:52
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The bacteria is in the filter, it doesn't really spend a lot of time in the water column it mostly sticks to surfaces. So the fish themselves would probably carry some, some might come off as water passes through the filter, it will end up out in your substrate and all over the place again, but the bit in the filter is the important bit and that is already established. So you don't really need to worry about seeding it around the place, it will spread where it wants to go by itself.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:17
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Welp, the ich problem I was originally trying to deal with was also indeed present, and several fish overnight have gone from no spots to a shitload of them (the female guppy has some, and one of the mollies is covered in them). I'm very screwed now, as almost all treatments for ich involve something that the pleco will not do well in (Salt, Formalin/Malachite Green, Copper based medications, etc). I guess my options are either to create a secondary tank for the pleco for now (and probably my ghost shrimp as well), and treat the tank, or hopefully find some treatment that will deal with the ich that doesn't gently caress up some of my fish, which is why I am posting here (every treatment option in the link in the OP is bad for plecos). I now am treating two different outbreaks simultaneously. gently caress. As an aside, I am a dumb idiot who probably caused this by dumping store water into the tank. I acclimated the fish fish, but when I went to get the fish out my net did not fit in the bag because it was so small, and I felt that rather than dumping the bag into a net over a bucket I would just toss it in to avoid extra stress. Bad plan. E: I also just realized that if I do get a secondary tank, I still can't really fix the problem, as any fish that have ich on them (which I probably can't see for most part) will carry them from tank to tank. So If the pleco has them, relocating him will simply stall the cycle for a bit if I can even successfully treat the tank. At least I now know why the mollies have been acting weird, they were getting bit by parasites. Coolwhoami fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 18:56
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