StephenP2003
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Posts posted by StephenP2003
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14 minutes ago, Harpsandfish said:
I have a single reticulated hillstream that came as a hitchhiker on a plant from the Coop, and he lives happily with a bunch of green neon tetras, rasboras, a couple sunset honey gouramis and a bunch of snails. He plays all over the tank and isn’t shy. He’s beautiful!
Dang, that's like winning the hitchhiker lottery.
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It unfortunately doesn't turn the surface skimmer all the way off, but it's something. And yeah, it's really weird it's not in the manual.
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3 hours ago, Streetwise said:
I was researching Bucephalandra a bit today, and I learned a new term.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheophyte
"A rheophyte is an aquatic plant that lives in fast moving water currents in an environment where few other organisms can survive. Rheophytes tend to be found in currents that move at rates of 1 to 2 meters per second and that are up to 3 to 6 feet deep. The amount of force produced by these currents, and the damaging debris they can carry, makes this environment inhospitable to most plants. Rheophytes are able to live in such environments because their leaves are streamlined so as put up little resistance to the flow of water. The leaves tend to be quite narrow and flexible as well. In order to prevent the plants from being uprooted, Rheophytes have an extremely strong wide spreading root systems.
Many Rheophytes live in areas that sustain flash floods and they are dependent on the oxygenated water and buoyancy brought along with it. Simply being an aquatic plant with narrow leaves is not a sufficient condition for being a Rheophyte. Also, plants that grow in slow moving water that occasionally receive fast currents aren't Rheophytes either if they don't need these fast currents to survive. Plants that fall into this category are known as facultative rheophytes. When low water levels occur Rheophytes often quickly begin to flower to take advantage of these occurrences.
Examples of rheophytic ferns are Asplenium obtusifolium, Osmunda lancea, and Tectaria lobbii."
You plant nerds... I'm just now learning how to keep them (mostly) alive.😆
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An update. For the first time this evening, I saw breeding tubes, and then this happened:
I've had these angelfish for 16+ months, and this is the first time I've seen them spawn, confirming the yellow and white one is a female. I would've thought they'd spawn long before this.
But this tank is also full of rainbows, so I expect these eggs won't last long.
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What's up with this guy? See video below. I've had the corys for 6 months. This is my daughter's tank, so admittedly I don't pay as much attention to these fish, but I noticed one of them spinning yesterday, but I watched only briefly and thought it was just excited. Today, the swimming pattern is a lot crazier and obviously something is wrong.
- PH 8
- Nitrates 20
- Hardness 6 dGH
- Nitrite 0
- Ammonia 0
- KH 7 dKH
- Temperature 75F
Tank is over a year old, no other fish showing symptoms.
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I've had multiple dreams where I couldn't keep my fish contained. They'd keep coming out and flying around the room like bugs. Definitely had the dream about a forgotten neglected tank as well.
Recently had a dream where I was having a cup of hot tea and discovered otocinclus in the cup -- I frantically looked for a safe place to get them out of the hot water but all my tanks had predator fish (I don't actually have any tanks like that).
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Overplanting? Never.
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I own a few magnet scrubbers, some of them terrible and others fantastic.
1. small Imagitarium Magnet from Petsmart/Petco or wherever -- You might as well shout at the algae. You'll get the same result for 0 dollars. Maybe works OK for the thinnest of thinnest glass?
2. Flipper - nano size--Better than the above magnet because it at least has a scraper, but it's still too weak for 1/4 inch glass. I bought it for my Fluval spec but then realized that tank's glass is just as thick as my other tanks.
3. Flipper - medium-- This is better, but still not good enough for any glass thicker than 1/4 inch, unless you're just dealing with biofilm. The "flip" component is more of a gimmick, and while the blade works ok, the pad is too soft. Think they over-focused on the anti-scratch aspect and not enough on strength. It also doesn't float but I think the company recently released floating versions.
4. Hygger - medium size (with the wood-like handle)-- I actually think this is the minimum magnet strength needed for most aquariums (10-55g). The pad is coarse, the scraper very effective, and I like the wood look. Wish there was one just as strong but more compact for nano aquariums.
5. Mag float (large with scraper) - stronger than the hygger, I like it equally though. More expensive but probably what you'd want if you're dealing with 3/8" glass or really tough algae.
6. Algae Free Hammerhead -- I use this on my half-inch glass 90-gallon. It's the strongest of the bunch, looks the best, and costs the most, but it's pretty much the minimum I'd recommend for half-inch glass.
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1 hour ago, Ken said:
That is gold. Have you measured how much is dispensed per pump?
Depends on where you get them. The first batch I bought dispensed a half milliliter per pump -- great for nano tanks. Another set I bought dispenses 5ml every 3 pumps, which I prefer. I imagine there's many variations including the common 1ml/pump. I wouldn't mind a 5ml/pump option to fertilize my "high tech" tanks.
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Oh man, I love seeing this stuff, especially when people are well organized. Like it never occurred to me to use command hooks to hang nets and such, but it's such a simple and perfect solution to the nets laying around the house. I always leave my equipment near the last aquarium I worked on, and then I have to roam around the house to find stuff because I'm an imbecile.
I have cabinet space near or under every tank, but here's the stand I built for my 90 gallon.
Left cabinet has the fx6, plugs, air pump, and the diy co2 inline diffuser.
Just a feeble attempt at organization on top of random junk.
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Happy new year! Hoping for a newer new normal.
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Wife and I about to stream Two Bears One Cave live in a few minutes.
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11 minutes ago, Lynze said:
I'm with @StephenP2003 on being loyal to neither brand and grabbing what I have on hand. I do like the pump though.
I just bought my own pump tops and keep a few old seachem bottles on hand. The size 24-410 pump tops fit the seachem bottles, so I buy what I can in bulk and fill up. I use them for my custom mixed ferts (low nitrate, 0 phosphate), Mineralize (dissolved calcium and magnesium), and prime/whatever.
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No brand loyalty here. I end up waiting until I'm almost out of dechlorinator and buy whatever I can get in time for the next water change.
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Here it is. I tested two tanks this time. The first one is my betta tank with pygmy corydoras, white cloud minnows, cherry shrimp, and a billion baby snails. This tank has never been fed an O-nip tab, so they weren't quite sure what to do with it other than catch the falling debris; it was a good test of disintegration rate.
The second test (also in this video) was my 40 breeder containing my largest fish (angels, rainbows, bronze corys), and they were actively eating on the tabs (still not as voraciously as the livebearers, of course).
Based on just the three experiments I've done, I am developing the following theories/opinions:
- Sera has reworked their "nature" formula to last longer than it did initially.
- The reworked "nature" formula now lasts significantly longer than even the original formula.
- The fish eat both, but do appear to prefer the original, and I think it's primarily because the original formula is dispensing food more easily. If not given the option of the easier food, the fish go after the nature tab just as eagerly but take longer to consume it all (I didn't film this bit, but I can if requested).
Now, to really confirm this, we'd need to get our hands on O-Nip tabs in different size packages from different sources to ensure there's consistency in batches. And if it is consistent, I dare say the new O-Nip tabs (the new new ones) are going to be part of the regular food rotation in my fish room.
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1 hour ago, Fish Folk said:
Let me explain this for y’all:
(1) “Hey look Mom, my pizza’s gone already!”
(2) “Um. Ok. Now eat your salad.”
#oldserarules
I'm reaching a similar conclusion, that one is preferred over the other, but for a reason I didn't expect initially. Another video coming shortly.
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Aquasky on this:
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7 minutes ago, Cory said:
For me when I did the test, it was that the new natural one made a lot more mess, falling apart easier. I didn't time how long they lasted on the glass. It could one was eaten faster than the other?
Oh yeah, I remember that video and it shows a huge difference -- maybe Sera realized how egregious the problem was and quietly adjusted the formula again. From the looks of my video, it really seems like the fish went after both equally.
So, maybe I should run another test in a breeder box just to observe the disintegration rate, and/or try in a tank that isn't so insanely stocked.
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I'd never used any Sera O-nip tab before the formula change, so I didn't have a baseline for what to expect in either of them. When I ordered them on Amazon, I got the new nature kind (in the smaller quantity box). My fish actually liked them, so I made an order for a larger jar, but this time I got the classic "old" version. I was happy because I figured they had to be even better, longer lasting than the new formula. Since I had both on hand, I decided to film my guppies and platys attacking both side by side and see the difference.
Short video below, but I'll just spoil it by saying that while I observed the fish swarming both of them at the same time, the new "nature" formula lasted the longest. Has Sera fixed the new formula, or is there some other explanation here?
I still have both old and new formulas tabs, and other fish tanks, if anyone has a suggestion for another experiment.
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Yep, I got one that I have to smack around a little bit to get it working again. Unfortunately, it stops working again after some time until I hit it again, but yeah I've quite a few spares. The only one that straight up died on me was the one I dropped in the tank.
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On 12/17/2020 at 4:48 AM, Karen B. said:
1- with what to fill the huge empty first compartment
Look into "InTank" media baskets. They are not cheap, but I do like them a lot for my fluval spec. They make them for the flex as well.
On 12/17/2020 at 4:48 AM, Karen B. said:2- Is it ok if I added a sponge filter in the 3rd compartment? It’s mostly so I always have one ready if I need a cycled one.
The compartment where the pump and heater go? I suppose some small amount of sponge material would be ok, but I worry about blocking water movement around the heater.
On 12/17/2020 at 4:48 AM, Karen B. said:3- If I want more lights, what do you think of the nicrew submersible led light?
Sorry, no experience with those. I also don't know how the fluval flex light compares to the spec (the spec doesn't have RGB customization). The spec light is a decent medium light.
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On 12/25/2020 at 2:55 PM, subramn said:
how many sera o-nip tab per day is recommended for 20 guppies?
Not sure. It's not something I feed them every day, just when I want to take pics or video or I'm in a hurry. Guppies will eat and eat.. until they die I presume. Start with one -- I often break them in half so too many guppies aren't crowding and competing too heavily for food in one spot. You'll see them all get some bites to eat at the very least, and that's definitely enough.
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1 hour ago, kammaroon said:
That is awesome. How can I differentiate Sera classic and new formula?
The new formula says Sera O-nip nature on the box.
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3 hours ago, ChemBob said:
What fish are in here? I think I saw guppies and platties, and a cory and a pleco. Thanks!
Platys, and guppies and yellow tiger endlers, plus a hybrid of those two, and a few other variety endlers that came from the tiger endler females randomly (seriously, I don't understand the genetics at play here and where the line between the two begins or ends. I'm slinging paintbrushes at a blank canvas). And yep, panda corys and plecos. The plecos are accidental. I was running their fry box with a fairly high current in this tank and a few inevitably made it out of containment when they were really small.
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Hillstream loach additions
in General Discussion
Posted
I impulse bought a strawberry spotted hillstream loach at my LFS, and released it into my 90 gallon on Saturday. I saw it in the glass that night but have not seen it since. Hopefully it'll emerge when it's more confident. That was a $20 fish.