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Hobbit

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  1. Hobbit

    ranks?

    It seems the badges aren’t counting our old posts, just our new ones. The playing field has been leveled! 😮
  2. Great idea! I’ll edit my post to include the “NERM week 2021” tag. That schedule sounds great! Thanks to both of you!
  3. NERM week is coming up in just one month! It’s time to start getting things organized. The first step is for everyone to confirm that they’re still interested in leading/organizing the events we discussed before. So leave a comment and let me know! If you don’t reply with a comment letting me know you’re still up for leading your event, I’ll assume the event isn’t happening. The second step will be to create a schedule. Please let me know in your comment how many days and posts your event will take. For example, my event will happen in two stages, but on just one post. I’ll post the recipe for “fish tacos” at least a week ahead of NERM week to give people time to gather ingredients, and then at the beginning of NERM week, I’ll comment and invite/remind people to post pictures of their tacos as well as videos of their fish enjoying them. People can reply with their pictures any time during the week. Once I have everyone’s individual event schedules, I’ll put everything together in a calendar for the week. I’ll post a simplified version of the calendar before NERM week starts to give everyone a heads-up of what to look forward to. I’ll include links to any events that require pre-planning or pre-NERM week participation, such as polls. Comment here and tag me with a link to any post you’d like linked in the calendar. 😊 You will be responsible for posting your event’s posts before and/or during NERM week. Let’s use the tag “NERM week” AND “NERM week 2021” so all our posts are easy to find. Current list of events: (let me know if I missed or need to update something!) Fish photo contest(s) by @James Black. Categories include: Prettiest Aquatic Animal - This can be a picture of whatever you want! You can have a picture of a turtle, frog, aquatic invert, fish, etc. The animal MUST be aquatic. Unfortantley this aquatic animal MUST be freshwater, as pretty much any saltwater fish would win. Water Dog - A video of your most persoanble fish. The video can be uploaded through youtube or just from your computer. Prettiest Betta - A Picture of someones betta. The Prettiest Betta Wins! The Comeback Kid - A before and after picture of a fish's journey through a disease. This could be a picture of a fish that looked almost dead at the petstore so you took it home, saved it and now its the healthiest its ever been. The fish that has had the biggest comeback wins! Note, that it does not need to be a "rescue" fish. It could be a fish that got sick in your care. Ugliest fish? Tank competitions by @FlyingFishKeeper. Categories include: Best Scape - Fairly simple, must include a full tank shot. Best Scape Wins. No 2D Backgrounds to "fool" the members. (background that includes a amazon sword cannot be used as some may think its part of the scape) Solid colored backgrounds are permitted. Best Breeding Setup (BBS) - The best tank for both breeding, and in terms of appearance - Criteria: The submitted container must have had any sort of aquatic life breed intentionally. Best Invert Tank - Must include one full tank shot of a aquarium inlcuding only inverts! no fish! The post can also include macro shots of your shrimp/ snails. Tubbin' Time! - A picture of your outdoor water eco-systems. The picture MUST be taking outside! This can be your 3000gallon monster pond to your 5 gallon vase full of rice fish. It can even be a bucket of daphnia. The only requirement is that its outside and has living organisms in it. @Anita, @CorydorasEthan, and @KaitieG are organizing forum member-authored articles more info on that here A thank-you video thread by @Aubrey A forum highlights reel by @Daniel Recipe for Fish Tacos (tacos for fish) and thread for posting videos by me, @Hobbit (tentative) @Cory may do a live stream A meme contest/highlight reel hosted by @Betsy . Categories include: Funniest (L.O.L.) I Resemble That (Too real) Most Liked Meme (that one would be easiest - the meme with the most reactions in the thread would win) Sickest Burn Meme Want to Taco 'Bout It (Favorite Cory Meme) A taco-eating contest organized by @TheDukeAnumber1 and @Aubrey? A yearbook photo of forum-member profiles created by @Streetwise? On Nerm Day (7/14): everyone wear ACO or other fish merch and go to your LFS!
  4. I’m so sorry for your losses here, especially the discus you’ve lost. 😞 I don’t have a whole lot to add, other than there are some diseases that can show up after months of everything looking healthy. I can’t remember what they are of course but they do exist. I wonder if other people will be able to chime in about that. (I see you’ve used General Cure already.)
  5. I bet that pothos will fulfill the duckweed’s role in no time. When I did a pothos clipping a few years ago, I was convinced it hadn’t worked because after several weeks I still had no roots. Then all of a sudden, bam! Roots! So if it seems like nothing’s happening, don’t give up.
  6. If you need to raise your KH quickly, you can use baking soda. Start with 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons. Dissolve the baking soda in a jar of tank water before adding it in. After a few hours, retest and see where your KH is. My tap water is extremely soft with no KH to speak of. I add baking soda with each water change, and I also keep crushed oyster shell in my tanks. Baking soda will raise your pH as well as your KH, but that looks like a good thing in your case!
  7. I know I’m kind of late to this thread, but I thought I’d mention that if your stem plants are rotting away but your other plants are doing okay, you may have a potassium deficiency. You’ll see the leaves get holes in them at first. Then the plant will grow fewer, smaller leaves, and the stems will get brittle and rot into nothing. Easy Green does have potassium, but I wonder if the algae is just using it before your plants can get enough? Hard to say. I’m kind of feeling @Ken’s advice here to up your ferts. Something to keep in mind is that algae can adapt to changing conditions a lot faster than plants can. Looking at your pictures, I agree with you that something in your tank needs to change—just make a plan and try to stick with it for a while, only making small changes if possible. That’s easier said than done, of course! As far as the amano shrimp, yeah... I’ve killed some too. 😓 They definitely need supplemental food, particularly food with calcium. I got some amanos to help with the huge hair algae problem I was developing in my 10 gallon grow-out tank. I had super bright light on the tank and the hornwort, water sprite, salvinia, moss, etc were growing like crazy. An army of ramshorn snails took care of most other kinds of algae, but the hair algae was everywhere. My baby fish were actually getting fin damage from swimming through it. The amano shrimp helped me tip the balance though, as well as dimming the light a bit by covering part of it with black tape. I did have to give the amanos a leg up in the beginning by manually removing as much algae as possible. Use a toothbrush to twirl up the stringy stuff like spaghetti, and if you can, take plants out of the aquarium and rub the algae off with your fingers. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably reduce the light—since you said the tank is (was?) near a window it won’t need as much artificial light, get some amano shrimp and some high calcium food for them, make sure I had enough calcium (hardness, or GH) in the water as well, manually remove as much algae as possible, start dosing at least a full dose of Easy Green once a week, and then settle in for a bit and see what happens. There are plenty of valid strategies here though—that’s just the combo I’d personally pick. If you want to try the pots with organic soil, I’ve done something similar in the past and it’s a great strategy if you want to keep a certain kind of substrate contained. I use ceramic dishes meant for human food. 😁 Hopefully there’s something helpful in there!
  8. Thanks @Patrick_G! That sounds like an awesome job. At this point we’re planning on painting the base and staining only the top shelf. Hopefully wood putty and paint will cover a multitude of “happy accidents.” 😄 This is a question for anyone: has anyone ever used iron-on veneer edging to cover the edges of plywood for staining? (See link below) Not sure what else to do with the edges of the top piece. It’s maple plywood. https://www.acehardware.com/departments/building-supplies/lumber-and-trim/veneer-facing/5005152?store=03201&gclid=CjwKCAjwqvyFBhB7EiwAER786Wfw6F5GZMc4gGUoHouKiJ-nH8Yrid0rEryrLXYaVcwEaZTCxtOqshoC4igQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
  9. Ooof, I haven’t updated this thread in a while. For a bit, work and life got really busy, but I’ve made more progress the past two weeks. I attached the middle shelf, trying to make sure the legs stayed square as I did so. Keeping the frame clamped in place helped with that, though it did get in the way. Then I glued+screwed the small inner legs in place above the shelf. Progress... Next I took the top frame out and sanded one side to be very flat. The super-flat side will be the side the top shelf rests on. Looking for the light and sanding down the high points... (note the new orbital sander 😊) The next step was moving the entire thing inside. We decided bringing it inside and doing the final assembly where it’s actually going to go. We took off the diagonal braces!! 😃 Unfortunately we realized it rocked. 😩 What @Nephro’s said about working with construction lumber and everything changing overnight (or when you move it from one environment to another) is true and annoying. I think if we do this again we’ll be buying nicer wood that’s not pine! We flipped the stand on its side and found the high points in the base. Then my husband kindly took it out to the front porch and sanded the base flat for me. Two nights ago we put the stand in its final location to attach the frame. This way we could get it super level. Well, it turns out the inner legs ended up being very different heights. They were definitely NOT this different when I cut them!! But tolerances stack and things change. Talking it over, I got the impression that sanding the tall inner legs would be really tough, so we should shim the shorter legs instead. When my husband saw how big some of the shims needed to be though, he thought we should have tried sanding the inner legs after all. 😄 We ended up needing shims on some of the outer legs too. Oh well! The wood glue made the shims curl, so we ended up with a lot of clamps to make sure everything stayed flat and in place. We glued the frame in while we were at it. We’re getting there! Oh and I also found baskets. 😀 More than can fit on that shelf but... 😄
  10. The 27 gallon HDX totes do bow when full of water but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. The rim is very stable.
  11. Hahaha unfortunately no, we still have to hard boil them ourselves! Chickens’ brains are very, very small. They short-circuit very easily. I imagine their thought process goes like this: Must lay egg! Should go to nest box. It’s hot in here. Must leave coop. Must lay egg! Should go to nest box. It’s hot in here. Must leave coop. etc And yes, there’s definitely a “must lay egg!” squawk and a “I just laid an EGG!!” song. The smartest chicken also has a “I would like to register a complaint” sound that she makes when they’re out of food or she wants me to change the weather. 😆
  12. I’m in Maryland too and it’s so hot the chickens don’t want to sit to lay their eggs. They were walking around the yard screaming, they had to lay so bad. So I put a box fan and a wet towel in the window of the coop and locked them in there! Ope, there’s the egg song! I guess I can go let one of them out. 😄
  13. They are such a cute couple!! Mine are very friendly with me as well. Mom Fish is always greeting me at the glass. She’s not comfortable with the phone camera though—I think the two lenses look like giant eyes to her. My female does this too! After several days of the male murder-chasing her across the tank, all of a sudden he’s like “come heeeere!” And she’s like “uhhh seriously??” The mixed messages are real. Your tank looks like gourami paradise. Keep us updated with how the next spawn goes!
  14. I can replicate this problem on iPhone with Safari. It seems like an easy fix, from my very limited knowledge about websites. 😄 This happens for me too, but I don’t find it annoying. It probably depends on the dimensions on your phone. I *do* have the “You May Also Like” section at the bottom though. Overall I really like the new design! I’m not surprised there are kinks to work out since it’s so new, but still, the first time I saw the new site I was like “oooooooooo 👀“ Very sleek. Great job team!!!
  15. I’m using HDX tubs for my outdoor ponds this summer. They leeched chlorine for the first month+ they held water, but now it seems I’ve got all the chlorine out. This post talks about my experience a bit more: If you’re doing a lot of water changes and adding dechlorinator anyway, or if you don’t need the tubs right away, you’re probably fine to use HDX. The cycle in mine finally kicked off and I have platys in there now who are doing great. The tubs do have their issues though. I wouldn’t use them without test strips that test for chlorine.
  16. Ah! The honey gourami aggression question! Hopefully my experience can be helpful here. I’m intrigued by your theory about gold female honeys vs the wild type, but I can’t speak to it since I also only have a very gold female. Here’s my pair resting in the middle of flirting time: I have my gouramis in a 55 gallon community tank. My male (Dad Fish) is only super aggressive to the female (Mom Fish) when he’s guarding eggs or very young fry. When he has eggs to guard, he’ll see her from one side of the tank and cross the entire tank to chase after her. He basically chases her behind the driftwood into a corner, and when she’s out of his sight line, he lets her be. Otherwise, the two of them are buddies. They flirt, they poke each other, and Mom Fish chases Dad Fish away at feeding time. But everything changes when there’s a nest to guard. My guess is that your male did indeed have eggs he was guarding. Either you missed the nest among the floating plants, or someone in the tank ate the eggs. It’s possible the female was really hungry and decided to eat the eggs even though the male was trying to defend them. Maybe that’s why she got so beat up—I’ve never seen my female get injuries, though she can give Dad Fish a lot of space since the tank’s so big. My recommendation would be to wait and see what happens at the next spawn. If everyone’s getting enough to eat, maybe everything will be fine. If you’re still having aggression issues, try adding tall plants or rocks/wood in the tank’s center so she can get out of his line of sight. I control my gouramis’ spawns by adding or removing floating plants, and increasing or decreasing the flow. With increased flow and no floaters, there’s nowhere for Dad Fish to build a nest and he goes out of breeding mode. I’m not sure that’s an option for you though since you have a lot of floaters. At this point I would not get another female. In livebearers, adding another female gives the male someone else to flirt with. In the case of nest guarding though, I think you’d need a lot more than two gouramis to have any effect on the male’s aggression. The good news is fish tend to heal from injuries pretty well. As long as she’s not still getting attacked, she’ll probably be just fine. I also love animal behavior. I’m convinced gouramis are smarter than other similar fish since their brains have evolved to use and process info from their feelers. But maybe I just like gouramis. 😄 You have a beautiful pair, by the way!
  17. He is too funny! His enclosure looks gorgeous—those plants are really coming along! I’m not sure if this will work in your case, but I’ve read that the gnats feed on fungus that grows on the soil surface. One way to prevent this is to cover any soil with sand. I don’t know if Gandr is used to sand or if that would just be a huge mess for you, but it works well in my houseplant pots.
  18. Alright I got some new ones. 1. Moving my summer tubs around and breaking a glass thermometer in the grass. 2. Trying to find Aquarium Co-op in an indoor mall but just wandering around with no luck. 😞
  19. @Patrick_G thanks! Progress feels slow in real life, but when I save all my pictures and post at once it definitely makes me feel productive!
  20. I’ve used clear plastic placemats as lids. And foam blocks. And old shelves. Whatever I have lying around. 😆
  21. Yay! This is good news for me because I’m doing platys in outdoor tubs this summer. I’ve been worried about them surviving the temperature swings but they’ve done great so far!
  22. I would say yes, add a lid. At least at the beginning. I lost a platy when it jumped out of one of my tubs the first evening I had it. ☹️ I actually found it before it was crisped and it started to come back to life, but the next morning it was dead. In my (limited) experience, fish tend to jump when they’re in a new environment. I lost two tetras to jumping within a week of getting them. Still, I didn’t put lids on my platy tubs because apparently I have to learn my lessons the hard way!
  23. This looks amazing! I already basically never trim so I’m not sure I qualify for this game. But I’m definitely going to spectate!
  24. Lots of fun things going on in the 55 gallon. For one, I have a sword flower! Those pictures are a week old or more. It’s made it out of the tank now, but it hasn’t bloomed. We’ll see what happens! I decided to do a water change and make things look real pretty so I could get a new full tank shot. For some reason I got really determined to find a way to add water back into the tank without having to stand there the whole time, and without hooking up the hose to the bathroom sink. I borrowed a water pump that came with some exercise equipment my husband bought, and jerry-rigged a stand for it out of an A-clamp and a kitchen spoon. It was tons of effort and the pump took a really long time to empty 5 gallons. Plus it was really loud! The hose would have been easier, but I guess I was feeling stubborn. After much algae-scrubbing, the final result! The most exciting part for me is how much the plecos have changed the log. It used to be dark brown with algae and now it’s a light color. Old picture for comparison: The creatures are doing pretty well too. An Amano closeup: Feeding-time chaos: The tubs are doing well, too! We moved them outside now that the weather’s warmer. I did put heaters in both tubs since the night time temps still get into the 60’s. Kitty is sad though because she really liked drinking out of them. The platys weren’t bothered by her at all. In fact, they’d sometimes come up to her face to taste her whiskers! My husband and I are happy to have them out of the house though. We were still having mosquitos emerging from the tub—only 4 or 5 per day at the end. 😛
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