AllFishNoBrakes

Cichlids gonna cichlid!

It’s Wednesday. You know what that means. I’m gonna start this week with the things I learned. I learned that you can leave your canister filter off for 24 hours and not have an ammonia spike. I turned my canister filter off to feed, and forgot to turn it back on. I didn’t realize until the following day (last night) when I went to turn it “off”, and it kicked back on. I figured today was maintenance day anyways, so I turned it back on after feeding and let it ride. This morning, I tested for ammonia and the test came back 0. This leads me to believe one of two things happened. Either the bacteria in the canister didn’t die, and therefore didn’t create an ammonia spike or any ammonia that was produced was converted by the tank overnight. I’ll never know which one is true, but one of them is. I also learned that a sponge filter can become clogged in a fashion that makes your air collar/easy flow kit glug. One of the sponge filters in the grow out tank has been glugging, and I just couldn’t figure it out. From everything I tested, I figured it had to be the air pump. So, this morning I ripped off the Hygger 10 watt and put it out on the rack to run the 55 and the 29. Hooked it up, and both ran like a dream. Thought it was strange, but whatever. Hooked the grow out tank to independent Tetra 150’s, and what do you know. No glug! The one that was glugging wasn’t pushing as much air, but I chalked that up to the pump starting to go out. All day the filter was fine. I go to feed tonight, and it starts to glug worse than it ever had! I could visually see the bubbles coming out of the air collar going hard, stopping for a split second, and then going again, causing a massive glug. I figured it had to be the pump so I opened it up, inspected everything, took a couple of things apart, and put it back together. Hooked it back up. Same thing. I figured it had to be the airline. I thought maybe there was a kink or something. I ran a whole new line. Still glugging. Figured it had to be the air collar so I popped that off and cleaned it. STILL GLUGGING! At this point the only thing that was left was the sponge. I popped the air collar off and noticed (this time, finally) that it was producing air at a steady rate with no glug. Cleaned the sponge, hooked it back up, and voila. Running like a dream with fill air and flow coming out of it. I feel like an idiot as I literally bought that Hygger pump because of this issue and it took me weeks to figure it out when all I had to do was clean the filter. It’s just literally the last thing that made sense to my brain. The more you know… Outside of that it was a normal maintenance sesh. Water out, water back in. Cleaned all the pre filter sponges (and the one sponge in the grow out tank lmaooooo!). Boiled some Indian Almond Leaves and hucked those in the blackwater tanks. Next week I’ll probably clean all the sponges. I guess with the Easy Flow I’m collecting more detritus and need to clean them more often. Lesson learned. Still having a ton of fun with my RG405V as well! Crushed Pokémon Silver, and learned that there’s a second half of the game AFTER the Elite Four that my little 8 year old brain didn’t know about back in 1999. Moved on to Killer7. It’s another game I played when I was super young and never beat. So far, I’ve only found one game that doesn’t run very well. I think I might have to turn up the speed in the settings just a little bit. Audio is perfect, but game runs like it’s in slow mo. Still having tons of fun. 29’s looking nice: I love the Black Neons schooling around in the back. This thing is turning into a jungle and I love it. Java Fern finally growing some, too. Some tips have BBA, but baby Ferns are growing out of them so I’m gonna see if the baby Ferns becoming a thing before I go chopping. I hope you’re having fun with your tanks!

I’ve never quarantined snails. I quarantine all fish as I’ve spent the past 4 years setting up healthy ecosystems, but I’ve never done it to snails.

I’ve had 14 tanks for 4 years, and all of them have at least a Coop sponge filter. Larger tanks have additional HOB’s, canisters, or internal filters. All of my ACO sponges were fitted with air collars upon release, and anything bigger than a 10 gallon has the easy flow kit. I actually find that the air collars pull out more mulm and detritus than just an air stone. I think what you’re seeing is the smaller pore size non Coop sponge is simply collecting the smaller detritus faster, leaving not much for the Coop filter to pull. Coop sponge is definitely full of bacteria and performing biological filtration, just not much mechanical as the smaller pore size of the other filter is performing that function. I bet if you took out the smaller pore size filter, the Coop will pull smaller detritus as the bigger pores become “clogged”. Coop is all about Easy, and with the larger size pores that means cleaning the sponge less often. The trade off is it takes more time to be able to pull smaller detritus from the water column as the pores have to get smaller to pull that small detritus.

My 6 gallon cube I did like 1/4” of dirt, and a 2-2.5” gravel cap. 2.5 years later it’s a Pearl Weed jungle with no signs of slowing down. There’s also no filter in the tank. It has been a fun experiment, but I haven’t set up any other tanks like that nor do I really plan to.

I focus on consistency, and enjoy doing my water changes. It’s a few hours on my day off where I get to throw on headphones and take care of my tanks. Now, when life gets hectic, I’m on vacation, etc then I have no issues whatsoever skipping a week. I just don’t make it a trend. I also have very soft water, so my tanks can really use that water change to replenish the trace amount of minerals in my water. If your tank is heavily planted, you probably don’t need to gravel vac every week. You’re just taking out natural plant food and making things harder on yourself. Just take water out and back in and call it a day.

Give it time and those Sword will engulf your tank. Slowly, though, and you can always trim them. This is my 20 high probably 6 months ago. I regularly have to trim these swords back. 55 gallon. The MASSIVE Sword on the left side is the first aquatic plant I ever bought. Started in a 10 gallon, then got moved to a 29 and I never touched it. Eventually, it took over the 29 so I moved it to this 55, and it has continued to take over. This Sword is 4 years old at this point.

I will say that my Pea Puffer tanks requires the most manual cleaning/algae scraping as snails are snacks. I have successfully kept Nerites with them, though, and that has been super helpful. My other 13 tanks I basically don’t have to control algae. My Pea Puffer tank I do

Lots of excellent info from @FLFishChik I’ve had my 6 Pea’s in my 29 gallon for the past couple of years. In my experience, they haven’t been overly difficult. Mine get fed bloodworms and snails. I haven’t been able to transition them to commercial foods, nor have I taken the time to give it an honest attempt as I simply don’t have the time. In my personal experience they have been easy. I dewormed them, feed them well, and they have lots of space in their 29 gallon with tons of plants. They’re super personable and lots of fun, but I know not everyone has that experience with them.

All but 1 of my tanks run Aquaneat lights. Great light for the price point. The 1 tank that is different runs an ACO light. All depends on your budget, but I’ve enjoyed the Aquaneats. Most of them I’ve had for 4 years at this point with 0 issues. I would also suggest getting a different lid for your tank. Glass lid, or make your own out of greenhouse siding.

It really comes down to what you’re personally comfortable with. Personally, I see no issue with it. One of my earliest lessons in breeding fish was just because you can produce them doesn’t mean you can sell them. Sometimes you can’t even give them away for free. Kribs were too easy, and I quickly became overran with fish and fry. The parents kept spawning while I was still trying to get rid of the first batch, so any additional spawns they made were fed to their brothers and sisters in a different tank. I did that out of necessity, and I believe that it’s a perfectly healthy food for the other fish. Fish eat fish in nature. Complete personal preference, and personally I don’t see any issue with it.

Howdy! Remember when I said I was done tinkering and had everything I could ever want and need? Ya… we all know how that goes. The Tetra 150 I had hooked up to the grow out tank started acting a little weird. It’s a single outlet, with a T, to be able to run two lines. Out of nowhere, one side was barely pushing. So i put some control valves on there, and that worked temporarily, but I was always having to balance it. Not sure why it happened, but I got my Q1 bonus, and decided to try a new pump. Hygger 10 watt dual outlet. Someone else on the forum tried it out and was pretty impressed, so I figured why not. Especially at the price point. The thing is a beast! Absolutely cranks some air and I love it. Now, the opposite easy flow kit is “glugging”. I know why it’s doing it, but I’m having a hard time getting it to stop. The top piece of the Easy Flow kit is not quite straight up and down, so the bubbles are jamming up, and glugging out the top. Looks like I’m not quite done tinkering… Other than that today was just your standard maintenance sesh. Just water out and back in and I was done in less than 4 hours. Felt good! It’s been a while where I didn’t have to do something extra, so the speedy water changes were nice. Some pics from the week: My Pothos vine is easily over 10 feet at this point, and I had a section that lost all of its leaves. I decided to cut that out a few days ago, and today I noticed perfect water droplets coming from the stems where it hadn’t healed over yet. I thought it was pretty cool. Lots of things blooming in the aquaponics tank. From top to bottom, the start of a jalapeño, a baby strawberry, and some lavender starting to bloom. Panda pair in the community tank had their second spawn. No eggs kept from this one. Color on the 29. It has taken a lot of time, but we’re where I wanna be! My girlfriend was awesome enough to pick me up an Anbernic RG405V emulator handheld console. It arrived today, I got all the ROMs on the SD card, and I’m having SO MUCH FUN playing all these games from my childhood on a portable handheld console. Anything from NES through PS2 and GameCube. So sick! I’m loving it. Cheers, friends. I hope your tanks are well and you’re having fun!

I have CPO’s. They are super rad at first. Over time, they’re just like bigger shrimp. Except when they clamp up and shoot backwards. That’s fun, but in my personal experience they’re just bigger shrimp with claws.

Your first shrimplets are super fun! Wait until you see one that’s as big as an eyelash. Super fun! Congrats!

For me, I use the strips as a quick way to go, “yup, looks the same as it always has”. If I’m dialing in a tank or need the test to be more precise I use the API liquid test.

I’ve only used salt to treat illness.

Hopefully colu can help you out. Regardless, it’s obvious you care greatly about them and are willing and trying to do everything you can!

Sorry you’re going through it! It’s so frustrating when you just want to do right by your pets but you can’t identify the mystery issue and therefore are just shooting in the dark. I don’t remember if they’ve chimed in, but I’ll tag @Colu and see if they can help.

👏👏👏👏 I would definitely recommend some kind of cover for them. The little plants in the front are great, but they’re not doing much to make the fish feel safe. Taller plants, taller pieces of wood, tall pieces of rock, floating plants, etc will all provide cover and make them feel more secure. Would also recommend getting more as they feel safer in numbers.

I find the same thing with the ACO test strips. I basically never get a nitrate reading on those, but the API test always registers nitrates. Anywhere between 10 and 80 based on the tank. Based on the fact that my tanks are well seasoned (been running for 4 years), I KNOW I have nitrates, I have tons of plants in my tanks, AND I dose fertilizer I personally trust the API test when it comes to nitrates.

Agreed with @mynameisnobody that a picture of the tank could help, cover should absolutely help, and you should probably up your number of Neons as they are a shoaling fish that find safety in numbers. All those things should make them feel safer.

Baking soda causes drastic pH changes very quickly. Also, a little bit goes a loooooong way. Personally, I wouldn’t do it. My best advice would be to use fish that are going to do well in your tap water. Like you, I have water this is soft, with little to no buffer, and a lower pH below 7. I made the choice early on that I would rather work with fish that do well in my water instead of having to “make” water by altering it. Early on I struggled with Guppies and Endlers because they simply need other water than what I have. I’ve been able to fight through it with having them breed and raising the babies in my water, but it’s a struggle and takes work. Deciding to work with fish that like my water is probably one of the best decisions I made early on in my hobby. It makes everything that much easier, and I get to spend more time admiring and enjoying my tanks instead of “making” water, constantly chasing parameters, and stressing myself and the fish out.

In a 65, you’ve really opened up a ton of options compared to a 20, or even a 29. I agree that it’s a good idea to decide what centerpiece fish you want (if any) and try to build around that. I will also say, that it’s YOUR tank, so do what will make you happy! Nobody ever has to do a biotope or can’t put an Asian fish with a SA fish. As long as the parameters are within reason, the fish will be well cared for, and ultimately that you will enjoy it I say go for it! For example, in my 55 I have 6 Angelfish, Albino Cory’s that I hatched and raised, Cardinal Tetras, and a trio of Dwarf Rainbowfish. Angels and Praecox Rainbows are from completely different parts of the world. However, the Rainbows were in my 29, and when I wanted to do something different with that tank it made the most sense to put them in the 55. It’s not a combo you would see in nature, but I enjoy the combo, and at no point was I going for a South American biotope. I also agree that less demanding plants will do you well with a tank that tall. In my 55 I have some GIGANTIC Amazon Swords and Jungle Val. They fill out the tank nicely.

I would also ask how many you have?

If they’ve been doing this, and you haven’t seen anything bad happen, I would assume it’s not an issue