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Stoca Zola posted:holy moly 6-8 hours a day is fine for aquarium plants - what works fairly well is half the time in the morning, then the other half of the time in the evening, so you can see the fish when you are home and that gap in the middle disadvantages the algae without hurting the plants. Night mode is for you, not for the tank; I don't think anyone inside the tank will mind it being dark at night time. Ok thanks this is all still new for us. We've just been turning it to night mode when our kid goes to bed (her fish but of course I actually take care of it) and turning it on when we wake up. Didn't realize it was that bad.
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Sep 27, 2021 13:37
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Is seachem flourish the fertilizer stuff I'd want?
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Sep 27, 2021 13:39
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VelociBacon posted:This looks fantastic and super natural. Good work! Thanks! I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Learned a lot from my last few attempts at a heavily planted tank, so trying to avoid most of the same mistakes.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:18
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Chin Strap posted:Is seachem flourish the fertilizer stuff I'd want? It's close at least and you can probably just use that and get away with it. If I sound reserved it's because it's recommended by seachem to supplement iron, phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium on top of the flourish. I'm in Canada but assuming you're in the US I'd get that pump based fert that the youtube guy makes. Other people in here will know what I'm talking about but I can't remember his name and I'm actually at work right now and can't look. I think that fert is more designed to be an all-in-one vs the flourish which is a most-in-one.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:21
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VelociBacon posted:It's close at least and you can probably just use that and get away with it. If I sound reserved it's because it's recommended by seachem to supplement iron, phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium on top of the flourish. Might be thinking of Thrive by Nilocg, that's what I'm using for ferts in my tank. https://www.nilocg.com/shop/thrive-all-in-one-liquid-fertilizer-aquarium-plants/
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Sep 27, 2021 14:31
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I have received some mini Nymphaea bulbs that were in storage for a while. They’re dry. Can they still be planted? I’ve only ever seen them for sale moist.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:39
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The aquarium co-op has a good one, named Easy Green or something similar. It's been working pretty well for me. And man, hillstream loaches are hard to get. Everyone's out of stock or alarmingly high prices.
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Sep 27, 2021 15:04
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I think if they aren't shrivelled up and woody, those bulbs should still be fine. They're the dry season form of seasonal plants after all, so I think if they feel firm, if they sink, if they don't smell weird, they should be good to go.
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Sep 27, 2021 15:06
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Aerofallosov posted:The aquarium co-op has a good one, named Easy Green or something similar. It's been working pretty well for me. I've been using Easy Green from Aquarium Coop for a few months now, and have had great success with it. Combined with their root tabs I've not really had any trouble with plant growth, even in low-tech tanks. edit: Anyone ever had issues with neocaridina eating fish eggs? I saw a few eyelash fry from my pseudomugil a few weeks ago, so I put a tray with a spawning mop in for them. Every time I pull it, I get dozens of eggs... but no hatches. Either they aren't getting fertilized or the baby shrimp inhabiting the mop are gobbling them up.
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Sep 27, 2021 17:21
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Cherry shrimp have been good egg nursemaids for Cory eggs for me in the past and my experience with pulling rainbow eggs off of egg mops suggests that those get a kind of shell on them too, even if it isn't as rigid as a Cory egg. So to my mind the eggs should be safe from shrimp. The guy I got my rainbows from told me the eggs fertilise best when laid in very soft water, there's something to do with the way they interact chemically when first touching water after being laid, I think they harden too fast to fertilise well if the water is too hard. I've managed to raise around 25 melanotaenia exquisita and the Rainbowfish book I have says pseudomugils are essentially the same to breed. It's on around page 94 if you want some details to help you get more successful breeding. https://www.rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Book.htm
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Sep 27, 2021 21:24
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Stoca Zola posted:Cherry shrimp have been good egg nursemaids for Cory eggs for me in the past and my experience with pulling rainbow eggs off of egg mops suggests that those get a kind of shell on them too, even if it isn't as rigid as a Cory egg. So to my mind the eggs should be safe from shrimp. The guy I got my rainbows from told me the eggs fertilise best when laid in very soft water, there's something to do with the way they interact chemically when first touching water after being laid, I think they harden too fast to fertilise well if the water is too hard. I've managed to raise around 25 melanotaenia exquisita and the Rainbowfish book I have says pseudomugils are essentially the same to breed. It's on around page 94 if you want some details to help you get more successful breeding. I read through before, but I don't recall the bit about soft water. I think I'm sort of boned on that front, my water is off-the-charts hard out of the tap. It's odd because I can see them frequently spawning, the male is definitely doing his dance and all that, but my hatch rates of the spawned eggs are basically zero. I've tried plucking the eggs individually and placing them in a breeder box, I've also tried moving the entire mop into the box to minimize handling. So far, neither has been particularly successful.
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Sep 27, 2021 22:10
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Happy Hedonist posted:Seafood is one of my favorite things in the world, but I have really mixed feelings about actually eating it. Mostly from watching mission blue, but also from associating them with pets. I compromise by only eating seafood if im on the coast and that hasn’t happened in years. Mission Blue was fantastic. Seaspiracy was also pretty good. A lot of people slammed it because it "had an agenda" but, yeah, there's no rule that documentaries have to play it down the middle at all times. As long as they aren't outright deceitful or just making stuff up, that's fine. The footage is what it is, and a lot of it is pretty horrific. DeadlyMuffin posted:No, but diving has. Seafood is one of the only things we eat that's taken from the wild rather than farms. Having been in those habitats I have a harder time eating things taken from them. I had a similar experience. I was at a reef/state park and a ball of abandoned fishing gear the size of a VW beetle washed up on shore. The lifeguard reacted like it was a normal occurrence. Also, I went diving with sharks and almost every single one of them had a hook in their mouths trailing some fishing line. Luneshot posted:Not really. That said, it starts to hit pretty different when you read stuff about crustaceans feeling pain and extend that to, for example, how lobsters are cooked. My cleaner shrimp clearly reacts to me when I come over to the tank. He/she sits in and climbs on my hands and is way more interactive than I expected a shrimp to be. And mantis shrimp, holy crap, they are very smart. Don't even get me started on octopusses. Anyways, thank for humoring me and sharing. It's a topic I find myself wrestling with more and more as I get older.
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Sep 27, 2021 22:51
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I've been messing around with trying to make a power head driven gravel vac and just can't quite get it to work as well as the hand vacs do. I was going to bite the bullet and finally get a Python to do my vacuuming, but YEESH they're like $90! I also haven't been able to find them anywhere locally. Anyone have thoughts on the Hygger one instead? It looks functionally the same but is only $40. I have some other Hygger products (nets and glass cleaning stuff) and they're pretty good but didn't want to spend $40 now just to end up spending $120 later (especially since I'm already in for $60 between the pump and hose I've already bought). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CXT5LP9/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_8PWWFTYG2XBHBGG90B1J?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
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Sep 27, 2021 22:54
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Schwack posted:I read through before, but I don't recall the bit about soft water. I think I'm sort of boned on that front, my water is off-the-charts hard out of the tap. Yeah the soft water advice came directly from the rainbow fish guy Dave Wilson, he breeds large scale for conservation purposes and has a fish that he discovered named after him so I believe he's got good info. I was in the same boat as you, seeing the very rare odd fry, until I changed it up. You only need soft water temporarily, for the adults to breed in and for the fry starting out and then they acclimate to harder water easily enough as they get bigger.
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Sep 28, 2021 05:26
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Stoca Zola posted:Yeah the soft water advice came directly from the rainbow fish guy Dave Wilson, he breeds large scale for conservation purposes and has a fish that he discovered named after him so I believe he's got good info. I was in the same boat as you, seeing the very rare odd fry, until I changed it up. You only need soft water temporarily, for the adults to breed in and for the fry starting out and then they acclimate to harder water easily enough as they get bigger. Think it would be enough to move just the eggs to softer water? They're spawning like crazy, so conditions seem to be otherwise favorable. Since they live in a community tank, getting them out can be a bit of a hassle, they're fast little buggers. I'm sort of flush with unused tanks at the moment. My sister got heavily into the hobby for ~a month and then gave all her purchases to me. I could probably set one up with tap cut with RO to create a softer environment for the eggs to hatch. edit: I finally got around to trimming the PSO in my 40 gallon. Plant grows like a drat weed and I love it. Had to make room for some amazon frogbit I bought last night. There's an 8-9" tall pile of PSO on my little work table and a similarly sized pile of guppy grass in the container up front. Please excuse the odd mix of plants in the tank, it's what I use to propagate everything I can get my hands on. 
Schwack fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 18:29
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Hey check out the cool pattern I got out of some of the breeding tub mix. The yellow stripy spotted guy by the sponge filter is my favorite.  And here's the new pressure I'm attempting to apply to the population.   I made sure to give plenty of caves and hiding places, and was happy to see one of them claim the castle immediately.
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Sep 29, 2021 02:11
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 My new aquarium! I'm so excited. 20 gallon long, blackwater, lots of plants. It's still cycling so no fish yet, but I threw in half a dozen ramshorn snails. There's some crystals and geodes for good vibes or whatever. In my other tank (where the algae issue is slowly resolving), I have one betta, one neon tetra, and one 9 year old kuhli loach. I'd like to move them over to the new tank eventually and get more tetras and loaches, but what I REALLY want is fancy little shrimp.
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Sep 29, 2021 03:09
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That's looking great! 20 longs always look really good to me, a good size slice of space with room to scape and room for territories for small fish without being too heavy or needing big filters. Schwack: I don't think moving the eggs to soft water will help as the critical time is exactly as they are being laid and fertilised. You might be able to slowly drop your tank gH by water changing with an RO mix, get more fertile eggs that way, then slowly go back to normal gH, if there isn't anything else in the tank that will be affected. Catching them is a nightmare, I had three pairs that I moved to a smaller tank for spawning and I think I hurt one of them getting her back into the big tank. Rainbows at least can be a bit fragile, as far as fish go they're a bit poorly designed. Fragile backbone for a fish of their size, a throat that narrows smaller than their mouths so they can get food in their mouths that they can't actually swallow, etc. Anyway I had trouble raising my odd fry too until I got the advice to keep them in fairly still water, and feed them on powdered up food that stays floating at the surface, they don't seem to eat from the water column that much when they are very small so when I had mine in breeder boxes the food kept sinking so they'd starve.
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Sep 29, 2021 08:24
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:
that looks so sick just good to make sure that those geodes aren’t sealed with anything toxic
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Sep 29, 2021 12:43
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I got the geodes cheap from some bulk seller at the gem and mineral show. They're barely polished, let alone coated with anything.
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Sep 29, 2021 13:26
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Does anyone know a good 1st time resource and store in the uk ? I’d like to get a small fish tank for our new house as my daughter is desperate for one, from the top post I thought a small group of tetras might be cool (plus she wants a family of fish ) but can’t find a decent uk store where could get stuff from, all the ones I find look a bit iffy
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Sep 29, 2021 18:22
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I don't know about actual stores but from the point of view of planning tank and equipment to support your chosen livestock, aqadvisor.com is still my favourite and I keep going back to seriouslyfish.com for their fish profiles. If you go into the store pre-armed with all the knowledge of what you want and need already, you won't get bamboozled by unscrupulous sales people who just want your money.
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Sep 29, 2021 21:06
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B33rChiller posted:Hey check out the cool pattern I got out of some of the breeding tub mix. The yellow stripy spotted guy by the sponge filter is my favorite. Awesome! The yellow stripy guy is a yellow tiger endler - they're so pretty! Mine ended up having orange shading in their tails and a touch of turquoise when they bred indiscriminately, and I think that made them even prettier.
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Sep 30, 2021 00:35
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I saw a listing for my loaches, but it's 8 for 100, 50 for shipping. 8 for 100 is a pretty good deal, but that shipping. Also, I'm not entirely sure I trust aquabid anyway. Those are some cute endler's.
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Sep 30, 2021 02:03
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Thanks for the info. My other favs are the guys who ended up with light blue iridescent tails. I have one that developed a large lyre tail, with melanophores along the margin of the tail, and has the yellow tiger pattern confined to his rather long and flowing dorsal fin. He has a dark spot at about the mid point of his body, and the front half is just plain shiny silver colour. I have him in my travel tub, along with some fry, so I can hopefully leave him with some virgin females (once the fry are developed enough to sex). The idea is to artificially select for his traits, and give him a leg up over the showy orange fellas in the main tank. ETA blueboy 
B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 02:10
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I've never kept fishes but I've been thinking about setting up a small tank to mess around with some (small) aquatic plants for a while. The spot I have in mind is only 13"x17"—as far as I can tell my options at that size are to buy a cube tank, make/buy something custom, or go gently caress myself. Am I looking in the wrong places or is that about right? And if it is, any particular recommendations for ~11-13" cubes (the one VelociBacon posted earlier this page looks pretty good, though it seems like most places ain't got none)?
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Sep 30, 2021 12:57
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Wallet posted:I've never kept fishes but I've been thinking about setting up a small tank to mess around with some (small) aquatic plants for a while. The spot I have in mind is only 13"x17"—as far as I can tell my options at that size are to buy a cube tank, make/buy something custom, or go gently caress myself. Am I looking in the wrong places or is that about right? if your focus is plants you could always make a container pond and put it on the floor in a corner somewhere the basic plants that you’d put/that would comfortably fit and thrive in a small starter planted aquarium aren’t really the kind that are super interesting from a horticulture standpoint (there’s only so much fun to be had with Anubias, Java fern, etc if you aren’t primarily into aquascaping or creating an environment for fish/etc), but a nice planter pond/bog garden can hold things like water lilies, lotuses, many kinds of sarracenias, bladderworts, etc. which seems a lot more your speed. Plus really small tanks are a pain to maintain parameters on wrt keeping showpiece plants looking good all the time. trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 13:40
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Ok Comboomer posted:the basic plants that you’d put/that would comfortably fit and thrive in a small starter planted aquarium aren’t really the kind that are super interesting from a horticulture standpoint (there’s only so much fun to be had with Anubias, Java fern, etc if you aren’t primarily into aquascaping or creating an environment for fish/etc), but a nice planter pond/bog garden can hold things like water lilies, lotuses, many kinds of sarracenias, bladderworts, etc. which seems a lot more your speed. I duno, there's something I like about tiny little plants. I would be approaching it more like an aquascape and if things went well putting some fish in eventually. That's part of why I'd prefer to find something with a little extra depth vs a cube if such a thing exists (which I don't think it does, at least not without sacrificing height). I made this thing last winter to fill the built-in thing for holding a cable box and poo poo that I don't use in my living room which is part of what made me want to mess around with aquascaping a little aquarium:      
Wallet fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 14:55
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Wallet posted:I duno, there's something I like about tiny little plants. I would be approaching it more like an aquascape and if things went well putting some fish in eventually. That's part of why I'd prefer to find something with a little extra depth vs a cube if such a thing exists (which I don't think it does, at least not without sacrificing height). What do you mean by “a little extra depth”? No reason you can’t take a bog-standard rimmed (dirt cheap) or rimless (pricier) 5-10-20 gal tank and orient it in the position that you want. Lots of hobbyists have their tanks oriented longways, if only so they can cram more of them together on a shelf, etc. More water volume will always be better. You’ll have more space to put poo poo and for stuff to grow in. The water parameters/dissolved compounds/pH/etc will remain more stable when you have more volume, and you’ll be less beholden to managing evaporation and topping up. You’ll have more wiggle room with neglecting the tank/going on trips/etc. A five-gallon tank that’s constantly fluctuating or having the water level rise and fall by more than 10% every few days or so is going to be much harder to keep looking pretty with nice healthy plants than a 10 or 20 gal with double/quadruple the buffer room If you’re dead-set on something pico-scale (5 gal or less) then definitely get a glass lid for it. Many of those kit/cube dealies already come with one and petco/etc sells ones that fit standard tank sizes for like ~$15 trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 15:12
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Ok Comboomer posted:If you’re dead-set on something pico-scale (5 gal or less) then definitely get a glass lid for it. Many of those kit/cube dealies already come with one and petco/etc sells ones that fit standard tank sizes for like ~$15 I mean deeper/longer (in the non vertical dimension) relative to a cube; the one I was looking at is 8 gallons (11 1/2" x 11 1/2" x 14"). I don't seem to be able to find any 10 gallon tanks that will fit in a 13" x 17" space, they seem to all be around 10" x 20". Wallet fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 15:34
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I don't think a tanks stability is quite as critical with a plant only tank, especially if you are doing a moss based aquascape that won't need much light intensity and only light feeding. Crypts are another easy slow growing plant and crypt parva stays small. Stem plants that feed heavier and grow fast and need regular trimming could easily become a bit painful with such a small amount of space but there's definitely a kind of "ship in a bottle" appeal too. I can't picture myself aquascaping something like a Fluval Edge tank but with patience and the right tools people have done some spectacular work in those. Small tanks are hard-mode though, and the cross purposes of requirements between different life is a lot more apparent. For example plants won't care about a bit of ammonia or chlorine in the water, but fish will burn their gills and die. In a big tank you have a lot of dilution and that leeway just isn't there in small tanks. I think a mature planted nano tank could one day be a good home for shrimp though, neocaridina and amanos aren't too hard to keep and don't have much of a bioload. They also don't need heaters as long as the tank is in a room that is at a comfortable temperature year round. If your problem is the footprint of the tank, the fluval edge's gimmick is that the base of the tank stand is smaller than the widest part of the tank itself so that might let you place the tank somewhere it wouldn't otherwise fit. Here at least there are copycat tanks in this style without the fluval price tag to go with. There are a lot of DIY how to build a tank tutorials online too if you're handy, when you're looking at small water volumes like this you don't need to worry about bracing the tank or anything complex, I think a 12 x 12 x 16 ten gallon would look pretty sweet and get you out of the really dodgy "too small" zone.
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Sep 30, 2021 16:10
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People I promised snails to, I'm sorry. I'm working on it. I have collected a bunch I just need to package and send them. You have not been forgotten. I altered my meds and NOTHING is getting done and it sucks but the aquarium thread is not the proper place to discuss my brainworms or how I am dealing with them.
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Sep 30, 2021 18:46
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Anyone decent at rock ID? Included in the giant pile of stuff my sister passed on to me was a bag of random rocks. I really like the look of some of them, but I figured I should double check before plunking them in a box of water. I'm guessing the stuff in the top left (1) is some kind of sandstone? I took a scraping and it doesn't react to vinegar at all. The bubbly one (2) next to it looks like some kind of basalt? I was planning on sticking a bunch of java moss to it since it's got a neat shape and lots of nooks and crannies. Three and seven maybe more sandstone? Four looks like it could be petrified wood. Five gabbro? Six is freakin me out a bit, it looks like an iron cube is jutting out of the rock? 8/9 look like some kind of volcanic rock. I'm sure most of these are aquarium safe, but I figured I'd double check before I plunk em into something. 
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Sep 30, 2021 18:58
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Schwack posted:Anyone decent at rock ID? Included in the giant pile of stuff my sister passed on to me was a bag of random rocks. I really like the look of some of them, but I figured I should double check before plunking them in a box of water. VINEGAR TEST TIME WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (you're on the right track): https://www.thesprucepets.com/using-outdoor-gravel-or-rocks-in-an-aquarium-1381305
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Sep 30, 2021 19:15
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Stoca Zola posted:There are a lot of DIY how to build a tank tutorials online too if you're handy, when you're looking at small water volumes like this you don't need to worry about bracing the tank or anything complex, I think a 12 x 12 x 16 ten gallon would look pretty sweet and get you out of the really dodgy "too small" zone. Yeah, I may just try making one as it doesn't seem terribly complicated. I don't really want to deal with cutting glass but there's a place nearby I've had cut glass for me before for other poo poo. Probably something like 12" wide x 16" long by 14" high which would be a little under 12 gallons.
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Sep 30, 2021 20:09
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Instead of glass, perhaps look into acrylic.
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Sep 30, 2021 20:10
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JuffoWup posted:Instead of glass, perhaps look into acrylic. I'm sort of worried I'd end up scratching the poo poo out of it and at that size glass doesn't seem particularly cumbersome. Are you suggesting it just because I don't want to deal with cutting glass (cutting acrylic nicely also kind of sucks rear end in my experience) or just in general?
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Sep 30, 2021 20:18
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Wallet posted:I'm sort of worried I'd end up scratching the poo poo out of it and at that size glass doesn't seem particularly cumbersome. Are you suggesting it just because I don't want to deal with cutting glass (cutting acrylic nicely also kind of sucks rear end in my experience) or just in general? Yeah, because you mentioned that, but also just in general. Also, I just realized we keeping thinking of a fully immersed planted tank. You could just do a more emmersed setup as well. Most plants in the hobby are actually grown that way. It is where the infamous plant melt comes from.
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Sep 30, 2021 20:31
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I had to take a bunch of rocks out of my tank after realizing what I had done but in the process learned a little bit about curating fossils, so it was overall a win. I get as excited about rocks and minerals as most of y'all do plants, so I should have known better too.
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Oct 1, 2021 19:12
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I got my tank setup and I think I'll buy my corys on Wednesday. The plants don't seem very happy though but apparently that's normal. I planted them about a week ago so hopefully they figure it out soon.
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Oct 3, 2021 00:28
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