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Getting back into the hobby for the first time in 20 years and set up a 40g breeder tank as a planted native streambed tank with a nice beefy canister filter. Been cycling it for the past two weeks with the Fritz Zyme bacteria and things seem nice and stable. Tonight I get to move a little school of Redbelly Dace out of quarantine into the tank along with some amanos and cherry shrimp they hopefully won't snack on. Gotta say the filters and lights have come a long way in the last 20 years. Next up: figuring out how to treat driftwood again. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 03:13 on May 20, 2021 |
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May 20, 2021 03:11
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 Been a couple days now and everyone is getting along so far. The redbellies seem to be leaving the shrimp and mollies alone and actually seem to have adopted the stonerollers into their school. Redbellies are eating crazy well on flakes which our 3 year old is just fascinated by while everything has been picking at sinking spirulina wafers. It's pretty cool to watch the ball of fish pushing a wafer around the bottom of the tank. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 01:47 on May 22, 2021 |
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May 22, 2021 01:42
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Got the driftwood in there and the plants properly planted, plus re-arranged things a bit for easier cleaning and better hiding spots for the shrimp. Water chemistry is holding steady - I was a bit worried with 4 additional fish over what I initially planned but so far it seems like the filtration/media are sufficient to keep things under control for a couple weeks assuming the plants help with the nitrates. Everybody seems pretty happy, though the stonerollers aren't taking the algae wafers yet. Fortunately they've been dutifully wiping out any and all algae patches to appear, which will hopefully be enough for them until they figure things out. Also found itty bitty cherry shrimp hanging out in my filter media. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Jun 6, 2021 00:55
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Aerofallosov posted:My amano scrimps were so tiny, I really hope they didn't get eaten. I saw 3 yesterday, and one was eating. Not sure what the other two are doing. I'll have to ask for bigger ones in the future. Mine disappear for days, despite being relatively big and with few hiding places you can't see into. Then one day they're all out chilling watching the fish go by. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Jun 9, 2021 |
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Jun 9, 2021 02:01
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Got down to some practical re-configuration to improve circulation, speed up cleaning, and remove as many deadzones as I could this weekend. Replaced a lot of the smaller rocks with a couple nice big rocks to reduce clutter and help channel water better, plus a circulation pump which stirred up a ton of debris. Aside from generally cleaning up the tank these changes have made the shrimp much more active foraging out of hiding. Next up is to try setting up air cooling to drop the temperature a couple degrees if possible. The redbelly dace have been really good aquarium fish so far. They look great with some super bright reds and black markings when they're excited (e.g. brine shrimp time), school together constantly, eat pretty much everything really well including diatom patches (hooray super high phosphorus tap water), and leave everyone else alone. Even the little cherry shrimp don't seem to attract their attention at all. Now they even swim up to the glass now when somebody comes near the tank. The stonerollers have finally started taking some flake food after I started feeding brine shrimp. They've started to understand that human + stuff falling down from the surface = tasty food. Their primary mission of destroying all algae has been mostly successful (as seen in the background above diligently cleaning up the driftwood) and while they can't quite keep up with the growth they're at least keeping the anubias leaves clean enough. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jun 22, 2021 |
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Jun 22, 2021 03:31
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Extra row of tits posted:That was a good suggestion, annoyingly he reviews the filter model above and below the one I got but he provided good tips for setting up my new one. What kind of rock is it? Never had one flake - maybe sandstone or some other sedimentary rock with limestone in it that's slowly dissolving?
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Jun 23, 2021 01:13
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Extra row of tits posted:If it’s any use the sticker on the rock states they are “schist” Assuming it's actually schist it should be perfectly safe for the aquarium, but given it's made of thin layers of sediment baked together I'm not too surprised you see some flaking. Give it a scrubbing in a bit of aquarium water to break up anything loose and see if that helps. Enos Cabell posted:One of my denison barbs managed to get itself wedged behind a heating rod, and I have no idea how long he was stuck there before I found him. He's swimming ok, but has some damage on his left side. Well, if he's swimming and eating ok he might be fine. Two of my little red crystal skrimps are currently exploring the inside of my pre-filter. Kinda worried they'll end up wedged in there or get sucked up. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jun 24, 2021 |
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Jun 24, 2021 01:28
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Enos Cabell posted:On more than one occasion I've pulled 30ish live pleco fry out of an FX6 canister. Yep, I'm running an FX7 series canister and I've already had shrimp fry in there twice now. Today's project was cutting up some polyester fiber acoustic panels to make a cover for the back 4 inches of the glass aquarium cover where the plastic strip is. Cut some vent holes in the plastic, fit a pair of 60mm fans to push air through them, and fit the acoustic panelling strips on top to help kill sound and make a good seal for the vent fans. Then I fit a couple of the panels inside the stand to kill sound from the air pump and canister filter. This made a pretty appreciable difference in sound. Also made a rest for the lid section so it doesn't rest on the light bar. 
Warbadger fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jun 24, 2021 |
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Jun 24, 2021 21:43
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VelociBacon posted:This tank looks beautiful, I normally love heavily planted tanks but you've done very well with this scape. Thank you, I'm going for a stream bed look, with (aside from the 3 platys and shrimp - my son loves them) Eastern US stream fish. Adding a few more anubias plants in the bunch near the front of the tank to beef up the nitrate consumption and provide some cover for the smaller shrimp but otherwise pretty happy about it. ^ I ended up going with a Fluval 407 because it pushed a lot of water and (most importantly for Mrs. Warbadger) did it very quietly. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jun 24, 2021 |
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Jun 24, 2021 22:14
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candystarlight posted:Love this look!   Nothing too fancy. I had some of these acoustic panels left over after soundproofing some of the old, cheap hollow core bedroom doors in our house. I cut two holes exactly to the dimensions of the fans so they fit tightly into the panel along with slots for the pump tubing/wires. I'll also be fitting in an aluminum mesh underneath the central vent to prevent jumpers. It improves the look a bit by hiding the cheap plastic strip and deadens some of the surface agitation noise from the canister filter's return. I cut some 3 x .5 inch strips out of the leftover bits and adhered them with some double sided adhesive tape right behind the glass lid hinge so it rests on them at a nice stable angle when I open it up. You can just barely see them at the bottom of the lower image. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 02:17
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Aerofallosov posted:I really wish I could have a UNS or rimless tank. The hand me down tank is cool, and good where my fish are, but the lid's not a full cover so I have to mind light more. Hard water is a pain. I would love to upgrade to something like the UNS 90U at some point in the future. They look amazing, as do the cabinets. Edit: The fans dropped the water temperature by 3 degrees. That's a success! Warbadger fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 03:58
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It actually worked out much better than expected. The temperature up until yesterday was hovering around 77-78F with the room temperature at 73F. Currently with the fans on the lowest setting it's been at 72F all day, which is pretty ideal for everything in there.
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Jun 26, 2021 01:35
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The tiny cherry shrimp I found in my filter weeks ago has re-appeared at 1/4 inch long now. Happy to see he made it.
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Jun 26, 2021 16:41
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Enos Cabell posted:My injured denison barb is healing up nicely. That's the light I'm using and I really like it so far. Edit: Coming up on the second week without any water changes, still sitting at zero ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates so crossing my fingers that the last batch of plants let things hit a good equilibrium. I'm wondering if the Purigen bag I've got in there for tannins is keeping the nitrates flatlined, I see a lot of conflicting info on the internet about that. Also added a wavemaker to get water circulating in the middle/bottom of the water column and as a side benefit give the fish a current to swim into near the front of the tank. The only remaining deadzone I've noticed is right on top of the big flat rock in the middle of the tank - which is pretty ideal for monitoring/cleaning. Seems successful in that it kicked up a ton of debris for the first couple hours running - I'll hopefully see all of that inside the filter next cleaning. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Jul 6, 2021 |
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Jul 3, 2021 02:04
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ickna posted:Love my mutt neocaridinas. Most turn out clear/brown, and the occasional one shows vibrant red or intense blue. I'm just letting my 3 year old pick the shrimp. The next batch will be "yellow lobsters", aka neon yellow neocaridinas. Maybe some bloody mary's after that. A shame nobody seems to sell red crystal shrimp online larger than half an inch. Our LFS doesn't have much variety at all and what they do have is all neocaridinas (and not the most brilliant colors). I got some Red Crystal Shrimp online that look great, but they were like 1/4 inch long which was just small enough to fit in fish mouths. The first week I saw two of them buy it by swimming up to the top of the tank near the front, which seems to be the one way to get the redbelly dace to go after them. So while half of them are still around and sticking to cover along with the one little red cherry shrimp (who is now almost as big as they are), I feel pretty bad about adding any more at that size. At least it seems like a few places online sell neocaridinas at 1/2-3/4 inches, which seems like pretty safe size for my tank.
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Jul 7, 2021 21:58
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pepperchomp posted:I got tons of blue velvet and yellow goldenbacks. Shrimp are fuckin awesome. I always get so excited whenever they get berried. It's always weird when they throw an oddball color out though. I get the occasional green from my blues. Im gettin in some orange eye blue tiger shrimp this week. I hope I can keep em alive and breed em up. Here in hawaii orange eyes are super rare and they usually run 15 a pop. Im grabbin the load as a part of a deal for a fully stocked planted 55g and stand for 300 bucks. I'm picking up some yellow goldenbacks for my next shrimp batch. Those look great and should fit the Yellow Lobster request.
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Jul 8, 2021 13:47
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N17R4M posted:I don't think I've ever seen anyone keep CRS with fish. I've been happily surprised at just how little the fish I've got in there care about the shrimp aside from that specific circumstance. The RCS came in just tiny enough that they're bite size for the biggest dace in there, even at half an inch they'll be much too big to gobble up and I haven't lost any of them in that size range so far! The red cherry shrimp are still shy and stick to the wood/rock covered areas, but have all survived - even the one hatched in the tank. The amanos just don't care about the fish anymore. They're getting big and march around the tank like they own the place. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 22:14
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Maybe do a couple 3% hydrogen peroxide dips for the plants to wipe out whatever is on them. Similarly giving your gravel an H2O2 bath for a few days after washing it thoroughly should clear micro organisms out. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jul 16, 2021 |
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Jul 16, 2021 20:16
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I've had enough fun with the 40 Gallon (and Mrs. Warbadger likes it enough) that I'm budgeting for a nice tank in the 60-70 gallon range to replace it sometime this year/next year. Seems like pretty much everything can transition over directly - even the 36" fluval light can stretch more than enough to work on the longer tanks in that range. Considering doubling up filters to get a surface skimmer in there and maintain the level of flow and filtration.
Warbadger fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Aug 6, 2021 |
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Aug 6, 2021 13:08
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B33rChiller posted:In case anyone was wondering, guppies very much enjoy eating mosquito larvae The guppy with the orange/black looks *exactly* like what we thought was platy fry that appeared in the tank after adding the original two platys.
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Aug 8, 2021 14:38
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Hi everyone I am a big idiot and got a Fluval 252 today despite never having a large tank before, or being familiar with canister filters (307). I set it all up and it seemed fine but when I pulled the grey handle on the aqualock which filled the filter but then flooded it causing it to leak... did I just not secure the handles properly after rinsing the media or am I missing something? Where was it leaking from? Around the aqua-stop valve on the top or from the seam around the side where the bottom media canister locks into the top with the pump apparatus using the two grey latch handles? For the handles on the side the key is to hook them around the latch points on the media canister, then push them together until they both click indicating they are fully latched. That said, if you have too much stuff piled into the media trays you may not have a good seal - I never got leaks but that ended up to be the reason I was getting micro-bubbles as air was being drawn through that seal. In tank news I just got my last fish out of quarantine and into the tank - redfin shiners. They're all kinda small still but seem to be happy and coloring up a bit. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Aug 9, 2021 |
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Aug 9, 2021 01:10
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Seriously looking at the Waterbox CLEAR 4820 as an upgrade for my 40G breeder tank. Reviews seem pretty good and the wife likes the look, anyone have experience with the brand? Seems like I'd need a lid built for it by a third party, but otherwise it looks like a good package.
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Aug 19, 2021 05:25
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Do you all think my driftwood from my death/plague tank can be reused? It's been sitting out on my back deck in the rain/sun since I took down that tank. Can you use a bleach water solution on wood? Seems like absorption might be a bigger problem with wood than other things you use it on. I don't think I'd use the driftwood again. If you want to re-use stuff like stones, soak them in 3% hydrogen peroxide solution for a couple days. It stinks less and breaks down into pretty harmless byproducts.
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Aug 19, 2021 16:47
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Luneshot posted:Legitimate question: if you’re worried about disinfecting it, why not just soak the driftwood in boiling water for an hour or two? Lots of people boil driftwood before putting it in an aquarium in the first place. I'd assumed it was a size issue. Driftwood a couple feet long might not be possible to boil, much easier to stick it in a big plastic container and soak it in something for a week or two.
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Aug 20, 2021 12:44
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A few things that can be done: 1) More plants. More plants means more things eating the same nutrients the algae needs from the water column. Depending on your stocking/feeding level you may be able to reach an equilibrium where the plants are soaking up all the nutrients so the algae can't take off. 2) Less light. Shave an hour off your lighted time and see if it helps. Obviously works better with shade-compatible plants. 3) Possibly add more bio media. If nitrates are building up a lot it cause an algae bloom. More denitifying anaerobic bacteria can help keep that under control. 4) Treat the tank chemically as the previous poster said. I used aquarium co-op's liquid carbon solution to prevent new growth and gradually reduce the amount of algae in my tank. If you hit it with a big dose to nuke the algae entirely make sure to closely monitor water chemistry for spikes as the dead algae rots and water change accordingly. I had an outbreak of green spot algae that I've more or less handled at this point in my 40gallon. First I went from 8 to 7 hours of light and added a few more plants. This improved things a bit and a couple weeks later I started adding liquid carbon to eliminate a few small tufts of black beard algae before it could get established. Finally, wanting to accelerate things and hopefully stop using liquid carbon I added two male nerite snails to the cleanup crew. Now, if it's spreading at all it's extremely slow - and large sections of hardscape are regularly roomba'd clean by the two snails. I hope that I can drop the liquid carbon soon and the algae will remain at a reasonable level. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 17:48
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candystarlight posted:
I'm looking at mixing in some darker gravel when I transfer to the 70 gallon tank to try to get the fish to color up more when the lights are on. I've got the peace river caribsea gravel in there now and picked up a big bag of their blue ridge gravel discounted a few weeks back - hoping to find a good looking mix of the two.
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Aug 26, 2021 20:37
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Hi posted:Just got home from a 4 day weekend away and wow, just how fast do ramshorn snails breed? I left with like 10 and 4 days later I could around 25. Fast. I went with Nerites for a reason - the eggs don't hatch in freshwater and they're not hermaphrodites so you can weed out the females before adding them to the tank to avoid eggs stuck to things. I stopped the liquid carbon a week and a half ago - so far it's looking promising. No new algae bloom and the nerites plus a few additional amanos are continuing to pick away at the existing growth.
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Aug 31, 2021 15:37
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My pre filter sponge is currently full of tiny shrimp. Trying to think of some way to clean it without hurting them.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:32
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Stoca Zola posted:I find if you go slow enough, shrimp would rather let go than be pulled out of the water. If you turn off your filter and slowly remove the sponge (or move it in and out of the water) the babies should swim clear. I tend to wash my sponges in a separate tub so I can check it for stray shrimp later on once the water has settled. You could always leave it for now if it isn't super clogged. I'll try that but I'll have to do that outside the tank. Probably just net the whole thing out and fill a small container to dip it in. At this size if they start swimming around near the surface they're fish food. New tank should come in Friday. I'm hoping to get the filters cleaned before moving everything over.
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Sep 2, 2021 04:06
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 After an evening of work there is now a box with water in it sitting in my living room. Still waiting on the backdrop, pretty happy that everyone seems to have survived the tank transfer.
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Sep 4, 2021 18:53
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Cowslips Warren posted:Very pretty! Yeah. I put in new gravel and despite washing the hell out of it there was still a lot of silt. Throw in the debris carried over with the old gravel and I couldn't even see the bottom when it came time to move the hardscape and plants. Then I had to fish out probably 30+ tiny shrimp at the very end - a lot more than I thought there were. On the positive side the filters cleared things up pretty quick once I got them running. On that note if anyone in Northern Virginia wants a 40G breeder tank with stand let me know.
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Sep 5, 2021 00:42
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Desert Bus posted:Here is where I am about to sound like a crazy person but I promise you both Hi and HelloIAmYourHeart that I am about to slaughter your algae AND help keep it from coming back (mostly (probably)). By double dose do you mean double the suggested 1 cap/50 gallons daily dose recommendation or double the 1st day suggested 1 cap/10 gallon recommendation? I got a bit of black beard algae again and it must die.
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Sep 7, 2021 19:12
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I noticed one of my fish is super skinny, a bit lethargic, and while he's going for food he's spitting everything out - even the brine shrimp they all go bananas for. Moved him out to a quarantine tank and treating him for parasites just in case. Edit: Desert Bus - what dosage did you mean when you suggested double dosing Seachem Excel? Warbadger fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Sep 9, 2021 |
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Sep 9, 2021 13:41
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Chin Strap posted:Just tested it. Right out of the tap (no conditioner or anything) it was bang on 7.0-7.2 which seems just fine for a Betta? It is all this fishless cycling fuckery that made it an issue. I've got mostly anubias variants. Slow growing, not super picky about water parameters/temperature, leaves are nice and green while looking similar to some of the fast moving stream plants in this area, they take a lot of their nutrients out of the water column which helps water quality a bit, and they do well at lower light levels so I could dial the light back more to control algae.
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Sep 14, 2021 03:26
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Call Your Grandma posted:Hey I've got some fish questions that need answers. I used this tool to estimate bio load. You fill out the tank dimensions, type of filter, etc. and then select the types and number of fish. It will estimate how under/overstocked you are, whether filtration is adequate, etc. https://aqadvisor.com/
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Sep 17, 2021 03:14
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Things seem pretty stable in the new, bigger tank so I'm looking to add a bit of wisteria around the larger anubias to get a patch of dense shrimp jungle going on in that spot. Also adding a couple bamboo shrimp for my son and looking at rimless aquarium fan chiller setups to drop the temperature by 2 degrees or so to get the fish to color up more during the day. Speaking of shrimp - I've now got about 10 new red cherry shrimp up to about half an inch+ long now. The fish are still pretty happy to leave them alone, even when they're tiny as long as they stick to the bottom/decorations. I'm kinda surprised the central stonerollers don't bug them - those guys are always hunting along the bottom for juicy algae/diatom spots. The amano and red cherry shrimp in particular seem very happy with the tank conditions. So, I've got about 70 gallons of water with: 2 x Red Crystal Shrimp 1 x Blue velvet shrimp (now jet black) 6 x Amano Shrimp 12 x Red Cherry Shrimp 2 x nerite snails 6 x Southern Redbelly Dace 6 x Mountain Redbelly Dace 4 x Scarlet Shiner (lost the one that was super skinny - really looking forward to these maturing a bit so they get silvery blue!) 3 x central stonerollers Got a few more scarlet shiners with about a week left in quarantine (crossing my fingers they all make it so I get a healthy school size) and that should be it for fish. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Sep 18, 2021 |
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Sep 18, 2021 17:30
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For my BBA I took the branch out of the tank, soaked a paper towel in hydrogen peroxide, and wrapped strips of that around the parts with BBA for 5 minutes. It killed it pretty much immediately. Currently hitting the tank with 5ml per 10 gallons of flourish excel to hopefully wipe out any remnants. I can't stand the look of it.
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Oct 3, 2021 02:13
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One of my scarlet shiners has a brown bump under his skin and I'm not quite sure what it is. Easier to see from the other side, it's a little spherical dot in the tail. The BBA algae seems to be hanging on still on the underside of the driftwood. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Oct 4, 2021 |
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Oct 4, 2021 00:34
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Morand posted:We are not adding any minerals to the water to harden it. Exactly what kind of filter do you have? The milky water does look like you're having a bacterial bloom which is normal for a new tank and it should disappear on its own in the next week or two. The Tetra cleaning bacteria should help speed up the cycling process - which is a fancy way to say getting the gravel and filter of your tank infested with enough ammonia-eating, nitrite-eating, and nitrate-eating bacteria to keep the water clean. Until the bacteria gets established (probably a week or two if you're adding live bacteria) you may want to consider treating the water daily with something like seachem prime to temporarily bind up ammonia/nitrites. If you choose to use tap water in the future just be sure to dechlorinate it to avoid nuking the good bacteria. Edit: And don't overfeed the fish. They need less food than you think! More food means more rotting food and more fish poop, which means more ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Oct 16, 2021 |
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Oct 16, 2021 06:04
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nunsexmonkrock posted:It does look like literal white fuzz. Hes a rather tame Betta. He was rather lethargic before I dosed with melafix. I think an air bubbler thing might be too much surface movement for a 5 gallon tank and afraid of too much movement for him. But if you guys can give me another way to treat, I trust here better than PetSmart/Petco. Hit it with Mardel Maracyn, preferably soon. If you're feeling spicy also throw in some Ich-X. I've caught almost everything in my tank from the wild and have seen plenty of fun stuff in my quarantine tank. That treatment combo works. Edit: Clean the tank, then do a single treatment of 1 packet of maracyn + 1 tsp of ich-x per 10 gallons. Let it sit for 5 days with no chemical filtration and no feeding to keep the water clean. If things haven't cleared up after a week do a second maracyn/ich-x treatment. This method has never hurt my shrimp+plants and has never caused ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes but has been very successful with both fin rot and early stage white fluffy dot fungus/bacteria. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Oct 16, 2021 |
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Oct 16, 2021 16:45
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