Mr. Ed's Aquatics

I was trying to get little dude's attention here His brother the ham is like "picture time"? After like 10 minutes of me calling his name .... Kinda busy here Dad

I don't consider myself cheap when it comes to the hobby, but I have not been able to justify the price of a Fluval 3.0 when compared with some of the generic lights from China. On 2 of my 75's I have a 4' NICREW full spectrum on one with plants and a 4' NICREW classic 2.0 on another one. Honestly, they look the just as good as the one with an Aquasky. But cost less than 1/2. Now that the generics have apps, timers, customizable cycles, etc. It's hard to pay so much more for a name brand.

For sure, I only saw them ever attack other Angels when breeding. Dither fish and clean up crew just get chased away from eggs or fry.

I've had pairs in 38 bow fronts, 40 breeders and 55s. Never kept more than 2 in anything under a 100 gallons ( thus my initial concern) since they tend to pair up and kill off any other Angels in tanks not big enough to have multiple territories.

For that small a unit, I would put coarse sponge on the bottom, medium or fine sponge above that. On top of the sponges, go with filter floss. The remaining room either bio media like ceramic rings or chemical filtration like purigen or carbon. For power outages, just have the filter resting in an empty plastic tote. If it back flows, the tote will catch it. Once there's a bit of water in it, you can hear it splashing.

I'm super happy with them, and thanks about the tank. I took inspiration from someone who really knows his stuff when I made it. Tomorrow is going to be fun, trying to move some stock around for some wilds maybe 😉

They seem to like their new home. Now to beef up my little guys so they can join these and compete the tank. Thanks again @Dean’s Fishroom

Yeah, any of them that fill from the bottom I do that way. Mechanical 1st, biological 2nd and if using chemical filtration that's always last. You're trying to keep as much detritus off the biological and chemical filtration so it's effective as long as possible. Otherwise you are cleaning it every other week, defeats the purpose for me.

I have them in a couple tanks and have had no issues. There should be no build up behind them as they are meant to be installed with silicone and is literally attached to the back panel. They become the new back panel. Just remember to rinse / soak it beforehand and make sure it's totally dry before installing it.

I would drain 1/2 the water from the 20 gallon into a tote (I like the tuff totes) and remove the plants and put them in the tote. Then get a container you can acclimate your fish in (bowl, bucket, etc.) and fill it 1/2 way with the remaining water. Now that the tanks almost empty, catch the fish and place them in your container. At this point, if the parameters were basically the same I would transfer the fish to the new tank. If you're concerned about the tanks having different water, you would want to drip acclimate them before adding them. Remember to take the light from the 20 and put it on the tote and you should have several days to fix the 20, or replant the plants elsewhere.

You're welcome, I set mine up how they suggested and did not like the results or how often I was having to clean the bio media so I hot rodded it before I knew that was a thing. I took it apart, totally cleaned it and figured out how it works. Following the intake, it immediately goes through the top basket, and each basket linked all the way to the bottom. So the first basket to get dirty water was the bottom. Totally the opposite of the brand I used before. Once I started doing them bottom up, they worked great. Usually only had to rinse the intake and coarse sponge after that.

I think the forum is ran by and paid for by Aquarium Co-op which specializes in fresh water fish, plants and supplies. And why it's contents are compromised of the same. I don't think many saltwater keepers would think to look here for info seeing how nothing on the YouTube channel, online store or the original store has anything to do with saltwater fish. A quick Google search shows several saltwater companies/channels have existing forums for saltwater. You're probably going to find more there.

I use the Cascade canisters and love how well they keep my tanks clean. Not sure if you meant bottom up or if you have your media upside down. The Cascade canisters fill from the bottom and return from the top. You would want the coarse sponge in the bottom basket with either the filter floss or polishing pad on top of it. The upper basket is where your bio rings or purigen goes, usually on top of filter floss. If you're using an intake sponge, you shouldn't be cleaning the canister so frequently, just the intake sponge. I think you just need to setup the baskets in proper order and let it run.

I have heard that this is a problem for bristlenose, but I have 3 kinds of bristlenose in different tanks and each tank has at least 2 kinds of swords and I have never seen anything like that before. Much like the other reply, mine won't even eat the dying leaves. They let the snails eat them. I think it's situational as not everyone has the same issues.

I'm totally borrowing this idea for my 125 peacocks tank. Been trying to add some live plants for a while, but they eat or shred everything I've put in the tank.

I use some for my cichlids when they are growing out and can use the hides. Once they get adult sized I will probably pull most of it out and replace it with a few very large pieces of wood or stone.

It's official, I'm picking them up tomorrow. Who could say no to these faces Super excited to get an adult pair. This would have been my preference but I never thought he'd have an extra pair or would sell them.

I don't know if it's fate, but Dean himself posted a proven mated pair of the Philippine Blue Angels I wanted on the GSAS page just now. I think I am going to compromise and buy his pair for the tank I made and add my own bred corys, Appistogrammas and platties. That empties 3 grow tanks and gives me time to get the 100 ready for growing out my own angels. Can always add his rams to the bigger setup. Maybe he'll post a mate pair of midnight rams by then.

I have been working on a new tank for a couple of months with the intention of stocking it with Angels and Rams bred by Dean. Seeing the plants converting well and the cycle complete I told the wife my plans to make the hour drive to the Co-op and get some of master breeder Dean's beauties and was quickly asked "are your fish that you breed not very nice or worth featuring?" I was kinda defensive and explained that I breed different types of fish and no Angels or Rams. My wife (who likes fish, but doesn't have any herself and is a novice at best) then asked "wouldn't it be better for your Appistogrammas, corys, plecos and livebearers since its only a 55? Or did you only want a couple Angel's and Rams?" I'm kinda worried she's right, and I don't just want a couple of Dean's fish. I really want a school of Angels and a couple groups of Rams. What do you all think? Is a 55 too small for what I'm trying? Should I feature hobbyist Mr Ed's fish instead? Or something completely different? I think I really should fix up the empty 100gal for the Angels now. Anyhow, any thoughts appreciated

I've had some pretty big plecos suffer some much worse damage either from fighting or on the rare occasion they decide to see what's outside the tank. With just clean water and extra quality foods they healed up really quickly. I'm sure your lil guy will heal up np. If he loses the fin past the break, don't worry. That's what I see most often before the lost portion begins growing back.

Heh heh, great suggestion. Feel free to make that happen. I encourage all good ideas others give if they're offering to do it themselves. I do find I get them much less with that philosophy though.

I really don't think you need to look at anything other than doing an almost complete water change without dosing it 1st. Even just regular chlorinated water could have burned the neons gills and caused them to perish, but sometimes the water company adds extra chlorine or even ammonia to remedy some issues with their system. They generally don't even tell you as the amount is well within what is safe for humans, but well over what kills delicate tropical fish. My best practice for water changes is always add the dose of water conditioner for the size of the tank (not just how much water you removed) before adding any water back in. It's not going to hurt the fish if you dose the remaining water before adding the new water, but many people find out that even though it's "usually" okay to add the conditioner after.... sometimes it's catastrophic. Better safe than sorry, always go with the safest method. I usually recommend having "seasoned" water available for water changes if you have small tanks or saltwater tanks. By seasoned, I just mean clean fresh water that's been treated / mixed and off gassed already. I don't personally do this as it's kinda overkill and my tanks are so big I'd need like a 1000 gallon container. Hopefully you have better success in the future and happy fish keeping.

Starting the acrylic tank replacement project. Took out the bottom 55 acrylic tank from #2 and replaced it with a new 55 glass tank. I took the ledges and used them for the new tank and even moved my new Brichardi in from quarantine. Going to add either Seiryu stone or stacked slate before the Cips clear quarantine.

Well, all the fishies have been busy here. Figured I'd share and see what everyone else has going on in their tanks. Newest additions are Snow white cichlids, Paleatus corys and some Appistogramm about to start coloring up.

How big is the aquarium? If it's housing Oscars I would hope pretty big. If you have a large tank, might look at common or sailfin plecos. These get a bad rap because everyone gets them as "algae eaters" and puts them in small tanks. But they're ideal tank mates for large central and south American cichlids. They are from the same place and like the same water conditions. They're a scavenging carnavore, so they clean up after your messy cichlids. Mine are even pellet trained so they're used to coming out to the top of the tank for food. If you're going with smaller ones or don't have a big tank, many other plecos will work. Maybe look at royal or blue eyed, big but not huge. Definitely some kind of bigger pleco for sure. Be careful with synadontis cats, they're from Africa and are used to really hard water. Whenever I tried adding them to soft water tanks, they developed soars and skin ulcers. You might have better luck, but in my experience your fish like much different water than synadontis cats.