flyingcow

March 22

On 3/21/2024 at 8:19 PM, johnnyxxl said:

I am happy not having a spouse to ask. Me and the 80 gallon tank starting up, percolating if I want to add a refugium for it lol.

Well she already ok'd replacing the 36 with a 55. Baby steps!

March 20

On 3/20/2024 at 5:35 PM, Tony s said:

you know when they say that, it sounds like a direct invitation for a 75g 🤣

Oh I'm working on the 6' tank in the living room. That has yet to secure consensus.

March 20

...happy to oblige. I may have procured a few things for it...

March 12

On 3/11/2024 at 10:45 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:

@MattyM & @flyingcow, yes, Pothos has that reputation, but many houseplants have that oxalate in the leaves. When we were measuring these types of plants for nitrate uptake, we definitely saw what you were concerned about - some are nutrient hogs and pothos was 2^nd only to lucky bamboo in that regard. Particularly under red light, it was an incredible nitrate hog.

The oxalate would be mildly toxic if it were water soluble at a pH fish thrive it, but it requires a very acidic environment to actually leach into the water. The oxalate is therefore in crystal form in the leaves and when animals chew on it, it is an irritant. When it dissolves in a pH below 5, it forms oxalic acid which is not toxic at all so you're safe to use it.

In the article the others mentioned, there's a late addition where I tested the water for the oxalates with urine test strips as that same test will be positive for oxalates to test for kidney stone risk. None dissolved into my tank water at a pH of 7.5. I literally had to boil the pothos leaves to get any measurable amount of oxalate into the water:

Insofar as sucking up all the nutrients for aquatic plants, I can't say but I wouldn't be surprised as it did not mix well with most other houseplants grown emergently. Most that I tried in the beginning died and I assumed, starved out by pothos and lucky bamboo. But I could be wrong about the latter. I had success with balancing the nutrient uptake with stronger lighting over the other plants so you may be able to balance the uptake with the lighting.

This is the oxalate / pH. As you can see, there's not a lot of aquatic situations that would see the oxalates dissolve.

The diamond line is calcium oxalate:

These tanks are packed full of houseplants. When I first installed them, they tended to uptake more nitrates in the beginning. It dropped an overstocked, 200-gallon, large cichlid tank from 80PPM to 0PPM! This eventually settled out at around 10PPM of nitrates which was still quite a reduction:

The plants growing in these tanks are:

Pothos

Lucky Bamboo

Lotus Bamboo

Monstera

Peace Lily

Anthurium

Prayer Plant

Bird of Paradise (cuttings)

Earthstars

Cordyline

I used common plastic lighting grid from Lowes and cut it to size to support the plants and pass the light.

All of these seem to be growing. The Earthstars or bromeliads made no sense, at least not with my limited knowledge of plants. They are epiphytes and literally can get moisture from humidity. I added them for 'temporary' color, assuming they'd die in a week or two, but they've doubled in size in just weeks. So, it was a total surprise to see them THRIVE in aquariums.

In fact, their growth was so out of the ordinary, I joined a bromeliad Facebook forum just to ask some experts why it worked!🤣

(they all seemed to think that it was probably the unusually high availability of nitrogen for that plant)

VIDEOS OF THESE TANKS:

Yeah, I've had pothos in a breeder box for over a year and settled right in around 10 as well. I was on travel for work for 6 months, so that limited my time to take care of the tank and also limited my time to fertilize (hence the BBA). It'll be interesting to see how the tank behaves now that I have it out for a while!

March 11

Ok now I've started reading. I never realized it was calcium oxalate a.k.a. beer stone! In a brewery, we use an acid rinse step to get rid of it. It forms on the hot side of the brewery.

March 11

On 3/11/2024 at 4:35 PM, MattyM said:

Right here, on the good ol' AC site:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/pothos#:~:text=You often see pothos used,having problems with this plant.

TL;DR - nope, pothos are fine, even the stems and leaves. Many of my new shoots are in the water for weeks before I either trim or pull them above the lid, never had any problems.

And yes, with pothos I need to fertilize more often, and trim the roots here and there.

Thank you!

I was already planning on pulling them temporarily in order to simplify my system while solving my bba problem, but I'll look forward to puttin em back in!

March 11

On 3/9/2024 at 1:12 PM, Tony s said:

Pothos are great plants, but a word of caution.

when using Pothos, make sure your vines and leaves are not soaking in your aquarium water. When that happens, the same toxins that affect cats can leach into the water and be harmful to your fish. The roots themselves are fine. It’s just the stems and leaves

Is there information on this being toxic to fish? Never heard of this before! Not trying to question you, but I have been having an issue with fish death that I'm 99% sure is parasitic, and a parasitic treatment has stopped the fish death for 6 weeks so far, but now I want to understand this better.

March 9

On 3/9/2024 at 8:16 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

@flyingcow I just saw this journal and wanted to follow it, what size tank is that exactly? The last pic you have showed.

It's a 20 long. I started it in a 10 gallon, but the pygmys HATED IT and would freak out and hit the glass any time I moved. They are much happier with some space.

March 8

P.S. You know you live in New England when your 20 gallon tank needs 200 Watts of heaters to stay warm in the winter... Still cheaper than oil.

March 8

So I haven't posted anything here in a while! The pygmys and embers are all doing well. Somewhere along the way, I lost one ember, and who knows how many pygmy's I have. At yesterday's water change I saw 9, but they have made a cave under a rock and I left it be. Crafty lil buggers.

I was away 5 days a week for work for about 6 months. That meant the tanks were getting enough work to stay alive and not much more. And since this tank was stable compared to the 36 gallon parasitic auto-da-fé in my living room, it suffered a bit. Fishies are healthy and well, but the plants are suffering a bit, and the hair algae is getting annoying. Time for a good cleaning or three, some root tabs, and actually remembering to fertilize!

I tested iron, and it was basically zero. Gonna see if the tabs and easy green give me enough before dosing iron.

March 3

A quick update. I finished the 6 weeks of treatment a few weeks ago. I did lose the guy in the quarantine tank. He improved, but I couldn't get him to eat. Everyone else is doing fine and showing no symptoms. Now the goal is to take on the Blackbeard algae problem and keep this tank clean!

Thank you all so much for the help, and hopefully I get to put this behind me for a while.

January 10

On 1/10/2024 at 8:47 AM, Billipo said:

Thanks for feedback.

Regarding Algae - I noticed the fish snack on it. Since photo taken 60% on the big rock is gone. I do plan on cutting back on hours of lighting.

The fish on the left is more aggressive feeding and bullies the other a little bit. One reason, I'm anxious to get tank mates (when appropriate) for distraction. The fish on right is thinner, but photo is definitely not flattering. Makes the belly seem worse. I'm watching. Ironically it has stronger coloring. Neither seem to be behaving strangely. They typically hang out and swim together though there is an occasion brief sign of aggression.

I have been doing 20% water changes about every other day. 20% allows me to keep filtration on while changing water. But honestly, I'm a bit scared to do larger/more frequent water changes. Is that not OK?

Shortly after initiating this post, I added a seasoned sponge and started the process to cycle a fishless quarantine tank.

EDIT - picture added- taken 1/10 9AM

Bolivian Rams can be tricky if you have two males. I had this issue, and sadly the one who was bullied stopped eating and passed away before I could get a quarantine tank running. My lesson learned (which won't help you at this point) was get the dither fish first, and add cichlids in groups of three or more. My remaining ram is happy as a lark, but I'm not gonna introduce any more until he's gone.

January 10

So two and a half weeks in to this (I had to start late due to travel). Everybody is looking good. 2 big water changes a week forced me to find a corner of my tank under some rocks that was NASTY, so I'm sure that didn't hurt. The little guy in the Quarantine tank is looking a little better. No longer going upside down, but still very thin and struggling. Here's hoping he hangs on. Thanks so much for your help on this!

December 21, 2023

I'm assuming I should do this in both the main tank and the hospital tank, correct?

December 21, 2023

Very much so erratic swimming. Every now and then they spit out food. No sunken belly or lethargy. No one is really hanging out at the surface much either.

I did a round of expel p with no change in his symptoms.

December 20, 2023

On 12/20/2023 at 6:05 PM, Littlefish said:

Cory mentioned in one podcast what they expect to lose as a % of incoming fish, and yours doesn't seem too far out of line. Imagine all humans living to 90 from birth 😁

Carry on!

>50% loss of Black Neons in 18 months? The rest I think I agree with you, but that one seems steep. Also, symptoms of the current Black Phantom are identical to the last Black Neon to die.

December 20, 2023

On 12/20/2023 at 3:01 PM, Mercfh said:

How often should I rinse my HOB Media? Just when I do water changes weekly I guess?

Also the heater doesn't seem to be coming on constantly, so I guess it's enough? (Our temp in our house stays around 68-70)

The way I found out I needed more heat was the tank got cold on a chilly morning. If you're hitting that temperature and the house isn't gonna get colder, you're golden!

You'll figure out how often to rinse as you go. You'll be able to see changes in the flow coming out of the spillway. It'll get narrower or noticeably slower.

December 20, 2023

You're already getting good stuff, but I'll chime in. You'll notice the answer to most of these is "It depends."

On 12/20/2023 at 12:54 PM, Mercfh said:

So I did as much research as possible but in the end there is always more questions lol. I purchased a 29 Gallon tank and put some plants in it for now while I wait to cycle. That being said I had some questions:

Is Aqueon lights ok? I got the Optibright + (W/Remote). I want to do low tech plants so I figured this was enough.

It depends on the plants. If you're looking at things like Anubias or Java ferns or many crypts, you'll probably be fine. If your plants start suffering, consider a beefier light, but I bet you'll do fine

I got the Aquaclear filter (Aquaclear 50). Is that enough for a 29 Gallon? Also it has 3 different filter media (Which I used) but they need to be changed A LOT. Is it really necessary? Or do only some need changing (Wouldn't that destroy the bacteria?)

So in the Aquaclear filters, really the only thing that needs to be changed out is the carbon. Honestly, I don't use carbon unless I have a reason to (i.e. removing medication from water). I replace the carbon with a second sponge. When I clean the filter, I just squeeze out the sponges in some dirty fish water from the water change. I also dunk the ceramic rings into the dirty fish water to get off the schmutz.

I got Seachem prime and stability. Since I have a 29Gallon and their dosage is usually 20 or 40 gallons should I "under" dose or "over" dose a little bit. IE: Can I "OVER" condition or OVER bacteria the water with these products? (IE: if it's 1 cap for 20 gallons should I just use 2 caps?)

You can overdose bacteria to your hearts content when doing a fishless cycle. You don't want to use too much Prime since you want that ammonia to help the bacteria grow. Remember, you need some nitrogen to feed the bacteria after you add them. A little fish food works as it breaks down.

Speaking of dechlorinating water, when I do water changes how do I dechlorinate it first? (If im using a water change system like the python) Is it ok to do it after?

I'm the wrong person to ask since I've always been on well water... sorry.

Is a HOB Filter enough oxygen for a 29 Gallon tank?

Probably, but this might depend on the fish. It's more about flow and surface agitation than oxygen directly. An aeration stone or small sponge filter can help.

The HOB Filter came with 3 media (Some bio ceramic circle things, a carbon filter, and a sponge) someone said I shouldn't use the carbon one right now while im cycling the tank? Is that true?

As above, you can probably get away with never using the carbon and just replacing it with another sponge.

Lastly. I bought a 100 watt thermometer (from some italian company? they said was good)...is that enough? What's a good temp for a community tropical tank? I have it set at 77 currently

Depends on the fish, but 77 is a bit warmer than I run (about 75). The rule of thumb I use is one watt per gallon per degree F warmer than the room. So the 5W/gal rule gets you a tank that's 5 degrees warmer than the room. For those of us who live in New England and would be shelling out thousands of dollars to keep a house that hot, we do 7.5-10 W per gallon.

Thanks, I know it's a lot of questions but it's just things I didn't think of when did my research.

December 20, 2023

On 12/20/2023 at 1:19 PM, Katherine said:

That should be just fine for the nerites.

I've had a few die on me within 9 months of getting them, I've also got one I've had for 4 years. You just can't predict it.

I haven't added anything new since I started losing fish. Although now you guys have me thinking this might not be as big an issue. So I could add some nerites back.

December 20, 2023

We were moving some furniture around a few weeks ago, and my wife found my stash. It was humiliating.

"Is this a bag of rocks? How much did you spend on these?"

December 20, 2023

On 12/20/2023 at 1:10 PM, Katherine said:

This doesn't seem too unusual for nerite snails to me. They are generally wild caught and who knows how old they are when they get to you. Some just have trouble with all the transitions involved in going from the wild to your home tank.

What are your ph, kh, and gh?

I haven't measured my pH recently since it really doesn't move but..

pH: 7.4-7.6

KH: 4 degrees

GH: 7 degrees

On 12/20/2023 at 12:38 PM, Littlefish said:

That sounds about what I experience as normal losses in a large tank. Tetras in my area just seem to have a lot of deaths, where angels, snails, guppies, etc all live.

The snail deaths seem odd to me, never have snails die except from old age or predation.

Now you have me wondering seeing as how all my past experiences were with a 10 gallon tank. 36 isn't too big, but it's definitely a bigger population.

December 20, 2023

Ok. In this tank I've been having a LOT of fish loss, and I'm getting to a point where I'm at a loss. So hopefully someone can give me some thoughts.

Here's the parameters before this past weekend's water change:

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 40ppm

Phosphates: ~1ppm

Phosphates have always been high in this tank, and I'm fighting some pretty nasty blackbeard and staghorn algae. I don't know if this is relevant. Gravel is usually not too dirty when I gravel vac. I think the plants and algae take care of most of it. The tank has been up for about a year and a half. Here's the population history:

2 Bolivian Rams. One died shortly after coming home (about 3 weeks). I'm pretty sure it was an aggression issue that I wasn't able to react to quickly enough. The other Ram is doing great

10 Black Phantom tetras. I'm down to 8 now. 1 male completely disappeared after a few days of laying sideways and 1 female wasted away then died. I was able to remove her body.

11 Black Neon Tetras. I have had several die suddenly, and several just disappear. I'm down to 5. Most recently, I had one that was swimming erratically and looked like he had some swim bladder issues. After a stay in the hospital tank with maracyn and expel P, he improved pretty significantly (though not 100%) and returned to the tank. He disappeared 2 days later. (This was about 3 weeks ago)

6 Panda Corys. I lost one of them within 2 weeks of coming home, and the other 5 are doing just fine for over a year

4 nerite snails bought two at a time a couple months apart from two different suppliers. I lost 2 (one rom each supplier) within 48 hours of each other, then the other two lasted about 7 months and again died within a week or two of each other.

Fast forward to today. A Black Phantom is showing the same exact symptoms as the most recent black neon that died. Video below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/RheMsHkTuDo?feature=share

Pardon the dead plant mulm. The hospital tank was housing a bunch of plants in it.

It didn't help that I was gone Monday-Friday for 5 months and only had weekends to observe and work on the tank. My wife did her best to help while I was gone.

The problems seem to be local to the tetras. I tend to think the early loss of the Ram and the Cory was unrelated, but I can't be sure. Am I at a point where I have to be thinking mycobacteria? I do use really long rubber gloves in the tank now because it's been on my mind. I did a dose of expel-P for him, and he seems to have a bit more energy, but his swimming is still a mess. I could do Maracyn or Kanaplex next (not knowing if it's gram positive or negative). Thoughts?

September 23, 2023

So two rounds of maracyn with salt did the trick! He's back to normal, and I just transferred him home to his tank! Thanks so much!

September 13, 2023

On 9/13/2023 at 11:07 AM, Colu said:

What I would do is a course of maracyn and keep the salt at 1 table spoon for 2 gallons for another week

in water column or in food?

Do I consider kanaplex as well in case it's gram negative?

Thanks so much!

September 13, 2023

A few more pictures now that he is in quarantine. In this light, you can see a dark spot all around the white thing...

sorry, screenshot from a video.

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