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Aerofallosov posted:So I want some scrimps and nerites in my fluval spec V. But the center of the lid has a hole under the light. Could I use saran wrap or clear plastic canvas to plug the gap? I've got dwarf crays in my Spec V and the only losses I've had are ones that went into the filter through the slots, and either got trapped and died or grew bigger while in the filter section and then escaped while I was trying to net them out. If blocking the slots to make it safe for shrimplets I'd recommend attaching mesh or sponge to the front rather than trying to block from the back side of the slots. I tried using a piece of mesh behind and it became a death trap, once they were already in the slots they couldn't get out. Less harmful to just let them go in and live in the filter zone than create pinch points where they became trapped.
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Dec 7, 2018 05:15
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Is it normal to have quite a bit of granular brown algae (diatom?) in the filter? I squeeze mine out in the siphoned-out water when I do changes and it always seems like tons. I have only the one filter, theres no prefilter.
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Dec 7, 2018 05:20
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Are you sure that's not just clumps of filter bacteria? Thats the stuff you want.
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Dec 7, 2018 05:23
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It very well could be but it's almost like very fine sand, the way it looks in the bucket. I would have thought beneficial bacteria doesn't really have a color or am I wrong?
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Dec 7, 2018 05:54
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That begs a question. I've been noticing this black guck building up on my filters. It doesn't really stink or anything, its just slimy and gross. I clear it because it clogs up the flow but I'm not sure what to do with it since I don't know if its good or bad. In the most recent case I put it in a new filter I attached to my 20 G to try and cycle it for the 5 G when I decide to set it up (although I'm loving how much cleaner the tank seems with the second filter so I might just get a new one for the 5 G). I figured if it was good it would help and if it was bad it would be a workout for the new filter.
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Dec 7, 2018 06:29
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The bacteria forms a biofilm in a sponge filter, you'll get detritus worms, paramecium and other tiny dudes, varying bacteria not just the ones you want, and it's all fine until it builds up to the point where it impedes flow. You want to clean enough gunk off to allow flow but not so much that the sponge is clean. In comparison, ceramic media has tiny pores which are small enough to exclude most of the bigger tiny life and provide an environment more suited to just bacteria and it's important that these pores don't get clogged. And if you want clean bacteria nothing else, you use a moving bed filter, as the bits of media bang against each other and only the strongest bacteria remain attached. Probably the least efficient type of filter for bacteria per volume but it will never clog and the only maintenance required is the removal of anything that settles to the bottom. Because bacteria can produce sticky films, they tend to clump and look like bigger particles if left to settle. The thick slimy black stuff is probably organic waste that is breaking down - literal poops, rotted leaves etc. It is a good source of all that bacteria and life that is good to have in a healthy tank, kind of like aquatic compost. One of my dirted tanks that I set up, I collected a bunch of that black gunk from my other tanks and put a layer of it under the sand layer. I don't know if it helped!
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Dec 7, 2018 07:32
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VelociBacon posted:Should probably [timg ] those images! FWIW I checked and no, there are no shrimp. Also I checked online and cherry shrimp are not known escape artists, unlike bamboo shrimp. My only other theory was that they were eating each other, but given the low numbers and that I feed Bacter AE and some fry food daily it seems unlikely.
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Dec 7, 2018 19:49
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Stoca Zola posted:The bacteria forms a biofilm in a sponge filter, you'll get detritus worms, paramecium and other tiny dudes, varying bacteria not just the ones you want, and it's all fine until it builds up to the point where it impedes flow. You want to clean enough gunk off to allow flow but not so much that the sponge is clean. In comparison, ceramic media has tiny pores which are small enough to exclude most of the bigger tiny life and provide an environment more suited to just bacteria and it's important that these pores don't get clogged. And if you want clean bacteria nothing else, you use a moving bed filter, as the bits of media bang against each other and only the strongest bacteria remain attached. Probably the least efficient type of filter for bacteria per volume but it will never clog and the only maintenance required is the removal of anything that settles to the bottom. Because bacteria can produce sticky films, they tend to clump and look like bigger particles if left to settle. I'll take a photo or video next time I do it but it just seems like a ton of whatever it is. I also wonder if my heavily planted tank with 4 shrimp even generates enough ammonia to keep itself cycled.
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Dec 7, 2018 19:52
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Modifying the existing Fluval Spec V lid is simply done. I have little ability and did it without access to actual tools. Or creating a regular screen lid. I'd def. suggest an alternative to the stock, as i had two amano escape prior to repairs.  
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Dec 8, 2018 18:39
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I found a tiny fish child unexpectedly in my panda cory tank just now! He's so tiny I can scarcely believe he's real, especially after so long with nothing prior to warn me it could happen. I got a picture!
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Dec 9, 2018 17:56
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Oh my gosh, what a cutie. Hi Jr fish!
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Dec 9, 2018 18:09
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You folks know of any good spot to buy plants online? I'm trying to setup a 10 gallon planted betta tank and I don't have many options here besides petco or petsmart, and their plants mostly look crappy. Would love to find like a 3 or 4 pack variety deal or something. Also, are there decent mail order betta options? Again, don't want to support the big crappy stores if I don't have to... thanks!
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Dec 9, 2018 19:53
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sexy tiger boobs posted:You folks know of any good spot to buy plants online? I'm trying to setup a 10 gallon planted betta tank and I don't have many options here besides petco or petsmart, and their plants mostly look crappy. Would love to find like a 3 or 4 pack variety deal or something. Find a local fish/aquarium supply place and you should be able to get whatever you want from there (including Bettas). Remember that you need to get a tank cycled first (using ammonium and quick start bacteria) before adding a fish or your fish will be swimming in ammonia with it burning it's gills and poo poo.
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Dec 9, 2018 19:56
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sexy tiger boobs posted:You folks know of any good spot to buy plants online? I'm trying to setup a 10 gallon planted betta tank and I don't have many options here besides petco or petsmart, and their plants mostly look crappy. Would love to find like a 3 or 4 pack variety deal or something. If you really don't have a local fish place (that doesn't suck), Aquarium Co-op is a decent place to get plants online. I wouldn't buy a fish mail order unless there was absolutely no other option. Just get one at PetSmartCo.
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Dec 9, 2018 21:40
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I adore buceplant. I got some great tissue cultured ones, so I don't gotta worry about snails and algae. They also have pretty good shipping and prices.
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Dec 10, 2018 02:58
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Tissue culture is a good option, it ships well and while the plants are small you get a lot per pot. I've had 6 or 7 anubias Nana petite in a pot, 12 crypts, and even in a browned out well past it's use by pot of Monte Carlo I got a good number of plantlets. If you want bigger plants it's not a good option but if you have time to let stuff grow in, it's great.
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Dec 10, 2018 03:19
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AVOID AZ Gardens. You have been warned. I would sooner set my money on fire than ever order from them again.
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Dec 10, 2018 03:38
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I picked up three Tropica packaged mini pots from a local store and they've all been fantastic.
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Dec 10, 2018 03:51
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I have bought plants from these guys: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/ he also has a youtube channel which is how i found him. The plants were fine and are alive to this very day. e: i was beaten!!
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Dec 10, 2018 04:35
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Got my API Master freshwater kit in and immediately dropped one of the (really nice feeling) test vials. gently caress. Also kinda surprised that it doesn't test GH/KH? Is there a good liquid test kit for those or do people just use TDS and strips and try to make an informed guess?
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Dec 10, 2018 05:47
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Thanks for all the guidance! Don't worry I know about cycling, I wanna get some plants in there first and go from there.
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Dec 10, 2018 06:19
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Stoca Zola posted:OMG Siochain that's so awful and frustrating and sad. Thanks. I don't know what it was - I did a water change on my 55 at the same time, and nothing wrong there, so I don't think the water. I'm not sure if I disturbed something or what, but from 14 adult guppies last week I now have 1 left alive. And about 50 goddamn fry, who are happily out and about now with next to no adults to predate on them. So I don't see parameters being a factor, given that I think fry would die well before adults? I'm really lost on this one. Been doing constant small water changes, but its still one fish every 12 hours or so. So by the time I get home I'm expecting no surviving adults. And my monte carlo isn't taking, and the stem plants I bought look like poo poo, and I'm basically really frustrated with this tank right now hahah.
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Dec 10, 2018 13:13
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Besides buceplant and Aquarium Co-Op, I've ordered a bunch of stuff from aquaticarts.com - good selection and shipping, etc, but I usually have some minor issue with every order, they're easy to work with to fix but it's kind of annoying.VelociBacon posted:Got my API Master freshwater kit in and immediately dropped one of the (really nice feeling) test vials. gently caress. API makes a GH/KH kit, though I usually use the test strips because they're so much faster.
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Dec 10, 2018 15:24
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They are faster, but less accurate. Also I've kind of avoided aquatic arts because they import their shrimp and have that weird, green fungusy disease in a lot of them. I honestly just bought a beginner's pack from buce plant, and some extras I liked. I finally have the green wavy buceph of my dreams and a crypt wendtii gecko!
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Dec 10, 2018 22:34
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The fish saga is drawing to a close. I have taken all the big ones to a local aquatics store so they can be rehomed to someone who knows what the gently caress they are doing. Getting them out was a loving chore because of how big the tank is and how short the handles on the nets are. The two small ones (the "mystery fish" aka the dwarf chain loaches) evaded capture and so I am going to try and send them off when I can actually grab the little fuckers. I have no idea how I am going to manage that without draining the tank at least halfway. They are so tiny and nimble, and I am a huge ill-coordinated clod.
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Dec 11, 2018 12:20
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That is the exact correct method for catching tiny fast fish. You get as big a net as you can, drain the water low enough so that the net sticks out and the fish can't go over or under. With loaches I suspect you might be able to trick them by putting food in the net as bait; not sure if dwarf chains are as food oriented as I've experienced my yoyos to be, but I've definitely had success catching greedy fish with this method before. Otherwise you just hold one net still and try to herd the fish into it either with your hand or a second net, after taking out anything that could act as cover for them. If you're lucky they'll think of the net as a good place to hide and zoom in.
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Dec 11, 2018 13:08
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Aerofallosov posted:They are faster, but less accurate. True, but other than when you're setting everything up or have some specific problem, you're far more likely to dip a test strip in every now and then just to get a basic health check than you are to run through the entire API test kit. If you have some suspicion then the API kit is definitely more accurate, but the vast majority of the time I just want a basic sense of nitrate levels and to make sure the other parameters haven't gone crazy for some reason and the strips are fine for that. In my experience. quote:Also I've kind of avoided aquatic arts because they import their shrimp and have that weird, green fungusy disease in a lot of them. Hm - I don't recall ever seeing that, but I did notice that some yellow shrimp I got from them had very high mortality in transit, where other critters in the same shipment were fine. Mozi fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 14:43
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Looking for some advice on a fish-adjacent question... I've been using this brine shrimp hatchery dealie for a while now and it works great. However, the optimal temps for these critters to hatch are around 80 degrees F, and being the winter now, my house is in the mid-60s generally. This is greatly reducing my hatch rates. I thought if I could get some sort of warming plate to keep it on that might be an efficient way to keep it warmer, but I can't find anything appropriate. I don't want an actual hot plate as those would be way too hot and I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping it on 24/7. And I don't want to spend $400+ on some piece of laboratory equipment. Anybody have any suggestions?
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Dec 13, 2018 22:13
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Salt thread has been dead forever, so I'm just gonna post a couple pics here of the group of square spot anthias I'm going to pick up tomorrow afternoon.  
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Dec 13, 2018 22:42
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My first thought was one of those little coffee cup warmers but those all look too hot.
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Dec 13, 2018 22:44
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Mozi posted:Looking for some advice on a fish-adjacent question... Have you done a temperature check on the space on top of your refrigerator? Heat vents out the back to keep the inside cool, so it's often a little warmer than the general air temperature up there. Any space near the ceiling will be a little warmer than near the floor, but the fridge coils give it an extra boost. edit: You could also look for Seedling Heat Mats. They don't have a set temperature and instead just warm things 10-20 degrees above ambient. They are meant to be left running 24/7 for months. example: https://www.amazon.com/iPower-Waterproof-Seedling-Hydroponic-Standard/dp/B01E9IO87O/ Facebook Aunt fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Dec 13, 2018 |
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Dec 13, 2018 22:53
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Mozi posted:Looking for some advice on a fish-adjacent question... In addition to the heating pad for seedlings home brewing has a few options for keeping your fermenter warm over winter. There’s either a pad type option or a belt that goes around the vessel.
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Dec 13, 2018 23:11
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I've seen betta bowl warmers that are a similar heat mat style of thing that goes under the betta bowl, I'd imagine they're similar to the seedling mat but maybe a smaller size? I've always just used my light source as my heat source but it's not super reliable (and winter here is mild). Hey Enos is that group of anthias a harem arrangement? Or will you get more than one male?
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Dec 14, 2018 01:48
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Stoca Zola posted:Hey Enos is that group of anthias a harem arrangement? Or will you get more than one male? Yup, will be a harem! They do best either solo, or 1m to 3-4f. They are hermaphroditic as well, so if I were to get just the 3 females the dominant one would transition to male. This group is young enough that the male hasn't developed his square spot yet, it will look like this as he matures: 
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Dec 14, 2018 01:53
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Facebook Aunt posted:edit: You could also look for Seedling Heat Mats. They don't have a set temperature and instead just warm things 10-20 degrees above ambient. They are meant to be left running 24/7 for months. Oh, yeah! I actually have some seedling mats. Thanks! Stoca Zola posted:I've seen betta bowl warmers that are a similar heat mat style of thing that goes under the betta bowl, I'd imagine they're similar to the seedling mat but maybe a smaller size? I've always just used my light source as my heat source but it's not super reliable (and winter here is mild). Looks like you're referring to something like this https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCKA Mozi fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Dec 14, 2018 |
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Dec 14, 2018 03:39
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I got my betta! He's so sweet and chill. He hasn't flared at anything once. But he loves coming up to me when I watch the tank, begging for treats and sitting in leaves. I need to name him, though.
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Dec 14, 2018 05:34
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Aerofallosov posted:I got my betta! He's so sweet and chill. He hasn't flared at anything once. But he loves coming up to me when I watch the tank, begging for treats and sitting in leaves. I need to name him, though. Mine is too. I’ve got some pothos In the tank and he just hangs out on them all day long. However find a mirror and he will.
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Dec 14, 2018 21:36
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Fuego Fish posted:The two small ones (the "mystery fish" aka the dwarf chain loaches) evaded capture and so I am going to try and send them off when I can actually grab the little fuckers. I have no idea how I am going to manage that without draining the tank at least halfway. They are so tiny and nimble, and I am a huge ill-coordinated clod. There is about 2cm of water left in the tank and I still can't catch these loving things because they can wiggle under the 3D backdrop (which is superglued to the tank) and hide there. I have more or less resigned myself to the fact these fish are going to die from their own skittish nature. The tank itself is so loving heavy and even with three of us we can't carry it, so getting it out of the house even into the back yard or something is not going to happen. Without a guaranteed sale I don't want to spend money on getting it shifted but oh my loving God I just want to be rid of this expensive albatross around my loving neck.
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Dec 15, 2018 17:31
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When I bought my 5 foot tank (around 125 gallons, 450 lt, who knows) I had no idea how we were going to get it into the house. The dude from the aquarium shop drove it over by himself, on a trailer on the back of his car. He got it off the trailer by himself, sacktrucked it into the house and got it into the loungeroom with no assistance and without breaking anything or hurting himself. It took four of us to lift the glass on to the stand once we had the stand assembled. A few experienced dudes would be able to handle it but I'm starting to think there's a pretty good reason why the tank was still in your house when you got there, I can't imagine anyone leaving it unless they had already gone through all of what you're going through without finding any way to succeed. I wonder if there are any of those glass suction cup lifting handles you could rent from a removalist, or whether they'd even be strong enough for a heavy fish tank? My last idea for catching the fish would be a bottle trap (which might mean putting some water back into the tank); use some kind of well rinsed plastic beverage container with a neck opening wide enough for the fish to pass through and a coneshaped or otherwise angled top, take off the lid, cut the top cone plus a little more off, shove it back into the main body of the bottle upside down, then drop some food as bait into the bottle. You're aiming for something like this:  You don't want to leave it in the tank too long in case the fish become distressed inside the bottle; but once they're in you can get them into a bucket or your fish transport container of choice. I can't imagine loaches not investigating a hole, or chasing food. But who knows! Good luck.
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Dec 15, 2018 18:25
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I've tried food but there are just far too many holes in the backdrop for them to hang out in. We literally tried tipping the thing forward about 40 degrees so all the water drained to the front of the tank but maybe they sank their teeth into the loving thing because they didn't come with it. The air pump has been disconnected for hours now, I had assumed I could just lift them out, they're probably on their last non-legs by now  Feels really lovely but I didn't know the backdrop had tiny caves in it. I thought they'd been hiding in the fake plants this whole time.
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Dec 15, 2018 19:07
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