AllFishNoBrakes

The final of the 36 Chambers

My female BN had this white cyst on her face. At the advice of @Colu a little aquarium salt and a couple Indian Almond Leaves was all it took to clear it up. I let that soak for a week or two and haven’t seen another cyst since.

@Dork Fish I almost mentioned Spoons when I gave my answer, too. Didn’t think anyone else would know what I was talking about and I would come off as crazy, lol

I could see a 20 working for a single Angel, or maybe a breeding pair, but if you have the means and the space I would definitely do the 29. They’ll appreciate the additional space :).

Agreed with everyone else. Angels get big and need more vertical space than what a 20 long has to offer.

Ultimately, the decision is yours to make. However, my girlfriend suffers from a couple different chronic conditions, so I completely understand walking the line to not over-do it while simultaneously trying to bring yourself joy. That being said, additional Rainbows would be the one that makes the most sense to me. You can have new fish, bring new life to the tank, get excited about what you’re doing, and it shouldn’t really add to the amount of work needed to maintain the tank. Just my $0.02 (if it’s even worth that much) from someone else who lives with somebody with chronic conditions :).

Patience is one of the hardest parts of the hobby. Don’t beat yourself up! We’ve all made mistakes, and all of us continue to do so. Simply see it as a learning opportunity to not make the same mistake in the future.

Pea Puffers have been generally pretty easy for me. I keep 6 in a 29 gallon. They eat frozen bloodworms, pond snails, and Ramshorn snails. They do not have teeth that constantly grow so no need to worry about ever having to trim their teeth. Overall, they’ve been pretty easy in my experience.

Well, friends, in an interesting turn of events the store in question is no longer an RPP store. While I don’t know all the specifics, what I do know is that ACO took swift action and the store isn’t listed on the website any longer. I’m not proud of myself for getting that store off the list, and honestly I feel pretty guilty about it as if I didn’t say anything they would still be listed, but I honestly believe that it needed to happen. The experience I had was so sub par… As I mentioned yesterday, if that was one of the first experiences I ever had I would’ve been turned off from that store, ACO for backing that store, and probably the hobby as a whole. After all, I work in guest service as well, in the restaurant industry, and while I understand that everyone has off days this was far beyond an off day. Overall, I’m just thankful that other people won’t have the same experience that I did and I fully back the Coop for making the decision they did. Back and support your LFS’s that have earned your hard earned dollars and let’s all work to make this hobby the best that it can be and enjoy nature daily. Until next time, Nerms.

Frozen Bloodworms and bladder and Ramshorn snails are what my Pea Puffers snack on.

Candi, as expected, had a quick and lovely response. One of two things is going to happen, in my opinion. 1. The store shapes up and retains their RPP status and gives a better experience for every hobbyist. 2. The store loses their RPP status and then less people will have a less-than-desired experience as they will not be listed as a partner store. Literally the only reason I went out of my way to go there was because they were listed. Either way, it’s better for everyone involved, in my opinion. We’ll see what happens!

As much as I want to believe that, I really don’t see that being the case. As much as they bashed on ACO they also hyped up the “other YouTuber plant guy” when he was bagging up my Nana Petite. “It’s crazy! I watched this guy growing up, and now I get to call him on the phone to place orders! They really have the best Anubius around!” It was just strange in every way, shape, and form lol. Again, as much as I want to believe that, I don’t think it’s in me. This store was over an hour away… And there was really nothing pulling me back… No variety of fish I can’t get… No exclusive foods… Pricing wasn’t great… Only male Guppies… Terrible customer service and guest experience… I’ll stick to my normal stores that are 30 and 45 minutes away, and if I want to venture over an hour I’ll go back to where my girlfriend had her procedure done 6 weeks ago. That random store I found through a Google search was rad, they were welcoming and friendly, they had signs on their tanks like “buy the girls, too!” And have been in business as long as I’ve been alive. I totally hear what you’re saying, but if I’m gonna venture outside the normal couple of stores I’ll choose to go to the place where I had an excellent experience over the horrible experience every time.

Went to my first RPP store today and boy was I DISAPPOINTED! Super bummer, for sure. I will not name the store so as to not jeopardize their business and give further hints to my location, but man was I bummed out. The long and the short of it is that their customer service was terrible, their selection wasn’t great, their signs indicating hours of operation on the front door contradicted themselves, and when I mentioned that I knew they were a RPP store the employee jumped at the chance to bash ACO at every turn and opportunity. Literally everything they said after I mentioned RPP was to bash ACO, and they were making claims that made absolutely no sense. Things like, “we have EXTREMELY hard water here so an all-in-one fertilizer doesn’t do any good” when in reality we have extremely soft water here, and all 14 of my tanks have absolutely crushed it with Easy Green. Things like “4 of 6 of our ACO regulators came in broken, and we’re lucky the tanks survived the cO2 leaks!” When if that was true the leak would be on the outside of the tank… When I mentioned that they could just email support and get a new shipment they told me, “Ya, maybe. Idk. We’re gonna go with (competitor) products anyways so it’s really just not worth the hassle”. Literally nothing they said made sense to me while they claimed they were listening to the livestream in their AirPod and actively ignoring us. Really just seemed like they were an RPP store to attract people to the store and then just slam ACO in any way they could. Really just a terrible experience all around and left a super bad taste in my mouth. My girlfriend and I both agreed that we would never return to the store. Normally, I don’t say anything, but I did email Candi and the ACO team regarding my experience. I don’t want a different member, and especially someone new to the hobby, to have the same experience I did. If that was the first, or one of the first LFS I visited I would’ve been super turned off from the hobby entirely. I simply don’t want that experience for someone else. I tried to abide by the “Cory rule” and still find something I wanted to take home. I settled on this Anubius Nana Petite (that was labeled as coming from an ACO competitor, lololol) and threw it in the blackwater tank. Shrimp swarmed the bad boy, and a lil’ Chili took their opportunity to photobomb the pic: Not all stores can be great stores. Just hoping other Nerms don’t show up due to them being RPP and have a similar experience like I did. Enjoy your tanks, friends. Cheers.

I’ve only ever made Repashy once and did the exact same thing. Now that I’m through all the work madness I should invest in some other types and make some.

Initially, you should see an ammonia spike. Then, ammonia should start going down, and nitrite will start going up. Continue testing, and you should see ammonia continue to come down, nitrite will peak, and eventually will start falling as well. When nitrites start falling you will eventually read nitrAtes and see those start going up. Eventually, ammonia will reach 0, nitrite will reach 0, and all you should see is nitrAtes. Once you’re at 0,0, and then reading nitrAtes you’re considered cycled and safe to add fish

@TheSwissAquarist I’ve been fortunate enough that was my third time seeing them. The first time was when I was a teenager, right after the Self Titled album came out. Then again in 2019 with Matt Skiba for the 20th anniversary of Enema Of The State where they played that album in its entirety. And then again the other night. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea Excellent idea! I need to up my Repashy game. Most tanks got fed most mornings with some flake or pellets. My Pea Puffers are who I felt the worst for as I’ve never taken the time to get them off bloodworms. But all 6 of them are cruising around and we’re back to normal at this point. Thanks for the Repashy reminder!

It’s that time again. Made it through the madness that is opening restaurants and the 2 week county fair. Stoked to be on the other side of it where hopefully things should settle down and I can fall back into the normal routine. All the fish did surprisingly well being on a sporadic feeding schedule for 2 weeks. The fair is in another city 45 minutes away, with late nights and early mornings, and I took advantage of the owner of the company’s offer to put me up overnight through the weekends. This allowed me to work until 1am or later, and be back before 10am without having the combined 1.5 hour commute, but that meant the fish didn’t eat for several days in a row. During the week, the fair closed at midnight, which meant the fish didn’t eat most nights. I fed in the mornings when I could, but at night is usually where they get their baby brine shrimp, bloodworms, and a mix of dry foods. To the best of my knowledge I didn’t lose a single fish and nobody is skinny. Kind of shocked, but also not at the same time. My fish are well cared for 50 weeks out of the year which allows them to take this 2 week stretch with ease. Water changed all the tanks today and had a little 1.5 hour power outage. Shout out to the ACO battery back up pumps! I was mid water change when the house went black, and the pumps switched to batter power immediately. Another click or two and we were in power saver mode. Once the power was back on it was a quick and easy switch back to full power. 4 of 14 tanks were on the battery pumps, with 1 more having no filter at all, so that means 9 tanks were without air for 1.5 hours, but thanks to the knowledge provided by Cory and also being able to see the guys working to get the power back on I knew it was going to be a walk in the park Also moved the Green Neons to the blackwater tank. Unfortunately, one didn’t make it. I was using my little pump to move out some water and started removing the heater, sponge filter, and the moss to more easily net the fish. With the tiny little pump being the last obstacle to hide “under” one little guy got stuck to the inlet grate and unfortunately didn’t make it. As much as I hate making “mistakes” I’m more seeing it as an opportunity to learn and won’t make the same mistake twice. Green Neons are hiding currently, but over time should become accustomed to their new surroundings and I’m looking forward to seeing them in the tank! I was able to crank through an office day pretty quickly and then got to see my favorite band of all time. Blink 182 put on an excellent show, and it was so rad to see Tom back on stage with Mark and Travis. 🤘 Hope you’ve had an excellent week, Nerms. Cheers!

My only thing to add is to ensure there are no sharp edges so the Pleco’s don’t get wrecked going in and out of those caves. Best of luck!

Agreed. Just gotta let nature take its course at this point. Being patient while your tank cycles is one of that hardest parts, but on the overall timeline of the tank the ~8 weeks it takes becomes a small blip on the timeline.

Yup, I’m aware. Thank you for the advice, though. 😊

For sure. This is definitely her tank, and she’s aware that the blues will need more work than the reds we’ve had for years. She’s looking forward to “having something to do” with her shrimp as the colony advances 😊.

Indeed! Hard to argue that point.

I get all my tanks at Petco (so Aqueon) but I just looked and most of my glass lids are Top Fin (PetSmart). I always get my tanks on the 50% sale at PetCo, but they rarely have the matching size lid I need and I have no shame in driving down the road to PetSmart to get a lid.

Right, but if you don’t push it all the way back, or pull it all the way to the front, you can definitely close up the gap more. Front of the tank, lid just barely over the black lip. Back of the tank Or maybe your lid is just that far off front to back 🤷‍♂️

I would push the lid back to where it just barely covers the black lip on the front side. That’s how I have my lids. Should help close up the gap in the back. I have both glass and polycarbonate lids, and while the glass lids are nice, one big pro to diy lids is that you can make them exactly as you want and don’t have gaps.