Ken
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Posts posted by Ken
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On 10/4/2021 at 4:52 PM, Fish Folk said:
This might be helpful…
For me, I’d just deal with it by letting plants absorb what Phosphate is made available in tap. Every once in a while, dose E.M. Erythromycin lightly to crush incipient Cyanobacteria.
Nice and easy. Don't borrow trouble.
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IMO the star of this production is @JimmyGimbal, well done! The shots in the corner of the screen with the fish in a specimen and the name of the fish they just caught are great.
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Nerites do a good job of cleaning up. In my case I just played musical tanks until I figured out who was putting the white dots all over (I have not embraced them 😉) and when the culprit was identified they to the LFS to find a new home.
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On 10/1/2021 at 7:53 AM, Solstice_Lacer said:
Celestial pearl danios are all the rage, and zebra danios are a staple in the hobby. What lesser known danios should be more popular? I've been looking into gold ring danios lately (danio tinwini).
I have Gold Ring Danios. The LFS brought them in at my request. They are very active but not skittish, quite pretty, school nicely and no heater required. The internet says they need soft water but mine are doing fine in my liquid rock.
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On 9/30/2021 at 8:24 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
@Ken let alone spaying and neutering!
All I think @BlueLineAquaticsSC was getting to is if anybody had any experience and if this was bad- and if it is they wouldn't do it. Seems the consensus is don't.
Yeah, I kind wandered down the whole pet keeping ethics hole.
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My neighbor has Dobermans, they cut off their tail, cut off their ears, cut off their dewclaws and then spay or neuter them. Apparently all that is what is normal for that portion of the pet ownership world. I'm not sure where I personally draw the line, I think I'll leave it up to those involved.
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I would be willing to bet my lunch money that you're local water treatment facility is set up to take care of any unwelcome plants that happen to go down the drain. Come on, think about what goes down drains.
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The whole world uses PVC glue for water pipes for people.
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I'm pretty sure you can put the heater wherever the heck you want. Early on I carefully placed them according to instructions with nothing nearby. Then I noticed that in quite a few videos done by people that had more experience than me @Irene they were tucked out of the way and and not even placed at the proper angle!? I've seen snails crawling on mine while the light it on. They must not get overly hot while in the water.
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On 9/24/2021 at 9:01 AM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:
Colorado (9100 feet up the mountain in Divide near colorado springs )
by way of (Fairfax, Arlington), Maryland (Silver Spring very briefly ), Texas (West Fort Hood with an almost 12 month visit to Iraq included with my ticket to that show), California ( Presidio Monterey) , Arizona ( Ft Huachuca 6 months), Hawaii (Schofield Barracks 3 years), Georgia ( Ft. Benning 1 year), Arizona (Tucson 4 years), Massachusetts ( Revere first 16 years)
I've hung my shingle in a few locations I do enjoy the spot we have settled in this is the view from the road that runs along the back of the house
I hope you love it there. You deserve it. Thank You For Your Service.
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On 9/24/2021 at 8:02 AM, Guppysnail said:
This song has been running in my mind since you posted it. 🙃 I'm not sure why. 😁
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Well, it wasn't as horrible as I thought. A nice tight root ball. I did it just before the water change so had the python hooked up and ready but didn't really need it until it was over. I just went very slowly.
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Get a handful of male (only) endlers. They are pretty, active, hardy and won't make any work.
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On 9/24/2021 at 7:28 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:
So, there are a number of classification systems that have been proposed to bin plants by growth form. This leads to many similar but distinct as well as distinct terms with overlapping meaning. So for example, from the Raunkiær plant life-form scheme you get hydrophyte, which would includes floating leaved water lilies and submerged hornwort. Several attempts to break aquatic plants down further have been made. People just accept that there are a few terms that can be used. But rather than getting hung up on the specific terms, I'll try to address the functional aspect of your curiosity, the plants that are actually adapted to growing under water.
Here I'll make a new classification system (hopefully this won't add to the confusion, but you see how these things can get out of hand). Essentially, we have 4 types of plants we use in our aquariums:
Floaters - This is the easiest group to categorize because they are grouped as such in nature and the hobby by their growth form. These are the plants that survive on the water surface and float there with roots dangling into the water column. These would include duckweed, salvinia, water lettuce, etc.
True submerged aquatics - These are the plants that naturally grow entirely underwater, with the exception of their flowers. These plants can't survive growing out of water. This group, like the floaters, are distinguished in their habitats. Here you'd have anacharis, val, hornwort, etc.
The next two groups are where it gets complicated because they are only distinguished by their success in remaining underwater in aquariums long term. That is not known a priori in habitat, but through experimentation in aquariums.
Submerged survivors (or something, I just made that up) - These are the plants that grow partly, or occasionally submerged in habitat, but can persist in this state long term. This is not a group of plants you would distinguish in nature, it's only known because of things like the aquarium hobby. Here you have things like the aroids (anubias, crypts, buce, etc.), the water lilies we maintain with only their juvenile leaves, java moss, etc.
Partially submerged - These are plants that grow part of their lives under water, either as juveniles or seasonally that can't persist under water throughout their lives without help. these plants are often kept in a juvenile state in the aquarium and you won't see them flower because of that. Note though, that many species we keep, e.g. water wisteria, are typically plants that grow only when young under the surface and then emerge to become adults, but they remain as young plants under the surface just find for aquarists. Here are the plants that often need a little coaxing to grow underwater long-term with things like CO2 addition and high light. Here would be things like cardinal lobelia, many of the tricky stem plants, etc.
No hard and fast rules separate the last two, and botanists wouldn't separate them as they are similar in habitat in many ways. Aquarists are the ones who care about these functional differences. On top of that there are plants that don't fit into any of these categories. Plants that are truly aquatic, but for some reason need CO2 to succeed in aquariums. I suspect the reason there is not a comprehensive categorization system is that it would need to be specifically for aquariums and would be changing all the time as new species are explored
Thank you. I have now read that post at least a dozen times. It answers exactly what I was asking. I hope others read this post, there is a bunch to be learned here.
You, my friend, are a great asset to all of us on this forum.
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On 9/23/2021 at 9:06 PM, Patrick_G said:
Hydrophytes
I wasn't clear in my question. A plant that only grows out of water is called ______. A plant that only grows under water is called ______. Plants that do both are called ______.
I have seen immersed (under water) and emersed (above water by our own expert above). And maybe my ignorance is making it hard, There are plenty of plants that will do both, so they could be called either depending what they were doing today. For our uses I think it would nice to know if there are, and which ones, plants that naturally do best living under water their whole lives.
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How does it average out? I keep seeing really pretty pieces of wood on the interweb and can't bring myself to throw the dice.
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On 9/23/2021 at 8:40 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:
So, I'm a plant physiologist by training. Perhaps I could take a stab at an answer...
Plants use CO2 as food. It's what they build their bodies with. But there are a number of inefficiencies. One of the big ones is the enzyme they are stuck with grab the C from CO2 and turn it into sugar (delicious and literally the building block of life on Earth!), RuBisCO. I tell my students that if they were majoring in BioEngineering at this point in history and designed RuBisCO they'd get a C+ at best. But, it is the most abundant enzyme on Earth and it's what much of life on the planet depends upon. The thing is, it's terrible at grabbing CO2, and CO2 is in low concentration in air, and can be even lower in water. This means plants are often CO2 limited. So, most plants benefit from additional CO2. On top of that, a number of plants that are grown as submerged aquatic plants in aquaria are actually plants that tolerate the condition, but naturally grow emersed. So they don't have the ability to grow submerged long-term, unless they have greater access to CO2 than they would in nature.
Great question! Hopefully that is useful.
First, what in the heck are the proper words for plants that grow under or out of the water? We're all over the map on here. Second, are there some plants that are commonly available in the freshwater aquarium trade that are naturally fully under water their whole life?
BTW thanks for responding.
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On 9/23/2021 at 8:23 PM, Zenzo said:
I think the answer is in your question. While pretty much most aquarium plants will grow with proper lighting and nutrients without co2 injected, some plants will do much better with injected co2. This may because our aquariums are really not "natural settings". Most of the plants that we have in the hobby are not naturally full aquatic plants, but have been conditioned to be able to live submersed. Many of the plants that we buy are grown immersed, because it is much faster for the farms to grow them this way, and the co2 in the atmosphere is readily available without injection needed.
In their "natural setting", they would be out of the water and getting much more co2 from the air.
That makes sense. So if you wanted plants that were really well suited to life in an aquarium you would populate it with plants that were naturally fully aquatic vs plants that can be grown under water. I just spent a minute trying to find the right single words for those conditions and gave up, if anyone knows chime in. I thought it was immersed vs emmersed, that ain't it.
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I wonder why I haven't posted this before. My little black sports car is named Betty, after this song.
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Where's @ARMYVET? He knows about these things.
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How can a plant need more CO2 than is normally available in water in a natural setting? 🤔
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My plants do better using the siesta method, root Tabs and plain 'ol Easy Green. I have a 20# bottle of CO2 with a really nice regulator on my welding cart out in a shed that will not be getting anywhere near my aquariums. It's not necessary for nice planted tank. Take the advice about trying one each of the easy plants, something will like it at your house.
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On 9/22/2021 at 7:38 AM, gardenman said:
The cheapest possible fish storage containers that are square are the IBC Totes. There is likely someone near you that uses them on a regular basis and you can often buy used 275-330 gallon ones for under $100. You have to cut off the top, but they're the best bargain bin out there. They're what bulk liquid ingredients are shipped in. If you check your Facebook Marketplace you're apt to find someone locally selling them. If you have any industries in your area and you look around their yards, you might find a pile of them just sitting there. It's not unusual for businesses to just give them away. If you have any failed industrial sites you might find some old totes left behind that you could sneak in and make off with if you're the sneaky type. Once you get one, I'd cut the top off, fill it and leave it sitting outside for a bit for the sunlight and water to dilute, decontaminate, or eliminate anything hazardous left in it. Once algae is growing in it, it's probably safe to toss in a few expendable fish to see how they do and if they live, you've got a safe, sturdy, square fish container at a bargain price.
Shipping liquids is a costly business and the cost of the IBC totes is often included in the purchase price of the liquid. It costs more to ship them back to be refilled than it does to just buy new ones, so businesses that use them tend to have them piling up somewhere on their property. Some places will just give them away, others want a token fee (typically $50-$100) to sell them. The more of them a place has piled up the lower their price is likely to be. If they can't find a buyer, they have to pay someone to haul them away. If you want a square container to hold fish at a low cost, an IBC tote is often your best bet.
Just for the fun of it I just looked on the local classified ads. Around here nice clean food grade IBC totes go for $80-$120. Either 275 or 330 gallon. Not so nice non-food grade ones as cheap as $35. They all seemed very up front about what the previous contents had been.
Happily for my married future I don't have an appropriate place for any.
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I'm setting up a new 10 gallon tank. Got the rocks and sand in tonight. The planting plan is epiphytes only, tucked in everywhere I can. Maybe some floaters if I can find something that appeals. The fish will be a handful of Pygmy Corys and Kubota Rasboras.
The rocks and sand came from the hill up the road. Filtration is going to be the two nanos tucked into the corners.
I probably broke all the "rules" of aquascaping so any suggestions are welcome.
Has anyone else noticed that spellcheck hates this hobby?
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How long do you wait?
in General Discussion
Posted
I wait until the water tests tell me the biological filtration has caught up. It varies, but isn't very long. As soon as the ammonia and nitrite go down again more fish!