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Got some more corkscrew vals that could go to a new home if anyone's interested. Just let me know and you too can have the long, manageable curls you've always dreamed of.
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Oct 8, 2013 01:14
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 18:58 |
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LingcodKilla posted:I'm in CA. How far are you from me? The west coast...of Florida. Still gets there by mail pretty fast, though.
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Oct 8, 2013 02:19
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SynthOrange posted:That's really twisty. I've got stuff that was labelled as corkscrew but the twists are really anemic. It keeps those twists if you let it dry, too. Makes me think there are arts and crafts possibilities with it. I've got blades of the stuff that are a bit over a meter long, too, so plenty of length to work with. Just need to be, you know, creative or some junk. Thalamas posted:I would love some corkscrew vals. Is my 2 watts per gallon lighting going to be sufficient for them? Far as I know, the watt-per-gallon thing is a bit passe. It's more about getting the wavelength and penetration right. I can tell you it grows like wildfire in my tank with one okay-ish LED fixture (one of these) and some partial sunlight during parts of the day. What sort of bulbs are you using exactly? What kind of bulbs are you running on the tank, and how new are they? Could be the source of some of your algae problems.
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Oct 10, 2013 04:53
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Slugworth posted:One 18w roseate and one 18w 6000k full spectrum. I am having the damndest time remembering when we setup the tank, but no more than a year old. I will say, the tank was perfect when we first set it up, with great plant growth and no algae. Last few months, the plants are all surviving but growing really slowly. Just echoing the others, but swapping bulbs would probably help a good bit. The long and short of it is that the wavelengths the plants want go out first. We can't really see it since we aren't geared for it, but it does happen, and it's roughly six months in for the fluorescent bulbs. The cruel joke is that sometimes they decay into wavelengths that prompt the algae even more, so bulb changes are a way of life. And yeah, I'm pretty happy with the fugeray, especially for what I spent on it. Think it was like $120 for a four foot fixture? Hard to complain about what results I've gotten at that price point.
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Oct 11, 2013 03:02
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Not a great picture and I definitely need to pull up some (more) vals but I really, REALLY like how this tank looks when the sun hits it. I only get to see it like this on weekends, so it's a little bit of a special treat.  There's something about filtered sunlight that just can't be beat, if you ask me. In sadder news, my little betta buddy Ray Bill was floating when I checked him this morning. Not sure what happened, parameters are all good. Poor little guy  Also means I have now-empty 6.6 gallon bookshelf tank with nothing but snails in it. I don't think I want to get another betta, Ray Bill was my boy and it wouldn't be right to just replace him.
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Nov 3, 2013 19:04
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Feeding my fish earlier, I noted to myself that I had one strange looking rasbora. Then I remembered that I don't have any rasbora, so that fish had to be something else. Looks like one (and probably only one) of Sharknado's kids managed to survive against all odds. The parents were never removed (three spot gourami), there's like six yoyo loaches, six Bolivian rams, and a solid dozen black ruby barbs in the tank, all of which would happily gulp down anything. I'm guessing the little guy or gal feels pretty confident now, since it was darting out for flakes among the larger fish but I kinda worry it'll get chomped. It's like...maybe half an inch long? Just a babby.
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Nov 19, 2013 01:41
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Home visiting family here, and I took a little stroll behind my parent's house to the swamp in the back field. Because I'm some kind of loon, I decided it was a good time to pull some plants up and take them with me. Sorry for the crappy quality pics but my phone is kinda terrible and it's all I have.  Pretty sure this is bladderwort of some kind. Maybe an interesting floater to use?  Some kind of moss. This was growing on top of the earthen dam that made the swamp, so I'm hoping that means it can grow well submerged.  A climbing fern. Going to try this out in my planted HOB. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. I've got a fallow tank I can toss the bladderwort into and nuke hard to clean it up. Going to do a light bleach bath first of course, and then just hit it with everything I can to kill the microorganisms and various larvae from whatever's in that swamp. For the moss I think I'll re-doing my 6 gallon soon and want to do the dry start, to give the moss a head start for when I add some shrimp buddies.
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Nov 30, 2013 23:16
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Anyone here seen these new LED fixtures from Current USA? My local store had one on a tank today and I was really impressed with it. The thing has red, green, blue, and white LEDS and they can all be set independently of each other. The box said 6500k on it which I assume only refers to whites rather than the colors, so it should be good for plants depending on your setup. What really got me was just how far this thing went with customization. Want to terrorize your fish and put them into a pure red-lit hellscape? You can do it with this fixture. Want the lights to brighten and lessen intermittently, as if clouds were rolling by? There's settings for that. Want to make your fish that Thor's coming to visit with a fake thunder storm? Push a button. The catch is of course that it seems a little light in the PAR value are, but on a smaller tank they should do pretty well, maybe a little bit better because they really pull off full spectrum? I dunno, but I think I'm going go get one for my shrimp tank project and find out.
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Dec 7, 2013 23:43
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Yeah, I've got a Fugeray on one my 75, and I've been wondering if I should double up on them. I can churn out vals without much problem, but they do grow long in that tank. Was thinking about getting the Fugeray+ with the red LEDs but if the Current one does well on my shrimp tank I may just get a four footer for the 75 as well to run alongside it. Would still be less draw than a four light T5HO setup for that size, at least. Those from buildmyled definitely look much nicer, though. Personally I liked the Dutch one more, because the Iwagumi just made things look a little too monochromatic for me but my taste may questionable. Are you after more growth, or mainly trying to get your tank to "pop" a bit more?
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Dec 8, 2013 02:06
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JuffoWup posted:Mostly the dimmable feature that my fuge doesn't have. I picked up an apex controller a short bit back to help handle the tank due to my work schedule (even more so now with christmas rush going on). The fuge is pulling enough light now for my tank that I have no problems with plant growth. Ahhhh, I can understand wanting to spare your fish some panic. Would maybe just a single cheap string of LEDs be enough to ease your mind? I don't know much about them but if you're just looking for something to make it easier on your fish that could be a cheaper option for you. Now that I think about it I don't know if they'd come or with with dimmers though. Hrm.
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Dec 8, 2013 03:35
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Bought one of those Current USA LED fixtures like I mentioned last page, a 24 inch unit. Got sent two of them, but I only paid for one. Woohoo! Playing with the remote right now, this is kinda fun.
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Dec 12, 2013 00:53
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Malalol posted:kribs are assholes but beautiful. still can't get rid of my fry because they MAKE SO MANY BABIES! This is the authentic krib experience right here. Everything is happy > pair up > dig up something > EVERYTHING IS THE ENEMY > EVERYTHING BUT BABY IS THE ENEMY. Watching my two absolutely run roughshod over my 55 was certainly a learning experience. The pearl gouramis are the only thing in that tank that have been able to knock them down but they didn't even try. Slowly but surely trying to get them all out. Rather than chase them all down with nets in a planted tank like a sucker, I just feed 'em tubifex worm cubes pressed to the glass so that the greedy little things swim straight into my hand.
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Dec 15, 2013 17:08
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That sucks SynthOrange, hope all your little ones come out alright. Makes me feel bad complaining about our recent cold snap here wreaking havoc on my walls. Concrete house + cool weather + tropical fish tanks = condensation and mildew it turns out, bleh. Have been getting results I guess(?) with my mystery swamp moss project. After a month and a half, I've got some actual growth that I'll share in terrible pictures:   All the vertical, light green bits are new growth. I actually gave up on it half way through December, but noticed some growth when I came back after heading out of town for the holidays which was a pleasant surprise. It's taken hold anywhere the pieces were in the tank so it looks like it'll be pretty much everywhere, which is cool. I still have no idea if this stuff grow or even survive submersed though. I think I may pull the trigger and fill the tank up this weekend. If it dies, it dies for a good cause 
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Jan 17, 2014 03:27
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Awesome looking tank, Keppi. What are those plants that are growing from inside the tank with the huge leaves our of the water? They look amazing.
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Jan 22, 2014 01:23
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That's a disappointed cichlid, seen it a billion times. Poor guy. And those plants are seriously Echinodorus? I guess I really need to up my light game, good lord. I've got a few Echinodorus osiris in one of my tanks and now I just feel like I'm mistreating them.
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Jan 23, 2014 02:25
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Waaaaait...how big is the pleco that has 2 inch teeth?
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Feb 6, 2014 05:11
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Maybe they're baby (fry?) teeth and it's going to grow in some 4 inchers in and start feeding on human flesh exclusively.
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Feb 6, 2014 06:38
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Looks like, yeah. Florida is jam-packed with non-natives for all sorts.
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Feb 7, 2014 00:44
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Got soil in all of my tanks right now, all capped with various types of sand. I tend to use Miracle-Gro organic potting soil that I sift through some mesh to get the big chunks out of. Make sure you use something that's just potting soil and not a mix, because mixes have whatever fertilizers in them and while your plants may love it your fish and other critters may have different opinions. I also like to include a little bit of montmorillonite in with the soil. It's kind of like a backwoods laterite that you can buy a lifetime's supply of for like  . It's got some iron content which your plants will like plus it has a pretty high exchange rate so that soaks up all the goodness it can hold which the plant root systems can then extract from the clay. If you live near a Tractor Supply or something similar Safe-T-Sorb is exactly what I'm talking about.As far as actually putting it in you'll want probably two inches of soil in the tank. I like to keep it about an inch from the edges of the tank so I can more easily hide it with the sand but that's kinda obvious. I'd recommend planting heavily before you add the water because of the possibility of making a mess does go up. Uprooting can be a shaky business too, lots of dirt on top of your nice, clean rocks/sand. Swamp gas buildups are also a thing, which you can help by jabbing through the soil from time to time, or taking the hands off approach and tossing a few Malaysian trumpet shells in if you like swarms of things.
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Feb 20, 2014 16:58
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Looking at the rest of the tank I'm guessing it's something South American. Beyond that I'm drawing a blank.
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Feb 20, 2014 18:58
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As a rule, most aquarium plants are fine with a bit of abuse. The vallisneria should be fine and once it gets a foothold you'll probably have loads of it. Anubias work fine tied to a rock or piece of driftwood. They'll adhere in about a month's time and they'll work their roots down on their own accord. Duckweed...I don't know that there's anything short of trying to keep it in a tank of round-up that would hurt it. It can clog up the intake on your filter though, so maybe put a sponge or some pantyhose over it.
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Apr 6, 2014 22:00
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My god Bloop is such a pretty fish. I think her dorsal looks amazing, that jet black with the bright yellow dots at the base. Gorgeous fish, Fusillade. Freshy goons, I need some opinions. I'm about to get another 75 gallon tank dropped off within the next few weeks it looks like. I won't be stocking it immediately, but I do like to know what I'm doing ahead of time. The thing is I'm not sure what I want to put in it. I'm leaning towards some mid-sized central or SA cichlids, but I'm just not sure. Firemouths have a special place in my heart due to one being my first real screw up when I was blowing my allowance at the fish store as a kid. But I would kinda like to keep angels too? Earth eaters of some sort would be pretty cool too, though. And then there's always my pipe dream of threadfin acaras, but I think 75 is a bit tight for them? Totally open to suggestions on this. Either way, I'm kinda thinking a few big fish and then some dithers of whatever fit with the big stuff.
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Apr 25, 2014 01:53
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Dantu posted:I have had a 1.5 inch fire mouth in my office tank for months now, with just a clown Pleco as a tank mate. In that time I have seen him outside of the PVC pipe I put in as shelter a grand total of two times. He doesn't even come out for food. I can only assume he eats the sinking pellets when nobody is around because he hasn't died, but he's also not growing. Anyone deal with a scared cichlid this long? Should I add dither fish? Never seen a fish refuse to come out for more than a few weeks before. I thought about taking the pipe out but then I'm sure he will just hide behind the driftwood. This reminds me of how I discovered cichlids, or rather learned to understand them. Back when I was dumping my allowance into the family 75 in the living room I'd buy random fish because that's what you do right? The store I went to was a real poo poo heap but that's south Georgia. Anyway, I saw these awesome little green fish with red gills and I bought one. He was an inch, maybe inch and a half, and he went into the tank with everything else. For a while he constantly hid. I'd move rocks around and stuff just so I could see him dart around, to know he was still alive. Thought he was such a little pansy. Then he got about two inches or so and became tank boss. The toughest thing in the tank was a single female pearl gourami (side note: I don't think I had two of the same kind of anything. I was a bad fish person) so he just rode roughshod over everything. Some got killed, the rest knew to hide. Eventually my dad tossed him into the pond behind the house  And that is how I learned fish.
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May 7, 2014 01:05
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Could use some Malaysian trumpet shell snails. They're great cleanup but they also reproduce like nothing you have ever seen if they're given the resources.
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May 7, 2014 04:51
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Eifert Posting posted:
This is amazing. Those reds are crazy dark. And a shrimp!
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May 13, 2014 02:29
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Dantu posted:In all my years of fish keeping, a Convict remains the only fish that has ever bitten me in anger. He spawned with my firemouth and they had a eggs in the tank so I really couldn't blame him, though. There's a reason that convicts have the reputation they do, yeah. Feisty little things. I will add that I've got a lavender gourami that definitely bit me at least a dozen times when he thought I was a trying to mess with his bubble nest. He's got no teeth, but he's got a lot of heart.
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May 14, 2014 14:20
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Agreeing with Goldmund. One yellow labidochromis and three peacocks. Yay cichlids!
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May 30, 2014 01:05
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Spooky Bear Ghost posted:So I've recently moved cross country, which has given me a nice opportunity to redo my setup. I got a 29gal tank on my 16th birthday, and as noobies do, I got a silver tip shark If you're thinking crayfish plants are pretty much out of the question since they do their own aquascaping, as it were. Also wouldn't put fish in with them because they're pretty murderous. If you've still got that arthropod bug ( ) and want fish with them, I'd go the shrimp route. They're pretty entertaining, can work out in a community setting, and are content to not raze your hard-worked planting job to the ground. If you go fish, a solid school of neons look pretty great in a planted tank. 10-15 of the little guys gives you a nice school so they're more happy and healthy. I probably wouldn't recommend a pleco outside of maybe a bristlenose. Could go with otocinclus if you want sucker cats, they're tiny and need friends but they also tend to be a bit fragile. I'd probably go the snail route for any algae clean-up because nerites rule.
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May 30, 2014 06:25
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So I guess the Ray fixture on my 75 has poo poo the bed because I'm getting a whole lot more penetration from a corkscrew bulb and a brooder lamp than I am from the fixture that's there. Like...a billion times more. Anyone else have this problem crop up before? I've had this fixture for maybe a year now but that seems a pretty short lifespan for an LED fixture.
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Jun 4, 2014 02:54
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So as a stop-gap for my dying Ray fixture I just used some brooder lamps and 26W corkscrew fluorescent bulbs. I've got seven of them on the tank (it's a 75) and I'll be damned if it isn't lit up brighter than it's ever been. Like...I think I'm gonna make a stand for them and say screw the LED fixture. It's crazy how much light you can get from those things.
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Jun 5, 2014 00:13
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internet inc posted:Could I replace the neon tetras in Goldmund's post by the white clouds you suggested, keeping the dwarf gourami and possible ghost shrimps in there? Just throwing ideas out there. The thing with neon tetra versus white clouds is that they inhabit very different areas. Neon tetra are from South America and like warm water. White clouds are from a mountainous region of China and like cooler water. The dwarf gourami would much rather have the warmer water than the cooler because it, too, comes from a warmer part of the world. Basically, the neons and the gourami would pretty much require a heater. The white clouds would do much better off without one unless you're like in an igloo or something.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:00
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LingcodKilla posted:Seriously I havnt introduced anything in over six months. So weird. Well if they are actually cleaning I may as well let them be for a bit. Good for the soil more or less? If they're MTS then yes. They're really amazing as far as cleanup goes. They'll spend most of their time hiding in the substrate and if you've got soil, they stir it up a bit so you avoid getting pockets of swamp gas. So long as you don't just toss loads of food at them they're not really that much of a pest but if you do overfeed you will definitely notice a growing horde.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:37
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LingcodKilla posted:Whats the preferred loach for general control of them? I got pepper cats, neons and a pair of big ol' angels. Depends on the tank. I've got some yoyos in my 75, but they get too big for a small tank. If you're in a small tank, dwarf chain loaches may be the best option. Have to remember loaches are social critters though, so you'll want to buy a few of them.
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Jun 8, 2014 21:35
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Angelic Panacea posted:This may sound like an odd question, but how does a power outage affect your tank setup? Are there wee little emergency generators, just in case? Depends on the outage and setup. I pretty much always run two filters a tank, one of which is a sponge filter. Means that I'll always have bacteria alive, even after a long outage. Planted versus unplanted is also factor, because the plants will do some of your filtration work as well as buy you time on the oxygen levels. I live in Florida, and we kinda have a lot of thunderstorms here so frequently I'll lose power, sometimes a more than once a week but usually not for very long. My fish come through just fine.
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Jun 12, 2014 00:24
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SynthOrange posted:I am utterly stunned. I've kept my lights low for a few weeks to try combat a persistent algae problem on one of my anubias plants. The surface floating frogbit protested by completely dissolving. There's no trace of it left. Frogbit couldn't bear to lose its friend and dove in front of the bullet instead.
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Jun 12, 2014 05:47
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demonR6 posted:Frogbit is not nearly as bad as salvina or worse salvina minima. If that ever makes it into your tank, it is nearly as bad as a snail infestation. I'm not sure if salvina minima is worse than duckweed. Salvina does stick to your arm like you would not believe though. I did wind up with a pair of flagfish that cleared the surface of a 55 gallon of the stuff once, though, so opinions may vary.
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Jun 13, 2014 05:39
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Len posted:I work in a day care and I'm thinking about getting a fish tank for the class. And after reading the OP I have a few questions. What kind of filter were you thinking about that has mechanical and not biological? Those are both the main ones, the optional one is chemical filtration. The bio part is what actually takes care of your fish's waste, so it's pretty important and not something to leave out. As far as fish that are bullet proof and in that size range? Zebra danios are pretty much bullet proof, as are white clouds. Could go guppies too, but just make sure you only get males because they will breed and then you're stuck explaining where babies come from to a four year old.
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Jun 17, 2014 03:10
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Len posted:The OP says there's two main types of filtration. The biological that uses bio balls and mechanical that uses sponges and filters. When I was scoping out prices the ones with balls are a bit more money than I have at the moment but I can get a filter one pretty cheap. Just not sure if it's an easy change to make or if I should wait until I have the money on hand to just start with the fancier one. Ahh, I see and I also think I know where you're confused. Basically mechanical filtration is to remove the particulate matter from the water, basically like a strainer. The biological filter is there to actually clean the water and is the part that keeps your fish from dying. You'll for sure want both. The balls are one just one sort of bio media, and there are lots of things you can use. You want something for bacteria to grow on so that they have a place to live where the water runs over them. Open cell sponges work, or even something like nylon pot scrubbies do the job. Just needs to be porous and not treated with any kind of agent that kills bacteria or anything. I'm guessing you'll be using a hang on back filter? Put something to strain the chunky bits out first, and then toss in some pot scrubbies. Easy as pie.
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Jun 17, 2014 03:56
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Len posted:Ok one more dumb question because my googleing has failed me. Typing in sponge filter into amazon just turns up these which don't really look like this kind of filter. Is it an attachment onto something else? Am I overthinking this whole filter thing to begin with? I just want a tank that won't get super scuzzy and require me to go in every weekend to clean. The sponge filters need to have a length of air line and an air pump attached to them to work. The hang on back is self-contained. Either one would work fine, but the sponge filter has a lot fewer failure points and is generally less hassle.
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Jun 18, 2014 00:27
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 18:58 |
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Set myself up a DIY co2 system on my 75 tonight, to go with my crappy looking but surprisingly effective brooder lamp array. Starting with two "reactors" (feels weird to call a 2 liter bottle that but eh) with plenty of room for growth. They're running into a heavier bottle that I'm using for a collector that I also filled mostly with sand just so it would have some weight. I put a small hole in the intake for my hang on back filter and ran the output line for the co2 there, with an airstone on the end of the line of course. I'm hoping that since the co2 will be put out in an enclosed area with lots of current that I'll get decent results but I won't know for a few days. Kinda glad the LED fixture I had on that took a bath, really. It's nice to have a project and having an excuse to fiddle with DIY stuff really adds to my enjoyment of the hobby.
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Jun 20, 2014 06:08
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