spokanejared
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Posts posted by spokanejared
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On 4/13/2024 at 7:02 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
PH fluctuations do not harm fish. Keeping GH and KH stable is what matters. Here’s my pH profile for a week.
What are you using to monitor the ph like that?
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On 4/12/2024 at 4:47 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
Get to a minimum of 1 and keep pushing. 1 to 1.5 is what you are looking for. Watch the fish while pushing beyond 1. 1.2 is good target.
Ok I will work on that. I'm worried about my discus since I've been told they can be sensitive to fluctuations like that. I do keep up on my water changes and parameters and so far they are healthy so I guess if .8 isn't causing harm then I should be good...?
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Only time I ever had this happen is when I changed foods and had an ammonia spike. That detritus took my entire aquarium over. I gravel vacuumed and changed the water every 2 days untill I got it back under control. It was so bad it blocked my filters and made a horrible mess of the entire tank.
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On 4/10/2024 at 11:14 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
Lime green is what you are looking for. Checking pH is a better indicator and can be measured in real time.
Ok I checked my ph right before it turns on in the morning and it reads .8 difference degassed.
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On 4/10/2024 at 11:14 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
Lime green is what you are looking for. Checking pH is a better indicator and can be measured in real time.
Yeah I didn't know that was a thing. My ph is always stable at 6.8. I have never checked it in the middle of the night when the co2 isn't running. I'll give it a try tonight and report back my findings.
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I had a snail issue once and I just threw in 3 assassin snails and that problem was gone in about 30 days. They really did a great job.
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On 4/3/2024 at 9:11 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
BPS is irrelevant, that said 8bps for a 150 gallon seems extremely low. How are you diffusing CO2? FYI, anything over 75 gallons is going to need a reactor. Hopefully you are using one. For balancing, first thing I would do is triple check you are I are getting a solid 1 to 1.5 pH drop from degassed to peak CO2.
I use one of those kits that uses baking soda and citric acid. I added it last month and have been slowly dialing it up since I don't want to rush into any changes too fast. I use the fluid checker to monitor my levels and from what I know if it's in the green it's good. I just use the diffuser that came with the kit and send the bubbles right up to the filters outflow to dispurse throughout the tank. My fluid checker is on the opposite side of the tank since I figured I would get a bad reading on the same side as the diffuser.
On 4/3/2024 at 2:50 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:The tank looks great! Sounds like you’re doing everything I would.
I have 14 tanks, and honestly most of them have some sort of algae. Not to where it’s necessarily a problem, but to have 0 algae is super hard for me. The exceptions to the rule are basically my Blackwater tanks, and my 6 gallon cube. Those are basically algae free, but the other 11 have some kind of algae on something.
I think there’s a difference between balanced, and completely algae free. I also think it’s going to be hard to find a ton of temps that will handle the temp for the discus.
Also, time and consistency are a big part of getting to algae free. Keep things consistent, and then give it lots and lots of time. Over time, your plants will grow to a point that they out compete all the algae. And then you do a trim and algae comes back 😂
I agree on time and consistency. All the lights and the co2 are on timers so I can slowly dial everything in. I make one change at a time every two weeks to see what helps and what doesn't.
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For those of you with planted tanks. How long did it take for your tanks to balance out. I'm doing a 150 gallon planted tank and recently added a ton more high light plants due to my new lighting setup. It produces about 30k lumens at 2 watts a gallon. I fertilize every other day with easy green. I use root tabs upon planting and that's it. I also have co2 injection running 8bps. My parameters are 20 to 40 ppm of nitrate, 0 nitrite, ph of 6.8, water temp of 84 for discus. Zero ammonia, kh of 40 ppm, and a gh running on the high side up at almost 300(tap water issues there). I still have algea growing on certain plants like the Java fern so I've since removed them since I know not all plants will work in every setup. Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated.
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On 4/1/2024 at 3:05 PM, Litfan93 said:
Sorry for going MIA, it's been a hectic week!
@JE47 I feel like I have to take a day off to get that done haha. I added some Fluval gravel tabs in the meantime to see how that goes. I've watched a video about Amazon frogbit but I found that it may be illegal to get in California :/. Right now, I have three anubias frazeri, an Amazon Sword, and a Vallisneria I got from Aquarium Co-Op. Since I have a betta, it'd be cool to get some plants from SE Asia or something similar. Definitely something broad-leafed to provide some shade and make it look like a habitat for my boy.
@spokanejared I also wondered if I was doing too much of a weekly water change (around 30%) and that it caused a nitrate crash. I'm now dosing Flourish twice a week along with the Fluval tabs and went with doing 10% changes moving forward. I'll see if I can get some maracyn if the above methods don't make a difference.You need to check the nitrate load in the water column before you fertilize. That's a bare minimum in my book. I only fertilize if my nitrate levels get below 20ppm. The directions on the bottle of most fertilizers imo is very generic and doesn't fit most applications. In short always test before you fertilize. Also I only use tabs once to kick start the rooting process and that's it. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with once a month bit if your doing once a week then that certainly way too much. I look at rooting tabs as just a temporary thing to get the plants going on putting down a good root base and as long as ypu have enough bio settling to the bottom nature will take over.
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That's not algea that's a green bacterial bloom. Cyanobacteria. Not easy to get rid of.
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Whats your light cycle and are you dosing ferts? What's your stocking like?
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On 3/18/2024 at 5:56 PM, pancake said:
They are far too small. But I did notice today that there seems to be way less worms now and some have a tan hue. So I guess they are eating the deteriorating leaf particles near them.
I did see a couple of longer but still super small worms next to some snails eggs. Maybe I can get a photo of that later when the light is on if they are still there and visible. But they look like white threads and may not show up well in a photo either but I can try. Idk if they are entering the eggs or just crawl on them.
My bladder snail is still super active on the glass, and laid another cluster of eggs today. I guess it's eating the worms? Sometimes it runs over the tiny worms on the glass and they just wiggle a little then stay where they are or run a little bit in the same direction of the snail then calm down.
From my experience you have to much of a food source in the tank. Feed less frequently or smaller amounts and that should sort your issue out.
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On 3/16/2024 at 4:09 PM, A3M0N said:
I saw your first post and thought those are going to be waaaaay to strong for that 10 gallon, lol!
Very nice! I'm a big fan of making something that isn't too difficult to save a ton of money.
Right.... so far so good. I'm certain I will have an algea issue untill the plants catch up but hey that's just part of the fun. I just ordered a in line dimmer for them just so I can have a little more versatility with them.
On 3/16/2024 at 3:44 PM, Galabar said:Possible these: https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Exterior-Waterproof-Floodlight-Playground/dp/B0CP9H8RWH
I sure wish I had these many years ago when the only thing we could do was fluorescent shop lights... 🙂
That's exactly what I ordered. I just did a little digging on 6500k lights and these popped up. For the price what have I got to loose. I need something that gets me around 2 watt per gallon and these cover the lumen requirement I'm looking for on my co2 injected 150 gallon.
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On 3/16/2024 at 1:09 AM, Galabar said:
Beautiful. What brand of lights are those?
Not even sure
On 3/16/2024 at 9:56 AM, spokanejared said:Not even sure
Here's the model number sticker. It was 40 bucks after shipping off Amazon for both of them. This is my attempt to build a cheap but proper plant light setup. I'm sick of spending insane amounts of money for seemingly cheap led kits with gimmicky features that poorly grow plants.
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Pic of the rest of the tank and whatever details you can divulge to the group...
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On 3/15/2024 at 3:30 PM, spokanejared said:
Two 150 watt 15000 lumen 6500k lights. I'm only 45 bucks on this project. I'm hopeful for some good results on my 150 gallon.
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Two 150 watt 15000 lumen 6500k lights. I'm only 45 bucks on this project. I'm hopeful for some good results on my 150 gallon.
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On 3/14/2024 at 8:29 PM, jwcarlson said:
It's really messy and doing it in gravel is just asking for issues. It's not just parameters, it's overall bacterial load. You've got way different water than me, so you might be able to get away with a bit more. But even then, it's going to bite you eventually. You could maybe put some beef heart into the mix, say... right before you do a WC. Kind of load them up and then suck everything up. But unless you're doing WC every day, it will be a mess.
I made my own beef heart, just 100% beef heart that I trimmed the fat out of and ground my own mix.
Honestly I do 2 water changes a week but I closely monitor my parameters biweekly as well. The second I see nitrates start climbing past 50ppm I'm water changing. I have a really high gh and zero kh in my tank but I have a theory that my old carbon was leeching back into the system so I replaced my carbon and added a bag of crushed coral to help bring up my kh. My tap water tested perfect for kh so I also intend to bump up my water changes but I don't want to change things too fast for obvious reasons hence why I chose the crushed coral since it's a very gradual change to the parameters.
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Woah that's way less than I thought they go for.
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On 3/14/2024 at 7:48 PM, jwcarlson said:
Not necessarily white poop. I only had that with hex. It doesn't have to be a full blown infestation to cause lower level issues. Parasites are always present at some level and any stress or something like that could cause it to come to the forefront.
You don't need to feed beef heart, there are plenty of people who do not. But they sure do love it and it packs on size really well. Again, I would not suggest it with your setup. It would be a timebomb. Impossible to keep substrate clean.
Honestly that's exactly why I kept away from it this while time. I still do my waterchanges but I don't want a full blown ammonia spike. Not even kidding my discus female repaired with my blue Cobalt and laid eggs.
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On 3/14/2024 at 7:21 PM, Loc Tran said:
I got them from Moonlight Aquatics
I got them from moonlight aquatics
How much if you don't mind me asking?
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I have the 2.0. Been there a few times over the 4 years I've had mine. Not sure why it happened but it hasn't changed my perspective. Fluval makes a killer light.
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On 3/8/2024 at 12:34 PM, Loc Tran said:
I bought these two plecos for a while now and I don’t know if they are two males or two females but their behavior seems different. They both caving but one is head in with tail facing out, while the other one is facing head out with the tail in. The one that on the right is only in the cave for 5 mins and then will go out and hide either under the sponge or behind the heater while the one in the left always stay in the cave and sometime hanging out in front of the cave entrance.
Damn nice plecos. Those two fish probably worth more that my whole damn tank. I'm am jealous. Where did you get them?
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On 3/14/2024 at 6:36 PM, jwcarlson said:
Feeling like they should be bigger than they are based on how much they eat is a decent indication that there might be something robbing that nutrition in the gut. It can be tough to get a handle on parasites in a tank with substrate, but you could move them into something bare bottomed if you have that available.
The red covers look a stunted. But not wildly so. Nature is strange. *shrug*
Would they have white poo going on if they had parasites? That's always been my indicator of intestinal issues. They have perfect poop from what I've seen. I'm really wondering if that diet is what's causing my concern. I seem to be the only discus owner not using beefheart. I agree on the red covers being possibly stunted. Theu were at the lfs for quite some time before I got them.
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Angelfish Aggression
in General Discussion
Posted
I find space works well for smaller numbers. I have 5 angels in my 150 and they go at eachother all the time. There's enough of them to spread out the aggression so no one fish gets it all the time.