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Stoca Zola posted:Ammonia can really only come from excess livestock, waste food or something dead. Or your source water! Always test your source water if there isn't anything else obviously wrong, it can change unexpectedly. I can't recall off the top of my head if chloramine, when neutralised by prime etc, still detects as ammonia or some other nitrogen compound but it does hang around and cause false readings with certain test kits (API droplet kits for example). Maybe your local water treatment plant has switched up their chloramine levels and that's what you're seeing? Have you noticed more chlorine smell at the tap? If you do you might need to use a lot more of your water dechlorinator than normal. I am unsure of what kind of snail these guys are but, since they aren't breeding I think they're nerites and there are 2 of them. I've got an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 on this tank and change the filter monthly. I'm using sand and usually don't have to get rid of uneaten food since the corydoras are always ravenous and scarf up anything the beta misses. The cherry shrimp like to steal from the corydoras and eat the uneaten food too. I do a 20% change weekly and get any poops that are laying about on the sand. I don't see the lower layers of the sand changing color to indicate presence of anaerobic bacteria either so I assume the plants and snails are keeping it well mixed. I've yet to see the denizens of this tank leave uneaten food around for me to remove. I'll test the source water and see what's up.
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Oct 6, 2016 19:10
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Enos Cabell posted:I use pumps like that in my bigger tanks, and they work great. Never had any problems with fish or shrimp getting into one. Cheers, I'll grab one then. I'm looking forward to setting this tank up, I should take pictures as I go or something. Azuth0667 posted:I am unsure of what kind of snail these guys are but, since they aren't breeding I think they're nerites and there are 2 of them. I've got an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 on this tank and change the filter monthly. I'm using sand and usually don't have to get rid of uneaten food since the corydoras are always ravenous and scarf up anything the beta misses. The cherry shrimp like to steal from the corydoras and eat the uneaten food too. I do a 20% change weekly and get any poops that are laying about on the sand. I don't see the lower layers of the sand changing color to indicate presence of anaerobic bacteria either so I assume the plants and snails are keeping it well mixed. I've yet to see the denizens of this tank leave uneaten food around for me to remove. This all sounds super fine and legit - although if you are using cartridges in the filter and putting a whole new one in each time, you lose a bunch of bacteria and have to wait for it to grow back in the new cartridge. You're then relying more heavily on the chemical filtration and once that is exhausted your nitrogen products start building up pretty quick. Any spare room in the media chamber to whack a bit of sponge that stays in there and you'd just rinse it out a little each time? It doesn't sound like you have a "helper" feeding your tank behind your back, that's been known to cause weird issues like this. Nerites have thickish shells, no? Maybe they are using your carbonates for their shells.
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Oct 6, 2016 19:33
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Stoca Zola posted:This all sounds super fine and legit - although if you are using cartridges in the filter and putting a whole new one in each time, you lose a bunch of bacteria and have to wait for it to grow back in the new cartridge. You're then relying more heavily on the chemical filtration and once that is exhausted your nitrogen products start building up pretty quick. Any spare room in the media chamber to whack a bit of sponge that stays in there and you'd just rinse it out a little each time? It doesn't sound like you have a "helper" feeding your tank behind your back, that's been known to cause weird issues like this. Nerites have thickish shells, no? Maybe they are using your carbonates for their shells. I have foam on the intake of the filter to prevent my cherry shrimp from being sucked into the filter. I have a pair of these corner filters in as well. I can put some strips of felt in that filter which should help out with bacterial living space. I'll have to watch the nerites the next time they decide to clean the side of the tank for shell thickness. I've got seachem stability too which I could toss in there. E: That reminds me I think my betta is unhappy with the current in the tank and I want to move some of the larger plants in the tank to create an area with less current. Is there anything special I need to do when transplanting aquatic plants? Azuth0667 fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 6, 2016 |
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Oct 6, 2016 20:10
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With stem plants in a sand substrate I find the best approach is to get a gentle grip on the stem and jiggle the plant very gently up and down, with very small jiggles. That should slowly lift the plant out of the sand while leaving the sand behind. It doesn't sound like you have stinky zones in your sand but this would stop it getting out if you did. My cory tank has very fine sand which is pretty black and gross under the zone that my trumpet snails stir up, and I use the jiggle method all the time to thin out my vallisnerias and no gross sand comes up. The roots of plants grown in sand seem to be finer and more delicate than same plants grown in gravel so you might not have to trim off much excess root. When putting them back in the sand, I find putting them to the side of where you want them then gently dragging them into position helps to get the roots under the surface and gripping the sand better. Not sure if that explanation makes sense! Depends on whether your plant is a root feeder or a water column feeder on whether you should put a root tab in the sand under the new position of the plant. If your plants are growing fine without such things you won't need it just because you moved the plant. If it's a rhizome plant you can just move it and be careful not to bury the rhizome in its new position. Don't let the plant dry out between pulling it up and putting it back in its new spot, some plants dry up very quickly so it's better to just chuck it in a bucket until you're ready to put it back. I've not ever seen issues moving stem plants around, especially not within the same tank. I think crypts are sensitive to being moved but I've been lucky and none of mine have melted when I moved them, but if you're moving a crypt be aware of that. I don't know if Amazon swords like being moved, either. I think those little air filters should retain enough bacteria for biological filtration - good to have multiple filters and your plants should be helping with biological filtration too, anyway. Post a pic of your tank! I want to see how grumpy your betta is 
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Oct 7, 2016 04:02
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Wow imgur has changed and now has a lovely registration thing required hopefully this other image hosting site will work. E: If you guys know of any easy to use image hosting sites that don't require some dumb registration thing or a captcha-advertisement hybrid monstrosity let me know and I'll reupload better images. Full tank shot:  My betta, Walter, does not like having his picture taken:  I think I may have found the problem with the ammonia. During this morning's feeding one of the female cherry shrimp took a pellet from the corydoras and ate what she wanted then dropped it in this filter:  The corydoras in a rare moment of relaxation. Usually they are patrolling the bottom of the tank and scarfing up anything that is edible:  Walter going after a shrimp that stole a blood worm from him:  Walter giving up on chasing after that shrimp:  The two big grassy looking plants are dwarf hairgrass that I had divided in half and planted on opposite sides of the tank. The middle grass is another dwarf hair grass that for some reason likes to send new shoots up through the sand and spread out. I think the snails have been eating its new shoots again though. I think the blade shaped leaf plant in the background is a Cryptocoryne willisii. I think the thicker lobed plant in the right side of the background is Rotala rotundifolia. The middle thinner lobed plant from what I remember is a Lysmachia nummularia. All of these were tissue cultured plants because I don't trust any of the big box pet stores to keep their stuff pest free. The shrimp are too busy hiding from the betta they just pissed off to pose for a picture and I have no idea where the snails were. For some reason the snails disappear for a few days then come back to happily eat stuff off of the walls of the tank. I would like to get some MTS too but, from what I understand they will eat my plants and I don't think the sand needs much agitation.
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Oct 7, 2016 20:31
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I've been having a super fun order dispute with an internet retailer."Internet Plants and Fish Retailer" posted:
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Oct 7, 2016 23:03
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That looks like amazing evidence to include in a paypal dispute against them.
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Oct 8, 2016 01:24
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I've had ramshorn snails, regular pond snails, blond snails and MTS and of all of those MTS have done the least damage to my plants. Ramshorns don't eat live plant matter, only rotting dead stuff, but they strategically chew at the base of plants to sever long pieces of plant matter and ensure there is plenty of rotting plant around. They also seem to eat pond snail eggs and every tank where I have both types of snail, the pond snails eventually vanish and the ramshorns take over. I have seen them eating hydra too. I don't know what happened to the two blond snails I had, maybe the ramshorns ate those too?? I still like having ramshorns around since they do a lot of glass cleaning and their poop is really good for starting infusoria cultures but it's hard to keep their numbers down. MTS seem to do best with sand and lots of carbonates available. They stay buried unless they're hungry and come onto the glass at night, and sometimes chew on driftwood. In the tank where I have them in softer water and silica sand they don't do very well and their shells are weakened, but in carbonate play sand (it's beach sand made out of crushed shells as far as I can tell) their shells look very healthy. They do a great job of stirring the top 3/4" or so of sand. In gravel they can't burrow as easily and I have seen them get stuck and die, especially the smaller ones. I've never seen them eat anything but driftwood and excess food from the bottom substrate. They even leave dead fish alone, it's always a pile of ramshorns that gives away if something has died. MTS are live bearing snails so there aren't piles of eggs you can remove to stop them from breeding. They start out reproducing pretty slowly but eventually a big population can develop. It's pretty easy to get rid of them though, you can skim a net through the top layer of sand and rake them out without making too much mess. If your sand isn't too deep and is staying clean you probably don't need MTS but I set my sand tank up with deeper sand intentionally after reading about it and so far that tank has been mostly healthy. It's had one crash but I'm pretty sure that was due to a dead corydoras that I could not find that fouled up the tank. 
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Oct 8, 2016 07:18
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kzin602 posted:I've been having a super fun order dispute with an internet retailer.
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Oct 8, 2016 07:50
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Fish Noise posted:Tucson, eh? Arizona Aquatic Gardens? Yes, I should have read the reviews. The owner is insane, like literally insane, he called me a bitch and a pussy on the phone because of this PayPal dispute. The reason for the dispute: they told me the package was Shiping when it was not. I was worried they misplaced tracking info or the email was list to the digital aether. So when I reached out to the seller using their email and phone I got no response for a week. I opened the dispute with PayPal, not asking for a refund or anything, just because I wanted the vendor to communicate a shipping date. I understand poo poo happens, I know orders are delayed, I just want communication so I can be there to receive the package; but when the vendor said they will not ship unless I close the incident (thus preventing me from creating any other disputes Incase of later issues) red flags went off. I normally don't complain about merchants, but this one has been such a surreal experience. kzin602 fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Oct 8, 2016 |
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Oct 8, 2016 08:50
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Been fighting the ICH on my Cardinals the past few days. The stress of Matthew coming through didn't help any and I've already lost 2. Been faithfully dosing the api ich cure as per instructions but I'm not seeing any improvement and now it's spread to my mollies. I've lost 2 Cardinals already and the other 4 aren't looking too good. The Leopard danios are showing no signs of infection though. I made sure to remove any activated carbon from the filter but it still doesn't seem to be helping.
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Oct 8, 2016 20:29
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Hey, I'm moving again so I'm shutting down my 29 gallon tall tank. If any goons in the California Bay Area are interested in it, PM me. I'm giving it away to any interested parties. Tank comes with: Stand Marineland 160 canister filter Eheim canister filter Ohko stone Finnex LED light Assorted chemicals and testers Malaysian Trumper Snails
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Oct 8, 2016 21:44
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I'll pay for shipping to FL for that filter and light.
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Oct 9, 2016 00:11
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Tony Doughnuts posted:I'll pay for shipping to FL for that filter and light. That might be possible if no one in the area picks up the whole set.
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Oct 9, 2016 00:17
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Chichevache posted:That might be possible if no one in the area picks up the whole set. Shoot me a PM if Noone does. I'll gladly take both filters and the light.
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Oct 9, 2016 00:32
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Tony Doughnuts posted:Shoot me a PM if Noone does. I'll gladly take both filters and the light. Sure. The Eheim has a broken nozzle, but a replacement piece can be bought online and everything else functions fine. How many snails do you want? 
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Oct 9, 2016 00:47
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I've got snails out my God drat ears in my tank. Unless they'll eat smaller snails no thanks
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Oct 9, 2016 01:34
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Oh thank god finally getting rid of these loach assholes. Someone's taking them off my hands. Was seriously thinking about euthing the bunch of them since there've been no replies at all.
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Oct 9, 2016 03:46
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kzin602 posted:Yes, I should have read the reviews. The owner is insane, like literally insane, he called me a bitch and a pussy on the phone because of this PayPal dispute. I do not understand how these fuckers are in business still. I do not. What were you ordering, out of curiosity? I have had great luck with Wetspot and Snook. Bluegrass was a bunch of rude idiots. Also if you are in PHX, check out Studio Blue in Surprise. They can special order fish too.
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Oct 9, 2016 18:21
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Tony Doughnuts posted:Shoot me a PM if Noone does. I'll gladly take both filters and the light. Looks like I've got someone who wants the whole tank. Sorry, Tony. Edit Dave, a beginning hobbyist, picked up the entire tank. I let everything go for $25 (enough to weed out assholes on craigslist, but cheap enough to be a screaming deal) and he even wants to keep the snails and plants alive.  Hopefully he and his son enjoy it and get into the hobby. It always sucks to shut down a tank, but this worked out better than I could have asked for.
Chichevache fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Oct 9, 2016 |
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Oct 9, 2016 21:49
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No worries man. Just glad it went to someone who will enjoy it. Guess I'll just have to drop the money on a canister filter.  any idea if those 50 dollar sun suns are any good?
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Oct 10, 2016 04:09
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Tony Doughnuts posted:No worries man. Just glad it went to someone who will enjoy it. Guess I'll just have to drop the money on a canister filter. Yup, they are good.
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Oct 10, 2016 04:27
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Tony Doughnuts posted:No worries man. Just glad it went to someone who will enjoy it. Guess I'll just have to drop the money on a canister filter. I never tried a Sun Sun, but people here seem to like them. I've always wanted a UV filter.
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Oct 10, 2016 05:47
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Breaking down tanks suuuuucks
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Oct 10, 2016 12:51
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Cowslips Warren posted:I do not understand how these fuckers are in business still. I do not. I ordered 8 Spiny Nerites, they actually arrived okay, and were active and moving about as soon as they were put in an observation bowl with fresh tank water. I also ordered 5 Celestial Pearl Danios, they arrived very very dead, smelling foul, fins ragged and flesh completely pale. The internet reviews for that place are truly awful, and I should have done more homework beforehand.
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Oct 10, 2016 17:34
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Tony Doughnuts posted:No worries man. Just glad it went to someone who will enjoy it. Guess I'll just have to drop the money on a canister filter. My girlfriend has a couple on her 125 gallon tank and it works fine. Our LFS guy told us that those are basically the same as Aquatop filters but, cheaper.
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Oct 10, 2016 17:40
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So, as a follow up to my homicidal peacock cichlid issue. The rear end in a top hat fish died after an overnight stay in the hospital tank. The new fish are still a bit tight, but nowhere near as bad. The one with the most distinct coloration is the most aggressive of the 3. I added a few more tank mates and learned a lesson in the food chain. It appears that 4.5 of the 10 gold barbs I added became lunch. That .5? Found the other half floating on the surface. Otherwise everything seems to be looking up now.
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Oct 10, 2016 18:21
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Thanks guys. I'll probably order one on Friday. Those bio balls any good or should I just get bio sponges?
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Oct 10, 2016 18:36
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Sponges have more surface area than the plastic bioballs and do a better job of mechanically trapping gunk (but clog faster). The sintered ceramic style bioballs (or other baked media) might have more surface area again but since the pores are so small they can clog especially if your water isn't polished by the time it reaches them. Just work out which way the water flows through the filter, put mechanical filtration and polishing first, from coarse to fine, then biological and then chemical last (if at all). When I say polishing I mean filter floss or the finest sponge you have. Some filters put the polishing pad in last thing before the water leaves the filter but that really doesn't make sense. You don't want any gunk getting on your ceramic media and clogging up its pores, reducing its effective surface area so polishing has to go before that. It all doesn't matter that much as long as the filter is cycled and is big enough for your needs. It doesn't need to be perfect just good enough, so if you get results you're happy with, that's fine! I like sponge for filters since its both mechanical and biological in one, easy to clean, lasts a long time. And it's really satisfying squeezing all the brown gunk out into a bucket and seeing how much the sponge has caught. Then looking at the brown gunk under the microscope to find out what weird stuff was living in the sponge. One thing plastic bioballs are really good for is ensuring that flow is more evenly distributed through the area that they are in. Depends on your filter whether that is useful or not but it's been good in my DIY bucket filters to stop the water tracking up just through one zone in the bucket. I've been rearranging my tanks trying to work out how to lay out the new tank, ended up stealing the driftwood out of my barb/danio tank and setting up a rock cave in there instead. I was thinking about putting dwarf chain loaches in but SynthOrange's timely post reminded me that they can be murderous so I might adjust my filter return for better flow and see if some Borneo suckers will work in there instead. So I tried the driftwood in the new tank and I think I found a layout that I like:  Hypothetical planting:  Elodea, parrot feather, vallisneria, crypt parva, lilaeopsis, hydrocotyle and anubias. I've got some narrow leaf Java fern rhizomes that are recovering from being chewed by rosy barbs so I'd probably put that on the middle log, and I think moss growing on the vine wood would be nice too. I want to stock with penguin tetras and silver tip tetras, and I think if I can find a nice substrate I will move my corydoras into this bigger tank and maybe get more of them. It was a major pain in the rear end getting enough sand for my 20g let alone this four foot tank so maybe it will end up with gravel and no corydoras. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Oct 10, 2016 |
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Oct 10, 2016 21:00
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Good luck with that! I also get to start a new tank from scratch, it's gonna be great. Do it without all the mistakes of all my previous tanks.
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Oct 11, 2016 01:27
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I really need to get a quarantine/hospital tank set up. I'm just not sure where I should put it. Maybe in my desk so I can keep an eye on them while in home. Then is have to carry any transfers up a flight of stairs and down the hall when there sick or ready to go to the regular tank. Is 10gallons good for that? Edit: also should a quarantine/hospital tank be bare bones? Like just gravel with little to no decor or does it not matter?
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Oct 11, 2016 23:57
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Just nothing but a filter.
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Oct 12, 2016 00:36
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What about a heater? A lot of medicines seem to recommend heating the water above 80f
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Oct 12, 2016 01:11
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Tony Doughnuts posted:What about a heater? A lot of medicines seem to recommend heating the water above 80f Yeah, you'll probably need a heater. I use a sponge filter and heater for my QT and hospital tanks.
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Oct 12, 2016 01:13
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Do those need an air pump hooked up to them? Or are the passive filters?
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Oct 12, 2016 03:23
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Sponge filters can be either air or powerhead driven. They uh, really dont do passive.
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Oct 12, 2016 03:27
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What I love about sponge filters for hospital/QT is that they are super cheap. You can just toss it away after you are done treating your fish, and never worry about cross-contamination.
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Oct 12, 2016 04:32
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New tank set up so far: I couldn't get enough sand and my vinewood didn't sink. The local place didn't have the gravel I wanted either so I'm sifting the closest one they had and using the small parts. I got sick of waiting for it to fill so I just made sure the anubias was covered and I'll do the rest tomorrow. I got sick of sifting gravel too. It's 2am and I'm tired. Maybe the vinewood will be sunk by tomorrow? Even though I washed the sand and gravel the water was still really cloudy so I'm trying some Seachem Clarify. So far the cats seem to be shying away from getting onto the top of the aquarium, they appear to be disgusted by it for some reason, probably the glass covers aren't as inviting as the hoods on my other tanks. I'm going to have to order some extra sand online, there is barely enough to cover the bottom of the tank. 
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Oct 13, 2016 17:05
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Why not just use play sand from the hardware store?
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Oct 13, 2016 23:32
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Hi goons. So I am in the middle of a fishless cycle for a 5 gallon tank in which I intend to keep one betta and maybe an amano shrimp or two. I have dwarf hairgrass that seems to be hanging in there, 2 amazon swords and 2 java ferns. Problem is, I realized I was dosing with ammonia that has "surfactants." Am I totally boned, or can I get away with a sizeable water change and not kill the critters I intend to stick in here?
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Oct 14, 2016 13:45
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