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Wandering Orange posted:These are American Flagfish and that is good to know as I have an open top tank! It was a 50/50 day today as I pulled one dead fish out and I saw one live fish amongst the heavy plant cover. No obvious issues on the dead fish. Yeah, they're supposed to be one of the few fish good at nibbling black beard algae and decent algae eaters in general. I'm trying to figure out if they have any social requirements (example: with Shiners they're a lot less aggressive and happier with 5+ fish) and checking to make sure the claims of them being other-fish-friendly and shrimp-friendly are accurate. I wouldn't mind have up to maybe 3 of them if they school well. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Nov 18, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2021 02:01
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I've heard stories about super-aggro Flagfish but never kept them. I'd take a single SAE over them any day regardless of temperament. A giant lazy SAE will keep all sorts of algae in check. When my old one died I was confused for awhile. "Algae? In my tank? What? Ohhh....." I got it under control but still went out looking for a replacement.
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Nov 18, 2021 03:27
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My hillstream loaches are pretty good at mopping up. I still toothbrush and blast pestys with a dropper of excel if it gets out of hand (fin?). The snails I had passed away, which sort of was a total bummer because they were noshing algae too. I kinda want shrimps again, but I bet my German Rams would eat them.
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Nov 18, 2021 06:22
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Desert Bus posted:I've heard stories about super-aggro Flagfish but never kept them. I'd take a single SAE over them any day regardless of temperament. A giant lazy SAE will keep all sorts of algae in check. When my old one died I was confused for awhile. "Algae? In my tank? What? Ohhh....." I got it under control but still went out looking for a replacement. The aggression and nipping part is what I'm worried about, particularly with the platys around. The flagfish look nice and don't get huge - but the SAE (assuming you get a real one) are supposed to be more effective overall with clearing algae. Flagfish can apparently be huge jerks with fin nipping and shrimp murder depending on who you ask, and SAE and have their own territorial thing going on with other SAE and other similar fish (stonerollers might fall into this category).
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Nov 18, 2021 14:07
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Fish delivery day!  Decided that my denison and odessa barbs were too big and active for what I was going for in my 75 planted. Moved them into their own 55g last weekend, and ordered a boatload of tetras from Jack Wattley Discus. I had some small schools of lemon, neon and rummynose tetra in there already. Adding to their ranks, and got some harlequin rasboras as well. Can't wait to get these guys out of QT and into that tank.  E: Squirrel is supervising the drip acclimation 
Enos Cabell fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Nov 18, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2021 16:49
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Warbadger: have you considered/tried the whole "double dose Flourish Excel" deal to kill off the algae? It works and seems to be pretty fish safe from what I've seen/heard.
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Nov 18, 2021 18:13
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So, pretty sure these are red phantom tetras and not the harlequin rasboras I ordered.  Not a big deal, they were the same price. Bonus ramshorn chilling on the Madagascar lace 
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Nov 18, 2021 20:45
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Yeah lol those ain't Harlequins
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Nov 18, 2021 21:08
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Desert Bus posted:Warbadger: have you considered/tried the whole "double dose Flourish Excel" deal to kill off the algae? It works and seems to be pretty fish safe from what I've seen/heard. I've been watching pretty closely to see what BBA recommendations come up as I'm having a hellish time with it since completely re-doing my 125G. I tried the Exel double-dose in my 10G about a year ago and it completely nuked my beneficial bacteria colonies. I ended up having to tear it down and start from scratch so I've been terrified to try it again in the 125 since there's more at stake. (though I was pretty green at the whole aquarium thing then so I'm not entirely convinced I didn't mess something up to cause it.) I'd be very interested if anyone has dosed Excel successfully for BBA and what that process looked like. As it stands, my unsuccessful attempts have included: - Reduced my lighting schedule to 4 hours on/2 off/4 on and only every other day, but my jungle val is looking really shabby from it. - Sporadically using PhosGuard because I've got brown algae basically coating the glass, but I'm not sure if it's safe to run continually or not since there's not a ton of info on the Seachem website about how long it can safely be used for outside of becoming inert after 4 days. I have an SAE in my Aquatic Arts cart too, but have to wait till they're back in stock 
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Nov 18, 2021 23:19
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Enos Cabell posted:So, pretty sure these are red phantom tetras and not the harlequin rasboras I ordered. You got counterfeit fish
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Nov 18, 2021 23:44
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Just came home with a new 37-gallon tank & stand. Haven't even taken the stickers off yet, and probably won't for a week or two. I haven't bought any substrate — does aquarium soil degrade/dissolve over time? I'm not a fan of plain gravel.
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Nov 19, 2021 00:05
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Lincoln posted:Just came home with a new 37-gallon tank & stand. Haven't even taken the stickers off yet, and probably won't for a week or two. I haven't bought any substrate — does aquarium soil degrade/dissolve over time? I'm not a fan of plain gravel. My understanding is the nutrients levels drop and require supplementation. Doesn't really go bad otherwise in my experience
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Nov 19, 2021 01:24
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Desert Bus posted:Warbadger: have you considered/tried the whole "double dose Flourish Excel" deal to kill off the algae? It works and seems to be pretty fish safe from what I've seen/heard. Yep, but it's slow to die even with a week at double dose and while I was able to kill most of it with direct application of the excel dose via syringe I always get little clumps returning soon after I stop dosing excel. I'm reasonably sure I've tracked down the cause at least - I've got tons of phosphates in the tap water here. I'm also looking for a reasonably priced/easy RO filter to do the ~1 gallon/day topoffs to help offset it if anybody is aware of any. As for the fish - I'm actually going to get 2 flagfish and 1 SAE (also got one in my cart at aquatic arts, actually). Seems like the large tank size and zoomy-go-fast inhabitants make it reasonably unlikely the flagfish will start eating everybody's fins and the SAE have a great reputation for keeping leaves clean. As for dosing excel to successfully (at least temporarily!) clear out some very stubborn BBA: 1) Dose at 5ml/10 gallons for the first 5 days. If you have a major nutrient imbalance like I do this won't kill the BBA, but it seems to stop it from spreading and helps acclimate the fish and plants for bigger doses. I had some fish gasping at the surface and generally looking rough while all my shrimp raced around the bottom of the tank when I started with a 10ml/10gallon double dose straight away - this is how you avoid that mistake. 2) Increase dose to 10ml/10 gallons after that. Algae started to die back slowly during the next week. At this point the fish and shrimp didn't seem to notice it. My ammonia/nitrite/nitrates stayed at zero throughout this process, so at least for me it didn't nuke my beneficial bacteria. The trick that actually let me kill most of it was getting an oral syringe from CVS to directly apply excel on the algae (extra bonus of getting more accurate dosing this way!). Just turn off everything moving water in the tank, measure out your daily dose with the syringe, reach in and squirt the excel slowly onto the algae you want dead, then wait 5-10 minutes before turning everything back on. BBA will turn a white-ish color within a day and die back in a big way within a week - especially if you re-dose a couple days in a row. Green spot algae turns a bright green the next day and start thinning out rapidly. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 05:03
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DeadlyMuffin posted:My understanding is the nutrients levels drop and require supplementation. Doesn't really go bad otherwise in my experience Good to know. I’m planning a heavily-planted aquarium. Is it best to establish plants first, then start adding fish? If that’s the route I take, what supplements should I use to help establish the plants? edit: And I'm looking to establish a nice short carpet of plants along the bottom of the tank. There are several options — what's the most low-maintenance? Are there fish I should consider/avoid if I want to maintain that carpet? Lincoln fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 13:23
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Heavily planted is about as far away as you can get from low maintenance. I spend more time on my planted 75 than I do my mixed reef 120g. For short a short dense carpet, you'll need to be using pressurized co2 and high powered lighting.
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Nov 19, 2021 15:24
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Honest opinion from personal experience: As this sounds like your first time with a planted tank, don't go with nutrient substrate. I know literally every website talks about these amazing setups using it, but don't. Just get something inert. As you mentioned not liking gravel, try looking at sand. Either play sand or caribsea (they do have a line of sands targeted at freshwater keepers) as examples. I say this because as much as you intend to do a heavily planted tank, there is a very high chance it won't be heavily planted enough for the substrate nutrients leaching into the water column. You'll end up getting frustrated with a constant battle with algae. Root tabs targeted under each specific plant will be just as effective while keeping your tank in a more enjoyable form.
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Nov 19, 2021 15:46
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Snails are fun to watch in timelapse https://imgur.com/DHa3r7x.mp4
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Nov 19, 2021 20:35
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I have had good experience with the “Walstad” low-tech planted tanks. That said, your first couple tanks probably won’t be “showpieces”- they’re dirtier and more naturalistic, and you can’t easily grow a dense lush carpet (believe me I’ve tried).
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Nov 19, 2021 22:48
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Lincoln posted:Good to know. I’m planning a heavily-planted aquarium. Is it best to establish plants first, then start adding fish? If that’s the route I take, what supplements should I use to help establish the plants? I think if you have the dedication to keep it maintained you should actually use a substrate with nutrients in it. I didn't have algae issues *from that* so I think so long as you get plants in it quite quickly you'll be fine. Carpeting plants like someone else said is generally a very slow process with limited options unless you go for CO2 which is a massive nightmare for a brand new aquarium haver. If you look at my post history in this thread you'll see what I ended up doing for carpeting plants. You really won't be able to get grass going without CO2 so this is basically your best bet. e: just found the photo:  And I used CaribSea Eco-Complete for the substrate. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 22:56
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VelociBacon posted:I think if you have the dedication to keep it maintained you should actually use a substrate with nutrients in it. I didn't have algae issues *from that* so I think so long as you get plants in it quite quickly you'll be fine. I'm just about at the end of my first week attempting this. No algae issues yet but there's always time. I significantly overplanted (at least I think I did, probably a bit shy $200 of plants in a 13 gallon) which will hopefully slow it down. About half of the plants are already rooting into the substrate and I don't think I've killed any yet but I see a lot of pruning in my future. I'll try and post some pictures whenever it stops being murky red from the stratum I capped the planted tank substrate with 
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Nov 20, 2021 00:31
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I finally got in some finer mechanical media last night and after some sleeping it's finally clearing up enough to see through the water  .Of course getting a picture without massive reflections in the middle of the day in a room with a bunch of windows is not going well. Do people just wait for dark or is there some magic method I'm missing?    I kind of set it up like a little canyon—the thing on the left is a hunk of driftwood I siliconed to the glass because it wouldn't stand up otherwise. Still a lot of dusty poo poo settled on the bottom I probably have to gravel vac out and I need to tidy up the cords, but it's looking alright for week 1 I think.
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Nov 20, 2021 16:17
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Looks good! Are you dosing ammonia? It's a good idea specifically since you have no fish in there yet. It kickstarts the nitrogen cycle.
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Nov 20, 2021 16:28
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VelociBacon posted:Looks good! I have been a tiny bit but (and maybe I'm just being an idiot here) the tests I have only test Nitrite/Nitrate and not ammonia directly so I'm not sure how to know exactly how much I should be adding. I ordered some that do cover ammonia but they're taking forever.
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Nov 20, 2021 18:07
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Wallet posted:I have been a tiny bit but (and maybe I'm just being an idiot here) the tests I have only test Nitrite/Nitrate and not ammonia directly so I'm not sure how to know exactly how much I should be adding. I ordered some that do cover ammonia but they're taking forever. You can get the seachem ammonia strips at any LCS and probably Walmart at this point too. But I'd just add what it suggests daily or whatever on the back of the bottle, you should start to see your nitrates/nitrites come up and when you get your ammonia strips you're looking for all the ammonia you added one morning to be gone the previous day (converted into nitrates/nitrites).
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Nov 20, 2021 18:10
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The freshwater master kit of testing is: API Water Test Kit. It lets you test a bunch of things and is closer than strips. Strips are a good 'look and see' kind of thing. My fish are doing alright. Still adore my Rams and Hillstream loaches. Such cuties. The shrimp are just cleaning the heater's little spots. Cheaters!
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Nov 20, 2021 19:09
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Aerofallosov posted:The freshwater master kit of testing is: API Water Test Kit. It lets you test a bunch of things and is closer than strips. Strips are a good 'look and see' kind of thing. I thought I had shaken my pH indicator very well, but it was telling me that multiple sourced of water, including freshly fallen snow that I melted were at pH5! It started reading correctly after I applied the above procedure. Once my parameters were running more or less stable, I changed to strips. Tried a couple different types alongside the test kit, for comparison, and now it's like I can just roughly gage water change time by how pink the nitrate bit gets. Maybe judge when I could use a bit of kh. Nice feature of the ones I found, is they have a chlorine indicator patch, which is nice for testing the tap water at work, to see if I can trust the activated charcoal filter. (Great water for live bearers there. Super soft at home) B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Nov 20, 2021 |
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Nov 20, 2021 19:16
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The ph monitor is life changing.
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Nov 20, 2021 19:48
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These are my indoor fish. The plants are growing faster than I can pull them out. The substrate is large red lava rocks and the shrimps are out of control. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvbTuFrwYuY
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Nov 20, 2021 20:01
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Aerofallosov posted:The freshwater master kit of testing is: API Water Test Kit. It lets you test a bunch of things and is closer than strips. Strips are a good 'look and see' kind of thing. That's the one I ordered (or half of it anyway, the ammonia/nitrate/nitrite part) it's just being slow as gently caress in shipping. I'm not ramping up for fish so I'm not in a massive hury. I'm also not currently heating it which may be a mistake.
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Nov 20, 2021 21:39
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Wallet posted:That's the one I ordered (or half of it anyway, the ammonia/nitrate/nitrite part) it's just being slow as gently caress in shipping. I'm not ramping up for fish so I'm not in a massive hury. I'm also not currently heating it which may be a mistake. Mine cycled fine without heating - what temperature do you keep the location?
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Nov 21, 2021 14:44
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Warbadger posted:Mine cycled fine without heating - what temperature do you keep the location? Around 70, it's in my house. The cycling guide I read recommended going way up in temp for the bacteria but I don't really care about it being cycled beyond what the plants need. The ones I've checked on seem to already be doing a good job rooting in—based on reading I was really expecting to see some melting but I haven't yet. The only thing I'm not sure on is the Fissidens fontanus as some of it seems to be browning a bit. Hoping it makes it It's also possible I have the Nymphaea stellata upside down but based on photos it seems like unlike terrestrial bulbs aquatic bulbs basically root out the top?Bonus photo sans-reflection.  I want to gravel vac all of the stratum dust off but I'm pretty sure I'd accidentally suck some of the plants up if I tried that right now. I don't think the nanners have rooted in yet. Wallet fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Nov 21, 2021 |
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Nov 21, 2021 15:15
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On new tank cycling: try https://www.seachem.com/stability.php if you have any doubts, the instructions are nice and clear and it works
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Nov 21, 2021 19:52
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Man, youtube delivers some times. A paludarium with rasboras, otos, shrimp (I think they are wild types, but unsure due to how close up it was), cories, apistos, and some other fish. For the above water a couple of red crabs it seemed. For plants though, a range of carnivorous plants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U4NPTOvvjM
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Nov 22, 2021 21:45
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Some pics of the Marbled and Electric blue Crayfish I added to my tank (promised pics a while back).    I got a blue female in there too somewhere but I couldnt find her. She was probably hiding somewhere. He impregnated her within about an hour of adding them to the tank  The marbled are self cloning and have I a setup ready to go if I start seeing eggs.
Tacos Al Pastor fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Nov 23, 2021 |
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Nov 23, 2021 21:06
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Tacos Al Pastor posted:The Aquarium Thread: “He impregnated her within about an hour of adding them to the tank new thread title
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Nov 23, 2021 21:17
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Tacos Al Pastor posted:Some pics of the Marbled and Electric blue Crayfish I added to my tank (promised pics a while back). So cool, thank you for sharing! I wish I had the room for another tank for some crayfish
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Nov 23, 2021 21:28
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candystarlight posted:So cool, thank you for sharing! I wish I had the room for another tank for some crayfish They have already attacked and devoured a few of the smaller goldfish which was kind of cool to watch :P
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Nov 23, 2021 23:03
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I am pretty sure the goldfish disagree.
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Nov 24, 2021 03:08
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Hope you are QTing feeder goldies, they can have some nasty rear end parasites.
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Nov 24, 2021 03:24
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I want some little shrimpies so bad. I don't care that my husband thinks they're creepy underwater spiders.
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Nov 24, 2021 03:36
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