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Ok, once my new filter is cycled i'll put the pumps on a timer ( its the bubbles not the pump) and if anything goes wrong i will sue lowtax
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Jan 31, 2019 16:04
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If it's the bubbles that bother you you could try cutting a circular piece of plastic with a hole in the middle and put the airline tubing through that so it sits on top of the water above the sponge filter and keeps the bubbles from popping/splashing. Like so: 
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Jan 31, 2019 16:21
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What's a good heater to slot in the back of my 16 gallon Fluval Spec? Apparently the Fluval brand heaters aren't supposed to be fully submerged which seems dumb given their tank design.
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Jan 31, 2019 18:25
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I've used Cobalt NeoTherm heaters which seem good.
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Jan 31, 2019 20:05
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The Cobalt NeoTherms are good. My Hyodr is doing great, too and is submersible. Hyodr's nice if you're on a budget.
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Jan 31, 2019 23:24
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Hey goons. I’m hoping someone can help with two things as I learn this hobby. After watching king of diy shell dweller video I went and bought five sunspot brevis as minnows on aquabid November 2017. I’m waiting around for them to dig more and make more Shellie’s but nothing much is happening. They do dig sometimes but nothing crazy. And they mostly chase each other around the 20 gallon long. Any ideas on when they reach maturity? Or markers to identify gender? Other question is below these. Here’s a few shots of the crew. One is hiding in his shell so only 4/5 pictured.   This guy is kinda the tank bully at timesThe next bit is the runt from the group developed this glossy eye thing. I’m guessing Either it went blind or I’m a lovely owner somehow. I do weekly water changes of about 25% and once monthly of 50% and poop clean up during those changes. I use seacheem prime as well. Anything I should do? 
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Feb 1, 2019 01:23
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Ever thought about adding some plants to the tank? Might help keep the water clean and the fish happy.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:43
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VelociBacon posted:Ever thought about adding some plants to the tank? Might help keep the water clean and the fish happy. I’ve got two pothos hanging on the side. I can be wrong here so from my understanding of their tanks via YouTube videos Shellie’s don’t really have plants as they move the sand so much. Can be wrong there though.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:48
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MasterControl posted:I’ve got two pothos hanging on the side. I can be wrong here so from my understanding of their tanks via YouTube videos Shellie’s don’t really have plants as they move the sand so much. It's more likely that I'm wrong I just saw what looked like a pretty sparse tank.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:53
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MasterControl posted:I’ve got two pothos hanging on the side. I can be wrong here so from my understanding of their tanks via YouTube videos Shellie’s don’t really have plants as they move the sand so much. You could have plants like anubias or java, for example. Those attach to objects rather than get planted.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:15
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By the looks of the filter guard sponge in the background, it's got a real gray coating to it which could be fungus. With poor water quality I've seen fungus come and go on the eyes of some of my fish, your water change schedule seems fine but maybe you've over-fed at some point which let fungus take hold? Hard to tell just from one pic, your substrate looks clean enough. Lake Tanganyika doesn't have many plants so the fish won't miss them. I've heard pothos is so effective at using up nutrients that it stops algae from growing and that might mean there isn't anywhere in the tank where infusoria type critters, that would be food for fry, to live. I'm thinking you should have seen some breeding activity by now if you have a mix of males and females, I think one of the easiest indicators is size, the males should be bigger than the females so your runt might be a solitary female, and with a bad eye she might not feel much like breeding. Another reason they might not breed is if they aren't getting rich enough food. I tend to feed my fish live food where possible when I want them to breed, but frozen works too. What are you feeding these dudes? I haven't ever kept neolamprologus myself, or any Africans for that matter so this is all just guessing based on stuff I've seen online. Edit: there is some fuzz on the rock in the top pic too. Is that algae or fungus? If you aren't using Lake Tang salts in your change water it might help to do so, even if your water is naturally hard it might not be hard enough or the right minerals for their needs, that's about the only other think I can think of that might need tweaking. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 02:17
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Never kept brevis, but I had a large colony of multifasciatus for a year or so until a heater malfunction cooked the tank overnight. Judging from the pics it looks like you got unlucky and have a group of all males, and they are as big as they are gonna get. For comparison, I started with a group of 10ish in a 40g and they were breeding like crazy within 2 months. Do you ever shake out the shells when you do water changes? Those things are magnets for collecting detritus. Looking at the eye on the one and the fuzz on the shells I think it's a water quality issue. I never kept plants, but cleaning the shells regularly was pretty vital for keeping the tank water parameters in check.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:35
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Mozi posted:I've used Cobalt NeoTherm heaters which seem good. NeoTherm is a little spicy for my wallet and what I'll be keeping in the tank. How is the Erheim Jager? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SNO8VS/ref=twister_B00TQZ7G7K?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 Also for 16 gallons should I get a 75w or 50w? It's on the line and I don't know which one will be more power efficient or better for the tank in the long run.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:46
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Enos Cabell posted:Never kept brevis, but I had a large colony of multifasciatus for a year or so until a heater malfunction cooked the tank overnight. Judging from the pics it looks like you got unlucky and have a group of all males, and they are as big as they are gonna get. For comparison, I started with a group of 10ish in a 40g and they were breeding like crazy within 2 months. Thanks for all the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I've put down some issues to over feeding. I do a small pinch once in the morning and night and my fear was maybe stuff is left. However they seem to eat it all so I didn't quite get why i'd find a bit of food in the tank. Regardless that was going to be my first move and just do one a day. The food is tetra cichilid chips which I vaguely remember reading is ok for tang shellies. I had a bunch more shells in there but found that food got stuck in them so I removed a bunch last week and did a massive water change and just removed a few more to keep it pretty sparse until I figure things out. The two plants are just a few leaves on each one so not too huge. I've always had them in the tank and they seem to do ok enough growing leaves fairly quickly. The fungus thing is interesting because it's not fluffy or big splotches of fluffy which I would have put together as some kind of mold or fungus. They're just more like..leftover stuff from a water stain because new jersey water probably sucks. I'm not sure how to describe that but since i have no idea it probably is fungus. Do you guys recommend doing a few big water changes to get this mold under control? I do have some aquarium salts I bought from amazon. I have pimafix as well. I've had my suspicions i've gotten all males but held out hope for the small one to be the lone female. I have a picture of it's underside as it oddly has never taken a shell whereas all the others have claimed one so sometimes it tends to be against the glass.
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Feb 1, 2019 03:36
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mango sentinel posted:NeoTherm is a little spicy for my wallet and what I'll be keeping in the tank. I have an eheim in my 30 and it's solid. No idea on wattage
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Feb 1, 2019 03:47
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The only thing with the Eheims is you have to calibrate it yourself, out of the box it isn't necessarily accurate but it's just a part you move at the top until the heat matches what a thermometer says. If I'm remembering correctly, that is. It mentions it in the manual but who bothers reading manuals especially for something simple like a heater? So far I'm really happy with the two Eheims I have.
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Feb 1, 2019 04:24
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One of my shrimp just molted during a water change. Looked away for a second then looked back and he had molted. Hope he'll be okay.
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Feb 1, 2019 19:29
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Sounds about normal to me, they pop out so fast I've only seen it in action a couple of times myself. It's when you see them struggle slowly out that it is more of a worry. A moulting shrimp is a growing shrimp, and a growing shrimp is usually a happy healthy shrimp. Was it a saddled female? If so, she might lay eggs soon!
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Feb 1, 2019 19:35
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Stoca Zola posted:Sounds about normal to me, they pop out so fast I've only seen it in action a couple of times myself. It's when you see them struggle slowly out that it is more of a worry. A moulting shrimp is a growing shrimp, and a growing shrimp is usually a happy healthy shrimp. Was it a saddled female? If so, she might lay eggs soon! Yeah I keep the TDS around 200-300 so they shouldn't have any issues popping out. I was just concerned because I know they're vulnerable after a change. I don't have any females right now - I had 4 males, one was fairly small and wasn't eating and died, the other 3 are thriving. They're also amano shrimp so I don't expect even with a female they'd lay eggs. Or they would but the eggs would just never hatch? I was thinking about getting a female when they're available at my local aquarium place in March. I worry though about having 3 male 1 female. I don't know that my tank can support 5 or I would do 3 male 2 female. I don't have any other livestock in there so maybe they could? I don't know.
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Feb 1, 2019 20:10
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I think there would be space and the bioload wouldn't be that high (although maybe you'd need to feed more). But I forgot you had amanos so yeah no point worrying about eggs or females. I think the shrimplets do hatch but then there's no appropriate food for them plus the salinity is wrong. From someone on Facebook who was raising them I think you've got a bit of time to get them into brackish water as normally they'd wash to the river mouth which takes a while. Then even if you transferred them in time I'm not sure exactly what they eat, might be greenwater or something else. Can't get amanos in Australia so I didn't bother paying too much attention apart from remembering that it is possible to raise them if you have the right set up.
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Feb 2, 2019 01:38
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So Weds night/early Thurs morning I got a ride to a Meijers and Walmart and decided since I'd done my groceries at Meijer I'd head on back and see if Walmart had anything special I could get for the fish. Not a lot there, they didn't even have Bettas anywhere. But they had some good lookin' Bala Sharks and some baby fancy goldfish and all for about 3 bucks a piece, so I figured what the hell. Got two each The Balas fit in right away, they like to school with the Emperor Tetras. They're really active and don't hesitate to eat. The goldfish are doing ok. One has an appetite like no other and spends his time hanging near the other or swimming through the vals. The other was a bit droopy after I got him home and kinda hid for a bit. Now he hovers in one corner only moving to go eat, so I'm hoping he's just a slower adjuster. They also had a butt load of Mollies which just broke my heart leaving them because they all huddled nearest they could to anyone that came near, but uhg, they breed like rabbits, the horny fuckers. They had some nice cory's too, but my tank isn't suited for bottom scroungers. One thing that did upset me though is those fish get no sleep cycle there. The lights are never off being 24/7 super markets
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Feb 2, 2019 13:38
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That's messed up. Stoca, I took a closer look at my otos and while I wasn't able to get a good picture I think I see what you are talking about, a little tiny thing sticking out. Think it's perfectly normal.
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Feb 3, 2019 00:54
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Thanks Mozi! Glad I don't have to worm a whole 5 foot tank. I emailed a pic to Wet Web Media as well, they have a crew of pretty experienced guys and the two replies I got were split between "not sure but think it's normal or at least not harmful" and "looks bad better dose dewormer". So I think it's maybe not something widely known about otos. I know angelfish at least have breeding tubes so maybe it's something like that. I found a video someone filmed of some otos breeding and didn't see anything like it, video gets clearer after the start. It's pretty cool to watch, they seem to do a combo of a T pose like a cory, and curving around each other like a betta. So a T with a droopy top. And the female is hugely fat with eggs, I'm not so worried about my fat oto now. I moved my rasboras and kuhlies into their planted tank last night and managed to lose one temporarily; I had them all in the bucket with some subwassertang to hide under but when I got to the stage of netting out the last few loaches it was in the way. So I tossed the subwassertang into the tank and then there was one kuhlie missing, and I didn't put 2 and 2 together to work out that it was most likely just in the plant when I moved it. Had a panic and searched the floor and everywhere and didn't find anything. I'm pretty sure I saw the "missing" loach in the tank later on though so hopefully all is well. It's the smallest one, the thickness is about the same but it's noticeably shorter than the other loaches so I knew which one I couldn't see and hadn't already moved.
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Feb 3, 2019 04:18
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Here's my tank cycling, I'm not sure how much cloud is sediment from insufficiently washing my sand and how much is bacterial bloom.   I just planted the mini renickii and hope it does well but I'm not holding my breath with stock lighting. I want some sword along the filter side, some moss or carpeting something on the driftwood. I want something to give cover to the underside and will probably use anubias nana for ease, but am open to anything more grassy. I'm trying to decide if I want more rocks to build a cave under the log or just buy one of those ceramic tube pyramids and concealing it with plants.
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Feb 3, 2019 05:13
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If I were you I’d do a large water change and stick some filter floss in the filter, should clear up after a couple of days.
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Feb 3, 2019 17:53
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Mozi posted:If I were you I’d do a large water change and stick some filter floss in the filter, should clear up after a couple of days. Thanks! I bought some polyfil while I was out buying the plants. I put it in a filter media bag, is it better to just stuff a few handfuls in there? I was concerned about it getting loose and spreading into the tank.
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Feb 3, 2019 18:01
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I use it loose, but it does get away sometimes depending on the filter and the floss. If you cut it rather than pulling lumps, or if you get it in sheets rather than lumps it's a bit easier to tame. It won't do it's job properly inside a media bag though. You want it to get nice and brown and sticky with biofilm and it will grab all kinds of particulates. Not sure how well that will work in such a new tank as there might not be a ton of the right kind of random sticky bacteria. I kind of think that looks more like bacterial bloom than physical particulate cloudiness but if it is the latter, seachem clarity will glue all those bits up and the floss will grab them out. Bacterial bloom you just have to wait it out or locate and remove the food source. Water changes alone will just give the bacteria more clean water to multiply into, while the foodsource is still around. What kind of sand is that anyway? It looks nice, a bit more natural than plain iron sand.
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Feb 3, 2019 18:23
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Fish will be arriving on Tuesday, knock on wood...
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Feb 3, 2019 21:38
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I have a 70 gallon rubbermaid stock tank, well its my second one. The first one has a bunch of goldfish in it and they are looking p. sweet. What should i put in this second one? I'm thinking a koi, but maybe there is a cooler fish, perhaps available on aqua bid dot com? I live in a medium-warm area of California, and I'm not opposed to running a heater.
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Feb 3, 2019 21:48
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Mozi posted:Fish will be arriving on Tuesday, knock on wood... Is that fully cycled? Looks fresh with the plants.
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Feb 3, 2019 21:50
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It's a couple weeks old and I started with some filter media from my other tank so it's fine in that respect. Put some of the plants (java moss, the red ones) in just a couple of days ago.
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Feb 3, 2019 21:56
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Stoca Zola posted:What kind of sand is that anyway? It looks nice, a bit more natural than plain iron sand. It's Seachem Flourite Black Sand. After a bit of a water change it was clear for a while and clouded back up so I'm certain it's just bacteria and not sediment, which is fine. I'm still trying to pick out a plant to go in a kind of curtain in front of the log. I want something that's like 3-4 inches tall and won't take over the tank. Ideally I want a medium sized grass between Val and Dwarf Sag but I dunno if that exists. I'm open to anything else that is bushy and tall enough to give a hide-y spot, but will probably default to some anubias nana if I can't find anything I'm into.
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Feb 4, 2019 01:11
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXy8c22C3V4
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Feb 6, 2019 13:56
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I hosed up and copped a betta I was halfway through the video before I even noticed the heater, this is a great scape. mango sentinel fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 14:12
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Looks great!
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Feb 6, 2019 14:25
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Thanks! Those rainbowfish are incredibly beautiful, in the right light this blue stripe on their back just glows with their eyes. Really amazing. BTW that pile of green in the left-middle is a bunch of buce glued onto this thing - idea being it would be a great place for fry to hide out inside there and the buce will eventually cover it all up.
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Feb 6, 2019 14:39
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mango sentinel posted:I hosed up and copped a betta Does the betta have a name yet? Are you putting it in the cycling tank? For a single fish in a planted tank of that size I think you could do a fish in cycle pretty safely (if somewhat slowly). I keep looking at bettas myself but I don't have the tank space for one right now. Mozi that tank of yours turned out awesome, the pseudomugils really pop against the dark substrate and dark background. The apistos are a bit smaller than I thought they would be, are they still growing? How do they like their tankmates do you think?
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Feb 6, 2019 15:31
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I think so, I know the males get big mouths when they age and I'm not seeing that yet, so probably pretty young. It's funny, they get along fine, but sometimes one of the apistos will be checking out the ground and all the rainbows will come and hover around it. Gotta be something interesting over here! Edit: this video shows off that blue stripe the rainbowfish have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roi29h7Ft_A Mozi fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 7, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 16:52
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Stoca Zola posted:Does the betta have a name yet? Are you putting it in the cycling tank? For a single fish in a planted tank of that size I think you could do a fish in cycle pretty safely (if somewhat slowly). I keep looking at bettas myself but I don't have the tank space for one right now. Her name is Garnet. Due to a mishap, our guppy Boyfriend is now a single stepfather to two dozen adorable babies. Garnet is in the 1.2 gallon tank we bought to treat the guppy mom. The guppies will be moving from their 5 to a 10 gallon and Garnet moving into the 5. Still planning for the 16 to be CPDs and kuhli loaches. Related, what's the earliest that we should take most of the new guppies back to an aquarium store?
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Feb 6, 2019 17:07
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I finally named my betta. Galaxy Yarn is a good swimmy boi. We're winning the battle on the diatoms, but I still seem to be a Christmas moss murderer. Maybe I'll try Java Moss....
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Feb 8, 2019 00:22
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