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Dr. Garbanzo posted:
Looks like everything is coming into balance quite nicely. Once you get past the awkward early stages you end up with a tank that copes with small changes by tending back to that stable point rather than tipping over into chaos. And I think that stability is easier to maintain the more mature a tank becomes. Looking good! Finally managed to organise a lifting crew and got the new big tank up on to the stand, and with four people on a corner each, it really wasnt that hard. I still need to work out where all the equipment is going to go, might need to rearrange the lights so that they point the other way so the power cables go to the rear instead of the front like they do now 
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Feb 22, 2018 07:02
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Thanks for the kind words stoca. Good to hear you got the tank onto it’s stand mine was heavy to move but it’s doable with two people rather than a whole crew. I’m trying to source my honey gouramis to finish off the stocking of the tank. Last time I went to the store they had two males and this weeks delivery he only got sent males. He said he’s gonna attempt to order only females next week so I’ll see what happens. I’m not in a mad rush to finish things off so I’m willing to wait. All other gouramis are either too aggressive or super blue but I want a different color to round out the stocking cause I have piles of black, silver, red and blue in the tank without much in the way of anything else.
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Feb 22, 2018 08:11
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Here's the tank wall:  Like pretty much everything in my house nothing quite matches so I'm pretty happy with how it will look. I just spent some time wiping the outside down and most of the haze on the glass is on the inside so I'll definitely wipe that out too before I put anything in. I bought an extra bag of substrate because I wasn't sure if I had enough, and also found a couple more nice pieces of driftwood. It's going to be a real challenge setting this tank up but after yesterday at work (spent probably 3 hours total going up and down ladders) I think I can do just about anything from a ladder.
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Feb 22, 2018 10:37
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Stoca Zola posted:Here's the tank wall: Looks good! We're reno'ing the basement, and once my office down there is done, I'm buying/building something between 90 and 120 gallons to go in it. Also - recommendations please. My 55g is currently 10 swordtails, 15 glowlight tetras, 4 panda cories (more on the way after something wiped out the other 8 that were in the tank), 12 assassin snails, and a lot less pest snails now than 2 weeks ago (go assassins). What's a good mid/high water fish that's flashy, energetic, and will fit in? Either a single "bigger" fish, or something I can put a group of 10-15 in. Any recommendations would be great.
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Feb 22, 2018 13:06
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Thanks! Going to try to get it set up ASAP but I’m also wary of rushing it. It’s too inconvenient to get into to be making lots of adjustments so I want to get it as close to right as possible the first time. Do you think you’d have room for 6-8 dwarf neon rainbowfish? They might fit the bill, at least they swim at the right level and are pretty peaceful in a community. I have been thinking about them myself although according to something I’ve read, they’ve become a little less hardy than they used to be due to popularity and poor breeding. Not sure if that applies to the EU, US or AU aquarium hobby though, I forgot to take note of who was writing. Here’s a video I saw today that made me reconsider them for a bit of colour in my own tank, quite often the colouring I’ve seen them have is a lot more insipid that this. Around 2:30 if the timestamp doesn’t work.
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Feb 22, 2018 17:00
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Stoca Zola posted:Thanks! Going to try to get it set up ASAP but I’m also wary of rushing it. It’s too inconvenient to get into to be making lots of adjustments so I want to get it as close to right as possible the first time. I'll show them to the wife - if they don't pass muster, they aren't allowed in hahah. Finding them might be hard to. I think with the plants, etc. and my fairly heavy filtration, I could fit them in easily. They look nice and active, which would be great - my cory's are the most active fish in my tank atm (which I don't mind), but I want them to have some competition.
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Feb 22, 2018 17:38
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Okay my aquarium is abso-loving-lutely overrun with green algae and I've tried cutting back on feedings, drastically reducing the photoperiod, and upping the frequency of water changes but it grows faster than my ottos and shrimp can clean it up. I'm thinking the next step is gonna have to be CO2 and fast growing plants (currently have anubias and some bacopa). I think it may have something to do with the high chloramine concentration of my water. Although I'm treating with prime and my filter can reduce the ammonia to zero pretty fast after a water change, it's hard to keep the nitrates below ~10-15ppm. I didn't feel like messing around with CO2 injection but I'm thinking it's the only way I'm going to have the pretty aquarium that I want. Anything else I could try before I start ordering CO2 gear? edit: CO2 not C02.. this is your brain on beer Kibbles n Shits fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 03:13
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I don't think that nitrate level is particularly high, maybe what you're seeing is from high phosphate? There are phosban type media that you can use. I don't know how readily available phosphate test kits are though.
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Feb 24, 2018 03:26
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API apparently has one. I'll grab that and see what's going on with my phosphate levels and go from there. I may get into some DIY CO2 anyways because now that I've researched it a bit it doesn't seem very expensive or complicated at all. It would be nice to have some better plants. Edit: CO2 not C02. Brain on beer etc Kibbles n Shits fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 04:24
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 Just had a brief and fruitless discussion on a planted aquarium group on FB where a discussion was ongoing regarding the Kelvin (K) rating of lights vs the wavelengths of the light and I'd posted my old favourite photosynthesis wavelengths graph and some dude wrote back saying Oh Lord, Just no! and going on to explain that my graph was probably old or probably just plain wrong. And algae and plants don't need any wavelength and pls could some other dude post that pic of that book showing that it was wrong, etc. Apparently there's been new research and photosynthetic pigments don't react to wavelengths any more? Or something? I don't know what the guy was getting at so I made the mistake of engaging with him only to get some kind of tinfoil hat reply, that everything on the internet is old, outdated, wrong, lies, etc. And we're more likely to find the wrong information about basically anything than the right information these days. I've found so much good fishkeeping and aquarium information online, and this is the first real fruitloop I've come across I think.
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Feb 24, 2018 16:51
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Honestly fishkeeping seems to be one of those hobbies where 100 different people will tell you 100 different things, save for a few basics such as the Nitrogen Cycle. As far as lights go I thought PAR was the gold standard as far as determining a light's efficacy, though that data can be hard to come by. On a related note, I bought a light off eBay for $27 that has the same PAR rating as a Finnex Planted+ at 18" (tested, not advertised) (also probably part of why my algae is out of control). Beamswork lights are cool and good.
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Feb 24, 2018 17:34
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The plot thickens - FB guy directed me to look at a pinned post from another group, but it's a closed group so I had to join to see this fabled post with all its true and correct information. Before you join it prompts you to fill in three questions. Are you a robot? Do you understand this group is about planted aquariums? and Do you believe that moral relativism is always a slippery slope ? - now I know a political catchphrase when I see one, but I don't know if this is trying to filter certain people out, or encourage certain people to join. Yeah, I'd heard PAR was the thing to watch for growing plants. As far as algae is concerned last I heard, it could use wavelengths that plants don't use, so a light could favour one over the other depending on it's spectrum. If this facebook planted aquarium has some more info about this I'd like to get my hands on it. I don't want to join some rightwing hotspot though!
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Feb 24, 2018 18:36
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Moral relativisim + paranoia NICE BIG RED FLAGS RUN THE gently caress AWAY
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Feb 25, 2018 02:47
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It turns out the study that the guy is obsessed with looks at woody trees in sunlight and their ability to absorb and use green wavelengths deeper in the leaf while reds and blues are used at the surface. I'm not entirely convinced that it's legit to extrapolate that to submerged plants under artificial indoor lighting (especially not with a low tech tank). And just remembered the original discussion was about algae not woody trees so it's even more nonsensical. Yeah I guess I forgot Facebook is full of toxicity and drama, maybe I'm naive or I've just been lucky not to come across it much but holy poo poo I never thought an aquatic plants group would delve into that kind of ideology.
Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Feb 25, 2018 |
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Feb 25, 2018 07:10
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 Feeeeeesh
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Feb 25, 2018 07:12
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Do you think this is a female scarlet badis?
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Feb 26, 2018 00:16
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We can't get those here so I've never seen one in person but it does have that look about it. Could be a juvenile of either sex though since it doesn't have much colour. This is supposedly a female, still has bars. https://imgur.com/wT5MXwg
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Feb 26, 2018 04:03
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I did some rearranging of the house today and ended up taking a 29 gallon from my spare bedroom and setting it up in the living room, so I tore down my mom's little 10 endler tank and threw all those guys in the 29. So now I have a nice 29 that I'm going to plant with Val and Anubias, probably add a few bristlenose plecos and my mom's betta made it in there but what else should I put in to make this tank really festive and bright? Was thinking some bronze Cory's to be sure. No gouramis because of the betta.... Not a huge fan of tetras overall unless I could find Hummingbird ones locally which probably won't happen. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Feb 26, 2018 |
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Feb 26, 2018 17:58
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I'm thinking of doing a CO2 setup, but I am completely lost on all the technical stuff but I don't know if I really want a premade one either.
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Feb 27, 2018 01:17
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Dogwood Fleet posted:I'm thinking of doing a CO2 setup, but I am completely lost on all the technical stuff but I don't know if I really want a premade one either. King of DIY has a video that covers the basics pretty well.
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Feb 27, 2018 01:21
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Kibbles n Shits posted:King of DIY has a video that covers the basics pretty well. That's a much better approach than the yeast DIY stuff that I've seen, but I was thinking of a fancier setup. I've got a little Fluval one, but I'm getting a bigger tank.
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Feb 27, 2018 02:11
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I fell over a couple of times at the beach on Sunday, first time I half rolled my ankle and then the second time I was thinking about how dumb falling over is and tripped over into some rocks due to being distracted. I really wanted to finish wiping the glass and start laying things out in the new tank on my day off today but my ankle is still swollen and my knee is making a gross noise like gravel scraping on gravel. I figure it might not be a good idea to be standing on a ladder just yet. I'll stick to just easy water changes instead. The diseased corydoras tank is on today's water change list and it looks like one fish has developed fungus on his fins now. They were thick and red looking before but now a bit white and fluffy, so I think the fungus has opportunistically got into the inflamed skin. The skin on their bodies and faces looks good and healthy really, and when I went over to the tank both corys started swimming up the glass at the front of the tank like they were happy to see me, which is more than any of my other corys do. I think I might try giving them a bath in multicure to see if it helps with the fungus (if that's even what it is). I've been thinking about moving the two fish to a smaller tank and reclaiming the 15g they're in for quarantine but after their friendly display I feel bad about considering giving up on them so I'm going to stick it out. This hobby requires patience, after all!
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Feb 27, 2018 10:00
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so after the complete tank crash, I decided to focus more on plants to see if that works better, although i note that the cories have likely destroyed one that's in the teapot now. I still don't know what those are but they don't seem to last long and won't even grow roots. Honestly, i still don't know if anything i'm doing is right, since i'll check the water parameters, change water, clean filter, put in water conditioner, acclimate new fish (neon tetras), - then watch 4 out of 8 do the belly up dance. I wasn't that big into the neons though at this point, i'm not the sole person in control of the tank, so I don't make all the decisions.  the tank now houses the massive synodontis who keeps hiding in his pineapple house, six albino cory (on white sand... 🤷), four neons and a siamese fighting fish  his name is Divine, he poops a lot so he's a messy bitch proving himself to deserve that name. i'm still not used to the tank being not full of fish, but it probably is a good idea since i'm restarting the whole process. besides, i still manage to kill fishes for r e a s o n s so the less i make this place Alcatraz Aquaria the better.
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Feb 27, 2018 10:20
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The teapot's plants look a bit like a terrestrial plant to me, not an aquatic plant which might be why they're not doing well! Could be an aspidistra? My corys don't do anything beyond just sitting on my plants. Probably wouldn't hurt to get a second light if you want to get more plants in, not sure if its just the picture but you might do better with wider coverage. Scaling things back fishwise is probably a good idea until you can get things stabilized, and I wouldn't panic too much about dying neons, its not unusual for new fish to not survive the transport process especially if they are weak or inbred like neons have a reputation for being. Quarantine is always a good idea, then the dead fish don't stink up your main tank. Divine looks like a nice betta!
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Feb 27, 2018 11:36
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Kibbles n Shits posted:King of DIY has a video that covers the basics pretty well. I just bought the setup he is using in the video. Hoping for some good results.
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Feb 27, 2018 15:25
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Enos Cabell posted:I just bought the setup he is using in the video. Hoping for some good results. Let me know how it works because I'm strongly considering doing this as well, but I've heard controlling the dose of CO2 can be problematic and I don't want to murder my fish.
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Feb 27, 2018 23:18
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Well I'm in an odd situation. My tank was stocked with three female bettas, plus five Amano shrimp. They've coexisted peacefully for several months now. I lost one of the bettas to an infection a couple days ago (wasn't able to get meds in time) and I'm down to two now. Yesterday, there were five shrimp. Today, there are zero. I can find no trace of them anywhere, aside from some moulted exoskeletons which are a pretty normal feature of my tank. They're not in the filter, they didn't escape the tank entirely (I've checked my entire apartment), and they're not hiding anywhere in the tank itself, because I've checked every hiding spot I know of. My hunch is that when I lost the one betta, one of the two remaining decided to show her dominance by going on a killing spree, but I can't really prove it except that she's spending most of her time in the lil house that the shrimp used to chill out in. I know that they tend to hide when they moult, but it kinda worries me that I can't find even a single one.
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Feb 28, 2018 01:49
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Shrimp will be eaten by betta, there's nothing to be done about that if you keep them in the same aquarium. The only thing you can really do is have a quick breeding species like cherries to outpace the predation.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:39
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Anyone have experience with power-heads and smaller fish? I bought a Hydor Koralia 240 for my new 55 Gallon, but took it out when I put tetras in because I was really paranoid they were going to get sucked in. I bought it to compliment My SunSun 303 canister, and now Im having issues where some the the leaves on my plants are turning transparent
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Feb 28, 2018 06:58
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Stoca Zola posted:The teapot's plants look a bit like a terrestrial plant to me, not an aquatic plant which might be why they're not doing well! Could be an aspidistra? My corys don't do anything beyond just sitting on my plants. Probably wouldn't hurt to get a second light if you want to get more plants in, not sure if its just the picture but you might do better with wider coverage. Yeah, I have no idea what those plants are (i didn't choose those and i thought they were amazon swords at first) and I notice that they start going yellow at the stalks and the leaves grow large brown spots and web out. It's not the usual "melting" i notice in the other plants. The cories keep swimming in the teapots scraping the stalk and i think they are practically eating them up as they die. I may just plant something tall if and when they die out. right now i'm going to see how well these plants do. first setup was gravel, which made planting horrible, then i just gave up on it altogether, but now i got sand so i've buried some fertilizer cubes and see if the plants do grow. if it goes well, i may try carpeting it, although i'm still not looking into co2. yet. Divine seems to recognise me now, by doing a side eye and swimming away unless i feed him. The name is suiting him even better by each day.
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Feb 28, 2018 08:34
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w00tmonger posted:Anyone have experience with power-heads and smaller fish? I bought a Hydor Koralia 240 for my new 55 Gallon, but took it out when I put tetras in because I was really paranoid they were going to get sucked in. I had a wavemaker in my big planted tank when I started losing otos but it ended up not being the wavemaker that was chewing them up, it was the penguin tetras. I don't think the inlet suction is that strong (its a much wider area than the outlet so the pressure is much smaller) and the grille on the Koralia is pretty good, but if you're worried you can put a piece of stocking around it, leaving a hole for the outlet, which makes it safer. I tried that myself but found it can clog and need fairly frequent cleaning. Might be possible to use some other kind of stretchy mesh with a looser weave to achieve the same thing? I think a healthy adult fish won't get sucked into a wavemaker, but a sick or dead fish might end up stuck against the grille. I'd still question whether circulation is your issue with the plants, or if they are just using up all the nutrients and need more. If you aren't using CO2 you can use an airstone to move water around without worrying about grinding up your tetras.
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Feb 28, 2018 09:59
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So this just happened. I got a new heater for my 90 gallon, it's a Catalina 500-watt so pretty good brand. I'm upping the temperature slowly to get it from room temperature to the high 70s. Then I saw my single Earth eater juvie that's managed to evade the net start doing one of those very very bad spirals. Like a death spiral like a football someone was throwing. He was able to avoid the net my first few swipes but I finally caught him but I don't think he's going to come out of this. No idea what it is because none of the catfish seem affected, and I've had my hands in the tank, didn't feel any kind of shock from the heater. I just have no idea. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 22:43
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How sketchy is this setup, is this too much flow for the tetras? Seems like the intake could pull them in on the 240 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbpvUNN7o8 Edit: here it is with just thesunsun303b. Aiming to have good cO2 circulation in the tank and not murder the fish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiaphrgRcs4 w00tmonger fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Mar 1, 2018 |
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Mar 1, 2018 05:20
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Is this in your 55g or a different tank (oh yeah I see your post from earlier oops) I don't think the spraybar alone is enough to get good circulation due to length of the tank if its the 55 but with the wave maker I can see why you're worried. Without something extra I do think you'll get dead zones where the water doesn't move enough, but you've got enough floaty things in your tank at the moment that you should be able to see if that is true. I might be wrong and the spraybar might be enough - something you can try is angling half the spray bar up and half down to get the flow into different places in your tank. Am I seeing it right that it's a two part spray bar? You could definitely get something on that wavemaker to make the inlet holes smaller, something like this?  Or a hairnet held on with rubber bands? I haven't had a guppy go on adventures for a while but a couple of days ago found one swimming around outside in my wastewater sump. The water is pumped or siphoned out under a tree in my back yard, plus theres a secondary holding tank which is linked by siphon to the main sump to double the capacity. Anyway I am guessing the guppy ended up out there in a handful of duckweed at some point, possibly even as a baby, and has survived water being dumped on it's head and avoided being pumped or siphoned for who knows how long. I netted him out but he was pretty stressed and I couldn't really see his colours too well, so for temporary I put him in my Fluval Spec V with the few crayfish that are in there thinking I would get a better look at him in the morning. Come morning he was gone, and since the crayfish have never eaten a fish before I assumed he'd jumped out but didn't find him anywhere. Didnt find bones in the water either. Went to work thinking nothing more of it but that evening I noticed some anomalous movements from the filter compartment. Previously I had converted the fluval spec's filter to be an airlift and it turns out the guppy decided to swim down the filter outlet against the flow of the bubbles, all the way down the airlift tube and into the narrow filter chamber (and had been stuck there all day). Only way I could get him out was to take the airlift out, and point it back through the hole in the filter chamber to coax him to swim against the flow out of the hole. Guppy instinct I guess, swim against the flow to try and find other fish to hang around with? He looks healthy and he's got an exploratory streak, I think he's a keeper. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Mar 1, 2018 |
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Mar 1, 2018 12:24
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Is this more appropriate? Moved the powrrhead tithe other side. Not sure if I'm accomplishing anything or what to look for if it's too much for the fish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kVDulHmHNo E: uggh, fish are avoiding the to of the tank. I think I need to rework flow in my tank and just deal with canister only. My sunsun 303b must be jacked up and outputting way more than aqadviser says w00tmonger fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Mar 2, 2018 |
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Mar 2, 2018 03:57
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Yes you're right about that, for a couple of models of filter Aqadvisor goes by the "gallons of tank this filter is recommended for" number on the box, ie up to 55g and uses that as gallons per hour, it doesn't correlate to what the pump of the filter is capable of at all (in the case I've seen, more like 220gph not 55gph). What does the pump/motor say? Random internet guy did a test on his and got 138gph, possibly a bit anemic for a 55g if you're aiming for 4-5 times turnover per hour. I reckon the flow from that wave maker is pretty fierce though. Not sure if the tetras are liking it or not. A sponge or similar wrapped around the inlet grille would slow it down, or I don't know if you could aim it more diagonally. It's always a balancing act working out what is good for plants vs what is good for fish because they don't always match. I reckon you could try just the sunsun and if you get deadzones, move the water in those with airstones.
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Mar 2, 2018 09:58
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This is starting to get frustrating. Two weeks ago I added some ammonia to try and get back to 2 ppm and hope the nitrite/nitrate stuff would start happening. I guess I added a bit too much since it went to 4 ppm but after a week it dropped back down to 2 so I figured I was fine and still on track. But now its back up to 4+ for some reason and still no nitrite/nitrate readings. 5-6 weeks into a fishless cycle and feeling like I've made no progress. This is starting to feel like a thing where if I don't get some fish soon I'm going to get more frustration from this than enjoyment. edit: Also the sponge in my filter has literally fallen apart. I'm very lost and very frustrated. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Mar 3, 2018 |
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Mar 2, 2018 23:52
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No idea why your sponge would disintegrate so quickly. You can buy replacements or buy a sheet of aquarium foam and cut your own pieces if you want (I've done that with poret foam for many of my filters). If I recall you have a brand new tank with all new clean artificial plants and can't remember what substrate (maybe inert gravel?), so for that situation it will take a long time for bacteria to build up. Maybe you could get a small piece floating hornwort, or a piece of frogbit, something that will both bring some bacteria in and form an additional part of the biological filtration to help process the ammonia. A water weed like hydrilla/elodea/egeria would work too. A "silent cycle" using plants is an alternative way to get your ammonia processed, but harder to do in a small tank. I know you said you didn't want plants yet, but think it would help, and not every plant needs fussy fertilising, extra lights and special care. Edit to add, I thought of something else you could get if you don't want plants, some fish stores sell presoaked driftwood that they keep in aquariums so I think a small piece of driftwood would also be "live" and bring in bacteria if you kept it wet. A rule of thumb I've heard is you have about an hour before filter bacteria dies off from drying out or lack of water flow. It is frustrating waiting to get new tanks set up and safe for fish to live in but if you had bought fish and started keeping them straight away, you know they wouldn't have survived and to me having fish after fish die feels much worse than just waiting. I don't think you're doing anything wrong, but to me a small tank with no plants is hard-mode fish keeping. I guess there could be something else in your water that is stopping bacteria from growing, like extra chlorine or chloramine or some other antibacterial element like copper, but as long as you're conditioning your water before use it should be okay. Or as long as you aren't using foamy ammonia as your source? Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Mar 3, 2018 |
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Mar 3, 2018 04:02
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I'm just using Ammonium Chloride Solution I got from a fish store. I've only used it a couple of times. I haven't given up yet, I'm just getting kind of frustrated and worried that I'm reaching a point where my enthusiasm for this project is wavering since it doesn't feel like its going anywhere. I definitely don't want to just start killing fish and winging it but I just feel like I need to do something, if just to keep myself engaged with the tank of water, plastic plants, and moss that's been sitting there for 6 weeks. Its lost its charm on its own. My fish store isn't super stocked and I didn't see anything like plants or driftwood. I don't know. I'm in the middle of a noreaster and kind of shut in right now but maybe next week I'll take a trip and see if I can get some bacteria or live stuff like that. Part of the reason I was against the plants was because I just didn't know where to get them or how to start them and it was just a whole other thing to learn. But now I'm just kind of doing nothing but waiting so I guess I can learn something if it means forward momentum. Am I using the right "sponge"? I feel like maybe I've had this wrong the whole time. I just got those yellow and green ones and cut one up to fit. The yellow part has completely disintegrated, but seemed fine a week ago. The green rough side is still intact. But every picture I see online seems like people are using some kind of darker tougher one I think I've seen with electronics before?
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Mar 3, 2018 07:47
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 09:40 |
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Those are the exact sponges I used when I did a DIY trickle filter, unfortunately they're cellulose and they do break down. I got a couple of months out of mine, maybe a touch longer, but as they started clogging and I'd wring them out to reuse, they just didn't spring back as well as a sponge intended for aquarium use and eventually broke apart from wear. Even without wear just being wet makes this type of sponge break down (but they're really cheap which is why they're made and sold). The green scratchy stuff is made out of something else, and still works as a mechanical filter and place for bacteria to inhabit but you get more surface area per volume from a sponge than a scrubby thing. Lots of people buy the block shaped sponges from AquaClear filters which do last a bit longer and you should be able to cut them to size (something like this). You can get cheap sheets of black foam from ebay too but in my experience they aren't always careful in their manufacturing and some left over residue that I didnt properly rinse out killed a bunch of my fish when I tried using this sort. Not ideal! You want open cell foam sponge, with no fire retardant, pesticide or other additives. The best foam I've used is Poret foam distributed by Swiss Tropicals among others, which can be expensive, but it's just a polyether foam so if you can find that from somewhere else it will work - I think it can be hard to find if there are regulations in your country regarding the fire retardant. This type of foam seems to take a beating without breaking apart or weakening. If you tip water on it, instead of pooling and running off it just disappears into the sponge and runs out the other side, it is really different from other sponges I've used. But any aquarium filter sponge from any brand filter will do. As for plants I've had some luck with having plants mailed to me from ebay and gumtree or similar, I'm in the same boat where the local places aren't very well stocked (always seems to have plenty of finrot and ich though!). There are always hobbyists trimming their tanks and selling the excess and it can be cheaper than getting it from a shop, depending on how well they pack those plants. There are plenty of people who post plants from their online store as their sole form of business too. Any time you add plants there's the risk of introducing pests like snails or planaria but at this stage in your tank there isn't any food for them to eat so they should die off or be easy to find for you to remove. Hey, you might even find you like snails, it's something to look at at least until you are ready for fish. I suspect you might need to reduce the concentration of ammonia so that you don't ammonia burn any plants but I could be wrong, might be worth having a google. An alternative is buying a pot of tissue culture plants, they're prepackaged, easy to ship and no pests (but small and weird and harder to plant than just cut stems). The start really is the hardest part, the only way I know to make it go faster is to get media seeded with bacteria from some other tank or to use tons and tons of plants. If you really want to, you can just get a fish and keep it in an uncycled tank but the trade off is that you have to change the water frequently to manually remove the ammonia created by the fish in order to keep the fish healthy. If you're not happy with how things are going now, don't feel like you're trapped, there are other ways to do things and it's just a matter of finding more information and picking the method that seems most enjoyable to you. Have you noticed your moss growing at all, by the way?
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Mar 3, 2018 11:36
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