Dawn T

Some common variety of pleco. "Peek-a-boo" One of a pair of young blue-eyed golden long-finned bushynose. (Please excuse the yellow tint. They were in quarantine when I took these, and that tank has a lot of tannins in it. I hate that, but I put up with it in that particular tank.) And here's the other. This one has a couple of dark spots on it, so it's easy to differentiate the two. See the dark mark near the tail? It's sort of visible in the above photo, but really shows in the one below.

I agree with @Keeg. The only time I've seen pea puffers behave with other fish is when they were raised in the tank with those other fish, all of whom were bigger than them even when they were full grown. 55g heavily planted tank, too. No nippiness from them. That's literally the only instance I've seen of them NOT being "jerks" unfit for a social setting. 😁

@gardenmanI tried cleaning my Whispers. More than once each. Finally gave up on them. I used to do that regularly and replace diaphragms when they needed it. Then replacement parts got to where they cost nearly as much as a new pump. So if I needed new parts, they got tossed. The ones that didn't need new parts but I couldn't get to quiet down with cleaning, I put in my "use ONLY in emergencies" drawer. LOL I recently cleaned that stuff out to make room for supplies I actually NEED access to. I just ordered 3 of AC's nano pumps. Two will go straight into use. The third will go into my overflow drawer, which contains things that work perfectly but I don't need right now. Good backups should a piece of equipment go out. That's also where all my heaters are, since I don't have heaters in use on any of my tanks. Haven't needed them in years.

Thanks, gang. I'll get another nano pump ordered from AC, along with the control valve. See if the pump can take that much restriction of air flow. I guess I can be a test case, huh? LOL

I currently one of AC's USB Nano pumps running an airstone on one of my 29g tanks (no overheating issues thus far). Got tired of the noise the Whisper on that tank was making. It puts out exactly what I want and need for that particular tank and use, but it would be way too much agitation for the 1.5g jar. I wouldn't want to put strain on the pump by tightening the airstone to block most of the air it pumps out to get the right amount for my jar. Does that put back pressure on the pump that can cause damage to it over time?

I've got a tiny air pump that came with one of those pico tank kits (I bought it years ago). It's slowly dying, not too surprising given its age, putting out less and less air. I thought at first the air stone was just getting clogged (AC airstone), but I checked and that's fine. It's on my 1.5g jarrarium. I use it mainly to keep a tiny bit of surface agitation to discourage mosquitoes from setting up residence since I don't have a tight cover on there. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near any other tanks that I have air going to, so I can't just tap into an existing air supply. Can anyone recommend a nano air pump to replace the one I have? Reviews online haven't proven helpful, as they recommend pumps that are actually for anywhere from 5g up to 20g! That's way more than my little 1.5g needs.

I got one recently - Tidal 35. No rattle straight out of the box. I didn't use the media it came with, but I wouldn't think that would alter it in any way to affect whether it rattles or not.

I'd say the same others have - 7.4. I can't see what brand of test strip you used, but I'd trust the API master kit instead. I've only found Tetra and Aquarium Co-op test strips to be trustworthy. Others can be wildly different, and I was horrified how far different a couple of them were when I decided to test a whole set of strips against the master test kit.

Cory's right. The test strips numbers are in PPM (parts per million) measure. The numbers you're finding on a lot of websites are in DEGREES of hardness. To figure out degrees of hardness, just divide the PPM number by 17.6. That applies to both GH and KH.

Filtration, I suggest using what you LIKE to use. I personally abhor canister filters, so I stick with HOBs or sponge filters. For a 125g, a couple of bigger HOBs would do the trick, especially if you don't overstock the tank. That's what I'd do if I had a big tank like that again. If you want to try a canister, or already know you like them, then go for it. Otherwise, no need to go there. Stick with filters you like. You're less likely to do what I did and put off filter maintenance if you actually LIKE working with your filter. BTW, I could get away with avoiding canister maintenance a LOT, because I kept my 125g lightly stocked. ON PURPOSE to avoid canister maintenance. LOL

MTS will do sand as well as gravel. They aren't the least bit picky. They're just great little additions to a tank to keep sand from getting compacted, that's all.

LOL Same here! I've got ramshorn and bladder snails going in all of my tanks. I actually OVERFEED one of the tanks to make those puppies proliferate. That's also the tank I have assassin snails in. Nice little ecosystem going in there. Also, I have a friend who tends to overfeed their tank all the time, so "pest" snails are VERY happy in there. I use a snail trap to catch them regularly and toss them into the tank with my assassins. Since assassins need a member of each sex in order to breed, I also keep a single assassin in each of my smaller tanks to keep snail populations under control in those tanks. A single assassin snail does a nice job on crowd control in a small tank. One of these days, I want to add Malaysian Trumpet Snails to my tanks. They're so great at keeping sandy substrates from compacting. I just haven't made up my mind if I want them or something like Kuhlii loaches.

My current favorite nano fish is ember tetras. They're sassy, not shy in the least, and very active. Once mine got used to my comings and goings, they aren't the least bit shy or skittish about activity outside their tank, which they share with RCS and Amano shrimp.

Cleared up. Except for the reflections from the room. 🙄 The plants have relaxed fully back into their natural state, too.

I only recently found out this was even possible. A friend asked for help with a tank in her home. It had belonged to her husband, who died a few months before she contacted me for help. She'd taken over care and was on a steep learning curve. When I got over there, I found a beautiful, heavily planted. The variety of fish living in there was very interesting. Everyone seemed to be getting along. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a pea puffer! Turned out there were 3 of them in there. 55g tank. She'd bought the pea puffers to control snails. They shared the tank with a Boesemani Rainbow Fish, a herd of platies, and 2 gorgeous rosy barbs (the last survivors of a very old school). Other than the 2 barbs bickering constantly with each other, she wasn't having any aggression issues in the tank. The pea puffers left everyone alone, including each other. I was totally stunned, since the only other time I'd see pea puffers in a friend's tank, it was a 29g community tank. Things did NOT go well....

Little TEENY, tiny angels. So cute!

Just this past week, I received a new shipment of RCS and ember tetras (to add to my wee school). Both are currently in my quarantine tank. I can't stand the look or cold feel of bare-bottom tanks, so my QT is a very rough planted tank. That chunk of mopani has been in my tanks for 7 years and is STILL leaching tannins like crazy. It bothered me in my main tank (I'm not a black/dark water fan), but I put up with it in the QT, since I know the tannins are good for stressed fish. Photos are horrid, but I'll share them anyway.

The Superglue will set quickly when it comes into contact with the water on the driftwood, but if you work quickly, you can definitely do it. Don't lollygag or dawdle. Be ready to put that plant in place immediately. Works like a charm, though. 🙂

The only warning I'd give is about black substrate. It shows EVERYTHING. I started off my jarrarium with black substrate, but I ended up putting it some naturally colored on top of it. It showed every bit of debris, no matter how small.

I agree completely! They're truly gifted! LOL

I raised the light above the aquaponics setup about a foot today. The arrowhead vine had gotten tall enough, it was getting too close to the light to suit me. Also, the Devil's Ivy climbing up the right side needed more space to stretch out. In doing that, I also moved the chicken on the wall about a foot higher so it was no longer hiding behind the arrowhead vine. Interestingly, you can see how pale that spider plant is in the left side. I definitely need to move it into a different type of setup. It continues to grow large, but the color is severely anemic. It really needs substrate. The other plants are doing great though. The little plants in the foreground that are barely visible are also doing well. Amazingly enough, given the lack of light from that arrowhead vine taking over. I'll be taking cuttings from one of them, and possibly breaking up the other, to include in a new terrarium I'm planning to do in the next week or two. (I have the jar for that. Just need a couple of supplies that are on order.) You wouldn't guess from looking at it, but I actually did trim the arrowhead vine. If someone wants a houseplant that's super easy to grow in aquaponics setups, or even dropped directly into the back of a tank, Syngonium species are stellar growers. They truly can compete with Pothos in that. I see a LOT of folks on YouTube using Pothos, but that's all they seem to use. "Expand your horizons, folks!" I want to tell them. LOL The wandering Jew also does very well in this type of setup. My only gripe about them is how easily their vines snap. I'm constantly breaking them. I just shove the broken end back into the box and move on, so it's constantly being cut back and made denser, whether I intend to do it or not. What's going on below the water line? The Gambusia are continuing to do great. Increasing in numbers but not at a scary rate. I've found they're predatory, will hunt and eat their own babies. The tank has a good amount of plants in it, so some babies survive, but not enough to possibly overwhelm the system. Obviously, since it continues to test out at 0 nitrates week after week. The last water change was in June (5th to be exact) when nitrate spiked over 25. I had lost a fish and couldn't find the body, so I did a 5% water change and simply monitored the tank after that. Nitrate came down and has remained at 0 ever since. I've been dosing weekly with Easy Green up until this past week, when I decided to increase to 2-3 times a week. Nitrates still tested at 0 today, so I think I need to use EG every day. I put a bottle on top to remind me to do that when I feed each morning. Top offs are done with dechlorinated tap water. pH, GH, and KH remain stable. Oh, almost forgot, thanks to help from members of this forum, I was able to find a timer that can do ON/OFF sequences in 15 minute increments. So I put the powerhead that feeds the aquaponics setup on that. The timer comes on for 15 minutes, off for 30, and repeats throughout the 24 hour period of each day. That's working perfectly, even better than the previous timer with 30 minute increments. It's an analog timer, so I don't have to worry about power outages requiring resets and whatnot. Since this use doesn't mean it MUST turn on a specific time and off at a specific time, I don't have to worry about it at all.

I shared about some of this in another thread but wanted to make sure it got added here, with more information. This tank went through the most extensive work today of any of my tanks. It looks like I finally have this tank rebalanced and working as it should since the August/September mess I discussed in previous posts. Everything is testing out perfectly, including nitrates at 10! I've been dosing the tank daily with 1 squirt of Easy Green. Don't want to do too much until I know it's totally stable. The Hygro has been getting holes in it, so I need to get the potassium level up. I dose right at that end of the tank each day to give it a head start on the other plants on snatching up the nutrients I'm adding. October 16th (7 weeks ago) was the last water change, and nitrates have gone down since then, so color me happy! I continue to do weekly top-offs with dechlorinated tap water to keep KH and GH UP. 3 major tasks accomplished this week though. One, I added a light for the emergent plants. They've really been struggling from the get-go, since that part of the room doesn't get much ambient light. Poor things are so scraggly and pathetic. Here's how they looked when I added the light. I took photos so I can track improvement (hoping they're not too far gone). In the last photo above, you can the see the pots the plants are in - the pots the wandering Jew and creeping Charlie are in are readily visible in that photo. Those pots work well for the plants, but they only thing that's held them in place all the time is the back of the tank and the cover glass. That was a total brain fart on my part, but I've put off doing it better as I wasn't sure how to accomplish that. Which brings me to big task #2: This past week or so, I stumbled across videos on YouTube by Plant Life Project. Andrew's big on using houseplants in aquariums, and he has a bunch of videos that helped me figure out my options. I ended up getting kitchen drawer organizers from my local Walmart that had slits down each side, used my soldering iron to poke holes throughout the bottom of each one, spray-painted them black (a few days ago - to give paint time to cure), and added coated wire that hangs over the back of the tank to secure each one. This morning, I got those plants resituated. I can actually get the cover glass off or moved without fully dropping the pots in the tank. They stay put! It doesn't look much different from the front, unless someone looks closely at the upper inside back of the tank (visible in the photo below), but it sure will make a huge difference in cleaning the cover glass when it's needed (which it did today - BADLY - got that done, too). Three, the submerged plants are trimmed! The Pogostemon got a major haircut. I also thinned some of it out to make room for cuttings of the Hygrophila siamensis 53B, which I'm trying to propagate. Plus I thinned out the Crypts in the right hand back corner (not that you'd know from looking at it - those things were THICK). I decided to leave the lone Crypt in the center foreground. It doesn't appear to be growing any taller. As long as it stays short, I decided to leave it there. Especially since I finally moved the Java Fern that had been in that spot but not doing well. Too much light there, I think. I moved it to an area protected by dragonstone and shadowed by the larger Crypts. We'll see how it does there. REALLY glad I attached that to a piece of lava rock that I can move around the tank at will. The filter's internal sponges need to be squeezed out, but I figure I've done enough to disrupt this tank for today. The filter will wait a few days. The tank is still cloudy in the attached photo but definitely improved from the way it started this morning. The cloudiness should clear up in no time.

Other than routine tank testing and maintenance, I took care of a couple of bigger tasks that I've been putting off. 1 - I moved the light on my aquaponics setup about 1 foot higher than it was. Hubby had to help me with that. Definitely not a two-hand job. We got it though. I even moved my chicken wall hanging about a foot higher, too. The plants had gotten big enough to hide it. The foil along the top is to block the light from glaring in our faces when we're in bed. Doesn't serve any other purpose than that. I keep meaning to pick up another piece of black foam board (I use it for aquarium backdrops), but I keep forgetting. Eventually I'll remember to do that. That would look better than the foil. Also, finally got the emergent plants in the back of my Endler tank in the living room rearranged. One, I added a light. They were really struggling since that part of the room doesn't get much ambient light. Two, I finally got them resituated inside the tank so I can actually get the cover glass off or moved without fully dropping the pots in the tank. Been meaning to do that for MONTHS, but I couldn't figure out how to accomplish it. Stumbled across videos on YouTube by Plant Life Project. Andrew shared a bunch of information on various videos that helped me figure out my options. I ended up getting kitchen drawer organizers that had slits down each side, using my soldering iron to poke holes throughout the bottom of each one, and added coated wire that hangs over the back of the tank to secure each one. It doesn't look much different from the front, unless someone looks closely at the upper inside back of the tank, but it sure will make a huge difference in cleaning the cover glass when it's needed. Tank is cloudy from all I did this morning, but it'll clear up in no time.

I found a nano-sized powerhead! It's rated at 60 gph, which should be more than fine for this 5g tank. The flow isn't as strong as the water pump that came with the tank, but that's fine with me. Even set at its lowest, that water pump was still too strong for my betta when I had him, so I had to buffer the output to slow it down. For the embers and shrimp, this new powerhead is perfect. I had to modify the plumbing for that output a bit, but with industrious use of SuperGlue (and nearly gluing my fingers together 😳), I got it to fit securely. A little intake sponge I already had on hand fit perfectly on the powerhead's intake. So now I'll be able to simply remove the intake sponge for cleaning occasionally, instead of having to remove the entire water pump to scrub out those stupid little slits in the thing. So much easier. I'm much happier all the way around. The Crypt wendtii melt has stopped, and I trimmed the Buce, so no more melting there either. The Crypt parva ended up losing only a couple of leaves, with the rest looking good still, so hope, hope, hope....

I'm wanting to set up another small tank, so I just might get one to try. I like experimenting with new varieties of plants. Worst I can do is kill it, right?