Pepere
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Posts posted by Pepere
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Angelfish and discuss can appreciate extra height as they get bigger…
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Alternatively you could wear nitrile gloves when applying the sunscreen to keep it off your hands in the first place…
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I use Lee’s triple flow box filters and add carbon in mesh bags in them to pull residual meds after doing a 50% water change.
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On 7/3/2024 at 8:18 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:On 7/3/2024 at 8:13 PM, Pepere said:
That whole 1 pump per week per 10 gallons confuses me. It ends up raising nitrates3 ppm…
Maybe the thought is that the "rest" of the nitrates would come from fish waste?
On 7/3/2024 at 4:04 PM, Mmiller2001 said:I would think that would only happen with some combination of rare small waterchanges, overfeeding, high bioload, sparse planting…
With my plant and fish load, nitrates decrease over the course of a week even in my non CO2 tank…
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That whole 1 pump per week per 10 gallons confuses me. It ends up raising nitrates3 ppm…
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On 7/3/2024 at 5:02 PM, Mercfh said:
Random question, what is the difference between a powerhead and a wavemaker?
Powerheads create powerful focused flow. Can often be used to flow water through a sponge filter or Under Gravel Filter riser tubes etc. you van also route that flow through a spray bar to diffuse it…
Wavemakers are designed to make wide area flow patterns. Flow is a bit gentler and wider area. More expensive models can vary the strength and timing…generally they feature a propeller surrounded by a cage… they can not beplumbed into a filter or spray bar or such…
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The only reason I could see someone arguing it is not enough for a 55 gallon would be due to flow gallonage. Some people argue for a minimum 10 times gallonage flow for a planted tank, or 550 gallons per hour for a 55 gallon and a 407 does about 245.
Nothing says all that flow needs to be filtered flow however. Flow from a canister filter can be supplemented by flow from a powerhead or wavemaker.
I have read it argued that not having that level of flow increases algae issues.
It certainly has not been my experience. Because of this argument I used to have wavemakers in my 29 gallon tank in addition to a fulval 207. I got tired of having to clean those things daily from leaves clogging the grates and got rid of them and have not noted any difficulty…
I like running my canister filters through a spray bar on the top back of the tank flowing just under the surface to the front and have an inline co2 diffuser to disperse co2 through the spray bar and keep it in suspension in the tank.
I dont much like the look of a large sponge filter myself, though I do like the redundancy. In a power outage a 3 watt air pump can keep biofiltration going on battery backup for a long time vs 23 watts of a canister filter..
long and shortnof it, I think a Fluval 407 is plenty of filtration for a 55 gallon all by itself. If you felt you needed more flow an added power head or wa emaker would be plenty…
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On 7/2/2024 at 5:08 PM, daggaz said:On 7/2/2024 at 9:02 AM, Pepere said:
running fans on the tank will not lower tank temp below ambient room temp except in the case of evaporative losses..
That's a big exception, given that is exactly how the physical principal of evaporation works and why everything from animals to modern refrigeration uses it to keep _cooler than ambient temperatures_ so long as you have excess water to spend.
My point specifically was, don’t expect a fan to do much lower tank temps if you keep a lid on the tank. You need to access evaporative cooling to cool the tank. Blowing 80 degree ambient air at the tank with a lid on it is not going to do much cooling…. In fact the waste heat from the fan motor may well be worse than not running it…
And as you rightly point out, if ambient humidity is high where you are at, you wont get tremendous evaporative cooling either.
Here in Maine where we can see 80 degree temps with 76 dewpoints we often appreciate the air conditioner lowering humidity more than the air temp cooling…
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On 7/2/2024 at 3:47 PM, Beach Cruiser said:
Balance between nutrients & light is key to minimize algae.
I know this is pretty much accepted dogma but it sure doesnt fit with my experience.
It was in no way the key to me getting algae in abeyance….
My experience is that when I stopped fiddling changing thingsand just put them pretty much where they ought to be and kept it stable week in week out, the plants got to business optomizing to current conditions and the new growth started thriving and I cut and replanted new growth and got rid of algae infested old growth.
soon enough I had thriving lush plants that defended themselves against algae very well….
50% weekly water changes with incoming water the same gh, kh, temp and fertilize dosed as the outgoing water. Gh comprised of the proper ca mg ratio, sufficient potassium… lots of Easy Green well in excess of bottle dosing instructions…
changed to canister filter with a spray bar for circular flow throughout entire tank, clean it out well monthly to get rid of the organic material it filters out of the water… cleaned up the substrate, weekly cleaningoff of glass and any visible algae growth trimming off leaves infested and pulling decore and peroxide soaking and scrubbing it beforedoing the waterchange to get rid of free floating fragments as much as possible…
i struggled with the balance light and nutrients mantra for 9 months as well as the get algae eating livestock mantra. My tanks looked like a lot of the tanks I saw on the “this is how you beat algae videos…
Then I saw @Mmiller2001 tank after he made a post much like this one disputing the accepted Dogma's…
His tank looked so much better than mine. Heck. His tank still looks better than mine, but at least mine are now free of visible algae….
I pm’d him asking for help and he referred me to the 2 hr aquarist algae pages.
I gave up on the methods I had used and started practicing what I read about in the 2 hr aquarist pages and Lo and behold! Mytank transformed within a few months… and no looking back….
After having months of success with 3 canister filter high light co2 injected tanks I tried another low tech tank. A 17 gallon fish bowl with home made under gravel filter for biofiltration and a Lees triple flow filter for mechanical filtration. I used Easy Flow Kits on both using a home made adapter which significantly increased flow and put in to practice lessons I had learned but not having the CO2 and not dosing nearly as much ferts and having the light much dimmer. And I achieved success in pulling off a tank free of visible algae in low energy configuration…
I still feel the whole balance the lights and nutrients dogmatic statement greatly over simplifies and confuses… At least that is my experience and opinion… To my mind there are a lot more key components which are easy to put into play….
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On 7/2/2024 at 1:10 PM, Sparky said:
but I also wanted a balanced aquarium
My experience of trying to “balance” an aquarium without waterchanges was incredibly frustrating. I was constantly dealing with algae outbreaks and sickly spindly plants, and dingy tinged water. Algae consuming livestock was not terribly efficacious either, however I hear plenty of people claim success with these methods.
I spent the better part of 9 months seeking the holy grail of balance before opting for reset instead of balance. Removing water not only removes nitrates, it removes other metabolic waste products. Not only animal waste products, but plant metabolic waste products that algae loves to munch on.
https://scapecrunch.com/threads/dissolved-organic-compounds.1301/
I honestly find weekly waterchanges so much less work than what I was messing with before trying to “find balance”. Without question I am much happier with my results and efforts expended to get them now compared to before…
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I initially was intrigued by the Walsted method. Got the book. Got the Miracle Grow Organic Potting soil and ran it through a screen. Found I discarded half the bag at least that didnt go through the screen…
the no water change thing initially appealed to me, but I have since abandoned it. I do 50% water changes weekly now and much prefer my results now….
I have 2 tanks with inert gravel, and 2 tanks with Safe T Sorb in mesh bags to give height where I want it and capped with 2 inches BDBS (Black Diamond Blasting Sand) and ugf (under gravel filter plates driven by air) and I dont use root tabs. Just water column fertilizer. 3 tanks have CO2 injection, and 1 does not. The co2 tanks grow much, much quicker, but, easy low light plants in the non co2 are growing well and are free of visible algae.
The whole no fertilizer, no water change aspect does not appeal to me in the least. Idont much care for the aesthetics of it…
You can easily grow lush thriving plants in inert substrate without root tabs. Aquasoils and special substrates strike me as more bother and expense than they are worth. Of course other people hold different opinions….
I do of course recognize that some more difficult plants do require aquasoils to do their best, but I dont grow those plants…
I would suggest that if the appeal of the Walstead is not having to do waterchanges or add fertilizers, you might well be happier with a simple all in one fert and investing equipment to make water changes easier…. In my experience weekly 50% water changes is minimal work and makes plant growing and Algae avoidance oh so much easier…
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The Snail shell is cleaned out clean as a whistle on the tank bottom…
Those Angels are ravenous creatures. I have been taking to feeding small amounts a few times a day to give them extra.
I had been feeding my tank only daily. I still give a bigger feeding in the evening where the ither fish can end up getting their fill, but I will give a smidgen of food that the angels aggressively scarf up and doesnt get to the other fish a few times a day.
The angels are always right there waiting for me when I show up for their collations….
You can hear them gulping air in the process of hoovering all the food up…
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By and large your tank is typically going to be a bit warmer than your room temperature is.
Lights and pumps add btus to the water andheat always flows from an area of higher concentration to an areaof lower concentration.
running fans on the tank will not lower tank temp below ambient room temp except in the case of evaporative losses..
given the relative cost of tank chillers verses room air conditioners, I would generally go with room air conditioning for Tropical fish…
lowering tank temp by big water change wont buy you much time.
20 gallon tank has about 160 btus per degree of water temp…It will be aboveambient temps before the day is out.
assuming you could just cool the room the tank is in and close doors to that room, that would be the tack I would take.
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With API liquid test kits it can be hard to discriminate between certain numbers. Diluting a test sample 50% with tap water, assuming the tap water is free of the substance you are testing for, can help identify the level of the tank water… ie if your tap water testsfree of ammonia and you do 50% tank water, 50% tap and the test results look very deep green still, than your tank water is probably closer to 4 ppm vs 2. However if the dilution looks a lot closer to 1 ppm, then you know tank water is closer to 2 ppm..
I find this technique very helpful in determining what nitrate levels are as 10 and 20 ppm levels are hard to discriminate between as well as 40 and 80 ppm levels look similar..
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I have gone with Green Neon Tetras myself from Aqua Huna and had good survivability of them.
I kind of like them for the smaller size and the occasional blue green flashes…
as I understand it they're more hardy than standard Neons….
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I have taken to pouring water from my canister filter through a fish net when servicing it. I have found snails, kuhli loaches, neons, glow eye tetra and harlequins in the canister filter. To date they have been none the worse for the experience…
I have to figure they are getting in via the surface skimmer…
Twice I have found emerald green cories in the intake Lily near the bend and had to shut of filter and take out bottom plug of lily pipe to let them swim out….
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I am enjoying my first experience keeping angelfish. I bought a pair at local Petco a few months ago.
I must say I am surprised how quickly they are growing.
I noticed since putting them in the tank I have them in I haven’t been noticing any Ramshorn snails in there anymore. The Ramshorns hitched a ride in on plants. I had attempted to eradicate them by using a Denerle snail catcher taking juveniles off the glass multiple times a day before simply giving up.
This morn8 g I did a water change on my 17 gallon bowl and thinned out the water lettuce which I do weekly and placed extra water lettuce in the Angelfish tank to see if the fish might enjoy some overhead cover.
After about 10 minutes I heard a racket of rattling and saw two angels fighting over a mid size ramshorn snail that had been on the roots of a water lettuce plant. They repeatedly attacked it even as it went to the bottom of the tank…
I don’t know that they will be able to take it down as it retracts in its shell, but I am willing to bet no juvenile snails will escape their attention or survive it…
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On 6/26/2024 at 3:23 PM, Potterygal said:
The clear plastic washers are not explained either.
Stack the felt and plastic washers alternating. Felt, plastic, felt, plastic, felt.
as you tighten the airstone the felts gets compressed by the plastic and yields finer bubbles. Finer is a relative term. Not nearly so fine as a stone, but finer than just bubbles popping out of a hose, finer than the Ziss being loosely tightened…
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@Mordecai13, I thought you might like this photo I took today showing the morphological differences between the L. Repens grown in a high light, high fert co2 injected tank vs the one grown in moderate light, moderate ferts non injected tank.
The specimen on the left comes from a non injected tank that takes 6 weeks to gain 4 inches of height, the one on the right is in an injected tank that grows about 4 inches a week.
the plant in the injected tank has fewer but bigger leaves and a bit more reddish coloration.
the non injected tank has its own appeal with more leaves that are more compact…
Had I discovered how to keep a non injected tank free from visible algae I probably would not have invested in co2 injection. Injection however does allow you to keep plants that would really struggle in a non injected tank…
L. Repens responds nicely to co2 but grows quite well without it as well.
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On 6/30/2024 at 8:54 PM, Fish Folk said:
Just add KH buffer powder, or Alkaline Buffer. Equilibrium might help.
In my experience Equilibrium has no affect on KH levels.
I use Seachem Alkalinity Buffer. It has nice measurable results. 1 teaspoon added to 20 gallons raises KH 2.8 degrees and I believe it is Sodium Free unlike baking soda. It is significantly more expensive than baking soda though, but I really dont need to use it often or much.
My tap water has 1 degree KH and weekly 50% water changes do the lions share for me.
I always test PH after a water change before adding Easy Green as I front load Easy Green to get to30 ppm nitrates after a water change as the iron in Easy Green binds up if ph is too high. Yesterday after water change, ph was 6.0 or less. This led me to test for KH which was under 1 degree. Ie, 1 drop of kh reagent and the test sample was still yellow. I added about 3/4 a teaspoon to my 29 gallon tank and KH was 2 degrees and ph raised to 6.8.
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In my co2 injected tank with 30 ppm nitrate dosing, and high light I shorten my Ludwigia Repens about 4 inches every week. It gets pulled, I cut off the bottom 4 inches and it gets reinserted in the gravel. Just water column dosing, no root tabs or nutritional substrate.
In my 17 gallon fish bowl I do not inject co2, I dose Easy green to get nitrates around 15 ppm, I have aquasoil under the inert substrate in this tank, and the lighting is much less. It takes about 6 weeks for the L. Repens to grow 4 inches…
I do insert each stem a half inch or so away from each other and do not use weights.
All of my tanks run at about 3-4 degrees of GH and 1-2 degrees KH. I have very soft tap water that I supplement with Seachem Equilibrium to raise GH and also provide potassium and iron…
L Repens has proven to be a very easy plant for me that seldom ever had algae grow on it before I got the Algae monster under control….
On the right hand side of the bowl is L Repens. In addition to growing much slower without supplemented co2 you can see that the tops have less reddish blush to them and the leaves are smaller.
Here in a co2 injected tank you can see the L repens center stage in the background behind the pink flamingo crypt reaching for the surface. This photo is about midweek after trimming shortening. Within about 10-12 days the L repens would reach the surface.
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On 6/26/2024 at 2:56 AM, Jesuisbanan said:
Personally I am leaning towards I should scrap it for an aquarium completely and only keep it for vivarium builds but I am also upset because I really liked it as an aquarium
I suspect your level of displeasure would be much higher if you set it up and experienced a panel blowout….
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On 6/23/2024 at 6:23 PM, shawnkissed said:
I also noticed it's only growing in that one spot.
Maybe shade that 1 spot a bit and improve flow in that area…
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I usually siphon off around 3 gallons on my 29 gallon tank. It drops water from a half inch below frame to maybe 2 inches below the frame.
this level drops the water low enough that I can fit arms in without displacing water above and over…
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Would the Walstad Method Be Possible With My Desired Aquarium?
in General Discussion
Posted
I have 8 Cherry Barbs in a tank with 2 AngelFish….
I have not seen any hint of them going after the Angelfish fins or any other fish…
Given that fish travel across country in bags, I dont perceive a downside to traveling 30-45 minutes with fish other than the time inconvenience to do so,..
And purchasing fish to be shipped to you is always an option as well.