Andy's Fish Den

I have kept panda garra before in groups of 4-6 in a tank and have not noticed any aggressive behavior between the individual fish. I had got them because I had read as well as saw a YouTube video that they will eat black beard algae. I can not say that they actively eat it and will help with a BBA problem, but I would see them eating in the patched of the BBA i had in the tank, now whether or not they were eating the algae or some biofilm or some little morsel of food that got trapped in it, I don't know.

You could add some crushed coral to the tank or in the filter to help with the snail shells. Other methods people have also used is crushed oysster or egg shells. Even if the water has a 7.9 pH, it may not have enough calcium and minerals for the snails to have healthy shells.

I've been hatching BBS several times a week and noticed that it seemed my sieve was getting slower one day as I was straining the BBS out. After I got that batch strained and into a container to feed, I took the sieve and rinsed it out and I could see a film across it, so I took a little vinegar and poured it in a dish, and set the sieve in it for a few minutes then gently scrubbed with an old toothbrush I have to use in tanks, rinsed it out and the next time I used it, it worked much better. I think it got a thin film of build up on it, even though I always rinse it out after using it, but I have hard water so I'm sure there was some thing on it.

Blue tail goodeid fry is probably one of the larger fry of the goodeid species that I have kept, and they only have a few at a time. The adults get quite large as well, I have some that are pushing 3 inches. If you are keeping them, or any other goodeids in a community type tank, I would watch them closely with some fish, and especially corydoras. I had a group in a 40 breeder tank with some Venezuelanus cory and every so often I would find a dead cory in the tank. Then, one day i watched one of the big females go down and nail the cory a couple of times. At my next local fish club meeting I was talking to a guy who has spawned a bunch of different goodeids and he told me that he has had them do that as well and that was most likely why I was finding dead cory in my tank. So, I pulled all the cory cats out of my goodeid tanks and now I have a single or a pair of some strain of bristlenose pleco in each of my goodeid tanks.

@Peperehas given great advice above, . Go through the trouble shooting steps to figure out what is going on. I have used many bottle of different gases, co2, argon, oxy, propane, etc between work and home and have never had a bottle valve not work to where it wouldn't close. If you are trying to loosen the regulator from the bottle, be sure to close the valve on the can, and bleed off any co2 that may be remaining in the lines and regulator, either by taking the line coming off the bubble counter and opening the needle valve all the way to let it escape quickly or cracking the nut holding the regulator to the can. it may hiss out gas fo a few seconds. if it takes longer than a few seconds, tighten the nut and take the unit outside and loosen it. Let all of the gas escape before trying to attempt to take it the rest of the way off. If the problem is that the bottle valve will not close, take it to wherever you had it filled and be sure to let them know it would not close.

I would not worry about having 5 of each species instead of six. I think, a lot of people will say minimum of six for many fish so that people are not going into a store and buy one or a pair of fish that generally like to be kept in groups. One less fish in the group is really not going to make that big of a difference.

You said that the tank is a new set up, and I am guessing that the plants are new as well? If so, the swords are melting back, the emersed grown leaves are dying, melting, and new submersed growth leaves will grow in and take their place. You can either leave the dying leaves in and leave them be or you can trim them off. Be sure to use some root tabs with your swords, they are heavy root feeders.

I would get hold of some of the clear greenhouse panels. they are easy to cut with a box cutter or any kind of saw to customize them the way you want. Acrylic lids will warp over time, especially if they are 1/8", and even though it is acrylic, you will need a saw or drill to make holes and cutouts in them unlike the greenhouse panels.

That would be a nightmare of a LFS employee. talk about way overstocked!

I just got some of the coop tubifex, but have been using the freeze dried cubes for years. I don't notice any difference in how dense the cubes are or anything else. But, to feed my catfish and other bottom dwellers, I take a cube and hold it under water, and squeeze it, to get all if the air out of it, then you can take it out of the water and then squeeze the water out between your fingers. Once you have done that you can roll it into a ball and drop into the tank and it will sinkj to the bottom for the corydoras and others to enjoy.

Honestly, the biggest perk for me is getting to see the members only videos and the monthly speakers that the co-op has. I have only ever got to watch one or two live, but you can pull them up and watch at any time. Since you can't order online from the coop being in Canada, you miss out on that discount, but hopefully the store near you that carries their products will give you the discount. I know the two stores that I go to that carry the products give the discount to me. They will probably ask you to show them, but its really easy to how on your phone in the YouTube app.

I run two sponge filters in any tank over 24" long. I feel that anything over that long the circulation will be quite a bit less away from the filter.

If going to be gone for a month I would look into the autofeeder option, but at the same time you say three of four tanks are heavily planted, you may not have to worry about it, because if the fish load is small, there might be enough algae and bio life that can sustain the fish. If the tanks aren't covered, I would get covers on them to help keep down evaporation. I know even with lids, a couple of my tanks will evaporate quite a bit in a week. You'll especially want it for the saltwater tank, and if you don't have one already, get an auto top off set up for it. Otherwise you could come home to a tank with really high salinity if it has evaporated a lot of water.

No idea, I am not a chemist or whatever kind of scientist that would know. Carbon removes chemicals from the water, so, whatever chemicals I guess. I also know that there have been studies that have linked it to hole in the head disease in marine fish such as surgeonfish. Last I heard, they had not done a study on FW fish since there are some kind of cichlids that will get HITH as well. Carbon had been used for years in reef tanks to help with purifying the tank water.

Ever since I got into the hobby, I have done the plop n drop method. The LFS that I started buying fish from and then worked at as a teenager and early 20s always did it, and he would hardly ever lose fish, so it's what I did and still do. I float the bags for 15-20 minutes, open the bag and pour the fish out into a net that is set over a bucket, and then drop the fish into the tank. I have bought fish from several online sellers, aquabid, LFS, local fish club auctions, and imported wild caught fish and have done it this way, and have very minimal issues. I have even done it with neo and caridina shrimp. With the caridina shrimp, I ask seller what their TDS is and match it to the tank they will be going into and do the float, strain and plop.

Honestly, that stand doesn't look like it is too stable. I don't like how the top and bottom horizontal pieces that the tank sits on is not on top of the legs and just butts up to the legs. I can't tell if it is welded or what. I would use some wood to stabilize the stand, running a angled cross brace on each side as well as the back. That will most likely take the wobble out of the stand.

Looks like detritus worms. You will see them from feeding a lot. Most of the time fish will pick them off and keep in check but occasionally they will have an explosion of growth. Gravel vac the substrate will get a lot of them out, watch feeding amount.

Back 20 years ago, everybody ran carbon in their filters, but it has gone by the way side. As someone else mentioned it was found that if it is not changed regularly, it will slowly release whatever it has absorbed back into the tank. And, if you have a planted tank and using fertilizers, it will pull those ferts out of the water column. The only time I use carbon now is if I want to absorb any medications out of the water, and I use it for a couple days and pull it out.

I have one rimless tank, a 93 gallon cube. Rimless tank glass is thicker than a rimmed tank the same size so keep that in mind if it's going to be a larger tank. One of the biggest issues I have with mine is that I have fairly hard water, and the mineral deposits along the water line show since there is no rim to hide it like in my rimmed tanks in my fish room. I have to take a razor blade along the water line every couple weeks and scrape the line off.

Inspect the silicone very closely, and I always ask how long it has been sitting without water in it, if it has been empty for more than a couple of months and been stored outside or someplace not temp controlled, its usually a pass for me unless it is a heck of a deal. I won't pay more than 50 cents a gallon for tanks under 55 gallon, especially when Petco did the $1/ gallon, and even now with them only doing 50% off I still stick close to it, unless there is some other stuff thrown in that I can use or possibly resell myself such as filters or lights. I also always ask people for measurements of the tank, I have had a few times where they say its like a 50 gallon tank and I get there and its a 20 or 29 gallon.

I am not familiar with the unit that you have, so I can't help much concerning it. I have used a RODI unit for years, using it to make pure water for my reef tanks and now I use it when needed in my freshwater tanks as well. I have had a 75 gallon per day unit from Bulk Reef Supply for a long time, and I was in the same boat you are, of having about 5-6 gallons waste water to every gallon of RODI water. I got a booster pump kit from BRS, it boosts the water pressure up to 80 PSI and now when I use it is like 1.5-2 gallons waste to one gallon RODI water. I have noticed that I am not using the DI resin as fast as well.

For now, I would just let it ride and see if any of the eggs hatch, out of the large amount of eggs, you may get one or two fry that survive. If you intend to breed any egg scattering tetras again, whatever the species is, there are far better ways to do it, there are several videos on YouTube that have great details and instructions, and a lot of them will even go through what they would do to improve etc. After you see fry, I would pull the breeder box out and clean it good before using, if you want to use it to keep any of the fry in go ahead and use it like you have been, and use the turkey baster to suck out the uneaten food and waste. You are not the first person to accidentally spawn Glofish, nor will be the last, you just have to be careful in what you do with any fry, either giving them away or keeping them to expand your school of them.

Don't use the vacation feeding block. they are garbage and most of the time just end up polluting the tank. Fish will be fine without food for several days, I've left fish 10 days without food and they were all fine, just hungry when I got home.

Me personally, I would not worry about the difference too much. Fish are pretty resilient, and adaptable. Think about how much they are moved between different water parameters through the journey that they go through from being caught in the wild or even if tank raised. The only thing I acclimate for is temp, floating the bags for 10-15 minutes and then pouring the fish and water into a net and into the tank they go, no dripping, no pouring a cup of water from the tank into the bag every 10 minutes, just float and that's it. In my fishroom, when I move fish around or after QT, I put catch them, put in a specimen container, float that for 5-10 and pour the fish and water into new tank.

I have always done as @Fish Folksaid, adding a zero to the end as an estimate of the weight of a tank, or multiply by 10. Also, as a general rule of thumb, most floors in a house can hold at least a 55 gallon tank safley without any worries. If you are going any larger, I would suggest finding which way the floor joists run and placing the tank perpendicular )across) to them. Another trick to help spread the weight out is to have a piece of 1/2-3/4" plywood cut slightly larger than the footprint of the stand and put that down on the floor and then set the stand and tank of it, and it will help spread out the weight.