AllFishNoBrakes

Hydrogen Peroxide is a great tool. You just have to be cautious as it can kill your beneficial bacteria. Early in my hobby I dosed the whole tank a couple of times. More recently I’ve used it to spot treat areas of concern. I always have to remind myself that algae problems didn’t happen overnight, and getting rid of it is a process, too.

Agreed. All 12 of mine were completely normal when I got them. Have any of yours had swim bladder issues? I had one a while ago that was almost vertical instead of horizontal. The one I have with the best spine is starting to do the same thing.

Glowlight Tetras are rad! They’re some of the first fish I ever had when I started in the hobby about 4 years ago. They were my “canaries in the well” for my first “big” tank I set up. Just a 29 gallon, and they were the first fish in after the tank cycled. I started with a group of 12, and now I’m down to four or five. Mine definitely haven’t lasted the almost 10 years yours have, but these guys have been through a lot with me. From the first “big” tank, to the first c02 I ever tried, to the current Blackwater tank it is now, they’ve taught me a lot. One of mine has a bent spine, too, unfortunately. Not as severe as yours, but definitely bent.

I’ve never seen Mystery Snails eating Hydra. I’ve had it a couple of times. The first was in a shrimp only tank and I used Fenbenazole. It definitely worked. The last time I had it I just cut back on the amount of powdered foods and baby brine shrimp I was feeding. It has since died out and isn’t there anymore. I currently have a few in my Angelfish tank, but they’re just part of the ecosystem at this point. If they get out of control I’ll cut out the Amazon Sword leaves they’re on. Never once have I seen them harm and fish, shrimp, or snails. Doesn’t mean it hasn’t ever happened; just means that I haven’t seen it. Im glad I’ve tried several ways and have gotten rid of them. But at this point I wouldn’t use meds. I’d rather just manually remove them or change my practices and rid of them naturally.

It’s been a little more lively than usual this week. Mostly because I made a mistake and only slightly panicked. When I turn off the 107 to feed the 29 Blackwater tank I always flip the lever to stop the flow in addition to unplugging the filter. I do this as I don’t want to go to remove the hoses to clean the filter and forget about that lever. I figure it’s best practice for me, that any time I unplug that filter I also flip the lever. Well, the other night I plugged the filter back in, but forgot to flip the lever back down. Didn’t recognize it until the following night when I went to feed and the lever was already flipped! It was plugged in and running, just not actually moving any water through it. I flipped the lever down and a bunch of stuff came flying out of the outlet. I’m assuming it was dead beneficial bacteria. I decided to not feed the tank, and if there was ammonia from the dead bacteria I figured the tank would process it. The rest of the night the fish looked fine, and the following evening no ammonia registered on the test strip, so it was back to business as usual. I was also worried about the motor and impeller, but that all seems fine, too. Crisis averted, thankfully. Today I did all the water changes, moved the baby Panda Angels to the 55, and moved the 2 Pandas I have been growing out into the display tank. Cichlids gonna cichlid, and there was some pecking and hierarchy establishing but as of now everyone seems to be doing fine. I really wasn’t planning on moving anyone quite yet, but the manager of the LFS hit me up and said the Black Neons are looking healthy and are ready to go! Gonna go pick those up tomorrow and will run the trio through them. I might do a second round of dewormer on them as they’re wild caught, but we’ll see in a couple of weeks how they’re looking. Looking forward to picking those up, and I think we’re gonna take the dog to the park and I’ll probably hit the skatepark right next to the dog park before we pick them up. My girl’s Ricefish are looking good, too! I’m excited to have some new things going between the Ricefish, the smaller Panda’s in the display tank, and obviously the wild caught black neons coming home tomorrow. I took just a couple of pictures today: Blue Axelrodi Rasboras in the cube. Just as I suspected I gave it a big trim and the green water came back a bit. Back to doing a couple extra water changes and we should be good. Pictures really don’t do these guys justice. They’re so metallic under the light. Pea Puffer tank continues to do better. Java Fern on the left still has some algae, but I’m working on it. The Anubius next to it is actually looking green and not black, lol. The Val is starting to spread again and I’m happy about that. Swords are doing well, and I continue to trim back the older leaves that aren’t doing so hot. Slowly but surely we’re getting there. Do you guys ever get self-conscience of posting the same pictures all the time? I feel like I go through phases where I post the same tanks all the time, and then I remember that I started this journal for me to track my tanks. I appreciate those of you that regularly comment on my journal, and I hope the pictures don’t get repetitive, but this is also for me 🙂

I did this today. Moved probably 75 baby angels to the next tank and didn’t acclimate them at all. Just netted em out and moved em to the next tank. Also took 2 bigger Angels I’ve been growing out and plopped them into the display tank. I’ve never experienced issues with just moving between tanks in the house.

My betta has a Nerite in his tank. I’ve never seen him go after the snail. I even have Nerites in with my Pea Puffers and they’re doing great. I wouldn’t worry about your betta and a Nerite. Keep an eye out, obviously, but I wouldn’t stress about it.

My best advice is to ensure that all the fish you’re wanting to stock it with prefer the same temperature, and to be careful with what kind of Pleco you get. Lots of Pleco’s get massive, so make sure you pick one that’s appropriate for your 20 gallon tank. They also like to dig (at least my Bristlenose do), so just be ready for that.

Diatoms are a normal part of every tanks beginning stages. All 14 of my tanks went through a diatom phase. It just means your tank is coming alive.

I have a school of 20 Chili’s with another 10 or so Green Neons in my 20 long blackwater tank. They’re great together.

I’ve heard of people keeping them in the freezer, but I never personally have. I buy the 20oz Xtreme Nano Pellet jar, and then I’ve saved some smaller jars. I’ll open the bigger jar, fill the smaller one, and then put the seal back on the big jar and tighten down the lid. Is it perfect or “best practice”? Probably not, but it has worked well for me over the last 4 years. The smaller jar gets used daily, and the big jar only gets opened to refill the small jar.

I got the free samples when he first launched LEGIT. Was stoked to try them, and then completely forgot about them and never used them. Whoops.

Just got an email from the LFS that some wild caught Black Neons should be coming in today. LET’S GOOOOOOO! Sounds like they’ll hold em til they get nice and healthy, and then I get to bring them home. Should be perfect timing to move the baby Angels to the 55 and QT the black neons. Can’t wait to see those guys in their Blackwater tank. Feeling hype!

Smell-o-vision at times would be awesome. Other times, not so much lol. Would be wild. Nope, no PC. I am but a humble console and controller guy. I don’t play a ton of games. Instead, I find the games I REALLY like and I master them. If I had a PC I’d be speedrunning for sure.

Appreciate it! Woke up feeling better today. Not cured by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s nice to feel better instead of worse. It’s insane! Not only is it crazy to be immersed into this world I’ve been playing for like 20 years at this point, but to draw your gun you have to reach down and grab it off your hip. To reload you have to reach down into your pouch on the other hip and slap the magazine into the gun. You draw your knife off your chest, and the then you have to actually stab and slice with it. It’s insane! Resident Evil is my absolute favorite series. Fell off pretty hard with 5, 6 was an absolute joke, and then they brought it back with 7. The remakes for 2, 3, and 4 are INCREDIBLE! Village was awesome too, and apparently there’s a VR version for that as well so I’m stoked to check that out! I don’t chase numbers at all. I just keep things consistent. After 3.5 years I bought a gh/kh test kit. Tested all the tanks and went “yup, soft water with little buffer…”

Yo yo, Woke up yesterday really not feeling well. I always just power through it and try to tell myself “you’re fine! You feel great”. I’m not horribly sick but still not feeling good. Crushed through the water changes today, though. No scraping glass, no squeezing filters, no getting rid of algae in the Pea Puffer tank, and I didn’t trim the cube. Simply took water out and put water back in. Glad I still accomplished that, though. Pea Puffer tank continues to do better. I feel like I’ve gotten a handle on the algae, and the Val is starting to spread again. I think I’ve turned the corner on the green water in the cube, too. Still looked pretty good today with the last water change being a week ago. If I feel better tomorrow I may trim the cube and give it another water change. I’m only slightly worried that trimming it will bring the green water back. Only time will tell. On a more fun note, I picked up a psvr2 today and I’m stooooooked. Resident Evil 4 is my favorite game of all time. The remake is incredible, and they dropped a vr upgrade back in December. I can’t wait to get home and get dropped into my favorite game of all time that I’ve been playing since the GameCube. Cheers, homies.

LMAOOOOOOOOOO

To the best of my knowledge it goes like this: -Marine salt is salt plus other trace elements -Aquarium salt is just salt by itself, no additional trace minerals -Aquarium Coop salt is branded as Brine Shrimp salt, but is essentially marine salt. Salt plus other trace elements

Agreed with this. I have c02 on 3 tanks, and all of them have oxygen. Before the easy flow kits it was a sponge filter with an air stone. Now they all have the easy flow kits, but still adding oxygen and additional flow. C02 comes on an hour before lights, and goes off an hour before the lights.

Agreed with everyone else thus far that 1 is the way to go. After they clean up diatoms and other algae’s they can be hard to feed

New/second Tetra Whisper 150 air pump and 4 way metal gang valve showed up today. I’ve installed that on the rack and it now runs the (4) 10 gallon tanks on the bottom of the rack. This allowed me to move the air pump that used to run those 4 tanks to the bedroom, and it now runs the Pea Puffer tank and the 10 gallon next to it. This move means that all 3 of my ACO air pumps are no longer in use. I’ll keep them charged for if I ever need them for a power outage, but as of right now they’re not in use. Super nice upgrade and I’m happy I finally pulled the trigger. Almost too happy. I’m now going “should I get 2 more of them? One for the bedroom and one for the 55 grow out?” And the answer is no. It’s not needed. Wanted, maybe, but needed, no. For now I’m happy with where we’re at and excited for all that’s to come.

@Fish Folk Thanks! It has served me well. I took them 15 today, and have another 10 that will be ready whenever they need them. Behind them, I have the next 60-75 in a 10 gallon grow out. They have another few weeks in there or so, and then they’ll get moved to the 55 to grow out and eventually take to the LFS. I won’t have to hatch eggs again for another 6 months probably, but will continue to have 15 of them at a time to take to the LFS. Way less work, all the same perks. If I had more space I’d do a couple more species, but effort to money ratio is good right now, and my credit at the shop stays balanced.

I bought 2 Bristlenose and was lucky enough to get a male and female. I wasn’t in a rush to try to breed them, so I just grew them out and gave them an environment they seemed to like. Before I knew it, they were breeding. Zucchini is awesome. You can also stab it to a fork and drop it in if you don’t want to boil it. The fork sinks. I take some thread and tie it to the fork so I can get the fork back out without having to reach into the tank. I also feed mine algae wafers and Xtreme bottom wafers, alternating days. My Bristlenose are almost like my Kribs in that they’ve been almost too easy to breed, and they’re difficult to get rid of. I’m still working on getting rid of that initial spawn, and have since thrown away all egg clutches that they’ve produced. I just gave ‘em good food, time, and an ACO pleco cave and I had babies before I knew it. Honestly long before I thought they were big enough/old enough to breed.

My biggest secret has been my Panda Angels. I get $4 in store credit for each one. I take them 15-20 at a time to the LFS, and that $60-80 stacks up. I let the parents spawn as they please, and if I’m in need of the next batch I’ll pull it. I take the spawn down to a manageable size, roughly 60-100 eggs. I then hatch those eggs, and grow em out over the coming months. I don’t rush it, I just feed them well once per day and do a water change once per week. My goal is to raise healthy fish, not raise them as fast as possible. I grow them out a bit bigger since my LFS was stoked the first time I brought them in a little bigger. No big deal to me, so I do it. Just means I get to enjoy the fish for longer. When I go into the LFS and notice they’re low I’ll hit them up and ask if they’re ready for the next batch. Likewise, if it has been a while and I have the next batch ready and I haven’t heard from them I’ll hit them up. I used to do smaller more frequent spawns, but I’ve realized I can just hatch one bigger batch, and then take em to the LFS 15 at a time, always getting rid of the biggest ones. Then the smaller ones catch up and I take those, rinse and repeat. I’ve spawned other fish, but they take more effort and time, grow slower, and I don’t get as much per fish, so I’ve just stuck to the Panda Angels the past year or so and it has worked out really well for me. I regularly have $200-300 in store credit just waiting to be used. If I need something I always look there first to use the credit I’ve stacked up. If they don’t have it or something comparable, then I’ll go elsewhere. This has garnered a great relationship with the LFS where the manager and employees know me by name, and I know theirs. They’re also willing to bring things in for me if they have access to it. They know I have the store credit, so it’s not a big deal to them to tack something onto an order they’re already placing anyways. I guess that’s the long-winded way to say what @Fish Folk said as #1 in their original post. I’ve found a species that I’m good at and is profitable for me, so I keep doing it.

No worries! Happy to help! Reach out if anything comes up