L.W. Wetarm

Love the black back...and sides.

Keep in mind that the majority of the beneficial bacteria isn’t in the filter....it’s on the rocks, substrate, plants, and sunken ship decoration.

All I know is my hair algae problems went away when I cut my “moonlight” time down to half an hour in the morning and half hour at night.

A little green around the edges of the rocks is okay. When I had to trim down my beautiful jungle of Jungle Val because of the long strings of hair algae billowing in the current from it...that was too much.

The Salifert nitrate test is my go to. Much easier to follow directions accurately....easier to read results.

Also, an old bass angler here. I used to fish some club tournaments but profit was never a part of it. 😄 I haven’t got out much this past year because of quarantine and other health issues. Looking forward to that first DD this spring. Do do Bass Boat Central? I’m an member there, AKA, SoonerFan. I have found watching my Brichardi tank with probably over 100 fry of all different ages plus adults and how sometimes they suspend up high and other times, tight to cover. Also, how it sometimes has to be just the right sized flake floating by at just the right speed for the big male to eat it...just like bass fishing.

Retired in March when the pandemic hit...was going to retire in July anyway. I was an outside sales rep, selling lighting and hardware to new home builders.

I’ve always been freshwater but I’ve always dreamed of having a living rock reef tank.

I used grid on the bottom to keep the heavy river rocks from sitting right on the bottom glass. I followed a tip from a Co-Op member that I’m sorry I didn’t remember the name or thread. He advised to build up the corner or sides with bags of busted up lava rock from Lowe’s. I used some cheap black zipper bags from Amazon. Worked real good. Was able to make nice slope and didn’t have to spend a house payment on substrate.

As Mark Twain once said, “ I am an old man and have had many worries...most of them never happened“.

I have both Mystery and Nerite Snails. On several occasions, I have thought one was was dead...just parked on the bottom. I learned to 1. smell it. If it smells like a dead snail then it probably dead. 2. Put it in a cup of water and watch it. If still alive it will probably stir from the change in environment.

I recently bought a 29 from Petco. Having already read the negative reviews on their website, I was a bit cautious. Mine did have sloppy caulking and one end panel wasn’t quite flush with the front glass. I filled it up on my garage floor for several days to test. It held water, no problem. I like to paint the back and sides of the tank black. I didn’t even think about the clear silicone when I did the paint. The clear looks bright neon white against the black back. 🤦🏻‍♂️ The addition of some substrate and plants along with time has made it less noticeable.

We just finished marathoning the entire Star Wars series, in sequence. I had seen all of the at one time or another, starting with Episodes IV of course...then 20 something years later there was Episode I...I was always confused. 🤷🏼‍♂️ So this time, we started with two seasons of The Mandlorian and the on to Episode I The Phantom Menace and straight through every night to the last one, Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. I consider it on of the great pop culture achievements of my life. 😉

He’s already dug under a rock and started moving gravel around. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Cichlids just gotta be Cichlids.

The hoses are regular vinyl hoses that are a transparent smoky grey color. My only minor grumble so far concerns the spray bar. It is clear and practically disappears against my black background, except for the white connector that joins the two spray bar pieces together. I cut a piece of the grey intake hose and used it instead and it blends right in.

I have a SunSun 704b on my 60 gallon tank. For the money, I don’t think they can be beat. It has four big baskets to hold a bunch of mechanical and biological filter media. It’s extremely powerful and filters a lot of water. Most of the bad reviews are completely unfounded. Usual bad reviews are; 1,noisy...yes, the impeller makes noise when it gets dirty or wears out. It’s a big pump, it’s going to make some sound. ...2, leaks...the only time mine leaked was when I got the lid on cockamamie, which is easy to do if not careful. The best part is that it is a really big canister that pumps a lot of water that can be configured anyway you want for under $100. My other canister is a Oase 350 Biomaster. I’ve just had this one for a week or two now but I’m in love. To say it quite is an understatement. A desktop computer fan is louder. It has a removable pre-filter that can be removed and cleaned without breaking open the whole canister. And my favorite feature is the basket handle for carrying it. Love it but $239 😲. I tried real hard to like sponge filters but I just couldn’t fit them into the look.

Until recently my only tank was a 60 gallon N. Brichardi species only tank. To say it’s a tough neighborhood is an understatement. Way back in October, I asked a question about how to re- introduce a bullied fish back into the general population. The rest of the story...https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/2389-re-introducing-a-bullied-fish/ I tried on two occasions to try to get Pokey out of the recuperation tank and back home with his buds. Each time the Brichardi “rat pack” went after him like an enemy from the old neighborhood. None of the excellent suggestions from the other members were practical for my situation , so he just lived in a little bare bottom 10 gallon with nothing but a heater and a sponge filter... off in a corner with little attention beyond food a water top off. I felt really bad about the situation so I started another tank with him in mind. It is my intention to do something out of the ordinary with this new 29 gallon. I’m looking for more of a planted tank with corys and neons and things like that. I’m seriously hoping that little Pokey is still on the timid side and if the only Tanganyikan cichlid he won’t be anymore unruly than maybe an Angel or Gorami . Anyway, a couple of nights ago I got my plants planted and cycle going so I decided it was time to move Pokey. Since he hadn’t had a light in a while, I did it as the light was going into sunset mode. He immediately found a hidy hole in the rocks but within a quarter hour he was out investigating his new home. I warmed my heart almost to the point of tears. Made me think of a shelter dog that gets adopted to a beautiful backyard.

I use a lot of red plastic Solo drink cups for everything from priming the AquaClear HOB to thawing frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms in a little tank water. Strain out the freshly hatched baby brine shrimp with some tank water into a red cup. Also pipettes...got a huge bag. Great for filling API test tubes or feeding thawed shrimp or bloodworms.

I’d worry more about a new one than one that had been working fine. I bought a 29 at the Petco dollar a gallon sale. I filled it (after I had already painted the back 🤦🏻‍♂️) and let it sit it one the garage floor before moving it into the living room.

I just set up a Oase Biomaster Thermal canister. I can’t believe how quite it is.

You have definitely taken brine shrimp hatching to a new level.

I thought my GH test was never going to change, until I got to 16 drops. I’m wondering if the water isn’t super hard. Does the OP have lime scale around the faucets?

I get it. Back in my youth, I did the “let’s see how big I can get my Oscar”, by feeding feeder fish and frozen beef heart...in a 29 gallon tank. Fortunately, thanks to the internet I’ve learned better. If you think fish abuse is bad just think about large birds. I never realized what a problem it is until I visited (I was doing an estimate for new countertops) a lady who ran a bird rescue in her home. She must have had 15 or 20 Parrots, Macaws, and Cockatoos (in a normal 3 bedroom home) that had been either abandoned or their owners had died of old age. Consider that birds like that are extremely intelligent and bond for life with their owner, PLUS they live a very long time...50 to 75 years in some cases. People buy these birds thinking they’re cool and have NO concept of the demanding lifetime commitment they take. All of the birds at the rescue were sadly neurotic. Many of them had plucked out most of their feathers, others would just sit and squawk or constantly go up and down on their perch. None of them could be adopted, they weren’t there for rehabilitation, just to live out the rest of their lives in a loving environment. Several years before that, I had done an estimate on an unoccupied rental house. The owner told me before I went over there to not get freaked out by the weird noise coming from the back bedroom. It was an abandoned Maccaw that the previous renters left behind. I had gone completely crazy....making a low repetitive growling/squawking noise as it paced back and forth and plucking at his feathers. The owner of the house said he had tried to sell it to a pet store but nobody wanted it. It was probably a $2000 bird in good health. I hate to think what that bird’s final fate was . I wish I had met the bird rescue lady at that time .

Irene, I took your advice on the Aqueon heater and checked out the Uniclife heater that Mick recommended. I couldn't the exact same one but it fits the Ziss top perfectly and doesn't touch the bottom. Amazon.com WWW.AMAZON.COM

I'm interested in Rummy Nose Tetras also. What parameters etc. do they require?