Yoshi
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Posts posted by Yoshi
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My sympathies. I've really enjoyed reading through your log sharing your experiences vicariously.
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Couple of days in now and a few things I've noticed.
- I'm surprised how much tannin that one piece of drift wood has added to the water. I'm sure the black background accentuates the effect, but the water is significantly darker than when I started.
- I added a few cholla wood pieces. The two smaller ones sank over night, but the larger piece is still floating. I'm sure it'll come down when it's ready. 😄
- I'm incredibly surprised by how quiet the sponge filter with the easy flow attachment is. Honestly, the pump is louder than the water flow, and I can only hear the pump if I'm actively trying to listen for it. I'm impressed!
- I added a handful of red root floaters and water spangles from my five gallon tank along with a water sprite cutting. I find it interesting that some of the floating plants actually seem attracted to the easy flow outlet. I didn't expect that.
- No plant melting yet, but I'm pretty much expecting it. I figure you kind of have to expect it when setting up a new tank.
- I've got the ACO light set at 30 and timed to come on for 7 hours per day.
As always, feedback is welcome!
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Aaaaaaaaaand we're off!
My plants came this afternoon so today was the day to get water in my tank and start it running.
I've started with 5 different bucephalandra and 5 different anubias.
One or two small hiccups, but one kinda big one. The Tidal 55 won't start. I plugged it in. Sat there. Waited and in about 5 mins it ran for all of 5 seconds and now won't start again. I've emailed their support team, but I'm guessing it's a bad unit. So in the meantime I guess the ACO sponge will have to do the job until I can get a replacement.
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I've been slowly planning this tank for months and I'm excited to now be able to post that it's almost ready!
- 55 gallon Aqueon tank
- 60lbs of Imagitarium black sand
- Rocks are a mix of dragon stone, elephant skin stone, and petrified wood
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Pice of Malaysian driftwood
- One ACO medium spone filter
- One Tidal 55 HOB
- Two Fluval E 100 heaters
- The light (not on the tank yet) is a 48'' ACO LED light.
Next steps are planning out the plants, and I'm hoping to include quite a bit. I'm thinking a mix of bucephalandra, crypts, vallisneria, pearl weed, moss, etc. I've got root tabs and easy green ready and waiting.
My livestock plans keep changing, but I know I've still got plenty of time to think about it while I get the plants in and then get the whole setup cycled. My thoughts at this point are some panda cories, CPDs, cardinal tetras, snails (probably nerites and trapdoor snails), and MAYBE some silver hatchet fish. I'd really love to do shrimp in here, but unless I put them in first and really let them get established and colonize, I really have doubts that they'd end up as anything other than fish food.
Feedback is always welcome!
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This feels like a dumb question, but I find I'm double guessing myself.
I'm setting up a Tidal 55 filter on my 55 gallon tank. I tend to have slightly lower ph than I'd like so I'm going to add a media bag of crushed coral. I already have a coarse sponge, a polishing pad, and a bag of bio-rings (in that order). My question is should I add it before or after the bio-rings? Or does it matter?
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Could @EnvyDontKnow supplement the lack of biofilm and algae with things like algae wafers and repashy for the first few months?
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Is it in like pellets or is it a powder? Either way, I'd think using a bag would make it easier to remove once it's not working anymore. But especially if it's a powder, because then I'd worry about it gunking up the inside of the filter. But you'd need a pretty fine mesh.
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Don't forget about java moss! Great to leave free floating and provides a lot of cover for baby shrimp.
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On 5/3/2024 at 3:03 PM, Tony s said:
I might go up to the Tidal 55 and consider that the primary filter. with the sponge being more of a helper/backup
I was just going to ask about that. I was thinking 35 since I would have the sponge in there doing part of the work. But in looking, the Tidals all have adjustable flow so I could adjust it up or down depending on what seemed to be working best, and with the 55 I'd have more head room to adjust up.
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I'm planning for my centerpiece 55gallon aquarium and I'd like to pick people's brain regarding filters.
Is there any advantage to running both a sponge filter and a HOB? Originally I was planning on doing two ACO medium sponge filters, but now I'm considering one sponge and possibly a 35 Tidal HOB.
As always, thank you all for your feedback! You've all really helped me on my journey.
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On 4/29/2024 at 6:19 AM, Whitecloud09 said:
Hmmm… maybe I should not get them then? Got a HOB and it is kinda strong. Thanks @Yoshi
I actually use the plant coral to keep them out of the HOB flow, even though mine is pretty gentle. It seems to work pretty well!
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On 4/28/2024 at 7:46 PM, macdaddy36 said:
What kinds of filtration do you have? I tried floating plants (duckweed, RRF, DWL,) but they died, and I think it was because they were always getting stuck under the Hob and getting showered.
I was having a similar problem. I got this little plant coral on amazon for like $7 that lowers and raises with the water level when I'm doing water changes. Since then the RRFs have filled it up and actually are starting to grow out of it, so I trim the bunch back once every week or two.
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I've had good luck with red root floaters in my 5gallon betta tank. I also have a free floating water sprite that has absolutely taken off growth wise since I added it about a month ago.
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I did EXACTLY the same thing when I got my first five gallon aquarium. Jumped right in, and soooo many of us who are just starting out do it! So I know what you're dealing with!
I completely agree with what everyone has said here regarding water changes. Another reason to keep up with your water changes is that bacterial bloom. While it's unsightly it also sucks up a lot of oxygen. By doing those regular incremental water changes you'll help re-oxygenate your water.
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Almost sounds like the setup for a joke, doesn't it?
I'm continuing my planning for my 55 gallon tank setup. I'll be getting it up on its stand this weekend. A quick rundown of the plan so far - it will be a relatively heavily planted tank. 55 gallons as I mentioned. At this point I'm planning on a good handful of snails, 12 panda Cories, 12-16 cardinal tetras, 12-16 cherry barbs, and 2-3 honey gouramis. I'm planning on running two medium ACO sponge filters in both back corners.I'm debating about running co2 for the plants. I've read about the incompatibility of co2 diffusers and sponge filters which makes sense. Would running one of the sponge filters on an AOC power head work for co2? Would a power head be good with the fish I'm planning?
At this point I'm not totally sold on doing a co2 setup (mostly because it's kind of intimidating, and the initial cost), but I'm also working to figure out what my options are.
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On 3/23/2024 at 8:03 PM, Tony s said:
It also calls for an angel or 2 to me anyway 😃
I thought about an angel at one point! But I've read mixed reviews regarding compatibility. Would I end up with an overfed angel fish and an otherwise empty tank?
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I appreciate the input so far! After thinking some more and doing a bit more reading here's a revised list, and of course feedback is very much appreciated!
Panda Cories (12)
Nerite Snails (10)
Mystery Snails (5)
Cardinal Tetras (12)
Cherry Barbs (12)
Honey Gourami (3)I've given up on the shrimp thought, but maybe a dedicated shrimp take is possible down the road (if I can find space for it!).
AqAdvisor puts this at fully loaded. Could I do more?
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On 3/22/2024 at 10:59 PM, Scapexghost said:
A larger shrimp species may be good as the barbs may hunt down the neos. Maybe amanos or bamboo. Then i would buff up the school sizes maybe 15-20 to start. Then i would get the angel or guarami you wanted as the centerpiece.
Also i think the barbs and centerpeace fish would keep the guppies pop under control so i would consider females as males can be feisty by themselves
I like the color of the neos a lot, but I take the point. I was thinking of adding some shrimp caves to give them more places to hide. They were also the first things I was going to add to the tank to get them well established. Do you think that would make a difference?
On 3/22/2024 at 11:18 PM, Tony s said:What’s your favorite. You listed the pandas first. You could easily triple the number of pandas, and the behavior would be completely different than 6.
possibly add 5 honey gourami?
double the number of male guppies?
most of these will work good in a shrimp tank.
or if the focus is the shrimp, just wait until they populate the tank fully. I’d still add more pandas though. You can never have too many pandas
I'm not sure what my favorite is tbh! 😄 I listed them more in the oder of the areas they would occupy in the tank from the bottom up.
Do you have any suggestions other than more pandas? (Which I'll totally load up on!)
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On 3/22/2024 at 10:49 PM, Scapexghost said:
This is a very light stocking atm you can def add more
Any suggestions? 🙂
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As I continue to plan for my 55 gallon community tank I've put together a tentative list of tank mates and I'd like to get peoples input! After doing some reading in the forum and other places here's what I've come up with so far:
Neocaridina shrimp (10)
Panda Cory catfish (6)
Nerite snails (5)
Cardinal Tetras (6-10)
Cherry Barbs (6-10)
Guppies - Male (3)I'm keeping male guppies mostly because I don't want to deal with a guppy population explosion and I don't have an easy way to offload them.
It will be a fairly heavily planted tank with some rock and driftwood hardscape. Black substrate and black background.
Am I at the limit in terms of what the tank can handle in terms of livestock? I love the look of honey gouramis, but I'm worried that I can't add too much more. I'm also going back and forth about whether I need some kind of centerpiece fish. A single angelfish sounded pretty at first, but would I end up with a fat angelfish in an otherwise empty tank?
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This may be a tempest in a teapot, but I wanted to ask the community for some feedback. I have a black racer nerite snail that I added to my 5gallon aquarium about 5 week ago. The aquarium has a single betta and 5 live plants.
My slight concern is that it doesn't appear he's eating, at least not what I put in the tank. Snello, algae wafer, steamed zucchini, he won't touch it. But he seems active and healthy. He hides mostly during the day, comes out at night and crawls around the tank. I put in a wondershell on a semi regular basis to bump up the calcium in the water and haven't noticed any degradation of his shell.
I don't have any noticeable algae in the tank, so I'm wondering where he's getting his nutrition from. Could he be getting enough just from any micro algae present in the tank that I can't see and some plant detritus?
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On 3/19/2024 at 3:22 PM, MattyM said:
A second for seachem flourite black sand, it's more expensive than blasting sand and yes, needs a lot of rinsing. But between this, various kinds of gravel, and eco-complete, it's by far my favorite. It really makes the cory cats show off any black they have. It's never shown poop, whether in a 20 or 100g. But that could be b/c of the trumpet snails and cories churning it up so it either gets buried or sucked up by the filter. By far my least favorite substrate is eco-complete. I know some people love it, but for me that is what shows all the crap - and it's hard to plant in, and if you disturb the bed crap just floats up everywhere, and it eventually gets mushy - but maybe that's just me. Sand it all I'll use going forward, and I never have to vacuum it 🤷♂️
Omg I love your setup! That's eon of the things I know I'm going to struggle with is hardscaping mine. I just don't have that "artistic" gene. I may steal some ideas from yours!
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I appreciate the comments and advice so far!
I guess my two main concerns are that I want something soft enough for the corys which would lead me toward a finer sand, but I also plan on having a pretty heavily planted tank so I'll need something that doesn't compact as much and allows for root development and water flow into the substrate, which would move me more towards gravel.
Like most things I suppose it's about trying to find a balance.
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Stocking advice - numbers of pygmy cories & rasboras for 30g?
in General Discussion
Posted
I agree about the gouramis. A bit deeper on that point, I believe the general consensus is at least two females for every male. Helps keep down the breeding aggression.