Andy's Fish Den

I wouldn't use the RO water unless you specifically need it, like if keeping caridina shrimp and you need to then remineralize it. RO strips a lot of the stuff out of water, and can actually do some harm to the fish without having the dissolved minerals and stuff that the RO strips out of the water.

I live in a small town, up until a few months ago, the closest "fish store" I had was a big box one about 20 minute drive. The closest LFS was about an hour drive. But, a guy in my local fish club just opened an LFS a few months ago, and that is about a half hour drive. There are a couple of other LFS within a 45-60 min drive, but none I go into, super high prices, fish always are sick, etc. I envy those of you who live in areas that have 6-8 LFS within an hour or so drive.

I've bought some nice pieces of manzanita from Etsy. You can also find driftwood on eBay, as well as aqua bid.

Here in NW Ohio, we haven't had cold enough weather for a long enough period of time this winter to have anything freeze enough to be able to walk on. Back around Christmas we had a few days get down around zero or below, but my pond only got about an inch of ice even then.

If you are talking the red wrigglers, there are a lot of people culture them to feed fish. There are several videos on YouTube about raising them and feeding to your fish.

After watching the video now, it appeaser to me that it is tightened down quite a bit, I would try loosening the bottom portion up some. you will get larger bubbles. To me, it looks like it is too tight and not allowing much air through. I run these airstones in all my sponge filters along with just sitting in tanks like in the video and even with a USB nano pump, I get a lot more air coming out than what is shown.

There are black rams that show blue and then there are midnight rams which are solid black. I have seen YouTube videos from guys in Australia they call the ones that show blue a blue-black ram or a black and blue ram. IMO I would hold off and find some of the midnight variety

I would not fret over it. In my experience, shrimp have been a a lot hardier than everyone wants to let you believe. I don't need to remineralize my neocaridina tanks, I just use my tap water. All my shrimp tanks get a 10-20% change every two or three weeks. My caridina tanks that I do remineralize, I mix a batch of water up a day or two before I'm doing the water change getting it to the correct TDS. I will top off the tank with RO water before I start to be sure that the tank water is as close to the correct TDS and parameters before I pull water out. Siphon out what I need to and pour the new water back in.

I've never had an airstone be loud, it is usually the air pump itself and the sounds of the bubbles going in the water. Perhaps the air pump is too much for one airstone, and it is making some noise from back pressure?

As the old saying goes, don't trust that a fish won't at least attempt to eat if it will fit in their mouth. On the other hand, fish that I have kept successfully with neo shrimp include several varieties of corydoras. I have had thriving populations of shrimp in my pygmy, weitzmani, and A. spilotus cory breeding tanks. I've also kept endlers and limia perugia with shrimp and not noticed any babies being picked off. I have not had any other fish with shrimp, but I would think if their mouths are smaller, they would be good.

1. A goldfish I won at school carnival when I was in 5th grade. 2. My 93 gal cube I recently rescaped for Lake Tanganyika cichlids 3. I've been a member of the co-op YouTube channel since memberships were first available, then when @Coryput out a video saying he had started this forum, I joined it that same day. 4. Run all tanks in fish room with air power and use one linear piston air pump. 5. Identifying fish disease and how to treat them. 6.The zebra plecos that I had when they first came into the hobby back in the early mid 90s. I had about 8 of them and only paid $25-30 each for them. 7. Most get changed every week to two weeks. Percentage ranges from 20-50% depending on how many and what kid of fish are in tank. 8. I would want a rack of 20 gallons. Most fish I keep can be kept in 20 gallons, so then I could have multiple smaller scapes and species. 9. I spend at least 30 minutes watching tanks every day. And with a tank in my bedroom, I lay in bed every night and watch the fish, the timer will start dimming tank about same time I go to bed, so I can watch the tank as I go to sleep. 10. Any type of frozen foods.

I know that the Home Depot near me has the Husky shelving units that a lot of people use for rack on display in the store that you could measure it and see.

Its always exciting going to a club meeting and seeing what fellow members brought for the auctions held. I have been to club meeting that only had 20 items for auction, and then others where there is over 100 items at a regular monthly meeting. Most clubs will have a table that the bags of fish will be set on, take your time to check them out, if there are any fish or plants that you're not familiar with, use good old trusty Google. Take notes down for what fish or plants that you're interested in so that you can be sure to watch and listen for them to come up to bid. My club does with plants and equipment, you have to put a buy it now price on the bag, to where someone can just buy it, and not have to wait for it to go to auction. We had meeting that there was as many plants as fish so it helped speed up the auctions. There will be some plants not purchased with the buy it now, so will be auctioned, a lot of times they go cheaper than the BIN price, but I have seen them go for more. The good thing with a local fish club auction, you can know that a good majority of the fish and plants have spent some time in someone local tank, so they are acclimated to aquarium water, and most likely, the plants have already been growing submerged, so you don't have to worry about converting them like you do the ones from stores. Find out when you arrive, how they run their auctions. Some clubs you have to be a member to buy and or sell in the auction. They may use bidder numbers or membership numbers.

I would agree with @jwcarlsonhere on the keeping them bare bottom to grow them out, and do frequent water changes while feeding good high quality foods a few times a day. Then, once they are to the 3.5-4" size, I would move them to the planted tank. And, once they reach that size, I am with @Fish Folkon breaking the internet LOL. I keep my discus in a planted tank as well, I have some plant aqua soil in media bags capped with Carib Sea peace river gravel, which is a smaller grain gravel or a large grain sand. I have 6 discus, in the 4.5" range in the tank which is a 75 gallon, I have a smaller canister filter and two of the co-op large sponge filters running, and the temp sits in 84-86* range. There are a couple of adult wild Rio Nanay angels in the tank with them, along with German blue rams and black rams, and a few cardinal tetras., and some sterbai cory. I be sure that all the discus get a fair share of food when I feed, the angels can be hogs when I feed. I feed a lot of frozen foods, bloodworms, brine shrimp, beef heart, as well as some pellets, vibra bites, live blackworms when I can get some, this tank only gets fed once a day, sometimes twice, but if I do feed a second time, it is only pellets and other dry foods. I do approximately a 30% water change once every week to ten days, clean the sponge filters once a month or so, and the canister filter i haven't opened in at least six months. My water is hard and has a lot of minerals in it, I have a well so the pH varies a little 7.6-8.0 TDS is usually between 300-400, I have grown discus out in this water, but my grow out tanks are bare bottom, sponge filters and get a 50% water change twice a week, and fed a few times a day.

Ford has a back up function for backing trailers, I've seen it in a friends truck, he uses it all the time. One of our work trucks has a back up camera, and the only time I use it is when I am backing up to hook a trailer up to get the hitch and ball aligned. It is handy for that.

When my wife and I was car shopping a few years ago, we went to a dealership and the salesman was showing us all the fancy electronic gadgets and back up cameras, sensors that tell you if a vehicle is nearby. He was flabbergasted when I asked him if we could get the car without the big screen up on the dash and without the fancy gadgets. He asked, "you don't want the back up camera?" I politely told him "Nope, I have been driving for over 30 yrs and had a CDL license for 15 years and know how to use my mirrors and believe it or not, I can back up a trailer without the fancy trailer back up assist feature as well." In the end, we did not buy that vehicle, got something different, but strictly for this.

I am hoping to go to the ALA/ AKA convention in Michigan, it is about a three hour drive for me. I won't be able to make it for the whole weekend, but I am planning to go on either the Sat or Sunday. Another good one to check out if you are within a few hours driving is the Ohio Cichlid Association, the OCA hosts an extravaganza every November, the weekend before Thanksgiving. It is held in Strongsville OH, a suburb just south of Cleveland. People are selling out of their hotel rooms, speakers, swap meet, cichlid and catfish show, and a huge cichlid, catfish and live plant auction on the Sunday.

I have used eggs from the company that is probably the biggest and most well know company for brine shrimp eggs, I'm sure you guys can figure it out. Anyways, I have never had the hatch rate and egg separation that I get with the eggs from the co-op. I would buy the eggs that are supposed to be 90% hatch, but I don't think I ever got over 75%, and the eggs did not float to the top like the co-op eggs do. Even though they cost more initially, I will buy the co-op eggs to use just because I feel I get better value, because of the hatch rate and the eggs floating, and its so much easier to strain the BBS out without getting eggs in with them.

There was a store like this up by Detroit, MI until last fall, and they closed. I only went there one time, so I am not sure if they used waste water from the fish tanks to water plants or not, but it was cool. I am not sure, but it seems like the store that MD fish tanks gets his fish and stuff form in the UK is like this as well. The guy that runs the store also has a channel, Fish Shop Matt. They've never shown much other than the aquatics, but in one video he showed himself walking through a greenhouse with a bunch of plants to go into the aquatic store.

Companies started pushing the HOB and canister filters as better, because they can keep selling new cartridges and inserts for them, and continue to make money off consumers, and people started saying you can't grow plants in tanks with the UGF, and everyone believed it. I've been in the hobby for close to 30 years, and used UG filters for years along with the big air powered box filters that you filled with filter floss and some gravel to hold them down. I would use UGF in most of my tanks if I could, but I have sand in a lot of tanks now. I grew plants like crazy in tanks hen I had a UGF in it, yes the roots would get in them, but if your careful pulling the plant out, you can get the plants out without pulling the plate up.

Have you tested your tap water? Sometimes tap water can have higher levels of nitrate in it, and when you do a water change you are just adding more nitrate to the problem.

The warmer the water is, the faster the eggs hatch and the faster the BBS will use up their yolk sac. I would suspect that using a heater set at 82* they are hatching in 12-16 hrs and then using up their yolk sac and dying off. I don't use any heater or light on the hatcher at all, it just sits in my fish room which most of the time sits in the 75-78* range. When I set my hatcher up, I use straight tap water, I am on a well so no chlorine, two liters water, two heaping tablespoons salt, and as much eggs as I want to use. Sometimes its just a teaspoon, and I have hatched up to two tablespoons at once. Sitting in my fish room, no heater or light, i have probably 90-95% hatched in 32-36 hrs. I will usually start them one morning, then feed out the next day in the afternoon when I get home from work. When I go to feed, I take the hatcher and hang it in the utility sink in my room, and have a small light that I point at the bottom, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, always have a a good separation of eggs floating to the top, and then using valve on the bottom I strain them out through a sieve that I have. Then I just feed to my fish, if I do have any left over, I have a small ice cube tray that I will squirt them into and add a little water and freeze to use later.

It can be a toss up. I have kept angels in a community tank setting and not had any issues. Now, I wouldn't put any fish that could fit in their mouths in the tank with them. But, on th flip side, I have had some angels that were total jerks towards other fish. I think if you get some young ones, say body size quarter to half dollar size and raise them in the tank with other fish that would be a good idea. That way they all grow together.

The second plant you pictured is bamboo, the leaves have to be above water. Just have them lower part of the stem and roots in the water. Stem plants get a lot of their nutrients from the water column, so be sure to use a liquid fertilizer. Crypts will melt a lot of times when you plants them, but will regrow. Since the tank has been up for 8 years, I would suspect that there is plenty of fish poo nutrients, unless you are a serious gravel vac user, and along with root tabs there should be plenty of nutrients for the roots. My next suggestion would be lighting like others have said. The generic LED lights that come with tanks or you buy in the big box stores are not that good at growing plants. Get one of the new coop lights, I haven't tried one yet, but I would have to believe that with all that Cory and the group at the coop have put into it, that it will work great.