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Matthew Grob

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  1. Matthew Grob
    All of my aquariums are tropical freshwater. I have a 5.5 gallon betta aquarium filtered by a small sponge filter, 10 gallon betta/clown pleco aquarium filtered by two sponge filters, and a 20 gallon corydoras and swordtail aquarium filtered by a Aquaclear 50 with an additional small sponge filter for added aeration.
  2. Matthew Grob
    Which brand would you suggest? I've been interested in getting one especially after last night's nightmare.
  3. Matthew Grob
    In need of some advice. We lost power for about 15 hours yesterday after we had a severe thunderstorm, power wasn't restored until 6am this morning. I put the filter media in bags in my aquarium with tank water. Back to this morning, my 29 gallon which houses my angelfish and bristlenose pleco was littered with bubbles across every edge of the aquarium. My angelfish was in distress with heavy breathing. Did a quick test and found that my nitrites were measuring in at 0.25 ppm, ammonia 0ppm, and nitrates at 40ppm. I did a 30% water change, dosing Prime and Stability. I'm going to retest later tonight and tomorrow morning. My question is, with my cycle "stalled" from the power outage, what can I do in the meantime until my nitrites are completely at 0ppm? I have 3 other aquariums running currently, and my 29 gallon is the only one having cycle issues after testing my other tanks. I can't take any filter media from any of the other tanks, I'm too afraid it'll cause issues as well for those tanks. First picture below is the test results from this morning, and the second picture is the 29 gallon as of right now. The angelfish and pleco seemed to have calmed down, both acting more normal now. Filtration running is a Aquaclear 50 with a Large Aquarium Co-Op sponge filter. What would you guys suggest in the meantime?
  4. Matthew Grob
    That wouldn't be an issue as far as maintenance and feeding goes, I just wasn't sure if they'd have enough floor space in a tank that size. I'm hoping I can find some Mystery Snails too, I haven't had any in about 2 years. Pet stores are over an hour from me, and every time I've looked for Mystery Snails I haven't been impressed with their selections. Wouldn't a clown pleco eat off of a rose flame sword, or is that just strictly amazon swords plecos eat?
  5. Matthew Grob
    Do you think there'd be enough room for let's say 5 orange Venezuelan corydoras and a clown pleco in a 20 tall?
  6. Matthew Grob
    I'm in the process of rescaping my 20 gallon tall. I found this awesome piece of driftwood to use a few weeks back, and now I'm wondering what plants I should add to this aquarium. I might end up removing one of the sponge filters, not completely sure though. The tank is at the moment empty, but I will be adding a clown pleco to this aquarium somewhere down the road (not sure of what other inhabitants I'll include just yet). The light is just a Nicrew, fertilizers would of course be Easy Root Tabs and Easy Green. Substrate is just Caribsea's Sunset Gold sand. Low light plant recommendations are greatly welcome. 😊 bonus points for stocking suggestions too.
  7. Matthew Grob
    Here's the update on the tank. Sorry I haven't posted sooner, life has been busy this past weekend. Tannins set in over the weekend from the Indian Almond Leaves, pleco very much enjoys ruffling through the leaves at night. Parameters are still sitting in at 0ppm for Ammonia and Nitrite, Nitrate still at 5ppm thankfully. Angelfish is doing much better, I'll be resuming my weekly water changes later this week at 25% as well. Crypts are melting back some still, nothing I'm too concerned about. They've melted back before and usually come back even better from the few times I've experienced it in this tank. Here's the tank currently full of tannins.
  8. Matthew Grob
    So just to give everyone a morning update, I tested the parameters this morning and everything's looking good so far! I'll be keeping the lights off for today, I'll probably turn them back on tomorrow for reduced hours to help limit stress. Fish were treated to frozen brine shrimp this morning. I also added in some Indian Almond Leaves last night too.
  9. Matthew Grob
    Fish have been added, they're a little stressed right now as I would imagine but they should calm down overnight since lights will be off til' morning. I'll test the water parameters in the morning to see what I'm looking at, hopefully I won't stall the cycle again like I did originally when I switched tanks. Thanks for all of your help @nabokovfan87! I'll keep this thread updated as the tank progresses and how the fish react 🙂
  10. Matthew Grob
    The tank is back up and running for the most part, waiting for the temps to be close enough that I can move the fish back and will start the sponge filters running back afterwards.
  11. Matthew Grob
    I'm filling back up the tank currently, this might take awhile. Anything I should do particularly to the sponge filters before I reintroduce them, should I just squeeze them in the water while they're in the pitchers before I readd them?
  12. Matthew Grob
    So I have removed the angelfish and pleco and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with airline running, I have the filter media inside of the bucket as well. Plants have been pulled and so has the driftwood piece. I can't bring a hose in to flush the tank walls out, so I've had to improvise and spray down the walls of the tank with just a standard spray bottle and keep wiping with a paper towel as so. As I stirred the substrate, there was a lot of something bubbling out and there was a minor film to it, so I've kept syphoning water out. As I'm writing this I have almost drained the whole tank, minus the sand/gravel substrate of course. And once everything has been wiped down, I'll start refilling! I'll keep this thread updated as stuff progresses. Angelfish and pleco seem to be doing okay in the bucket right now.
  13. Matthew Grob
    As far as the driftwood, plants, and pretty much all of the equipment and inserts go, I should just give everything a thorough rinse with regular water before adding back to the tank correct? I might try adding the sand in a bucket and rinse it out repeatedly so I can empty the tank itself and flush it out, then wipe everything all down. Then put everything back in the tank slowly and safely, redose what's needed. Anything in particular I should do about the filtration? Just keep it in regular tank water correct, like I did initially when I swapped tanks.
  14. Matthew Grob
    So essentially you want me to drain the tank and all of its contents and flush it out thoroughly, right? The tank is an Aqueon 29 gallon, filtration running is a Aquaclear HOB 50 with a large and a medium sponge filter by the Co-Op.
  15. Matthew Grob
    I just checked the pH, it's reading in at about 7.6 which is the standard for my aquariums. I have well water, so my water's typically on the hard side. There hasn't been any oily residue in the tank from what I've seen. During my 29 gallon swap I kept my filter media in other pitchers of old tank water to help keep them hydrated and try to keep them alive. I just wish I could find out what's the irregularity in my tank is so I can get it fixed. I had someone recommend performing a 50% water change with solely Seachem Prime and let it sit for a few days and see if the weird bubbles go away with the lights off as well. I might try that, or just resume a 30% water change in the meantime.
  16. Matthew Grob
    I cleaned the tank initially with a vinegar solution, flushed it out and let it dry out. I used two 20 pound bags of Caribsea Crystal River sand, I thoroughly rinsed those out in a pitcher of water repeatedly until the water ran clean. I did the same thing with the gravel and large river stone, ran it through a pitcher until the water ran clean free of debris. The pitchers I used are strictly for tank maintenance, after each use I would disinfect it with a bleach solution and let dry for 24-48 hours. The gravel was Imagitarium Snowy River, and the large river stone was Caribsea's large river stones, both purchased from Petco I believe.
  17. Matthew Grob
    Forewarning, this is going to be a long post as I've been dealing with this since last Friday. Any and all advice is very much welcomed as I'm not sure how to go forward and rid my tank of whatever is currently plaguing it and my fish. So I've been dealing with an issue with my main aquarium and I could use some advice. Friday of last week, March 18th I switched out my display 29 gallon aquarium that houses my angelfish and bristlenose pleco with a brand new 29. I used new sand and gravel as well as added in some large river stones, I of course kept the same plants, driftwood, and of course all of my filtration. I dosed Prime, Stability, and Safeguard to help with the move as I knew it would be stressful. While I was exchanging tanks, I kept my angelfish and pleco in a 5 gallon bucket with one of the sponge filters running in the meantime, both were fine in their temporary quarters while I got their home in order. Later that day, I added them to the new 29 gallon. I noticed they were acting a little off with their breathing, and kept monitoring the tank throughout the remainder of the day. On March 20th, I was getting weird bubbles forming at the top of the tank in the corner where the sponge filter was. They weren't breaking like they usually would when they hit the surface, they were more so sort of gathering together. I did a 90% water change, redosed all the same seachem products and added carbon (carbon was added more as a precaution, and still is in the tank). At that time, I was checking water parameters daily (and still am) and my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all read in at 0ppm. March 21st I still had no reading on my cycle, but March 22nd I started reading in at 5ppm while still maintaining 0ppm for both nitrite and ammonia. On March 22nd I also performed a 30% water change. I ended up removing the new river stones as well, in case they may have introduced something to the tank (just out of a random guess). Still from March 23rd to even today, I'm reading at 0ppm for both ammonia/nitrite and reading 5ppm for nitrate. I'm assuming during the tank move I either crashed/stalled my cycle, but now that I've got it back I'm not sure what else to do about my fish. My angelfish still seems like she's having issues, she's only calm when the lights are off so the majority of the past couple of days I have left the lights off. My crypts in the tank are melting back, I figured that would happen given recent events (I'm not concerned about losing my plants, I just want my fish to be okay). The bubbles from the sponge filters are still a little odd like they have been previously and haven't really changed any at all. I guess I'm asking is what should I do next? I'm just stumped. My pleco for the most part is acting fine, it's just that my angelfish still seems like she's very stressed from her breathing and irregular behaviors since the tank move and even today (almost a week later). I don't want to lose either of them, I've had my pleco for about 8 years since she was a baby and my angelfish almost 2 1/2 years. I've still been dosing daily Seachem Prime, Stability, and Stress Guard. Carbon is still in the tank as well. The water has never once been cloudy during this issue. Attached below are photos from the past week of everything. The top two photos are from March 18th when I swapped the old 29 with the brand new one. The second set of photos are from March 20th, showing the gathering bubbles and how they wouldn't break off as normal. This standalone picture was from March 22nd from when I was doing my 30% water change to show the gathering bubbles from the hob filter. This picture above shows the test results from today, March 24th with ammonia and nitrite still being at 0 and the nitrate still at 5ppm. This final picture shows the 29 gallon aquarium today, March 24th, bubbles still the same with my angelfish still being very shy and stressed.
  18. Matthew Grob
    My mistake, let me rephrase my post.
  19. Matthew Grob
    What's your favorite kind of driftwood to use in your aquariums? I'm looking for a good centerpiece driftwood for a 29 gallon aquarium to accomodate my bristlenose pleco. About a month ago I thought I had found the ultimate piece of driftwood, but sadly I didn't measure it and it ended up being too big for my 29 gallon. I was thinking of using some basic river stones to accent with the driftwood, and add a few small crypts in and maybe a lily as well. Here's an older pic of Cheesecake my albino bristlenose pleco attached below:
  20. Matthew Grob
    I've thought about using Paraguard just as a general precautionary, I'm just paranoid about something lingering in the water at the same time. I've had my encounters with columnaris in the past and while I know this wasn't columnaris, I've seen how dangerous and deadly it can be first hand and don't want to risk introducing anything to any of my current fish or new future fish.
  21. Matthew Grob
    I have a clown pleco I'm planning on moving from his current 20 gallon to a 10 gallon for quarantine. There's 2 reasons why I'm moving him for quarantine. I plan on rescaping the 20 gallon aquarium completely in the next few months. And most importantly, the 20 gallon aquarium used to house a handful of guppies but sadly each guppy passed from an illness I couldn't identify nor treat. Over the course of my fighting battle with the guppy's mystery illness I had used (these treatments were not combined, used separately) Kanaplex, E.M. Erythromycin, and Fungus Cure. Nothing worked, one guppy passed at least once if not every 2 months. The clown pleco that lived with them never showed any signs of distress and continues to act normal. It's been at least 3-4 months since I lost the final guppy, since then the pleco has lived on it's own. I guess my question is when I move the clown pleco to his 10 gallon quarantine tank, what should I treat him with so I don't run the risk of reintroducing the disease again? I'll be sterilizing all of the salvageable materials from the 20 gallon, emptying it out for awhile in the meantime before I start it all over again.
  22. Matthew Grob
    I'm looking at setting up my next 10 gallon aquarium using possibly fluorite but I've heard a lot of mixed reviews/opinions on how to initially deal with it (rinsing and what-not). What's the best way I should add it to my aquarium when setting it up without causing a disaster?
  23. Matthew Grob
    This is like exactly what I'm looking for, thank you so much!!! Are there any other steps you would recommend me taking to protect it from water spills or anything? Like if I needed to add some kind of coating to it or put something on the actual shelf as well?
  24. Matthew Grob
    I'm interested in buying a shelving unit that I can use to house 2 10 gallon aquariums for my bettas per shelf, does anyone have any recommendations? And any helpful tips on how to reinforce it to make it "water resistant" and extra sturdy if possible so I won't have any problems down the line. I'm looking for something to fit along these dimensions if possible: 48 in. W x 72 in. H x 18 in. D I'm not crafty whatsoever otherwise I'd make my own tank stand, so just buying the shelving unit would work best in my situation.
  25. Matthew Grob
    Can't wait to see what it's like when fully planted! 😍
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