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StephenP2003

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Everything posted by StephenP2003

  1. StephenP2003
    I keep thinking I wouldn't like it, but then I see tanks like these...
  2. StephenP2003
    Here in Louisiana, I think keeping mosquito larva intentionally is punishable by death 😄 Otherwise I'd definitely have unlimited fish food, more than I'd be able to feed before making more mosquitos.
  3. StephenP2003
    Yep, definitely going to do this. What's the smallest fish that can handle whiteworms?
  4. StephenP2003
    I do the same, but I have two sponge filters always going in two tanks, plus extras. I take one out for quarantine tank, immediately put spare one in. I impulse buy fish too much.
  5. StephenP2003
    Sharing my settings for my 90 gallon: It's 24" tall with a pretty deep substrate. Everything doing very well in there. The intensity of the light causes algae growth at the top of my 3d background, but that's why I have a dozen amano shrimp in there. They've pretty much set up shop on the upper third of the background. Note: All the percentages for each color are the same, but the blue stands alone below the rest.
  6. StephenP2003
    I took all the foam pieces off the tree and am trying to grow them in three different places. Some in my living room tank, some in my live-bearer tank, and some in a Mason jar on a south facing window sill. So far the guppy tank is doing slightly better than the window, and the living room moss (high light) is nearly a lost cause.
  7. StephenP2003
    I looked this bad boy up, because I'd never heard of it and always gotta have all the gadgets. But holy crap, that's a hefty price tag! Looking at the data you can collect and graph though, this might be a long-term wish list item if I ever go saltwater...seems to be touted as a marine gadget given the salinity and ORP probes. Anyways, I have a pretty long photoperiod on my tanks since I work from home (with or without covid) and want to see them. I started off with lots of various color rampups/downs but settled on simplicity.
  8. StephenP2003
    Yes, I found the easiest way to keep it attached was to take small bunches and tie fishing line around them, then cover tips of branches with the individually tied bunches. Doing it this way involved a LOT of subwassertang. I have a spray bar across the top of my tank, and the current is too strong to just set it loosely or wedge loose bunches between branches, or even to tie the whole bit of it to the tree at once. I don't have the best luck with moss, so now I'm just waiting to see if this will survive, grow a little, or die. I first tried christmas moss. I chopped up the moss really well and spread superglue on black foam, then tried to rub the moss all over the glue (saw it on youtube). Then I waited a couple months, and it devolved to this:
  9. StephenP2003
    Just got mine on a tree
  10. StephenP2003
    The airstone sort of creates a void in the area below the airstone near the spout, where some eggs are likely going to settle and therefore never hatch. Even with the straight airline, I'm still seeing a lot of eggs settle in the sides/corners. Right now I'm running one airline up the spout and one in the air tube, and that solves the problem.
  11. StephenP2003
    What's the usual condition of a betta-in-a-cup when you get it from a big box pet store? I only have one betta, and I got it online -- but assuming one takes home a petsmart/co betta and puts it in the proper environment, do they tend to do ok?
  12. StephenP2003
    Absolutely. But at least that part can be remedied somewhat. My LFS has a sign on their guppy tanks that says they like hard water and keep them at around 12 dGH in store (our tap water is 0 dGH). The sign doesn't say "these beautiful guppies over here are probably going to die in 3 weeks so make sure you buy some of the females."
  13. StephenP2003
    What are some common fish you find at your LFS that beginners probably shouldn't get? I'm thinking less about the species that get bigger than you think, get aggressive, etc. -- more so, the overbred, high-turnover species (or those inherently fragile) where the deathclock countdown has begun by the time they make it to the LFS, or just those species that have a higher chance of success in an established tank (e.g., neocardina). I've witnessed friends and neighbors giving up the hobby immediately after losing their first purchase of neons, cardinals, fancy guppies, etc. It's often difficult to figure out what to avoid when a google search gives you a list of common beginner fish -- and often the prevalence of that fish is the very reason you're more likely to get bad stock. Just from personal (and limited) experience and subsequent conversations with employees at my LFS, the tough ones around here include: - Line-bred fancy guppies - Neon tetra - Cardinal tetra - Rummynose tetra - Rams - Dwarf Gourami What else would you add to the list??
  14. StephenP2003
    I started with small/medium tanks (40s and 20s) and I definitely think something like a 40 breeder gives you the better parts of both worlds, and bumping up to a 4ft tank like a 55 gives you a wider choice of slightly larger species (longer, not taller). Nowadays I personally believe bigger is better if I had the space -- but only up to a point. Personally, I want the biggest tank that I can still reach all 4 bottom corners, even if I need a stepstool. I like live plants and hardscape and am constantly maintaining/trimming. I'm 6'2" so I'm not too limited in that regard, but I'm not sure I would want to take on the responsibility of a tank like Cory's 800G. And there's no way in heck I'm getting inside a glass box for hours on end to set it up.
  15. StephenP2003
    In all my aquaclears, I run the included sponge, some bulk filter pad media (https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Filter-Pad-Premium-Density/dp/B01AHIOM8A), co-op pre-filter sponge, and seachem matrix. I only replaced the included fluval bio media because I falsely believed the seachem matrix was some magical nitrate reducer (it isn't, at least not in a filter with high flow). In some where my driftwood is still slowly leaching tannins, I use a bag of purigen.
  16. StephenP2003
    Honestly, I just enjoy seeing them behave as they would in the wild, no matter the behavior. Gives me a sense of well-being that I'm doing things right.
  17. StephenP2003
    That's how I'm doing it as well. Breeding platys and guppies in the same tank, along with cherry shrimp. No room in my house if I were to try to save all/most fry from every spawn.
  18. StephenP2003
    Yeah, and I've also heard they might be bred in such sterile environments that an established tank can actually be a shock to it. It's frustrating that guppies are still touted as a beginner fish. There should at least be distinctions -- that beautiful halfmoon guppy in the tanks next to the mutt guppies is not a beginner fish.
  19. StephenP2003
    I've had terrible luck with keeping line bred guppies. Really, most guppies I get from my LFS I can't keep alive for more than a few weeks -- felt like a failure at first trying to get a guppy tank going. Luckily, the females I got from a store gave birth before kicking the bucket, and combining those fry with some endlers has kept things going well for a while. I would love to try to buy another group of guppies to introduce new color, but I'd like to figure out why I couldn't keep them alive previously.
  20. StephenP2003
    Maybe someone who has a 20 long could chime in. Those are pretty short tanks, and the 3.0 can really pump out some photons. I would start simple though, maybe an 8-hour photo period with a max of 25%, keeping the blue light at 5%. This is just a guess, though, and not really as a method of fighting existing algae but rather to give your plants some adjustment time. What light were you running before? I've never heard of upgrading a light to fight algae, unless your other one was too bright with no good way to dim it.
  21. StephenP2003
    It's going to depend on the height of your tank, the plants you have, and your fertilizer dosing schedule. I've had the best success in starting light settings pretty low and establishing a consistent fert schedule. Then over a period of weeks to months, I start ramping up the light schedule in response to higher-light plants showing deficiencies or overall slow growth. Took me a long time to realize patience is key, not reacting and changing things daily based on how I think the plants should look tomorrow. In a newly planted tank, algae is going to happen regardless until you find the balance and until your plants are established and readily taking in nutrients to outcompete the algae.
  22. StephenP2003
    Irene just did a video on this on her channel. Looks like she just stores them in regular baggies in the freezer as well. I'm definitely going to start doing that. I feed a large variety and end up with 6-month-old half-used cans of flakes and pellets.
  23. StephenP2003
    I guess technically my first fish was 26 years ago, when I was 9 and spent way too much money to win a feeder goldfish at a fair. My parents knew nothing, I knew nothing, and I put it in a bowl of tap water. The fish was resting on the bottom within a few hours, looking ill. I called a pet store about it, where I learned about dechlorinator for the first time. My parents drove me to the store and got the conditioner. I returned home to find my goldfish on the carpet. It was still alive, so I scooped it back up and into the bowl, where I thought adding my newly acquired dechlorinator would miraculously save it. I then later learned how big of a tank you really need for a goldfish, and my parents convinced me it was going to be a lot of work. No one else I knew had a home aquarium at the time, but still the desire to have an aquarium was always there on the backburner. Fast forward to 2004-ish in a well-established era of internet research, I was able to keep a 10-gallon community tank going for several years with tetras and mollies, and really ramped things up in the past 11 months.
  24. StephenP2003
    Agreed. It would be a difficult choice, but at this point I'd end up choosing guppies. Maybe it'll change as I get more advanced.
  25. StephenP2003
    Thanks for the info. I do like the soil idea since I imagine it would promote strong bottom roots for stem plant trimmings, but maybe I'll start simple first.
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