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Stoca Zola posted:I think Lapis is a pretty boy! I guess the issue with doing a straight swap with the sponge would be any beneficial bacteria on the old sponge would get lost, your filter wouldn't be able to process wastes any more and it could crash the nitrogen cycle in your tank. I'm not sure how much you know about the nitrogen cycle or whether you've gone through that process of growing bacteria on your filter sponge yet but you've got live plants so that will help keep the water clean too, to some small extent. So I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be. Maybe cut your existing sponge in half, keep half and replace half? But for now you probably don't need to worry about it if the betta is happy with the new configuration. I just got a new Bacto-Surge sponge filter and it says when replacing the sponge, allow the new sponge to soak in the aquarium water for a minimum of two weeks before installation to allow the good bacteria to colonize it.
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Nov 14, 2018 18:34
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That sounds fair, it's a start anyway although cycling always takes longer than 2 weeks so you might get a mini crash, always worth being extra vigilant when swapping out filter media especially if it's the only filter you have. I pretty much have at least two filters usually airpowered sponge and powered something else, just to avoid that kind of problem. Speaking of problems, I've had two attempts now and have found that catching hillstream loaches is next to impossible! I'm going to have to tear that tank apart so they have nowhere to hide and even then I still think I won't be able to catch them. The trick I've seen to net them without hurting them is to get the net under them, then break their suction by gently pushing their fins with the edge of a credit card or similar, at which point they fall into the net. Mine are rarely on the glass, and when they were, they just swam past the net, not into it. I thought they'd be like otos, but otos freeze up more in light and try to be unseen which makes getting the net over them super easy. These hillstream guys don't care about bright light at all, they can see you coming a mile away and they know all the best rocks to disappear under.
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Nov 14, 2018 19:10
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I had a huge algae bloom and was despairing then realized I had given 5mL of fert... the correct dosing is 0.5mL. Water change done about 4 days later and we'll see how it goes. Anyone else use Seachem Equilibrium? I swear the tank is 'holding' GH now without needing it as much with water changes. I almost wonder if it's the smaller mineral chunks that end up settling into the substrate and I guess give off calcium etc.
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Nov 15, 2018 00:03
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Word to the wise. If you ever have a snail infestation don't decide to start keeping the snails you pluck out of your tank every day in a small jar next to the tank with a little food. Around Day 5 and Snail 100 it gets... bad. I don't know if it was the think layer of snail poop at the bottom, the fact that the water turned brown, the intense smell coming off it when sealed, the snails that appeared to be trying to escape, or all the snails clumped together like they were... eating each other? Either way I apologize to the roughly 100 snails I tortured that way. It was inadvertent. I should have just killed you. Or unleashed Operation Goldfish Assassin.
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Nov 15, 2018 03:17
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Have you tried changing their water.
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Nov 15, 2018 03:45
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The tetras? Yeah, I've done a bunch of water changes. Didn't slow down the snail infestation. Gonna do one tomorrow/Friday when Operation Goldfish Assassin ends. Hopefully the herd will be culled enough that a water change will make a difference. The snail jar? Nah. It wasn't a real habitat. I just kind of wanted to see how many I grabbed since I had spent a week grabbing a ton every day. I just didn't really account for the horror that would come from stagnant water filled with 100 snails pooping. Silly me.
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Nov 15, 2018 05:27
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The bad smell is almost certainly from dead snails; in a small jar a single dead snail will foul the water so badly that the others will spend all their time above the waterline. My first attempt at a snail jar was ruined by this exact situation, and water changes did nothing; I upgraded them to a half-gallon container and replaced with totally new substrate and they’ve been much happier since.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:54
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Yeah, it wasn't a sincere attempt at creating a home for them. If I was doing that I'd do some dirt, gravel, and probably a plant. And a bigger jar. I just took an old peach jar, scooped some tank water into it, threw a piece of lettuce in, and started dropping them in. It was basically always just an alternative to just throwing them outside and to get an idea of how many I was actually collecting. And yeah, all the living snails were totally trying to escape above the water line. There's actually still a bunch of snails living in my 5G tank that has substrate and some dead plant stuff so I'd steal off that if I wanted to keep them. But I don't think that's a plausible idea with the way they reproduce. I'd feel bad about killing them but like, I've seriously pulled out well over 100 if not over 200. There's no practical way to preserve life there. Sorry, guys.
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Nov 15, 2018 07:04
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Using the old "working on fully powered tank with a cut on my finger" trick I've worked out between two tanks I have two heaters and one pump that were leaking stray voltage into the tanks. Due to it being 240v here I think the associated current is less to achieve the same wattage, so all I felt was a highly unpleasant pinprick thrumming, not a jolt. It got me thinking, how often does this kind of thing happen in our tanks without us knowing? Especially if you follow the advice to unplug everything before doing tank maintenance, you'd never feel it. I couldn't see any tell tale behaviour that anything was wrong from the fish, so it's not at the point where it is killing livestock (or me). It feels like I caught the problem before it became a huge problem. It's warm enough in that room that I can unplug the heaters and I've rerouted my canister outlet to trickle over the media from the filter that had a leaky pump so it should be okay for now. I did some reading and what they use in the salt water world is a titanium ground probe that goes in the tank and trips any attached RCD or GFCI circuit if it detects stray voltage. Not super useful since that turns off everything on that circuit which if you're asleep or not home is less than ideal. And for the levels I was feeling through my cut finger, would that even be enough to trip such a device? The voltage just floats until it has somewhere for current to flow, so maybe adding a ground probe would make things worse by providing that path, and current moving through water and ions results in electrolysis usually which can't be a good thing. Lots of people test for stray voltage using cheap multimeters and I guess you could add something like that as a daily routine check. I wonder if non-contact voltage testers would work? This kind of feels like it should be a solved problem already :/ why can't we have a little sensor that sits on the edge of the tank and either lights up or beeps if there's too much stray voltage in the water? We shouldn't have to wait for the catastrophic failure to happen and lose our fish or injure ourselves.
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Nov 15, 2018 18:47
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Anyone have any good products for KH management? Thinking I'll add shrimp and snail(s) today!
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Nov 15, 2018 19:44
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I just use seachem alkaline buffer and add a little each water change (or not, if I'm using Reconstitute RO since that has a kH element in it already). I don't follow the instructions on the label for setting an exact pH by balancing it with the acid buffer as none of my fish need a specific pH and I never do big enough water changes that I'll be shocking livestock with water that's too different.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:33
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STAC Goat posted:The tetras? Yeah, I've done a bunch of water changes. Didn't slow down the snail infestation. Gonna do one tomorrow/Friday when Operation Goldfish Assassin ends. Hopefully the herd will be culled enough that a water change will make a difference. Not just pooping, but dying too. Snails aren't exactly the nicest of smells for either
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Nov 16, 2018 09:50
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So what temps do you guys keep your tanks at? I just now started using a heater because it's winter in Florida now, so far I'm keeping it right around 78-79 from what i can read on the cheap thermometer. I think I'm going to order a digital thermometer for better accuracy, the pleco keeps hanging out next to the heater like the water is too cold.
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Nov 16, 2018 17:19
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Applebees Appetizer posted:So what temps do you guys keep your tanks at? I just now started using a heater because it's winter in Florida now, so far I'm keeping it right around 78-79 from what i can read on the cheap thermometer. I think I'm going to order a digital thermometer for better accuracy, the pleco keeps hanging out next to the heater like the water is too cold. Some plecos might prefer warmer water, but they also like cover. It might just be back there because it's the closest to a hiding spot it can find. 78 degrees is a perfectly fine temperature for a pleco.
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Nov 16, 2018 17:38
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A digital thermometer LOOKS precise but you can buy 3 and put them all in one tank and they might vary plus or minus 5 degrees all over the place - according to demos I've seen on youtube anyway. I don't mind the oldschool type because the batteries can't go flat! I bought a bulk lot of 10 cheap ones and had them all floating in one bucket and they were all pretty close which is good enough for me. I get the ones with the little weights around the bottom and the thermometer is in a second glass tube, I think those ones keep their temperature for longer if you need to take them out of the tank to read them. I keep most of my tanks at 24-25ºC which I think is 75-77ish, I don't have anything that really needs it hotter as far as I know.
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Nov 16, 2018 17:55
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I use one of those little magnetic glass thermometers. Relatively cheap, decently accurate, and can be repositioned easily. Don't even bother with the heat-sensitive sticker thermometers, they're completely useless. As for temperature, I keep mine somewhere in the 76-80 range; it's hard to keep tanks cool in the summer around here so I let them get a little warmer during that time of year.
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Nov 16, 2018 18:46
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Applebees Appetizer posted:So what temps do you guys keep your tanks at? I just now started using a heater because it's winter in Florida now, so far I'm keeping it right around 78-79 from what i can read on the cheap thermometer. I think I'm going to order a digital thermometer for better accuracy, the pleco keeps hanging out next to the heater like the water is too cold. I keep mine right around mid 70's and everything does just fine. A few years ago when I had angelfish my bathroom was being redone. I got moved down to another room, but they let me leave my tank in the old room. The dude doing the work left the door open when he was working and the heat was shut off (this was like mid March in Michigan). All the angels always hovered right around the heater. It was one of those "Aww, cute but sad" things. So I shelled out for another heater to help. Fortunately the job only lasted a week
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Nov 16, 2018 20:46
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Picked up my two shrimpy boys! I think they're both male although one is much larger - still doesn't seem to have that streaking/dashes along the side that females have.    e: Here's a good pic of both. Maybe the smaller one is a female actually.  e: https://vimeo.com/301308231 VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 22:41
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Nah, they look male. Amano males have even spaced dots in a line down the side. Doesn't matter anyways because while they try to breed the hatchlings need brackish water or they die
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Nov 17, 2018 02:35
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SocketWrench posted:Nah, they look male. Amano males have even spaced dots in a line down the side. Doesn't matter anyways because while they try to breed the hatchlings need brackish water or they die Yeah I wasn't concerned about that i'm familiar with how notoriously hard it is to breed them properly. Just curious! I'm amazed - so far they've all but cleaned off one of the wood pieces in there. I hope they don't eat too much and get sick or something. E: Jesus they've eaten so much and are still eating. They're pooping everywhere which I hope will be enough nitrogen to continue the tank cycle. I guess I need some snails for the poop - the place I was at today didn't sell them. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 03:00
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Anybody know what kind of algae is black and makes long hairs/strings? It's not BBA because I gather that is shorter. I'm getting these long black strong filaments that are pretty well attached to the leaves or whatever and it's very ugly because they trap the diatom algae and keep it from being sucked up when I'm cleaning. Not my pic, but it looks like this: 
Mozi fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Nov 19, 2018 |
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Nov 19, 2018 15:32
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Mozi posted:Anybody know what kind of algae is black and makes long hairs/strings? It's not BBA because I gather that is shorter. I'm getting these long black strong filaments that are pretty well attached to the leaves or whatever and it's very ugly because they trap the diatom algae and keep it from being sucked up when I'm cleaning. Staghorn algae. Currently dealing with this in a new tank, and have dealt in the past. Mamually remove it if you can but this can be hard. The long term fix is to get better lighting/lighting period/c02 all balanced. The quick fix is to but some fluval excel and dose it directly on the algae using a syringe. This will turn it Bright Pink and kill it if you repeat this until it starts to go away. Use whatever dose is recommended on the bottle or do so e googling to sort out whatever is appropriate. As the tank gets more stable this sort of thing should go away. It thrives in uneven c02 levels which is the result of all the things I mentioned above Edit: if you get Blackbeard algae, it can be fixed the same way.
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Nov 20, 2018 00:48
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Went to an aquarium to pick up some Nerites today but they were all in saltwater... I've heard nerites can live in both but I really didn't want to grab some that would fail in my freshwater tank. Instead they had some Limnophila Sessiliflora that I'll plant when I do my first water change since I got the shrimp. I'm going to do a 25% water change as this seems to be what people online recommend. e: Went to a different store, got two nerites! A zebra and an onion/tiger. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Nov 21, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2018 23:12
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HOW ARE MY AXOLOTL EGGS HATCHING ALREADY IT'S BEEN A loving WEEK! I thought I had another week at least! gently caress, hatching bbs tonight. Fun fact: the eggs I have in a floater are hatching. The ones in a tote on the floor with less air so far, nada.
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Nov 21, 2018 03:57
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w00tmonger posted:Staghorn algae. Currently dealing with this in a new tank, and have dealt in the past. Hm, thanks. I've been using Excel consistently for a while (not directly on the algae but just in general) but stopped as it didn't seem to be helping anything. Also it's pretty much all over my 40 gallon so spot treatment may not be a good option anymore without using enough to poison the tank. I'm not using CO2 otherwise. I do know that my tap water is high in iron and I read that staghorn likes iron, so that may be making my problem more difficult. It's been 101 days since I first put water in the tank so I think I really should be past the settling-in phase by now. But still the diatoms keep coming.
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Nov 21, 2018 20:43
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Mozi posted:Hm, thanks. I've been using Excel consistently for a while (not directly on the algae but just in general) but stopped as it didn't seem to be helping anything. Also it's pretty much all over my 40 gallon so spot treatment may not be a good option anymore without using enough to poison the tank. I'm not using CO2 otherwise. I do know that my tap water is high in iron and I read that staghorn likes iron, so that may be making my problem more difficult. Floating plants will help with iron in there too. They get nutrients from the water column and can grow fast
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Nov 21, 2018 21:08
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Oh yeah I've got water lettuce and, unfortunately, duckweed that snuck in somehow. I pull a bunch of it out every few days.
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Nov 21, 2018 22:21
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So, my plants will be arriving before my tank (which was delayed despite me getting prime shipping from Amazon). Most of them are tissue cultured. How can I store them safely? Will they be okay?
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Nov 23, 2018 03:44
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Aerofallosov posted:So, my plants will be arriving before my tank (which was delayed despite me getting prime shipping from Amazon). Most of them are tissue cultured. How can I store them safely? Will they be okay? They should be good for weeks of they're properly packaged, just keep them somewhere dry/not cold. The Tropica plants at least are good for a couple weeks in their packaging. I found both my idiot nerites upside down with hatchdoors closed yesterday morning after one of them had been super active and another one had been just moving slowly in a small area. I righted them but they haven't moved in a day. They don't smell like anything right now but I guess we'll see. They were only upside down for like 7-8 hours maximum so I find it hard to believe they died so early and I know the tank params are good. Guess we'll see. My shrimp are still doing quite well and are active around the tank again which I means either they hosed with the snails and now feel comfortable with them or they're just used to it. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 04:15
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I think earlier in the thread someone's nerite was on the floor for that long and it came good after going back into water, fingers crossed yours will be okay.
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Nov 23, 2018 04:40
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Stoca Zola posted:I think earlier in the thread someone's nerite was on the floor for that long and it came good after going back into water, fingers crossed yours will be okay. Yeah I just did another smell test at basically the 36hr mark of them not moving. Still no smell. Their hatches are held closed as well. Maybe they're just scared of my shrimp (which by the way are doing well). I raised my filter up today and have it cascading about an inch before hitting the water to hopefully introduce a little more aeration to the tank since I don't have any air lines. Seems to be working well with a fair few bubbles and the shrimp aren't bothered by it. The limnophila sessiliflora looks great and hopefully thrives now that I'm doing intelligent things with my macro/ferts. Is it common to have a tank be above room temp? I suppose from the exothermic reactions being performed by the bacteria and live plants? The light is an LED so it won't be heating the water, which is at 73F compared to the 70-71F room air. You can see the new plant in the front next to the immobile tiger nerite:  From my reading those curled leaves on the anubia means it's getting too much light. I moved some amazon swords over right beside them where they should in theory provide some shade. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 05:12
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Thanks, I'm so excited. I have some established filter media and SafeStart. With ammonia and plants, and seachem prime, how long should a fishless/invertless cycle go? I'm also trying to find a source that isn't aquatic arts for nerite snails. I'm not in a super rush, since I haven't decided if I want shrimp or a betta in the 5 gallon anyway.
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Nov 23, 2018 10:48
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So recently we moved house and discovered that the previous owners had left behind their aquarium. Along with all their fish. Exhibit A It's a pretty hefty tank and there's seven fancy goldfish inside of varying sizes and shapes, along with two much smaller fish that just seem to hide under the scenery. At first I thought, "oh no they've forgotten their fish" but upon closer inspection they've left us all the necessary gear to take care of them along with a note about how often to feed them, clean the tank, and so forth.  Exhibit B The thing is, we bought a house, not a house and pets, and leaving us with this situation was a real dick move on their part if I'm being brutally honest. Because we're already on a bit of a tight budget for redecorating and that never included the cost of moving a huge aquarium and rehoming a bunch of fish. I've never kept fish before, indoors or otherwise, so any advice would be appreciated. If anyone wants the aquarium and/or the fish, you'd better live in the UK because that's where it is. If you do, then I'm open to offers.
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Nov 23, 2018 12:33
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Aerofallosov posted:Thanks, I'm so excited. I have some established filter media and SafeStart. With ammonia and plants, and seachem prime, how long should a fishless/invertless cycle go? If you've got established media (aka cycled media), you are good to put things in right now. Its not the tank that cycles, its the media in the filter. If it is cycled, make sure to feed it some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive!
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Nov 23, 2018 12:58
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Fuego Fish posted:The thing is, we bought a house, not a house and pets, and leaving us with this situation was a real dick move on their part if I'm being brutally honest. Because we're already on a bit of a tight budget for redecorating and that never included the cost of moving a huge aquarium and rehoming a bunch of fish. What they've left you is about 1000 dollars worth of tank, equipment and livestock. Even if you can't find someone to buy it off you for that price, you can absolutely find someone who will come and haul all of it away for you for free.
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Nov 23, 2018 13:57
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Yeah, I'd suggest searching Facebook for local aquarium groups and post about it there. From the picture it looks like the tank and stand were both on the higher end of things and still in very good condition. Hard to gauge size, but looks like maybe 75g or so? Where I am you could get someone to come over and give you probably $250-400 range to take all of it off your hands. e: if you can measure the length width and height of just the tank (not the stand) we could probably give you a bit more info e2: actually, looks like this is probably that exact tank: http://amzn.eu/d/3XlGT9Z Enos Cabell fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 16:50
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Yeah those Boyu tanks are super spendy around here, and if that's a 3D background those aren't cheap either. I don't think much of the filter but it looks like a mature and kind of healthy tank just the same. I can't imagine leaving all that behind unless it was just too heavy or just not possible to fit in the new place either due to size or weight. I've found fish to be surprisingly rewarding pets to keep but absolutely that isn't something that should be forced on anyone and I don't blame you for not wanting the responsibility. It doesn't look like any of the plants are real (except for the algae) which makes care of the tank a little easier, in the short term just try not to feed the fish too much and change in fresh treated water in accordance to whatever instructions you were left. I think your best bet for getting rid of it is rehoming or selling the fish, then emptying out the tank (no cleaning products!) so that it's easier and more tempting for someone to come and get. A full set up is a bit of a daunting purchase I think! I think the fish keeping scene is a lot more active in the UK than it is here so I think you might be able to offload it for some cash. It really does blow my mind that it got left behind on purpose; what kind of fruitloop thinks their pets are part of the house? edit: I think that looks like a Boyu LZ series if that helps you pinpoint value - but used value is always way less than purchase price; maybe the people tried to sell it before they left but couldn't attract buyers due to being too unrealistic with what they were asking. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 16:54
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Thanks for all the advice everyone, and yeah I've got nothing against fish in principle or anything, we're just on a tight budget and we didn't factor in having to take care of someone else's pets. I'll take some close-up glamour shots of all the fish and some more of the tank/equipment and see if I can't find a Facebook group for the local area. Maybe selling this thing will help with that tight budget in the short term, as well as letting us finally get around to repainting the walls.
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Nov 23, 2018 18:28
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RE: nerites: I’ve had bad luck with nerites that have been around for a few weeks just suddenly dropping off the glass like that; all three times it’s happened I’ve given them days to recover and all three times they were actually dead. I don’t know what the problem is, as my water parameters are stable, but its kinda upsetting because I really like those lil guys.
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Nov 23, 2018 18:46
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Luneshot posted:RE: nerites: I’ve had bad luck with nerites that have been around for a few weeks just suddenly dropping off the glass like that; all three times it’s happened I’ve given them days to recover and all three times they were actually dead. I don’t know what the problem is, as my water parameters are stable, but its kinda upsetting because I really like those lil guys. Yeah I threw mine out today, they still hadn't moved and I think had a little odor. Really don't understand what happened there but I don't really want to stress about righting them all the time so I don't expect I'll get more.
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Nov 23, 2018 20:59
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