Jabberjaw

So with the kitty litter did you have to charge it? Do you have it capped? Do you use a lot of fertilizer now?

The tank is currently planted and has gravel in it, I'm re-scaping it and adding different fish. was thinking switching to SafeTSorb. It would be heavily planted with 2 cycled HOB and an in use fluidized moving bed filter. I have o use tons of root tabs and ferts now, figured it would be the same no matter what. i didn't intend to cap it with anything, or use it with any other substrate.

I'm thinking about starting a 55 gallon using safe-t-sorb. problem is, i don't want to charge the substrate for 2 mos or so. can i just put it in and dose the heck out of it with ferts both in the substrate and in the water column or do i REALLY need to charge it with ferts for a couple mos?

Okay that's a good point. Also for a bit the only place I really have to soak it is my only bathtub. So I guess I'll soak it when I'm not using it and then put it back in once I'm done. It's going to be a pita but if it's only for a week or two that I guess that wouldn't be too bad. Hopefully it stops leeching quickly. I have to get the plants in there and out of the tank that they're currently in because I need to use that tank to move Cory fry into ASAP. Because of the amount of fry I have right now I am tight on space and also getting ready for summer tubbing so I don't have an additional available tub to use. At the moment the tank is pretty infested with rams horns. So I have plenty of those to eat some of the stuff that I don't want. Hopefully in the future though become more under control, I hope. Soooo into the tub it goes lol

I don't really want months and months in a tub. The only tubs I have are for breeding fish outside in the summer for summer tubbing. I had already planned on screwing it to tile and putting the tile under the gravel and sand so that wasn't really a concern. I think the plecos and flag fish will take care of most of the biofilm and bark I would think. So are those the biggest concerns then?

Last year I had an apple tree fall and I cut off some of the branches and save them over the winter so they would dry and I could use them in my tank. I don't want to lose some of the little branches they're part of the reason why I want to use this in the first place. It is now dry so it is no longer green. What prep do I need to do to be able to use this in my tank other than just spray it off?

I would love to breed chili rasboras. I would love to have a group of about 40. I need the tank to be mature, so will probably speed it up using Bacter AE and mulm from the bottom of a mature tank once it's cycled.

There's a kiln about a half hour from me but the rental prices are above what I deem worth it. My boyfriend has a 3-d printer, so he just printed me some shrimp caves. I need to sand the edges, they're a little sharp and then I can put them in the aquariums that don't have rock piles for them to hide in. makes me sad though that I can't make my own clay caves. I think it'd be fun.

I have been putting a nerite snail, albino BNP and some type of shrimp (I use a lot of glass shrimp and amano shrimp) in every breeder and grow out tank. I don't gravel vac for the most part, just do water changes and want something to help keep things clean. This team makes it so all I have to do is water changes unless there's something unusual (over fed, didn't like the food, veggies melt/go everywhere)

I breed platy's for profit. I keep trios of breeders in a separate tank from the grow out tank. I've noticed that sometimes a female will become dominant and will chase off the other female and keep her away from the male. I have a tank that I put all the colors I'm not breeding for together, along with other kinds of fish for the same reason. it's basically a dump tank for anything I'm not wanting to breed intentionally. I have noticed different species of fish seeking out other groups to follow when they don't have any of their kind to group with, as well as fish that have been (for better words to say) "run off" from their group. Platy females will group with other species when the dominant female in their group is a bully. I have one green lantern platy that isn't green that follows neon tetras and has started to behave like them. I also have a rainbow variatus platy that has been accepted into a group of female Jordanella Florida when she was chased off a from the group of platy's. I keep the cull males in a separate tank so I don't have breeding and have seen similar traits with them. Platy's are so social they do not liker to swim solo and will try to group with anyone that will let them, it doesn't have to be a similar species or size. As far as intelligence goes, they are a determined and curious little fish. If they can find a way to get into an area you don't want them in, they will. They will constantly try to get on the other side of a divider just to see what's over there. I have watched them push and push at a flexible area until they have moved it to where they can squeeze through. If I put my hand in the tank, after a few seconds they will swim to the hand and try to find out what's in it, it doesn't matter if it's food or not. they want to know and will inspect the item if it's not food. I have to say platy's are one of my favorite fish. Their coloration and personalities are amazing and I can watch them for hours.

I use plastic Christmas garland, the green kind that doesn't have a wire, it uses filament. (It won't let me turn the pics? Ugh)

I have the regular ones. those are gorgeous!

dang, so the air dry clay won't work? 😞 good to know. Wonder if the oven bake stuff works. Anyone know?

Little jealous lol I'd love my own kiln. Thought about digging one but my dogs would just dig it up 🫤 lol

I didn't think it be ok, but i had hope. I'll figure it out, just wanted to cheat for a bit until i could get a new rack built.

Ok, thank you

I was going to try this but don't have a way to fire it 😞 Did you take it someplace that has a kiln?

I need to maximize space in my fish room. Is it possible to put a 2-1/2 gallon tank sideways on top of a 10 gallon tank? have it sit on the rim of the 10 gallon? I'm running out of rack space. i have my breeders in separate tanks from the fry, but i can fit more tanks on the rack if i can double up and put the breeder's 2-1/2 gallon tank on top of the 10 their fry is in. bad idea? Everything is on a central sump, so I don't have to worry about moving the filtration, i'd just have to extend the tubes a few inches. What does anyone think?

The sweet girl is in a tank that I've been treating for columnaris. Now she has a bump on her chin. Is this anything I should be worried about? Is there something I can do for it?

Holy cow! I read through about 70% of that before I had to stop. What an amazing read! I learned so much and I am so excited because I've been battling Green algae in another tank! But anyway this is going to make my life so much easier over the next couple months until I know that I have eradicated columnaris from my tanks. Thank you so much! And thank you and everyone who collaborated to figure this information out.

So I have been battling columnaris for a while now in one tank. And I now have it in more than one tank. I read that it can be transferred from tank to tank by nets and anything else that's being used in multiple tanks. I think I transferred it by using same nets and multiple tanks. I will not make that mistake again in each tank will have their own net. The problem is my gravel vac. It's a knockoff python and I really like using it and on my tanks and I can't afford to have a gravel vac for each individual tank. I have read that anything that has been used in the affected tank needs to be bleached but I'm concerned with my gravel vacuum. What do I do? I have been using kanaplex and that has not done anything so I have ordered sulfaplex and it will be here tomorrow. I will more than likely be treating all of the tanks. My main concern is my gravel vacuum.

I was never able to get mine to eat flake food, but they do eat floating or slow sinking pellets. You might try that instead.

Okay this makes me feel better thank you very much guys!

i may go get some spiderwood this weekend. give them a choice. i'll try greenbeans and cucumber again this weekend as well. see if they'll eat it. They're in with platies, so I don't always know who is eating what. 😕

Think I should put some spider wood in there also?