AllFishNoBrakes

Spider wood is inert and will not affect your water parameters. I also really enjoy the look. Being inert is the bonus to me

Yup, another update. Sorry, folks. Really just trying to squeeze it in while I’m not at work. Went by the LFS today and they’re starting to recognize who I am. I walked, saw a familiar face, and said, “what’s up man?” I was greeted with a, “hey, welcome back!” this time. I asked how my Panda Angels did that I brought them last time and they said really well. I started to browse, and the dude asked me, “what else do you breed?” Feels good to start to develop a rapport with another LFS. Them asking what else I breed tells me the Panda’s did well and they’re interested in what else I do. Was hoping to pick up some of their Blue Velvet shrimp for my girlfriends tank, but what was left was the remnants, and if this hobby has taught me anything it’s that patience is key. We’ll wait until they have excellent specimens in again and we’ll snatch em up. Some pics from today: My girlfriends tank on all its glory! Definitely different from any of my tanks, but that was her plan. Excited for her to put in the moss wall in the back and fill it up with blue shrimp. Albino Cory’s spawned. Any hatching and raising is still on hold as my life just isn’t in a place to handle it right now. Bag water from my new friends 👀. Pretty close to the tank water. Tank water the new friends will be going in. Softer than the bag water, slightly more buffer, and about the same pH. New friends. 10 Green Neon Tetras for the blackwater tank. Just beginning the acclimation process and completely washed out from the drive home. Some lady cut us off, causing the bag to fall off the passenger seat… We were none too pleased about that. Started adding some tank water and they started to get a little color back. Hard to capture in a picture, but they already look so much better. Out of the bag and into quarantine. Med trio dosed and we’ll let that sit for a week. Then, we’ll do a 50% water change. From there, these guys will stay in this tank an additional 2-5 weeks. 3-6 week quarantine total. Excited to get the next group of friends into the Blackwater tank! Until next week, Nerms.

Agreed. Once nitrites hit 0, do your 50% water changes and you should be good. Continue to monitor and test and you’ll develop your routine. Feels like FOREVER when your tank is cycling, but in the long run it’s really just a blip on the timeline of the tank.

Lots of tannins looks like this: Im going for full blackwater in this tank.

I’m 99.99999% sure the free, small, reusable bag is tied to Easy Green For this order, I bought the Nano Pellets, the Complete, the Easy Green, 1 small bag, and 1 large bag. 2 small bags showed up, which leads me to believe it’s tied to the Easy Green as the rest of the order simple doesn’t make sense. Go get your Easy Green and your free reusable bag!

I wouldn’t re-dose ammonia. Bacteria’s are present and working. Just be patient and when that nitrite hits 0 do a water change and you’re off to the races.

@TheSwissAquarist For sure. I have 22 of them, and they school around the tank together. The tint is literally so dark and they’re so small that they’re just hard to see, lol. I could turn up the lights, too if I wanted. It’s all a balance between the aesthetic I want for the tank and the amount of tannins and seeing the fish as often as I want to as they tend to school around together towards the back of the tank.

We’ve played with the rock structure to create a shrimp hotel and just moved all the rocks over near the tank. Time to put them in! It’s super fun watching her have fun with her tank. She also has a super rad idea for a “moss trellis’ wall/background. If it works it’s gonna be awesome! I’ll definitely share pics here in the journal as her tank takes shape and evolves. Appreciate the kind words regarding work. This is my sixth or seventh store opening so I knew what was coming up, just never makes it easier. The real kicker is that towards the end of this month and through the 4th or a July we have a two week big county fair festival where we sponsor/cook/serve/vend 3 different sections of the park. Super fun, but tons and tons of work. My boss also took a 2 week vacation right before this store opening. So, all in, it’s like an 8 week marathon for me of early mornings, late nights, too many hours to count, and not much time to rest. I’ll make it though! I always do!

What up fish friends? Finally got a day off today after I don’t even know how many in a row. Store openings are brutal. Water changed everything and squeezed a whole bunch of sponges. Also siphoned out the majority of the mulm in the Pygmy Cory tank. Left some behind as I believe they will continue to spawn, but it had reached the point that I was over it lol. Removed a bunch of duckweed too. Thinking about throwing some Indian Almond Leaves in that tank and tinting the water a bit. Definitely not going to go as dark as the other blackwater tank, but I wouldn’t mind having some more tinted water around! Crazy water colors today: The 6 gallon dirted cube has gone a little green. Probably because for a few weeks I was putting a few drops of Easy Green in there trying to help out the red root floaters. They were falling apart… now they’re deep red and thriving, but the water is going green… I think I’m going to hold back on any extra nutes until they start to struggle again, and then do one dose of like 6 drops and see what happens over a couple of weeks. Might do an extra water change tomorrow to help get rid of this green water I have going on. Blackwater continues to be super dark! No wonder I can barely see the Chili’s in there! Gonna hold off on any other botanicals for a minute. I’m in a weird place where the leaves and other botanicals are breaking down into nothing, so I want to add more because I love the look of the leaves in the bottom of the tank, but I also want to be able to see the fish! Just like everything else in life though, it’s a balancing act. I’m hoping that the Green Neons will show a little bit better. The chilis come to the front for a feeding frenzy at meal time, but outside of that I have to really peer deep into the tank to see them. Panda Angels continuing to grow out nicely and the next batch of 10-15 will be ready to go in a week or so. My girlfriend finally busted open her box of slate for her shrimp tank and I’m excited to see what she does with it! Outside of working way too much all is good. Hope you all are well! Cheers.

I’ve always dosed on the labeled size. I’ve beaten ich a couple of times with salt. It has worked better for me than ich-x or anything else. 1 Tablespoon per 2 gallons (5 Tablespoons salt in a 10 gallon aquarium) has done me well in the past. The only other thing I will add is that it’s easier to add salt than it it to take away. As mentioned above, salt is only removed via water changes.

Develop a routine and stick to it. Helps to cut down on the anxiety if you always do things exactly the same every single time. Also, remember that most water conditioners are safe up to 5x. If I’m filling buckets and have the “did I add conditioner?” thought, and I truly can’t remember, I’ll dose again. I’d rather have 2x the amount of dechlorinator than 0x

I’ve used Poly Fil with good results. Of course, you want to ensure it’s inert, but then you’re good to go. Hard to beat $5 that lasts a long time and does exactly what you need it to do.

Look up “Reverse Respiration” here on the forum. Essentially, it’s a soak in seltzer water for 24 hours. Should kill any snails, bacteria (good and bad), algae, etc. Ive never done it as I welcome snails, but there’s lots of people on the forum that swear by it.

I’ve had my ADF for probably 2 years now. He lives with Pygmy Corydoras and a bunch of Ramshorn snails. There USED to be a ton of shrimp in that tank, and I know the snails and Cory’s didn’t eat them… Mine gets frozen bloodworms as I don’t have worm cultures. He mostly just chills out, swims to the top for air, darts down to the bottom, and proceeds to chill again. He hangs out in the plants/roots, in the coconut hut, on top of the coconut hut, etc. I know mine is a male as he croaks for a lady that might be in the area. Hearing that noise for the first time I thought I was going crazy until my girlfriend asked if I heard it, too. I had no idea they sang like they do. In my experience, my dude has been pretty chill. Watching them try to smash worms into their mouths with their front legs can be pretty entertaining. Overall, pretty easy in my experience.

We have fish in the blackwater tank! I believe all 22 made it through quarantine. I got them all out of the 10 gallon tank in one scoop and didn’t count them. Had to turn the lights up a couple clicks or else I seriously couldn’t see them, lol. They’re mostly schooling together across the back, but feeding time they were in a frenzy. Hoping that as they adjust to their new tank they’ll spend more time towards the front. I really dig the dark water, but I also wanna see my fish. We’re opening a new restaurant to the public on Thursday, and then we’re right into the biggest event of the summer. The tanks are definitely about to take a back seat, and I just wanna keep up with my weekly maintenance, and I also know that some weeks will need to be skipped. I’m hoping for at least every other week over the next 6 weeks, and when I can do it two weeks in a row I will. Things should settle down after the Fourth of July. Cheers, Nerms! I hope you’re enjoying your tanks.

Thanks! Really looking forward to seeing them in the blackwater tank. Gonna be fun!

How big of tanks/how much water are you trying to pull out?

I’m not sure what it is and I didn’t ask. They were doing maintenance on the tanks in this section and I already felt in the way enough just taking a peek and snapping this picture. I just assumed it was algae, but you might be on the right track with the marimo moss ball pieces.

If only I could hatch them I’d have slightly more store credit! 😂

What up Nerms?! It’s been a hot minute since I updated this journal (for me anyways). I’ve been on the forum daily, but just haven’t found the time to update this. My girlfriends cousin came into town because my girlfriend had a medical procedure performed, work has been nuts, and generally I just haven’t had time to update here. Hope you guys like fish/tank pics cuz I’ve still been taking them! I traded 10 Panda Angels at a new LFS and received $2.50/fish as opposed to the $4 I normally get. Hoping that helps open the door to the things I breed and I’ll have another outlet to move fish to. Regardless, I’m glad they took the fish, I got some credit, and helped cut down on the bill. Picked up 20 Chili Rasboras (they gave me 22), a couple packs of mini bloodworms, and a new pack of algae wafers and got $25 off the bill so that’s always rad. Chili Rasboras made it through the med trio and they’re doing well! Gonna wait another 10-17 days and then I’m gonna move em to the blackwater tank. Super stoked to get some fish in there! Gonna be the first fish in that 20 long that’s almost 3 years old and I’m pumped. Everything else still just cruising right along: Blue Velvet shrimp from the LFS looking nice! My girlfriends shrimp tank is coming along and will be ready for shrimp soon! It’s growing algae, it’s coming alive, and she has the slate to build her caves she wants to do. As she continues to heal from her procedure I’m looking forward to her getting her shrimps! Blackwater tank still crushing. Dwarf Mexican Crayfish still cruising right along. Pleco babies growing out and I should be able to start moving them soon. They were all chilling in the corner (with the Albino Cory being one with them) and I thought it was a funny picture opportunity. This tank gets hella cloudy from all the bottom dwellers constantly kicking up anything on the glass bottom but I really don’t care about it. Fish are happy; I’m happy. Angel spawn, per usual. Still hatching nothing out as I need to move the fish I already bred. Still crushing it though. Thanks, everyone. Appreciate you hanging out with me and my tanks.

My vote is Nerite eggs. They will lay the eggs in freshwater, but they will not hatch.

My Panda Angels get me the most store credit of the fish I currently work with.

If it’s a standard 10 gallon tank, any standard 10 gallon glass lid should work. I always try to pair the tank brand with the lid brand for the best fit, but remember that glass lids have the couple inch plastic strip on the back that you can modify/cut to your needs. Some of my tanks have glass lids, others have greenhouse siding that I cut myself. Really just depends what route you want to take and what your limit for “not perfect” is.

Your fish should be fine for 4 days. I routinely don’t feed for 4 or 5 days when fish first come to my house and are in quarantine, and that’s on top of however little the fish store feeds. You should be absolutely fine not feeding for 4 days.

1 day to up to a week, a whole lot of nothing. If someone stays at the house to watch the dog, and I trust them to follow directions, I’ll leave notes on the tank with how much to feed. I have a tiny scoop from the Xtreme Betta Pellets and I’ll put a sticky note with something like “1 scoop morning, 1 scoop night” or “2 scoops night” and usually have them feed Xtreme Nano Pellets. If we take the dog with us for a couple of days, I do a whole lot of nothing.