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Andy's Fish Den

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  1. Andy's Fish Den
    Don't worry about not keeping your tanks clean and perfect. All my tanks have mulm build up and algae etc except my one display tank that is in my bedroom. I have found my Corydoras weitzmani spawn more often and all the more i let the tank go and get gross. There is overgrown java moss, and guppy grass in it, all kinds of leaves that have broken down and detritus. I believe that it helps the fry. They have places to hide, and plenty of microscopic foods to feed off for the first few weeks of their lives.
  2. Andy's Fish Den
    The fry look pretty tiny, what are you feeding them at first? I haven't attempted any barbs yet, but the rosey and cherry barbs are on my list of fish I want to work with.
  3. Andy's Fish Den
    If I remember right, in one of the videos with Dean in showing the Ziss hatchers, he said the BBS started dying off after 36 or 48 hrs. I don't know if its due to temperature, or because he hatches a lot of BBS. When I am hatching BBS because I have fry, I intentionally hatch extra, then feed the fry and all my fish with. then I take the extra, rinse in fresh water and freeze. I have a silicone ice cube tray that makes the little cubes about the same size as the packaged ones you buy in the LFS. This way, I can pull a couple out and feed tanks whenever I want.
  4. Andy's Fish Den
    Took this at 4am today while I was snowplowing for work. We had 14" of snow yesterday, and then last night freezing fog, which made this tree extra frosty. Temp was -6°F when I took pic.
  5. Andy's Fish Den
    What you found is more than likely a blackworm. Blackworms will make their way into the substrate of an aquarium and reproduce if the fish don't get them. I love to feed them to my corydoras because the worms get down in there and multiply, and then when one decides to poke its little head out, a catfish slurps it up and has a nice snack.
  6. Andy's Fish Den
    My wife used to make fun of me all the time because I have bins in my shop of all sorts of PVC parts, other plumbing parts, electrical parts, you name it. She would call me a hoarder. She stopped once we had a plumbing problem before we had a bunch of people over for Thanksgiving, and I went out to my shop, got the parts I needed and got it fixed in under a half hour. I just looked at her and said "That's why I keep spares parts around!" I also keep a spare sump pump in my basement with a discharge pipe already connected with a union, so that if mine takes a dump all I have to do is unscrew the union on the old, and swap in the new. I've had to do it once and got it switched out before the water even reached the top of the sump pit.
  7. Andy's Fish Den
    You could add a couple otocinclus to help with algae, and they very well could school with the pygmy corys. With corydoras it is usually better to have more makes than females, I try to have a ratio of at least two males for every female. It helps with fertilization of eggs to have more males. It is possible for your albino and venezuelanus corys to spawn together and produce fertile eggs, I would recommend to move one of them out of that tank and get a few more of whichever species you decide to keep and try to spawn. Hybridization in corydoras is usually frowned upon just like it is by rainbow fish keepers.
  8. Andy's Fish Den
  9. Andy's Fish Den
    I have both the Ziss breeder box and several of the Marina ones, and to be honest when I buy another, I will just go with the Marina ones. I don't think that it is any better than the Marina boxes for the money. I also put an extra airstone inside the breeder boxes when I am using them to add extra aeration, just run the hose through he hole that's in the lid.
  10. Andy's Fish Den
    I've done it both ways of setting up, planting the plants, let them grow some, grow a little algae and then add fish, and where I set up, plant it then put fish in within a day or two. I have not had any problems doing it either way, but I also put a lot of plants in, not just a couple little stems, and I keep an eye on parameters. I wouldn't recommend for a new aquarist to do it the latter way, but someone who has some experience and can notice problems starting before the become a big issue.
  11. Andy's Fish Den
    My favorite would be a red flame sword. But I like all the sword plants and the crypts. there are so many sizes, colors and leaf shapes to them.
  12. Andy's Fish Den
    I've built all my stands and racks I've ever had except the one for my 93 cube tank, and that is only because I won the tank and stand in a raffle and the stand was a nice solid one already. I just use 2x4 for all them, if the tank is longer than 4 feet, I put a vertical brace in the center. Even stands that I have built that went in my living room, not in my fish room, I just made a frame out of 2x4 and the wrapped in 1/4" plywood, and used stock moldings from Menard's to dress up corners and edges. This is an older pic of a double 40 breeder rack I built
  13. Andy's Fish Den
    I would cut back on water changes, and with only a 7 gallon tank, the stocking level might be a little high, which could be the reason you are having ammonia, along with using the ADA Amazonia which will also give off ammonia when it is new. You shouldn't have to dose that much fertilizer with using the ADA soil unless it is old and getting depleted. You want to have ~20ppm nitrate in the water, which you aren't accomplishing by doing the water changes. Have you tested your source water? If you have city water, they could be treating with chloramines, which could be part of the problem. I would cut back water changes, test water to make sure the nitrogen cycle is taking care of the ammonia and you are ending up with nitrates Just saw @Coryreplioed and said basically same thing I was typing out.
  14. Andy's Fish Den
    I know it costs more up front, but you may want to consider an RO unit. There are carbon blocks that will remove chloramines. As for what to use, depending on what kind of shrimp you are keeping, there is products by salty shrimp, they have a GH/KH+ and another GH+ which is what I use to remineralize RO water for my caridina shrimps.
  15. Andy's Fish Den
    USPS is all messed up right now. I ordered a bunch of stuff last Thursday, one being a Fluval 3.0 so it got shipped separate. Both packages shipped at same time Fri morning, The light was at my door Monday at noon. I still haven't gotten my other package and its not out for delivery today. They went to totally different distribution centers. The package that hasn't shown up went to center about half hour from me, and then to two different ones over an hour further away. Thankfully, its just a bunch of dry goods, no live plants this time.
  16. Andy's Fish Den
    It's always nice finding surprise fry.
  17. Andy's Fish Den
    Most clubs are doing online activities instead of in person meetings now. I am a member of three clubs and all have done several online things. There are also several larger clubs that have advertised on Facebook and had online webinars and programs that anyone can join in on. I have been on for a talk that @Dean’s Fishroom did with one of the Chicago clubs, and have taken part in programs with several other well known fish keepers.
  18. Andy's Fish Den
    My suggestion as well, boil, drain and rinse, then let sit in clean fresh water should get most tannins out.
  19. Andy's Fish Den
    Check where the ball valve to shut off water flow is, the hole in the ball valve is a lot smaller diameter than the hose as well. Another thing, it depends on the water level in the tank. It could be that as you remove water from the tank, the water level gets closer to the level that the faucet is, it is harder for the venturi to suck water out. Even if using it as a siphon, if you had two tanks stacked on top of one another, the top one will drain a lot faster than the bottom.
  20. Andy's Fish Den
    I have never had to treat a tank with levamisole "knocking on wood" so I don't know if it will kill off the bio filter, but it sure sounds like it did, or there was so many worms in the tank and the fish that it overwhelmed the bio filter that was established. But, what I would do if I was in your situation is the following: get some carbon and put in a media bag then put in a hang on back or canister filter and run, change it out every other day just so that the carbon is fresh and doesn't get depleted. Do water changes, I would do in the neighborhood of 50% every other day, making sure to vac the substrate to get any worms or other nasties that are dead. Use a beneficial bacteria booster like Fritz zyme 7 to help boost up the beneficial bacteria, adding in every time you do a water change.
  21. Andy's Fish Den
    I've left my tanks for over a week without any feeding. When I am going away for more than a few days I feed them heavy for a few days before and then the day before I leave do a 50% water change.
  22. Andy's Fish Den
    Welcome, and congratulations on your little bundle of happiness there! When my oldest was a baby, I had a 29 gallon saltwater tank in mine and my wifes bedroom. My son would love to be held and stare at the tank, matter of fact, when he was crabby, the only two things that would settle him down was to take him in the bedroom and sit in front of the tank, or turn on Mickey Mouse clubhouse and let the theme song play.
  23. Andy's Fish Den
    I'm intrigued by the owlet sitting there. Did you just happen to notice it sitting there or what? I used to volunteer at my local park district working with injured raptors that are used for educational purposes, and love the birds of prey.
  24. Andy's Fish Den
    I love how bright green that corkscrew val is!
  25. Andy's Fish Den
    That's the way I was leaning, I figured it would give a little more light spread. Your three part series on these lights were very helpful for me to get the light set up, eventually I may even try out the pro mode.
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