Streetwise

Our minor league baseball team is named after the legendary Champ, Lake Champlain’s version of the Loch Ness Monster:

@ed gibbs, I am also in Vermont. Where I live, I use wood, which adds tannins to my water. I get all the minerals out of the tap. I’m near exit 10 if you want to compare notes.

Cheers @Ken! I got La Tourangelle on day one.

I keep all my fish in unheated tanks, including ember tetras in a 7.5, so you might enjoy those. I would also consider Otocinclus and/or Pygmy Corydoras, and neocaridina shrimp once the tank is well-seasoned.

Good news! I recommend having a bucket with a sponge filter or air stone so you can drop in your plants as soon as get them. Then you can plant at your leisure, with no time pressure.

Are you trying to add images to a post? They should resize. How many are you adding at once?

@eatyourpeas, I think the primary concern is cooking fish, and I like the strategy of two under-powered heaters. My failure mode is less-common, but can happen with water-ingress. Edit: I broke my fair-share of glass heaters when I was younger.

I detected stray current by getting a shock, and discovered a heater with corrosion. I removed all my heaters, except for a betta tank. I am out of the betta club, so no heaters.

@Patrick_G, @eatyourpeas, what oil do you recommend?

You may want to skim our Fluval lighting thread:

I found a cast-iron griddle in my oven drawer! How do I restore it?

I totally underestimated sponge filters. They are really the best, and they keep all the mulm and beneficial bacteria in the tank. I keep more plants than fish in every tank, and I squeeze-out the sponge filters into the water column to recharge the soil, feed the plants, and provide grazing food.

I have had bad luck with Bettas. I can keep everything else alive in normal conditions. I am not going to try to keep any for the foreseeable future.

Did it just melt? If the roots are healthy, it might come back.

I already shared this, but I like the shot: You are what you eat!

I will give you some time if you need to copy and paste. Is your preferred account tied to your preferred address?

Merging does not seem to be possible, but it seems like you were able to access both today. Please pick one account, and let us know.

@BettasAreSuperior, @LoneFox, @xXInkedPhoenixX: thanks for asking a new question! I do not know if this is possible, but I will do some research. If you also want to look it up, the forum software is Invision Community. Remember that logins are based on email and not usernames, after a security change we made. Any email that is still valid should be able to do a password reset. If not, we have other options. If you gain valid access to each account, and we cannot merge, you could copy and paste, and hide duplicate posts as necessary. Please try to reset access via forgot password with a valid email.

Speaking of wood from the woods: Comments from my 86-year-old dad: “Back to the wood piece. In the Fall I cut up a fallen branch of the dead maple at the base of the ledge at the top of the steep part of the drive. Cleaning up after, I pulled it (the piece), out of the accumulated ground litter, so I think the scruffy part is the remains of the stump of the Hemlock that was there for many years, before it began to get too close to the power line and I had GMP cut it down when they dropped a dead/dying maple just up the drive from it. The smooth part looks like it was a hardwood tree growing from within or adjacent to the base of the hemlock. They make an intriguing composite display. Other than cleaning dirt from the base, I did nothing else to it. I first brought it up and placed it on the big rock by the stone wall steps, but its beauty begged to be displayed better, and what could be better than the deck in view from the living room? Now that I have the photo, tomorrow I will forward it to Bergdahl for review.” We have a family friend who is a UVM forestry professor, so I will report back! GMP = Green Mountain Power UVM = University of Vermont (Universitäs Viridis Montis)

I couldn’t find the car thread.

The higher the frequency, and the lower the wavelength, the further light can penetrate water. This is why marine tanks have such a different color profile than freshwater, since you are simulating a deeper environment, with life attuned to the depth.

@Betsy created a great thread for aquarium acronyms and abbreviations:

Tannin-stained Amano shrimp:

@Atitagain, those are rubber plants. With their waxy coating, cuttings grow great at the top of an aquarium! @Torrey, that is an interesting idea. I’ve been too busy this week being lazy to tackle it yet. I’m thinking about removing the Jungle Vallisneria, and I want to get my hands in the substrate to really evaluate. This it what it looks like now, with the wood just dropped in to keep it wet: