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no that's bladder/pond snails fish will generally keep the snail population in check by eating the eggs/babies, bigger snails will outcompete smaller snails for food simply by having larger fat stores when the food runs out and stop breeding nerrite and mystery snails are pretty safe so long as you don't have brackish water
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Jul 16, 2023 02:11
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Hey y'all, need some advice. I'm on day 10 of cycling a new 55 gallon aquarium, and it's the first time I'm using Dr Tim's ammonia and One and Only nitrifying bacteria. My ammonia has been at 0 for three days now, but my nitrites have been 5 ppm. I did a 25% water change two days ago to try to get the nitrites to come down a bit, but it's been holding steady at 5. I've added a 1/4 dose of ammonia after the water change and it went back down to 0 pretty much immediately. Does it sound like I'm stalled and need to intervene, or do I need to just leave it the hell alone and let it be for a few more days? My levels as of this morning: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 5 Nitrate: 40 (on a strip, but will do a full test if needed) pH: 7.4 Temp: 74 F The tank has fine sand substrate and an air stone set up. I'm trying to avoid using a heater to cycle since this is going to be a home for my axolotls, but if that's what I need to do to get it going again, I have one I can add.
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Jul 16, 2023 15:34
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When you’re cycling you want ammonia in all the time, and no need to reduce nitrite, unless there are live animals in the tank in which case those guys are your ammonia source instead. Keep your ammonia at 1ppm at least, so your bacteria don’t starve. You need two populations established in your filter (not in your water column), one that eats the ammonia and one that eats the nitrite, so you need both ammonia and nitrite present to make sure there’s food for those guys. Don’t worry too much about water changing until you are much closer to the end of your cycle ie ammonia and nitrite drop fast and all you see is nitrate. Wait what filter are you using? Just reread your post and only see the air stone mentioned.
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Jul 16, 2023 20:17
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Stoca's right. Apply more patience and urine. Eta: 74F is plenty warm for the kinds of bacteria you'd be looking to grow. That's the set temp in my tank. B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jul 16, 2023 |
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Jul 16, 2023 20:26
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Yeah sorry, should have mentioned that I also have a canister filter (Fluval 307). I dosed 1 ppm ammonia today so I’ll let it keep doing its thing. Thanks!
pastor of muppets fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jul 16, 2023 |
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Jul 16, 2023 21:00
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Hey hey, I also have some water parameter questions. Ive had tanks all my life, and my current 3 tanks are all well established but heres whats going on. In my 75 gallon cichlid tank the NO3 is really high, always has been, always seem to be regardless of water changes etc. doesn't seem to effect the fish, its a pretty high bioload I have maybe 3 or 4 peacocks, a malawi eyebiter and a big striped catfish , and the tank is heavily planted, all my tanks are. So to get plants established I used to use Seachem flourish excel and or root tabs, but since then I setup the other two tanks that have far less aggressive fish and usually just cycle plants out of those tanks into the cichlid tanks as the cichlids destroy them... so there hasn't really been any additives lately. But from what Ive read its still undesirable to be too high, so what can I do as its the end of the nitrogen cycle everything I read just says it all breaks down into NO3 eventually and then the explanations just kind of ... stop there. The two other tanks, a 55 gallon tank with some rope fish and garami , and my daughters little 20 gallon with mollys and corys are both heavily planted... they have virtually undetectable NO2 or NO3 levels, but thats new and concerning with those two tanks is that the alkalinity KH is way higher than ive ever seen it and that is causing the PH to climb, and all the plants are developing gross wispy hair algae that nothing that usually eats algae seems to want to eat. What could be causing a KH climb in those two tanks but not the cichlid tank ? I've read peat moss is a good way to lower KH, but that seems like it would be horrible for water clarity? should I just buy an acid buffer ? Any advice would be appreciated , yall have never steered me wrong before.
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Jul 16, 2023 22:34
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I can only help with part of that. Here's what I've found to be the best way of using up those nitrates, along with regular water changes Lots of pothos and monstera growing out the top. Also floating plants!
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Jul 16, 2023 22:44
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B33rChiller posted:I can only help with part of that. Here's what I've found to be the best way of using up those nitrates, along with regular water changes I have both of those plants in planters outside and theyre getting root rot and wilting from the never ending torrential rain the north east has been getting, they can be kept in an aquarium ? how do you propagate them, just snip some off and stuff it thru an opening in the lid ? edit:  the tank does have a fair amount of vegetation already
Hi fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jul 16, 2023 |
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Jul 16, 2023 23:00
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Yep, I just snip below a node where the aerial roots are starting and stick that in the top at the back. That's how I've propagated cuttings before , so I figured instead of a vase where I'm refreshing the water all the time, just use the aerated aquarium water. And look at that, the plant seems fine where it is, and the nitrates aren't rising as fast. And I don't have to remember to water these. Sweet deal.
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Jul 17, 2023 02:54
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Climbing hardness makes me think you’re getting evaporation that you aren’t taking into account with your water changes. By which I mean, there are things dissolved in the water (probably organics too that you can’t easily measure that can cause algae) and by not changing 50% or more water you’re not keeping ahead of the build up. The alternative is to use softer water for smaller water changes to try to not add too much hardness, this is something I do with my RO system because I get a lot of evaporation here, but realistically you still need big water changes to remove any build up of organics. What kind of readings do you get if you measure your source water? I think one way to think of it is if you do a 20% water change, your parameters in the tank will only move 20% closer to the readings of your source water. And it will need a LOT of water changes to move those parameters little by little each time. A 50% change will get you half way there, and another 50% water change after that will get you 75% of the way there. I’m not saying in your case you need to do drastic water changes like that every single water change, but if there’s been a big build up over time you might need to do a big water change to “catch up”. I wouldn’t mess with a pH changer right now, you can probably control your water better with larger or more frequent water changes, or if your tap water is changing you are going to be fighting a losing battle. Mollys 100% will not be hurt by hardness, they can live in seawater after all and it is good for them but I’m not sure about the needs of your other fish. Always watch the health and behaviour of the fish and if they are all fine there is no need to make drastic changes. In my experience soft water fish are okay in harder water, it’s just their eggs don’t hatch properly if you are trying to breed them. It’s worse the other way, hard water fish can’t handle the osmotic pressure of soft water and get bloated with fluid in their tissues, their electrolytes get out of balance, they can get neurological damage and die.
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Jul 17, 2023 07:35
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New set of worms has taken over the bottom of the tank, different species, the last was bloodworms, these are more like static cocoons. Learning a lot about how flying insects work. Reading about their lifecycle in a middle school text book provides no real world context for how much of their time is spent underwater. Fish fry population seems to be stable, I stopped counting, looks like it's still over 25. Might be 30 I dunno. They don't all hang out in the top 3 inches anymore and the water maintains a healthy green murkiness so it's impossible to tell I put... 2, 3 or 4 daphnia in the tank a couple weeks ago hoping that there would be a self sustaining population serving as an alternative food source for the fry. Well now I have more daphnia than fry and the fry seem mostly uninterested. Ever so slightly concerned the daphnia will eat up all my green water, starve and population crash loving up my water chemistry. Hopefully the fish get a growth spurt and take an interest in eating the daphnia soon. I decided not to feed the fish/tank yesterday to see if I could convince them to eat some daphnia. Added a pond snail that hitchhiked in from my lotus plant to the tank, started getting a thick mat of algae on the sides of the tank that is obstructing my view 20-30% water changes weekly seems to be going ok. I am eyeballing shaking a slight amount of baking soda into my hand and adding it to the new water as my water is like ph 6.1 or so, that seems to be working ok, ph sitting about 7.4-7.6. Also tossing in some cuttlefish bone once a month. the two largest fish that hatched on their own outdoors seem to be doing great, they look like stubby, fat, but tiny fish now
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Jul 18, 2023 03:54
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 The angelfish died and 4 more of the black skirt tetras.
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Jul 19, 2023 23:53
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What are the water stats? Who is left, and how do they look?
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Jul 20, 2023 00:26
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I'm back out of town so I can't test. There are just 4 black skirt tetras left. I'm told 1 looks iffy and the other 3 look okay.
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Jul 20, 2023 14:02
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I'm still cycling my new tank. The plants seem to be doing well aside from one having some white mold growing on it. I walked by yesterday and saw something stuck to the glass inside of the tank, so I investigated. Looks like my plants were not alone.  Upon closer inspection there are tons of the little dudes in there. I'm curious to see what variety they grow into.
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Jul 20, 2023 16:49
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Daphnia starting to take over my fry tank, going to start netting some out and feeding them to my big pond every day, I guess. I thought the fry would start eating the baby daphnia but if they are, they aren't eating enough Big pond is totally overgrown with water hyacynth and other hyper growth pond plants (which is good, gets a couple hours a day of full sun and it's gonna be over 100 next couple of days), decided to push some plants out of the way on the other end of the pond... to discover some fry hanging out, peering back up at me  They looked like they were at least two weeks old, and there were at least three of them, so that's pretty cool that there's finally enough vegetation that the fry were not only able to hatch after 10-12 days, but appear to have survived not being eaten as live bait by the other two dozen fish in there.Constantly amazed that fish can survive on just the green water in the tank and what lives in there. I've started dosing my ~10 gallon planter tank on the front porch with some fry food but just barely, seems to be supporting ~10 fry in there no problem. https://i.imgur.com/kRUfJfr.mp4
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Jul 20, 2023 18:24
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Has anyone kept shrimp while breeding CPDs? I'm thinking of tossing some culls in my breeding tanks but I don't want them eating eggs.
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Jul 21, 2023 21:21
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I bought cherry shrimp for that exact purpose but my tank was still cycling and I kept losing them. Neocardania are apparently egg safe but I wasn't able to prove it
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Jul 21, 2023 21:37
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Hadlock posted:I bought cherry shrimp for that exact purpose but my tank was still cycling and I kept losing them. Neocardania are apparently egg safe but I wasn't able to prove it If you are in the south bay and want more, hit me up. They breed like rabbits.
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Jul 21, 2023 21:58
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Has anyone kept shrimp while breeding CPDs? I'm thinking of tossing some culls in my breeding tanks but I don't want them eating eggs. Yep. Snails seem to occasionally go for the eggs, but the shrimp seem disinterested in them!
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Jul 21, 2023 23:01
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Schwack posted:Yep. Snails seem to occasionally go for the eggs, but the shrimp seem disinterested in them! ... I do have a bunch of snails and have been having trouble getting eggs recently.
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Jul 22, 2023 02:18
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DeadlyMuffin posted:... I do have a bunch of snails and have been having trouble getting eggs recently. Ur eggs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_7nf5VKRwk
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Jul 22, 2023 03:05
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https://youtu.be/L_jWHffIx5E
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Jul 22, 2023 03:07
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They're bladder snails, but they are numerous. I should dry out and fully restart those tanks
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Jul 22, 2023 03:28
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Saltwater is going better. The ninety cube is looking good
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Jul 22, 2023 07:14
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DeadlyMuffin posted:They're bladder snails, but they are numerous. I should dry out and fully restart those tanks I put a pond snail in my fry tank, thinking I'm gonna yank him out and replace him with a non breeding nerrite snail before he lays some eggs in there  My outdoor patio vase pond thing is getting overrun by pond snails, started picking them out, I think they're outcompeting the rice fish for food at this point
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Jul 22, 2023 20:51
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Saltwater is going better. The ninety cube is looking good Nice. How much does a setup like that cost?
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Jul 23, 2023 00:14
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Rated PG-34 posted:Nice. How much does a setup like that cost? I got the tank and the light for $800 by haggling with a local shop that was trying to unload it on craigslist. I made the sump myself from an old tank I had around and some scrap acrylic. Pumps were expensive because I bought two MP40 circulation pumps. Maybe $350 each? And the big return pump. Heaters weren't crazy. Protein skimmer was used, can't remember craigslist or Facebook but it was a good deal. I don't recall how much the rock cost. The corals were cheap, almost all craigslist from local folks or stuff from another tank. I bought the leather coral on the left from a lady in Michigan who was on an all women reef tank Facebook group. Ballpark $2500 all in, if I had to roughly guess. I bought the tank right before the pandemic, and when I was stuck at home I figured it'd be a good time to actually set it up. I feel like I did it relatively frugally, but it's still a lot of money. If I'd bought new, had gone with Starfire glass, etc it could very easily been several times as much. I went to Instant Ocean salt instead of the more expensive stuff that I use for my little saltwater tank.
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Jul 23, 2023 03:28
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Got back in town. Another 2 KIA. Just 2 Black Skirt Tetras remain. I setup another QT tank because I didn't have enough medicine on hand to hit them with Fin and Body Cure in the display tank. Either way, I think I'll wait a few weeks with the 55g having no fish in it to hopefully starve out anything parasitic. I might get rid off all the gravel and plants and rocks too, just to be safe.
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Jul 23, 2023 04:08
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Saltwater is going better. The ninety cube is looking good looks amazing, what kind of lights are you using?
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Jul 24, 2023 00:11
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The Nastier Nate posted:looks amazing, what kind of lights are you using? It's an ATI Radion G4. Can't remember if there's more to the model than that. I actually turned it down recently, it's weird to be in a position where I *don't* want the light blasting at full power, but it clearly made a positive improvement.
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Jul 24, 2023 21:00
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Have one cory in my school who's been laying on his/her back recently; it rights itself to swim around, and if I go near it with a net or any other tool, it flips right-side up and swims off. Water parameters are all good; no new fish, PH is constant, 0-0-10 ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. I've got a school of ~9 of them, and don't have a hospital tank. Any thoughts on next steps? Was thinking of fasting them for a couple days to see if it's overfeeding.
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Jul 24, 2023 23:21
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DeadlyMuffin posted:It's an ATI Radion G4. Can't remember if there's more to the model than that. i did the same thing. i turned my blues down from 95% to 70%...huge improvement
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Jul 26, 2023 01:26
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For a moment I thought I could buy sth to mine crypto and light my tank at the same time
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Jul 26, 2023 03:43
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Hi fishgoons, I'd like some scaping advice. I'm making a long stream tank (90x28x28 cm) for my hillstream loaches and pearl danios.  I've got the rocks looking good, with a nice spot directly in front of the outflow for the lil guys to latch onto and wheeeeeeeee The idea is the big flat stone nearest the front hides the pump behind it which looks like it'll work.  What I want to do is have an emersed section at the proximal end, next to the pump. I'm picturing a snippet of stream bed, with some of the bank included as well - a proper terrestrial area kept separate from the water (somehow?!) that has terrestrial ferns and such. Any suggestions on how to do that? Can I BUILD THE WALL with thin stones and plug the gaps? Maybe a garden pot lined with something to stop the soil leaking, then camouflage it? Or is it a bad idea, and I just stick to aquatic plants that will emerse themselves?
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Jul 28, 2023 11:40
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i dont have a tank anymore but i do love watching great lil tanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woSFGeMpoxI noticed a new channel with great videos on aquarium builds and becoming fully mature tanks.
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Jul 28, 2023 12:34
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Synthbuttrange posted:i dont have a tank anymore but i do love watching great lil tanks. this dude absolutely blew the gently caress up in like three weeks with three videos like they’re great videos, but I struggle to see what he’s doing dramatically differently from other aquascaping channels that have been at it for much longer dude must be a SEO Jedi, or maybe “ecosystem” and “shrimp tank” are having a moment
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Jul 28, 2023 12:52
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adding little 'nyam' noises to fish eating elevates things like 400%
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Jul 28, 2023 13:10
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Meningism posted:Any suggestions on how to do that? Can I BUILD THE WALL with thin stones and plug the gaps? Maybe a garden pot lined with something to stop the soil leaking, then camouflage it? I don't think it's worth mixing real soil in when you could just use marginal plants that do well without it, I've got bacopa caroliniana growing in just gravel at the edge of my pond and it is going nuts reaching out both into the pond and back towards dry land, and it's fine indoors growing out of a plain jar of water too. There are probably a few different plants that do well in/out, I'm sure serpadesign from youtube would have at some point made something similar although maybe not a river set up. Also, searching for riparium or paludarium might find you more ideas on possible plants. But to my mind keep your fish's health as first priority, keep it simple and avoid terrestrial contaminants.
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Jul 28, 2023 15:17
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| # ? May 26, 2024 08:35 |
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Ok Comboomer posted:, or maybe “ecosystem” and “shrimp tank” are having a moment I think this is it yeah Hadlock fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Jul 28, 2023 |
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Jul 28, 2023 15:48
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