The Aquarium Thread: Get him an account he's ready for sea spam

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Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

So this is my 55G setup, and I'm kinda bored with the aquascaping. Because the top is closed off with 2 openings I can't fit any good sized pieces of driftwood in it. Originally I was trying to achieve some kind of dutch style aquascape but none of the plants ever grew successfully enough. I recently upgraded the lighting to a ray II LED setup. Does anyone have suggestions for a rescape that is a bit more eye catching? I need to keep the rock on the left hand size somewhere because of the ottos and rope fish want to hide, but other than that i'm open to suggestions.

http://imgur.com/HDiM82k

# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 00:48

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 07:52

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

wow that was an AWESOME post, thanks for some of the suggestions. To elaborate a bit on the setup, I have the ray II as i mentioned and i'm currently pumping in CO2, might need to up the amount though as i don't have a drop checker. I've tried to create a backdrop of plants in the past and every time i move plants to the rear of the tank they start growing horizontally or vertically or get overcome with algae of the black variety from touching the back of the tank. Also, I need to leave some of the top left rear tank empty as that is where the over flow is, but some vals that i trim should be ok. I'll look into getting a piece of driftwood in, at some point in the next two months i'll be moving and will have the tank drained long enough to put that in, apply silcone and let it dry. Also do you think the single ray II is enough light for the height of this tank if you're familar with it at all?

# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 04:50

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

so I tried to take some of the advice and rescape things a bit. Made it a bit more symetrical but now i'm forced to wait for some more of it to grow out and up to fill in the spaces I left. I do have a few points I'd like to ask about though; the rotala indica i'm going to hop grows vertical enough in the lesser lighting that it will be ok (used to be front and center in the middle), and should i keep the penny wort on hte left? If so where would be a good place for it. While at the LFS I saw the HC covered log and decided to splurge on it, and pray to the lighting and CO2 gods that my setup will be enough to keep it there and maybe even spreading. So, what should be rearranged for a better look? Thanks guys

http://imgur.com/qtbEqkx

# ¿ Jun 30, 2013 00:49

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

It looks like you have my exact aquarium Ling. That's a Seaclear System II, 55G (a bit less because of the air space in the filter). Based on its age, and experiences I've had with mine here are a few things to watch out for. The intake hose from the pump to the front of the tank may tear off, requiring you to constantly reseal it with poor silicone because the tank is still mostly full of water, fish and plants. Or your wet dry system may become clogged leading to not enough water getting through the filter flow on the back top left, causing pressure to build up in the tank and break through the silicone holding the top of the plastic to the overflow and trickling through that way. In either of these cases,

http://www.amazon.com/One-Shot-Black-Pond-Sealant/dp/B004INC2ME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372732652&sr=8-1&keywords=gold+label+aquarium+sealer

will be your best friend. On several occasions your fish will wind up in the filter. Have a good net handy for those frustrating moments. Also you won't be able to have very deep sand or gravel beds because of how near the floor of the tank the return holes are situated. Those moments aside, this is a great tank that I also got from a garage sale and love. Good luck!

E: In fact you have the same stand I do, though mine came with some awesome power strip alterations. If you're still looking for lighting and want to go down the T5HO route, I just upgraded to an LED system and have my two old ballasts and bulbs. PM me for more info if you're interested.

Mocking Bird fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Jul 2, 2013

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 03:39

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

So taking another look at the way your filter looks, it seems like you have a partition in the middle that doesn't extend to the sides (whereas mine does). Thus, it seems likely that your filter is slightly different than mine. I like mine because its a great spot to put the thermometer, pH meter, Heater, UV light filter, and CO2 diffuser (plus the actual filter material, its amazing). What do you plan on using for your filter materials?

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 05:30

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

JuffoWup posted:

Yeah, cpds kind of need a small tank and some odd care. Atleast for me, even when there was 15 of them, they were skittish. More importantly, they like heavily planted aquariums, so you end up with the "what fish" problem. Tank looked good from a 'scape point of view, but the fish to make it where not to be found.

Check out the postted blue-eye. No experience, but look pretty cool too. From what I've read, are also more outgoing as well.

Really though, I think I should have gone for cichlids. Dropped the flow so I'm not blasting my fish around, and now it seems there is almost no water movement in the tank. Lessons learned, don't use a saltwater tank in freshwater.

Powerheads, man, powerheads.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2013 07:19

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

I loved my edge :colbert:

I did tank maintenance with a small tube and a toothbrush for the corners, it worked fine. Just don't plan to have much stock or plant very heavily, as the light is only in the center. I did anubias, small driftwood, and my paddletail newt as the solo resident.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 01:11

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

LingcodKilla posted:

Anyone in the Bay Area CA want a 55 plexiglass with stand and hood? Built in wet/dry with working pump and coral light. It's in used condition but works and it's free. Just shoot me a PM.

Don't tempt me

I am renting and likely moving soon, but I really want a big tank again.

Also, does anyone in the Bay Area (east bay specifically) have any extra malaysian trumpet snails for me? I only need a couple to toss in my newt tank.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 06:27

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Chido posted:

My snail got out of the tank sometime last night and can't find it

Don't worry, you'll be able to smell it soon :ohdear:

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 05:30

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Whatever size tank you buy, get a filter that is rated for at least twice that amount. And have someone watch your son while he feeds the fish - overfeeding only makes dirty water a worse issue!

# ¿ Nov 30, 2014 05:50

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

candywife posted:

Probably

He's definitely the biggest goldfish I've ever seen.
I hope he gets monstrously huge and lives forever.

I had a goldfish before him, named "cracky" because a crackhead gave him to me in a dirty peanut butter jar after he rescued him from a red tagged methlab-explosion house. Cracky only lived a year before he was eaten by a raccoon. Cracky never got even half as big as Fimmion though.

I like that your fish have gritty origin stories.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2014 08:59

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Do you have any driftwood in there? Tannins from wood can leach and turn your water yellow/brown.

Try stuffing some activated carbon in a filter sock into your filter. If it's a clarity issue that might help. What's the sunlight situation?

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 04:59

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Rock scapes are fun! You should try it. I've seen some beautiful cichlid tanks with nary a plant in sight.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2014 01:26

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Anubias are my go-to no fuss plants, just tie them to some pretty drift wood. Also all that will be left after the nuclear winter is cockroaches and anacharis.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2015 01:02

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

So, my newt of five years managed to escape his tank and get eaten by my roommates dog. This is a bit traumatic for me

RIP Isaac Newton.

But now I'm left with a depressing and empty fluval spec V (his temporary housing).

If you could stock something in there, what would you do? I feel like shrimp would be too small for me to enjoy given the placement of the tank.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2015 20:23

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

No, really, that's the thread title. Enjoy your new "puppy."

# ¿ Apr 9, 2015 07:01

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Much much bigger than the mouths of those other fish. I suggest sending a couple tributes to test the waters :v:

# ¿ Apr 30, 2015 23:57

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Dogwood Fleet posted:

You'll still want to keep the 30 and the 55 though, you never know when you'll need them.

This is the road to darkness. And a cichlid tank. And a shrimp tank. And on no someone is giving away an oscar better break out the 75.

# ¿ May 14, 2015 21:49

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

You can also time a light gap in the middle of the cycle - supposedly it interrupts algae photosynthesis but the plants don't care. I've found that it helped.

Or get a snail or a few otos.

# ¿ May 22, 2015 07:32

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Errant Gin Monks posted:

I kind of have an aquarium. We made a container pond out of a big 40 gallon metal stock tank. I added 3 inches of gravel to the bottom and an additional inch of plant substrate. It's all sloped thou for a shallow and deep end.

We have about 7 plants in there, some grasses, some leafy plants and some brush fern looking things. I have all the names written down but can't remember them.

There is a small fountain on the deep end buried and held in place by some big pieces of Rose Quartz.

I just added some fancy goldfish. 2 tricolor fan tails and 2 tricolor ryukins.

Now I know in the long run this is too much fish. We are making a second duplicate one to go across the pathway that two of the fish will go into so there will only be 2 per. I'm hoping this so enough room. The shallow end is probably 5 inches deep, the deep end is about 10.

My question is feeding. We are going to be adding a dwarf lily and some duckweed, do I just watch to see how much duckweed is in there and let them eat that or do I also need to add supplemental food? Right now I have some flakes that they just gobble up as fast as they can, and they keep nibbling the plants and rocks for the rest. How much should I feed and what kind of stuff to keep them healthy and super happy? I was going to get freeze dried shrimp and bloodworms and some kelp as well.

They definitely need to be fed on top of eating duck weed! Get some hikari carp/goldfish/koi pellets and let them go to town

That tank is small enough that you will need to do water changes and filter as well - does the fountain have a filter component? They sell pond filters with fountain heads that might be a good addition.

Also, I hope you don't have raccoons in your area....

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 18:20

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Feeding goldfish once a day is fine

feed them as much as they can eat in two minutes, scoop out any excess. And watch the temp in your containers! Those are small and reflective enough to seriously overheat your cold water goldfish if you're not careful.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 04:46

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Bro, does your boyfriend have no respect for your pets/belongings whatsoever? :raise:

I work with some ten year olds with less impulsivity issues.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2015 06:56

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

How is it your fault the fish are dead? Did you wash them with soap or something?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2016 02:40

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Mosquito fish? About the size of guppies and hardy as hell

# ¿ May 19, 2016 19:45

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

My trilineatus and Julii cories were adorable, hardy, and bred like rabbits

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 05:46

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Split up your light periods - I used to do a dark period in the middle of the day, so three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening when I was actually enjoying the tank

Do regular water changes extremely diligently

Dosing with Excel seemed to help me

Manually remove the algae with your hand, a toothbrush, or a credit card before water changes and suck it up with your siphon

Add fast growing plants like anacharis or frog bit that can compete with your algae

Research snails or shrimp that might be able to cohabitate in your tanks - I wouldn�t suggest this with an over crowded goldfish tank

I can�t stress breaking up the photo period and doing water changes enough

# ¿ Oct 2, 2018 00:18

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

DeadlyMuffin posted:

I have a 10g tank with Endlers. I absolutely love the fish, but I have no idea what to do with all the babies.

I've given them away to all my friends who will take them, and I even converted some to salt water for my reef tank (it worked, but that tank has way too much current and they were eventually eaten by coral).

I've thought about introducing a predator, but it's a small and extremely heavily planted tank so I'm not sure what would fit.

I hate to start culling them, but I'm getting to that point. Anybody have any suggestions?

(If you're in the SF bay area and want Endlers, hit me up!)

Don�t tempt me, I have zero fish tanks at the moment but I have a 5 gallon spec in my closet I�ve been thinking of setting up again

# ¿ Oct 5, 2018 03:24

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Stoca Zola posted:

OK so I've got two like this:

This one which might be the same but seems more reticulated than stripey, and has a possible injury on the back half:

Two like this, pretty sure male and female due to fatness:

And most of the time all I see is this, poor skinny buggers. Hope I can feed them up:

https://i.imgur.com/OUtoFBA.mp4

They look like weird hill stream loaches, I like them

# ¿ Oct 12, 2018 16:27

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

If I recall, prime binds ammonia but won't reduce its appearance in the test tube or strip tests

Do more water changes (with prime), rather than prime treating existing water if you want to improve your ammonia tests

# ¿ May 10, 2019 18:35

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Yes, having them sitting on a flat board is the important part in my mind. I moved my 20g sitting on top of my coffee table (with some snug but not tight luggage straps) and it worked beautifully. Pro tip, turn the coffee table upside down so there is a lip to contain the tank

# ¿ Jun 17, 2019 17:48

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

That aquascape looks great! How tall is the tank? Are you trying to go for more height or leave more free swimming space?

# ¿ Jul 4, 2019 03:02

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 07:52

Mocking Bird: Aug 17, 2011

Hooplah posted:

Hello thread. My fiance was gifted a betta by a well-meaning but careless family member last weekend. Instead of letting the poor thing languish (and probably die within the year) in the 1.35 gal tank we were given with the fish, we've decided to use this as an opportunity to give the lil guy the best life we can. Neither of us have any aquarium or aquascaping experience, but I'm a bio that loves fish and aquatics so that helps.

With help from our LFS, we picked up a 9g glass tank, aquasoil, a forza 15-25 filter (says 80gph on the box, is adjustable), a 50w heater, a 7" reno led clamp light, some hardscape, and one crypt, one java fern, and some giant duckweed and water lettuce for top cover.

Going in to our LFS, I didn't really know about cycling, and my impression was that with plants and plant-growing medium our big tank would be immediately a better situation for the fish. Of course, I was super excited and got the tank set up and the filter flowing immediately. I've been doing some reading now and I'm not really sure what my next step should be. I ordered a test kit for NH3/NO3/NO2/pH, but won't get it for a day or two. I'm a little annoyed I explained to the LFS guy that I'm a total newbie to this and he was perfectly willing to sell me all the gear I listed, but not mention a test kit would be required. He also never said anything about cycling and didn't mention waiting to add the fish to my new tank.

Do you guys think I should just wait until I get the test kit to do anything with the new tank? The water has been kind of cloudy since the start two days ago, and I know water changes would help with that, but I also read that AS should release a bunch of ammonia which I want to keep around to encourage bacterial growth. I'm also not sure if the water conditions are good for my new plants, but this wasn't something I had any idea would be an issue when I bought them. Hopefully they survive whatever the ammonia conditions are!

I also read that a tank, while cycling, could be hard on or even deadly for my fish. However, he's in a little tank right now with nothing for cover but a couple water lettuces I added and aragonite pebbles on the tank bottom. Is he better off in the little tank, or the big one? I'm doing daily 50% water changes on the little tank, but it doesn't have a filter or heater or anything.

Here's a pic of the tank. the plants aren't planted or attached yet.

and of course

fish are hard to take pictures of

I'm really happy with the fish though, he's very active and responsive to my presence. He's also extremely curious about the giant tank just out of reach

Your little buddy is already making bubble nests :3:

he's happy

# ¿ Aug 28, 2019 17:27

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