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PaleoShrimp

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Everything posted by PaleoShrimp

  1. Thank you everyone for your ideas! @FLFishChik Great video, thank you! @Mmiller2001 your tank looks amazing! I like how the dark background and substrate really make the plants stand out. I think I’m going to visit some stores and watch videos as suggested. Whatever I end up doing, I’ll share it when it’s finally setup.
  2. Hello Everyone, I’m planning to get some guppies and do a new planted tank with them. I’ve been trying to decide whether to find a dark substrate or go with something more natural colored. I want their colors to really pop. The back and sides of the tank will be painted black.
  3. Would cuttlebone or crushed coral raise the ph much? My ph currently reads around 6.8-7.2 and I wouldn’t want to shock the shrimp or cories too much.
  4. I have a 10 gal tank with 5 pygmy cories and blue dream shrimp (about 20 adults). I tested my water a couple weeks ago with the co op strips and my KH was 0. I did about a 40% water change at that time. I just tested my water again and it read 0 KH again. My water out of the tap reads around 80 per the strips. I’m wondering if anyone knows what might be dropping my KH? I’m guessing the answer is to change water more frequently, but I’d love to know if there is another answer.
  5. Hi everyone, I want to try and polish my aquarium water because it has a lot of small particles clouding it up. I would order a Co Op polishing pad, but I don’t want to buy just one thing that’s so small. Has anyone had success with polyfil? I know you don’t want ones with added chemicals, but I was wondering if anyone could share a link or photo of a specific item that they’ve used that was safe for they’re aquarium.
  6. Would you mind sharing a link or photo of the ink bird model you use?
  7. Having the same problem. Just lost the heater on my 10 gal and now am looking for something.
  8. Hi everyone, Thanks for all your input. Life has been a bit hectic and I haven’t been able to get back to this. @TOtrees I usually get quite a bit out of the sponge when I clean it, but we’re talking months worth of filtering and I have nothing to compare with. I think for me, if it’s a breeding tank or experimenting tank I’ll just do sponges, but if it’s a display tank where multiple people will see it, I’ll have something extra. Of course then you run into the age old question of which HOB or canister. I like the idea of polishing the water more but haven’t found an HOB that ticks all the boxes for me and canisters can be expensive.
  9. I have a 55 gallon tank with two medium ACO sponge filters. It looks like there’s always little bits of fish waste, plant parts, whatever that are making the water murky. Does anyone have any suggestions for trying to polish the water better with just the sponge filters. I’m careful not to over feed the tank. I’m thinking about trying to make taller lift tubes for the sponges and have an elbow at the top to direct flow, but I don’t know if that will be enough to get better water clarity.
  10. I soaked a couple big pieces of wood from our yard in one of those large black bins from Costco, then I tried to get as much bark off as possible. I put it in my tank and put a large rock on them to keep them submerged. I definitely got a lot of the fuzzy stuff, but the ramshorn snails are very good at cleaning that off and my shrimp seem to like it.
  11. I have a 55 gal that I got a great deal on. Im 6’4” as well and I don’t find working in it a problem (this also depends on the height of your stand). I really love it! I only have cherry barbs in it right now but I love watching them swim through the whole height of the tank. My hard scape and plants are also at different levels within the tank witch makes the height more fun/interesting. I would go into a store like petco that has a bunch of different sizes of tanks. You can test how easy it would be for you to work in them and also imagine what you might do with each size. I had a plan of what I wanted to do with mine when I got it.
  12. I’ve been using two medium sized ACO sponge filters in my 55gal. It’s only been going for about 2 months, but I’m happy so far. Plenty of water movement. I second @rockfisher, I would keep the HOB and start with just the sponge, if you want more filtration you can just add the HOB.
  13. I went to my local club auction and the store that was hosting it and got my plants! I also received my ACO order with the sponge filters and fertilizers, so the initial setup is up and going! My Phone doesn't work well with my light so the colors are off a bit. I have dwarf sagittaria, java fern windelov, needle leaf java fern, a crypt, java moss, anubias nana petite, and two anubias whose names have slipped my mind. Some of the anubias leaves have some holes, but I don't think I was putting in enough easy green, however, I am dealing with some brown hair algae which I think is due to me being too worried about the plants and putting in too much easy green. Oh the joys of beginner mistakes! The hair algae is on the plants as well as the sand. The dwarf sagittaria has quite a few brown leaves, but I think (and hope) it is still adjusting. The Japanese Maple wood seems to be doing fine except for a white fuzz covering it, which I have read is normal and will eventually go away. Just being patient and waiting to see how the plants do as time goes on. The tank has been setup for a week now. The fish store was having a sale, so I went ahead and picked up a school of cherry barbs which have been in my quarantine tank. The water parameters in the big tank have been looking good, so I'll probably add them soon. Just not sure if I should add them while the wood is still covered in fuzz. Thinking about getting some hillstream loaches or otocinclus to help scrub the algae and possibly some amano or cherry shrimp eventually.
  14. Coral and purple pencilfish are bucketlist fish for me. I’d love to breed those!
  15. I have zero experience, but someday I’d love to try to breed cherry barbs and try to get them as red as possible. That would be a fun project for me.
  16. I got to go to my first club meeting and auction this past Sunday and wanted to add a few things from my experience for anyone who might see this in the future. The local club is pretty small and informal. I arrived early and was able to look over everything and not feel rushed. Being early also allowed me to talk about fish or plants with the people who brought them, which was a great way to get information. I'm in Southern California and the meeting was outside. It was actually a perfect day but I brought a cooler for insulation for any live animals I bought. When it's really cold or hot, this would be a good thing to have for either plants or animals I think. I brought a notebook and wrote down the things I was interested in and the max price I was willing to go on them. I also kept track of how much things went for that I might be interested in getting in the future so I could plan roughly how much I would spend in the future. I also wrote down how much I spent on each item to keep track of my total and make sure my numbers checked with the people at checkout. My last tip would be don't get caught up in the excitement of being at a meeting and an auction. Even if something is going really cheap and is a great deal, only get things that you have a place for and are ready to care for. I say this because I was very tempted on a few things that I just really wasn't ready for yet. All in all, it was a really fun experience and I plan to attend more meetings and hopefully will be bringing my own things to the auction eventually. Thank you for all the tips and advice!
  17. I heard Cory say once that it caused problems with the website (or something along those lines) and not enough people were using it for the trouble it was causing. It would be nice to have one because I have put things together in a list many times coming up with what I want to order when I’m ready, but then I don’t buy it and I get an email from ACO asking if I forgot something in my basket!
  18. I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank and I want to use just sponge filters for filtration. I was originally planning to run two medium ACO sponge filters (one on each side), but I was wondering if one large one on one side would be enough (for filtration, flow, ect.) This got me thinking. I'd love to hear what all of you would run if you wanted to do only sponge filters for the various tank sizes: 10, 20, 29, 55. I know that the amount of fish, live vs fake plants, and so on all come into play. But, I am curious if you were setting up a tank for yourself, what size filter would you use for the different tank sizes? How many of that size?
  19. It's the standard 55 gal measurements. I think my phone's camera lens was making it look deeper. I've spent the last 2 weeks working on the Japanese Maple branches. I've removed almost all of the bark now (that is a lot of work!). This weekend I will be going to my first local club auction to hopefully pick up some plants. It's being held at the best LFS for plants in my area, so between the two I'm hoping to have what I want in order to start. Also looking to do my first order from ACO this weekend. I had originally planned to do two medium sponge filters on each end, but I am wondering if one large sized filter on one end would be enough for filtration, flow, ect. Would love to hear some thoughts on that. This Sunday or Monday I hope to post some pictures of the beginning of the tank setup with plants and hardscape in there!
  20. I've seen these and I know Cory talks a lot about them in the ACO Youtube videos, but I wasn't sure if they would do well in the pool filter sand. What do you think? Thank you all for you advice! My local club just announced that the next meeting will be at this store. So my plan is to take all this info to the meeting and see what people are selling in the auction and then whatever more I need, I can go right into the store afterwards. From this advice, I think my plan will be to get the vallisneria and another stem plant (whatever is in the auction or what the store has) and a few varieties of Anubis and java fern. Then I can have the fast growers combat the algae while I can see which of the slow growers are doing well in my water/parameters. Once I know that, I can add more of what does well.
  21. I know Cory has said that plants available locally are usually better than getting ones shipped, including from ACO, because they’re already in the local water. I went to the LFS with the best plants in the area the other day for inspiration as I am getting ready to get plants for my first planted tank. This store caters to aquascapers, so I have some questions about plants they had. They had three sizes of Java Fern: bunches, potted ferns that were twice as much, and “mother plants” that were 4 times as much as the bunches. The mother plants are large, but I’ve never heard of that before or seen Java Fern sold without a pot (see picture). mother plant on left, bunches to the right which is better for a beginner? Are 4 bunches better than a mother plant for the same price, or two potted? They also had a lot of Anubias varieties I hadn’t seen before. Are some better for beginners? Anubias: Nana Coffeefolia Minima Gold Coin Petite Nana Nana Gold Congensis Lastly, they were selling vallisneria in bunches. I’m pretty sure Cory has said those do ok if you take them home and plant them in substrate. Will they do ok in pool filter sand, or should I get some that comes in the small basket? (I’ll be using root tabs) I’m sorry for all the questions, I just want to do my best to get started on the right foot. I’m hoping once I get this tank going I can be on the answering side a little more often 😊
  22. I tried some plants when I was young and they always died. Well, now I've done tons of research and I'm ready to put together my first serious attempt at a planted tank. I was able to get a good deal on a 55 gallon from FB marketplace. It had some scratches and bad mineral build up, but it fit in my budget. I was able to remove the majority of the mineral build up with vinegar. It looks pretty good for what I paid for it! This is going to be a bit of a budget build. I am using Quikrete pool filter sand as my substrate. Filtration: two ACO medium sponge filters, one on each side of the tank. Light: Finnex Stingray 2 Plants: Mostly anubias and java fern with moss on the wood. One side will have a patch of vallisneria hopefully. Hardscape: This is what will be interesting. We had a Japanese Maple tree die this year unfortunately. The wood doesn't really have any sap of any kind and I researched it online and people say it is a hardwood. So my plan is to use wood from that tree in this tank. For rocks, I have a large piece of petrified wood I collected awhile ago that I plan to use. Fish: The plan is to have one or two pairs of bolivian rams, a school of black neon tetra, a school of cherry barbs, and a school of corys. Eventually I may want to add an angelfish, but we'll see what happens. I am really excited to be starting this project and look forward to sharing updates! For now, I have 3 questions that I'd love to hear from people on: 1) I am curious if anyone has ever tried using Japanese Maple wood in an aquarium or knows anything about it, 2) can any type of petrified wood be used in an aquarium (I've seen some for sale for aquascapes), 3) is christmas moss a fairly easy plant, someone in my local club said they will have some at the next meeting and I am thinking about using it for the wood.
  23. As someone who saw plants as a kid and wanted them in my tank and now I am about to start my first planted tank as a more serious hobbyist, I would say research the plants. Know what goes in the substrate and what should go on hard scape. How much fertilizer and light does it need? I know that’s simple, but it might have saved the first plants I ever tried.
  24. In a few weeks, I will be able to go to my first club meeting and auction of the local aquarium club. I would like to try and get some plants at the auction, since I know they usually have a pretty good selection. I did a search of the forum and couldn't really find anything. If it doesn't already exist, I thought we could have a thread of tips for first time auction goers like myself. I'm mostly interested in plants, but I'll open it up to tips on fish too. I'd like to know what you do when you go to in-person auctions: what do you look for? what are red flags? What advice would you give to a first time auction attendee?
  25. My advice would be to make the tank the way you like it. I see people ask for advice on how to arrange things in the tank (which I respect), but for a beginner, put together a tank that you like. You are the one who will see it the most. If you think the tank looks awesome, you’ll have fun and keep going in the hobby and then keep trying new things.
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