AllFishNoBrakes

Recently I’ve been kind of confused by the blackwater tank. When I pulled all the plants out and started converting it I stopped fertilizing. I figured there was no point to keep nitrates up if I didn’t have any plants. However, the past couple of weeks since I put the Anubis’ in there, I started fertilizing again. I did a liquid test yesterday as I don’t really trust the ACO strips for nitrates specifically. Even in my heavily stocked tanks the strip will test at like 0 or maybe 10 when the liquid test says 80. Overall, I just trust the liquid test as more accurate for nitrates. Anyways, I’ve been fertilizing for a couple weeks but my liquid test showed 0 nitrates. I was thinking to myself, “Where did the nitrates go? I have just a couple Anubius and there’s no way they ate all that fertilizer. Maybe it has something to do with the botanicals? But that doesn’t make sense either… Theres sand substrate in here, but it’s not a “deep sand bed” to grow anaerobic bacteria that eats nitrates, and there was always nitrates present before the conversion even chocked full of moss and Guppy Grass”. I was just generally confused, dosed another round of Easy Green and went 🤷‍♂️. Today, I figured it out though! The Pothos that’s been growing across the lid of this tank (and out of the 20 gallon tall above it until I could start growing it across the lid) grew a new leaf (and a spot for a potential root) and the root reached down into the water! This little root has been soaking up all the nitrates and just further fueling the Pothos! So now this plant is just soaking up nutrients from multiple tanks. Pretty cool! As you can see from the picture, I used a twist tie to slightly pull the plant back, but that’s simply so the leaves don’t block out the spotlight from the gooseneck light, and the root is still touching the water so it should continue down into the tank. Mystery solved! This hobby is so much fun and these magical “ah-ha” moments keep me curious and interested. I hope you’re having fun with your tanks, fellow Nerms.

I dig it! The real question is, do you like it? You’re gonna be the one looking at it everyday!

For sure. Also the fact that he said he doesn’t wanna make money off them, but rather just get them in peoples hands. Easy Green being one of their best selling products… just all makes sense. I didn’t even think about the new video! It’s all coming together

On the latest livestream Cory said it’s attached to an item, but didn’t reveal which one!

Now we get to guess which item attaches the reusable bag as the freebie! My guess is Easy Green

I’m down! Under 2 conditions: 1. My tanks have duckweed and snails. I would do my best to not allow either in the package, but know that the chance is there, especially with snail eggs, and have a plan for yourself to get rid of both if you’re not down. 2. You pay shipping at your desired method. If you want overnight, priority, or ground that would be your call. With the weather I’m not really worried about temps, and I do not have heat or ice packs, but I do have a couple ACO liners I could use if you wanna go that route. PM me and we can discuss further, including what I need to trim if you’re interested.

Couple shots from todays maintenance sesh: Dirted tank ready for a trim again. Already lol. This is the angle you guys have seen the most. Dirted tank from the angle I see it from the most. Amano shrimp muchin’ on a shrimpee pellet Tiny shrimp and snails in the Blackwater tank. The smallest shrimp was born into this water. Pretty wild that they’re just acting like nothing changed. The water continues to darken. For the first time since I started adding botanicals to the tank I didn’t add any more. The water is pretty dark, and I did have some boiled down tannins from when I added stuff last week, so I poured that into the fresh water change water to recoup a little of what was taken out. Simple round of maintenance. Just water changed everything and removed some floating plants. The (2) dual outlet air pumps that arrived last week are killing it and I’m quite pleased a week later. The air pump that used to run the 55 gallon grow out tank is just chugging along running the 4 quarantine/grow out/my girlfriends shrimp tank. All is well. Still looking to move some fish around and start the quarantine process for the blackwater fish. Maybe this upcoming week I’ll hit the other LFS that has the mini Hikari bloodworms; their weekly newsletter consistently has the fish I’m looking for. Fingers crossed 🤞

My 55 gallon grow out tank is divided with coarse foam: The foam I got on Amazon. Has worked well for me and prevents fry from creeping through to the other side. It gets annoying trying to keep the foam perfectly vertical (it came in a roll and has some memory because of that) but overall I recommend it

@Razberry910 That link looks correct!

Here’s my set up: Sieve came from Amazon. Don’t know the micron, but I love this thing and even more love hands-free harvesting.

Methylene Blue is my go to. It won’t stop non-fertilized eggs from fungusing, but it will definitely stop the fungus spreading to fertile eggs. For this reason, I hatch my Angel eggs in a 2 gallon tank and use Methylene Blue. For Cory eggs, I use a Ziss tumbler and try to spread the eggs around the tumbler so the fungus can’t reach the other fertile eggs.

@Cory has talked about using Maracyn to kill the algae. I’ve never done it as I’ve never had it, but I trust his testing and what has worked for him.

Bristlenose Pleco caviar, anyone? ~50 eggs, which is in line with the spawn that I hatched. Didn’t keep any of these as I literally don’t have space and need to sell some fish if I want to free up quarantine space for the blackwater aquarium. The male has been hiding in the cave the past couple days, but today is the first time I actually saw the clutch. I’ve been using a flashlight, and thought he was protecting something, but didn’t actually see it until today.

@tolstoy21 100% agreed! We must have similar water lol

Totally your call! I’m cool with a certain amount of algae, but it if becomes too much I definitely try to get rid of it. I’ve scraped algae, manually removed it, spot treated with hydrogen peroxide, dosed the whole water column with hydrogen peroxide (when I was new to aquariums), used shrimp/snails/Amano shrimp… it’s all about finding that balance, what you’re cool with having, and learning how to fix/prevent the things you’re not cool with.

@tetra Word up. I literally only put dechlorinator and fertilizer in my tanks and most things I’ve wanted to do have worked out. For me, I just focus on consistency.

My Pea Puffers definitely got dewormed. Highly recommend doing a round of Paracleanse. You’ll thank yourself in the long run.

Agreed with @Darax. My Bristlenose love blanched zucchini. The only thing to watch out for is too much zucchini can cause a bacterial bloom. The only time I’ve ever had a bacterial bloom came from feeding Pleco’s and snails zucchini everyday.

My tap water is lower pH, soft, with basically 0 to little KH. I’ve been surprised that with the addition of botanicals to my blackwater aquarium that the values are basically the same as before I tossed a bunch of stuff in the water and turned it as dark as I can. I haven’t witnessed any of the above parameters shift, basically at all. Maybe I already have blackwater conditions out of the tap? Idk. 🤷‍♂️. At any rate, it’s been fun to turn one of my tanks into a dark, barren, wood aquarium with a couple epiphyte plants, and my Neo shrimp and Ramshorn snails continue to thrive. Like I said, maybe I already have basically blackwater conditions out of the tap (minus the tannins and tint) but I’ve been able to keep and breed everything I’ve wanted to with the exception of Black Rams. All this is to say, if your fish get acclimated to your tap water everything should work out. Don’t overthink it, and try to keep it simple! I focus on consistency in environment instead of chasing numbers the internet tells me I need to have.

In my experience, yes. I let a spawn grow out to sellable size, in the tank with mom and dad (20 tall), hoping that would keep them from spawning again. It worked, until it didn’t. Eventually, mom and dad were fighting off an entire teenage hoard to protect the new eggs. It was wild, and ultimately led to me moving on from Kribs. They simply spawn so easily, and all the time, and I couldn’t unload them all. Kribs are crazy because they exhibit some of the best parental care you can see, but once you’re stuck with 100+ Kribs you don’t want to see that behavior ever again. Simply just my personal experience with my Kribs. Let me know if I can help!

I’ve definitely done it with baby Kribs. I used a piece of 3/8” tubing. Ensures the babies can easily be sucked up without damaging them, without removing too much water. I found it easiest to lure them out with some food, syphon them up, and then be prepared to put some water back in the main tank just like a normal water change.

@TheSwissAquarist Back home from work. The other botanicals I’ve played with thus far are: Jacaranda Pods, Coco Curls, Curve Pods, Pear Halve Pods, and Arti Pods. At least according to this box I have lolol

@TheSwissAquarist So far I’ve used Indian Almond Leaves, Lotus Pods, Twisty Pods, and then like 3 other pods I’d have to be at home to get the actual name of. They all do the same thing, just look a little different.

I run sponge filters (with air stones) in the tanks I inject c02. Has worked out fine for me! I should also add that I’m not going for max c02. Just an extra boost to make sure the plants don’t run out, and help outcompete algae.

Back on the maintenance grind. Here’s some pics from today: Amano shrimp full of eggs. If only I had a brackish set up and the patience to learn about larvae and how to grow them up. Maybe one day, but definitely not today. Water taken from the blackwater setup. Definitely has the tint I’m looking for. I know I’ve posted this tank a ton, but it has just been so fun. Makes me want to convert the 10 gallon in my bedroom. Maybe one day. Up close on some of the botanicals that aren’t IAL’s. It’s been fun trying new stuff and seeing what I like best! Still have a few different things in the box I haven’t even tried yet. A handful of Panda’s going to the LFS tomorrow. Maybe I’ll come home with something new to play with. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!