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Warbadger posted:Today I went on a long walk. I saw some nice flat, weathered rocks. TDS is somewhat useless as a non-trended measurement inside a tank, I'm phone posting so don't have the energy to really get into it but maybe someone else will or you can google around. Think about what dosing ferts would do to your TDS for example if you just checked it after that.
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Feb 24, 2023 08:54
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Cowslips Warren posted:Unless you are aiming to breed certain fish or going for a blackwater thing, don't gently caress with the pH, you'll usually cause more harm than good. ^100% this. In nearly all scenarios stability trumps getting the pH to the optimal level. So I have a new chapter to add to my sordid tale of my 75g FOWLR setup. I set this tank up when I bought my house in 2015 with the dream of having a little slice of Hawaii in my living room. I wanted to keep a Yellow Tang, Rectangle Humu Trigger, and a Melanurus Wrasse. I have not been able to keep a fish alive in this tank for longer than 3 years. They always start out pretty well, and then in year they waste away. My first triggerfish went blind and died after 3 years. My Yellow Tang faded out and then wasted away. The wrasses also wasted away but those are tricky because to my understanding, Melanurus Wrasses only live 5 years anyways. So if you start with an adult, which I did, it's tough to say how long they have left to begin with. I've struggled with nitrates and GHA in the display tank, but I've been told on Reef2Reef that that isn't really a huge deal in FOWLR setups as long as everything else is fine. Anyways my third try at this stocking list was doing okay. Triggerfish looked a little pinched but was always active and eating. Yellow Tang has been fading and is not very yellow at all, but looked plump and otherwise healthy. About a week ago I noticed the YT's dorsal fin was starting to recede so I decided to take evasive action. I setup a 20g QT for the triggerfish and put the YT in my 20g frag tank. The YT is doing fine and I'm hoping to see if the lower nitrates improve coloration. The Trigger initially did great in the QT but did look a little pinched so I decided to try a round General Cure, which seems to be the consensus for a pinched triggerfish. I was also really trying to fatten him up so throwing frozen and soaked pellets at him. A few days into QT he started getting less active and showing less interest in food. Then I noticed a faint color on the Seachem Ammonia Alert. In a case of bad timing my ammonia test kit was empty. Worried that all the food and the newness of the QT created an ammonia spike I moved him back to the display tank. He didn't even resist me picking him up. In the display tank he seemed to have trouble swimming and mostly sat on his side on the bottom. The next day I was able to run to PetSmart and get an ammonia kit and bottle of Prime. I confirmed Ammonia in the QT was 0.50 and dosed it with Prime and moved the trigger back to the QT hoping the General Cure might be able to pull off a miracle. He was dead this morning. I feel terrible. I wonder if I would've been fine if not for the move to QT? The ammonia spike? The back and forth? Ugh. E: I did order a super thorough water analysis kit from BRS. Going to do that to see if there's some weird poison in the tank or something. Humus and YTs are supposed to be hardy for marine fish. It's weird that everything in that tank has died between year 3 and year 4.
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Feb 24, 2023 14:50
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VelociBacon posted:TDS is somewhat useless as a non-trended measurement inside a tank, I'm phone posting so don't have the energy to really get into it but maybe someone else will or you can google around. Think about what dosing ferts would do to your TDS for example if you just checked it after that. I'm currently adding shrimp minerals to my tap water for the 10G. The lesson I'm taking from the high TDS is that I probably should scale that back a bit. Wrapped up the new scape today in the 75G. Water's still cloudy from everything that got stirred up while moving gravel around, but it looks good. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Feb 24, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 18:02
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:^100% this. In nearly all scenarios stability trumps getting the pH to the optimal level. are there any inverts in the tank that are doing okay? stuff even like hermit crabs or feather worms? does seem odd the fish kick over so regularly.
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Feb 24, 2023 18:02
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Cowslips Warren posted:are there any inverts in the tank that are doing okay? stuff even like hermit crabs or feather worms? There are several hermit crabs that are apparently very good at avoiding the interest of triggerfish.
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Feb 24, 2023 18:04
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The CPD’s came in a day early from aqua huna. 30 degrees outside with “live fish” marked on the box and the post office left them outside without even a knock on the door. Luckily I was home. All of them are alive so far.
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Feb 24, 2023 22:11
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Warbadger posted:I'm currently adding shrimp minerals to my tap water for the 10G. The lesson I'm taking from the high TDS is that I probably should scale that back a bit. I guess my understanding of it is that so many different things impact TDS that you should be measuring your water hardness or whatever directly. In the absence of other variables changing you can then use TDS to determine when you've added enough of the minerals to your replacement water in future changes etc etc. I'm not trying to sound preachy, just went through a lot of this when I was setting up my tank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGnf1gr5Pg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkkWEbNthjU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNx-Pug8qE
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Feb 24, 2023 22:44
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Did a small water change and added about 1/4 cup of crushed coral in a bag to the hob. Should just need to wait a few days to monitor KH and add more if needed right? The LFS near me didnt have any alkaline buffer unfortunately. Edit: forgot to mention, I bought some cuttlebone as well to try tomorrow. Might end up going with that if it works since its easy to just slip somewhere for the crustaceans to nibble on. Tenchrono fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Feb 25, 2023 |
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Feb 25, 2023 03:14
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I use crushed coral / aragonite in all my stuff. I find it doesn't lift kh much, but gh is good and high from it.
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Feb 25, 2023 04:01
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VelociBacon posted:TDS is somewhat useless as a non-trended measurement inside a tank, I'm phone posting so don't have the energy to really get into it but maybe someone else will or you can google around. Think about what dosing ferts would do to your TDS for example if you just checked it after that. This is a fair point; think of TDS as another tool in the box to be looked at along side your knowledge of your tap water, your frequency of water changes, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings, fert additions. There's so much stuff that goes on in a tank that you can't measure directly such as dissolved organics or bacterial load but having an unexplained upward trend is a good indication that something isn't right in your processes and you've still got to put the work in to decide which element needs to be changed to get back to stability. Edit: oops didn't refresh page Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Feb 25, 2023 |
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Feb 25, 2023 10:57
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B33rChiller posted:If you stay on top of it, their egg clutches are easy to remove before they hatch. They lay above water too, so just leave a little room at the top of your tank, and just pluck the eggs off the glass. Even with my three going around I've plucked some of their clutches and left others. The new ones tend to die off because the three adults outpace them for resources. In other news, since my last angelfish died I decided to get some shrimp for the tank again. They were supposed to deliver Monday, but at 230pm yesterday when I left work it said they were at the Detroit hub. I figured cool, Saturday then. I'll let the office manager know so she brings them in as soon as they get here. Last night at 10pm I get a text. "Your package was delivered at 7pm". poo poo. Ran up to the office, nothing there, ran around to the front door and mail boxes, there's the box sitting on the steps. Complete with bright green "Live fish" label. Ran it back inside, opened it. Three alive, 17 dead. gently caress. Positive side the three that made it are two females and a male, so hopefully they'll be gettin' it on soon enough SocketWrench fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 25, 2023 |
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Feb 25, 2023 19:28
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Post-rescaping 75G shots. I opened up the area near the wavepump, shifted some plants a bit, and created an incline toward the rear of the tank. Shifted the driftwood off-center to help hide the surface skimmer. The darters and dace seem to love the open area especially. These guys basically just followed along and carefully inspected every change. 
Warbadger fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Feb 25, 2023 |
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Feb 25, 2023 20:11
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Sockser posted:Wish I could get a second mystery snail without having to deal with having a thousand mystery snails You need to get some uranium/cadmium/manganese glass in that tank.
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Feb 25, 2023 21:19
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SocketWrench posted:Even with my three going around I've plucked some of their clutches and left others. The new ones tend to die off because the three adults outpace them for resources. In the winter time it’s always a good idea to specify that your local post office/Fedex hub/etc hold live deliveries for pickup. If the shipper/seller doesn’t specify it for you, you can always call said office and ask when you place an order. FedEx will let you specify online.
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Feb 25, 2023 23:26
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I found my local fish club! I had to really resist buying a colony of Characodon lateralis. Sorely tempted, but they don't have a lot of pizzazz so I was able to resist.
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Feb 25, 2023 23:49
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I got a better photo of the miscolored gold tetra. The 3 of them seem slightly paler but I assume its because they are stressed out from having a small school and being in the quarantine tank and perhaps not eating.
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Feb 26, 2023 00:02
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I know I am losing faith in keeping my delivery job and some days it just feels like being hosed over and over, but even in my worst IDGAF moment, I'd never leave a box marked LIVE anywhere where said live things would loving die. I've had way too many PO fuckers shove boxes of live fish in mailboxes in summer in Phoenix despite me paying for a signature.
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Feb 26, 2023 01:45
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I bought 6 danios, and then I bought 4 more. 2 of them died. How many danios do I have? If you answered 8, you'd be wrong! I've been assuming they croaked behind some furniture, so I moved everything the gently caress out of the way when I did a water change today. No sign of them. Nothing trapped in the filter, nothing on the floor. That leaves only three possibilities: 1. I didn't actually buy 10 fish 2. GHOST FISH 3. My cat managed to nab 'em and leave no trace
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Feb 26, 2023 07:05
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I've had a rasbora jump and post itself flippy floppy style underneath a bookshelf on the other side of the room before, I'd bet a jumping danio could get enough air to get quite far before doing the flippy floppy stage of the journey. Other disappearing act culprits: snails, loaches, guppies, corydoras, any self respecting bottom feeding fish won't pass up a free meal even if said free meal died of unnatural causes such as illness. HOWEVER! Recently when evacuating danios from a leaking tank into better surroundings, I saw them bury themselves until only their eyes poked out to avoid being netted. In my case there was a nasty layer of mulm that got stirred up that was soft and easy to burrow into but they darted into it with such force that I'm sure soft sand, moss, or small leaved plants would also suffice. I'm not saying your fish aren't gone, I'm just saying sometimes they come up with moves that are impossible to anticipate. Tonight I think I have solved the mystery of the cloudy tank. I usually water change last thing before bed, as a way to chill out and get some zen at the end of a day, so the tanks get their lights turned out fairly quickly once I'm done. I left the lights on longer than usual in the cloudy tank and watched the fish to see if there was any rowdy digging behaviour or similar from the big catfish. I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary on that front, but by the time I'd finished doing water changes on the remaining 3 tanks, the water was definitely already cloudier. Or should I say jizzier, I am pretty sure every red sided barb in that tank had come out of hiding to spawn all over the place. The spawning behaviour itself wasn't too obvious, but the barbs and corydoras hoovering up the eggs afterwards made it a bit more clear as to what was going on. And the cloudiness didn't noticably happen when I had a giant mass of java moss in the tank, which I removed not that long ago, the fish probably had a target in the moss then instead of doing it everywhere all over the tank. I have a 5 gallon fluval spec that had become almost a solid mass of susswassertang so I have moved that big chunk into the cloudy tank to go in the space where the moss used to be and maybe that will help the fish contain their jizz to one location.
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Feb 26, 2023 19:47
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Cloudy tank update: I didn’t get a picture because it was so bad that I water changed as soon as I saw it. Not just cloudy but borderline milky, could barely see the fish. Adding a big clump of plant material didn’t help at all. I could see the clouds moving about in the flow like the best jar of infusoria I’ve ever grown, so it’s not just something chemical clouding the water. I had 25 lt of premixed water left from last nights change so I used that. The filters are all running fine with good flow, there’s no new catfish excavations, this just has to be a fish jizz (milt??) fueled bacterial bloom. There aren’t enough male egg scatterers in the tank (something like 4 to 6 two inch fish) to make that much mess. I still have trouble comprehending how it gets so bad, so fast. And why that tank is the worst. It doesn’t get the gross old water that might have been sitting in the hose between water changes, it’s always the middle or last tank to get filled and never the first. I leave the filters running since the inlets are always below water level when I take water out. All fish are accounted for and it only happens after a water change and the barbs always get frisky during/after the water change, they do it in the other tanks I have them in too but none of those get cloudy like this. Edit: Look at this, its like a smoke machine underwater! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X__H2hjbduo Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Feb 27, 2023 |
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Feb 27, 2023 06:05
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an adult mystery snail or two will disappear a fish carcass in short order if it’s small enough
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Feb 27, 2023 09:50
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I sent off my FOWLR water and RODI to ATI in Germany for analysis. I guess the result of that will be the first step in figuring out what to do with the tank. The Yellow Tang is still chilling in the frag tank, eating like a pig but not gaining any yellow coloration back.
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Feb 27, 2023 14:27
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Ok Comboomer posted:an adult mystery snail or two will disappear a fish carcass in short order if it’s small enough Wonder where my apisto is hiding. Haven't seen him in a couple days. After ten minutes of overturning hides, I discovered a loony tunes looking fish skeleton. Oh, ok.
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Feb 27, 2023 20:24
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Stoca Zola posted:Cloudy tank update: I didn’t get a picture because it was so bad that I water changed as soon as I saw it. Not just cloudy but borderline milky, could barely see the fish. Do you have a uv sterilizer light on this tank? If that solves the problem it's almost certainly bacterial bloom, I would think. Even a cheapo $35 Amazon unit should make short work of that Still doesn't explain where the food supply for the bloom is coming from but at least you can focus on solving the food supply problem Did you say you don't drain all the water from your hose after your regular water changes? Not sure why it's only that one tank but I'd start draining the hose to completely rule that out
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Feb 27, 2023 20:35
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I try to drain the hose as best as I can but its corrugated so there's usually some dribbles still in there. But 20 litres goes into my rasbora/shrimp/kuhli tank first before any water goes into the cloudy tank, and that first tank is never affected. No, there's no UV on the tank, I honestly think it is bacteria feasting on fish jizz at this point. It's a lot better today after doing that extra water change, normally if the food source is still in the tank a water change won't affect a bacterial bloom at all, but I think I must have removed some fish jizz in that water change so there's less food for the bacteria and this time it is clearing a lot faster. Maybe I just have to accept that I will need to do double water changes on this tank to keep the bacterial load low. It's the end of summer here which is definitely spawning season for barbs. Just thinking back, I had these barbs breeding like crazy when I first got them in December 2021, but I wouldn't have moved the 8 barbs from that spawning into this tank until they were big enough not to be eaten by the platydoras which would have been midway through 2022. It is the first summer for those fish being in this tank, which is probably why the problem is so new and surprising for me. The barbs were small enough that I couldn't sex them when I moved them. It is obvious now that I have 5 fat ladies and 3 slim red dudes which is why its baffling to me how much the tank gets fouled. I wonder if the hormones in the water set off the rasboras that are in there though, there's at least 3 more male rasboras among the 8 of those that I have. I am not counting the catfish at all because they're not egg scatterers so they don't spawn in a messy way. I'm tempted to net out all of the non-catfish fish, and move them to the 5 foot tank to see if that shifts the problem. Not 100% sure that the filtration in that tank could handle 16 more fish though, it's a bit of a jump in population. And if I'm adding fish there, I would rather it was more danios. Edit:  After another day, its a lot clearer so I think double water changing is the way forward. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Feb 28, 2023 |
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Feb 28, 2023 14:01
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Do plants just absolutely suck ammonia, nitrites, nitrates up? The tank is very heavily planted and I havent had any nitrite or nitrate readings so far and just very little ammonia. The Ph is in the "zone" where the bacteria can survive so I am not sure what exactly is going on. Its just filled with 20 or so nano fish and a dwarf pleco so there isnt so much that can be produced but I thought there would at least be a little bit of nitrates.
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Feb 28, 2023 17:48
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Tenchrono posted:
That level of planting is probably adequate for the current number of fish in your tank yeah. You'll probably be able to get by with less frequent water changes. That giant log has a ton of surface area for biofilm to grow (which also edit: all the fuzz on the wood in the background here is slurping up just as much, if not more ammonia cycle chemicals than the plants, probably. Plenty of biomass processing going on here 
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Feb 28, 2023 |
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Feb 28, 2023 19:10
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 Really not a fan of that skull. I bought some driftwood and tied the Anubis Java to it. I’m currently thinking to redo the substrate and add some play sand on top of the caribsea eco complete I have down. The black is just too much and it’s hard to see the CPD’s. Also thinking of adding some dwarf sag to the front of the tank. Suggestions? 
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Feb 28, 2023 21:13
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Skulls can be great! As for capping with sand, the small grains will always fall down into the large grains. A lighter colour substrate will wash a fishes colour out too. A layer of susswassertang or clumps of moss could add some easy green to tone down the black. I've even seen someone glue moss to a skull so it looks like clown hair. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Feb 28, 2023 |
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Feb 28, 2023 21:39
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nwin posted:
more plants, more hardscape, lose the skull if you’re not going to commit to full whimsy/vintage IMO I might do one big “island” of stuff in the center or maybe two complementary “islands” next to each other/flanking each other Watch a bunch of MD Fishtanks and MJ Aquascaping (yes, those are really their names) on YouTube for ideas and easy, basic scape tutorials that look really nice maybe look for staurogyne or crypts to put around the island and guide the eye up to the big centerpiece anubias, which should get quite large in short order sag and/or eleocharis and/or buce is a good foreground plant I wouldn’t get pissed about the black gravel, IMO it pops nicely and hides debris once your tank is fully planted Edit: I meant “Staurogyne repens” and wrote “Ludwigia repens” instead, lol. Two extremely different plants trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Feb 28, 2023 |
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Feb 28, 2023 21:44
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Tenchrono posted:Do plants just absolutely suck ammonia, nitrites, nitrates up? The tank is very heavily planted and I havent had any nitrite or nitrate readings so far and just very little ammonia. The Ph is in the "zone" where the bacteria can survive so I am not sure what exactly is going on. Its just filled with 20 or so nano fish and a dwarf pleco so there isnt so much that can be produced but I thought there would at least be a little bit of nitrates. your ammonia and nitrite should always be 0. nitrates at 0 means your plants are doing their job. I have less plants then you in a bigger tank and my nitrates are always 0 which is good cause I'm super lazy about water changes.
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Mar 1, 2023 01:29
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Thanks! I am not sure if its reading 0 or .25 or w/e the lowest option is on the api master kit. Strips are reading 0 but the test has an ever so slight green tint depending on how you look at it.
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Mar 1, 2023 01:50
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These Enders are 50% of their way to seawater salinity. No losses yet! They're like astronauts 
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Mar 5, 2023 22:06
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Stoca Zola posted:Skulls can be great!  
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Mar 5, 2023 22:24
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DeadlyMuffin posted:These Enders are 50% of their way to seawater salinity. No losses yet! Enders Game 
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Mar 5, 2023 23:38
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Hadlock posted:Enders Game I'm leaving it. 
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Mar 6, 2023 00:07
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I made a small weekend project. I wanted to give the fish more room to swim so I got a 20 rimless long (currently in a standard) and looked around at some amano stuff for inspiration. I am going to take the gravel out that is on top because I dont really like the way it looks. Waiting on some plants to be delivered and give it a few weeks to cycle.
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Mar 6, 2023 01:11
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I kinda want to redo my marine tank substrate, it has that argonite sand/rubble poo poo, and I want to do pure sand. Playsand is out because apparently it'll give me nothing but algae, so what else is okay to use?
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Mar 6, 2023 01:18
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Cowslips Warren posted:I kinda want to redo my marine tank substrate, it has that argonite sand/rubble poo poo, and I want to do pure sand. Playsand is out because apparently it'll give me nothing but algae, so what else is okay to use? I'm researching this topic at this very moment. I went ahead and empited out my 75g. I'm not willing to risk more fish losses for the sake of rocks and sand. While I'm going to the trouble I plan on doing it slow and getting it exactly how I want it since the tank seems well enough in the frag tank for now. BRSTV has a sand buyer's guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AduqkU12qzI Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Mar 7, 2023 |
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Mar 6, 2023 18:56
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 Kinda figuring this stuff out as I go along but man this is a rewarding hobby sometimes. Shelley's an expressive little poo poo, and surprisingly has only taken out one Glass Catfish among the whole community I've got going.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:37
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