Emika_B

Finally have some fish! I picked up 5 dwarf neon rainbows from a local fish shop and 9 male guppies from Petsmart. They've been through the first week of quarantine, only lost 2 of the guppies. I think they were happy to get their first meal in about a week. Now it's on to the 2 weeks of observation. The main tank's been rather hazy lately, most likely particulate from when I added the aragonite. It just never quite settled after that. I picked up an internal filter to run filter floss and Purigen to clear things up. It's funny, but I think the Malaysian trumpet snails like the fast flow from the new filter. The plants are doing well, though I'll probably add some root tabs soon. They're loving the Easy Green so that's good. Oh, a week or two ago I added an octopus plant from the Co-op and was happy to find a few floating plant bits. They've been replicating but not insanely so that's good. I have it corralled in an air line loop; hope it cooperates!

I love Mopani wood - it has lovely tones though most of mine are on the darker side. Thing is, it’s really dense so it may leach tannins for quite some time. I like the ‘tea’ look but not everyone does.

Checked the water parameters on the quarantine tank. There was a slight increase in ammonia but after reading other posts it looks like the meds mess with the parameters; I’ll keep an eye on things. I’ve got several extra marimo balls in the big tank so I might toss them in the QT to help things even out. Fished out 1 dead fish 😞. The others all look good, though.

Am I the only one who was brought to happy tears when Perseverance touched down? So much hard work, creativity and ingenuity went into making it happen. Little humans, just tiny specks in this huge universe. Impressive.

I had a goldfish named Goldie, a clown loach named Fishy and a betta named Dimitri. The current fish are too new to have names yet. My furry critters get better names - the dog is Tobias, the cats are Cheshire, Jackie, Ava and Aiden. Oh, and the rooster was Mr. Sanders Chicky-poo Buck Buck, or Chicky for short.

Got the first of my fish - 5 dwarf neon rainbows from a local fish stop and 9 male fancy guppies from PetSmart. They’re going to have a good dinner tonight, then start on the quarantine meds tomorrow. So excited!

Bethily777 - the nice thing about plants is one generally doesn’t feel guilty about failure. No, it’s not a nice feeling but at least we don’t feel like we took a sentient life. My tank has valisneria, octopus, java fern wendelov, dwarf chain sword (I think), anubias nana, crypt wendtti (or something like that), java moss and moss balls. For the most part, I just give 4-5 squirts of Easy Green a couple times a week. I have added Easy root tabs to the Val, crypt and dwarf chain sword. They’re just planted in the substrate. The octopus is in an Easy planter; left it in the rock wool and tucked a root tab in, then plunked the whole thing down in the back of the tank. So far so good. If I notice the plants getting a bit brown or wimpy looking, I add more Easy Green or root tabs as appropriate. I wouldn’t say my tank is beautiful and in fact I had to take a break from looking at everyone else’s tanks because I started to feel down about mine. However, after a few days of just staring at my tank, I think it’s just fine. The plants are growing, I see new leaves and they’re filling in nicely. I know it’ll take time. It’ll never be a show piece, but that’s not why I’m doing it the way I have it. I guess this is a long winded way of saying take it slow and enjoy the process.

Am I the only one who doesn’t think Repashy stinks? Or not bad stink anyway. It is strong smelling but it’s not unpleasant, to me anyway. Smells like a freshly opened can of fish food.

Well, after visiting 3 different shops (have a few more to go) I think I have a pretty good idea of what's available. Let me know what you think of adding the following in this order: 10 Rummy Nose Tetras 9 Guppies (3 trios, just plain ol' fancy guppies) 6 Pygmy Cories 15 Ember Tetras 10 Lamb chop Rasboras 6 Otocinclus Not sure if I'll go with both the Embers and Lamb chops, thoughts on one or the other? There are a great many more fish on my wish list, but I only have about 40 gallons to play with. Endlers, Strawberry Rasboras, Cardinal Tetras, various Danios, shrimp... yeah, it's a long list. And then there's the centerpiece fish. Do I save room for those? It'd probably be either a pair of Apisto Cacatoides or 3 Honey Gouramis. Now that I've seen the Apistos in person, they're quite cute, but the Honey Gouramis have a certain something. What do you think?

Went to 3 different fish stores to see who carries what at what price. I actually found Apisto Cacatoides (I know that’s spelled wrong) at one, another had several other Apistos. I didn’t realize just how small they are! And oh my word, Endlers are tiny. Nano fish really are nano. I was thinking I’d do schools of various nanos but in my tank I have a feeling they’d be invisible 😞 Now I just have to wait for the quarantine tank to settle and then it’s fish shopping time! Received my API Mater Test kit and it showed my water’s got a higher pH than originally thought, so I put back in a piece of mopani wood I’d taken out. Did a 25% water change; used the water to set up the quarantine tank. Planted new Octopus plant in an Easy Planter with a root tab. My water sprite wasn’t rooting well; I’m hoping it’ll do better as a floating plant. Did some minor filter rearranging.

As much as I hate to admit it, I’d use aragonite/crushed coral as substrate if I were to redo my tank. I prefer darker substrate and I adore wood, especially mopani. Unfortunately, mopani (and other woods) leach tannic acid, which reduces pH. In my water with fairly low KH, that meant I could be in for pH swings, which is not good for the fish. Aragonite/crushed coral won’t really affect GH but helps with KH and therefore pH. The higher your KH, the more stable your pH. It’s not the look I was going for but if it means happy fish, then I’ll run with it. Oh, and get lots of plants, more than you think you’ll need. I thought 5 or 6 of each would be plenty; not so much. I’d have been happier with the initial look if I’d gone with twice as many plants.

Brandy - Thanks! It really is a beautiful fish with the striping.

Yanni - I’m hoping I can find honey gouramis. They look so pretty. Mac - Those certainly are pretty. How many would you recommend?

James Black - I’ve been wanting the celestial pearl danios since I saw them in the various nano videos! I love danios; I used to have a school of long finned leopard (or were they zebra?) danios and I loved watching them. Fish Folk - That’s a beautiful gourami! Any idea which one it is? I’ve had pearl (EDIT: it was a neon blue dwarf gourami, not pearl. It was lovely but I seem to remember it being a bit of a chaser.) I always liked them. Colu - I’ll probably go with the bristlenose as they’re pretty easy to find here. I’ve never had apistogramma (never heard of them before I found Aquarium Co-op) but the photos sure are pretty. Same thing with nerites. I’ve got loads of Malaysian trumpets from my old tank and what I think are bladder snails that hitchhiked on my new plants.

Aloha all, I think my tank’s finally ready for occupants. It’s about 40 gallons: 36 long, 24 tall, 12 deep. The tall plants aren’t as tall and full as I’d like but they’re getting there. I’ve got octopus on the way, so hopefully that’ll help fill out the backside a bit more. You can see the current set up in my Journal posts. The parameters have been steady at 75-77 degrees (though it will get warmer when summer gets here), 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates, 300 ppm GH (my test strips top at 300 ppm so it might be more), 53 ppm KH and 7.2 pH. Based on the hardness and pH, I’m thinking guppies. I’d wanted to do goldfish originally but I have a feeling my water will be too warm and too hard. Do you have any suggestions? Because of where I live I can’t order fish from places like Aquabid or Aqua Huna, so nothing too fancy. I’m particularly interested in the ‘cleanup crew’ and would like to add neocaridina (?) shrimp after things have seasoned for a while.

Elmojon - I’d say you’re off to a good if not a bit rocky (woody?) start. You started off strong, waiting 2 weeks and checking your water parameters. A bit of a fumble with the wood, but you recovered nicely with water changes and live plants. No penalty flags on this one. Keep up with checking your water and watch your team to see how they’re doing. You’re doing great!

Woo hoo! Finally seeing some movement with my KH! With the liquid API KH test it's only 1 drop more but it's better than 2 drops total. So, yay! I'm still not happy with the glaring white against the dark browns but I can't argue with results. I'm going to add more plants and give the tank another week or so. If the numbers are still good, I'll get the quarantine tank up and running. I've got a sponge filter in the tank for just this purpose, so I'd guess that in a week the quarantine tank will be ready for fish. Fingers crossed!

KaitieG - Love it! You could display it next to the tank with a mermaid doll or something.

Betsy - I didn’t want to mix the crushed coral (aragonite in my case) in my substrate - it’s just so white against the dark brown of my substrate. Even Wonder Shells are crazy white but at least they dissolve away in time. I still want to scrub one against my shower door, though 😉 Ryan F - I hope your shrimp are happy with their Wonder Shells. My snails seemed to like them. Hobbit - I loved that meme!

Kevinpleong - I’d add a check valve regardless of pump placement. If the airline should get pulled off of the pump the valve will prevent possible siphoning out of the tank and all over your floor.

Well, it's now about day 23. The plants are all doing well, though I'd hoped the val would fill in a bit quicker. I might add more plants (octopus, maybe?) and more root tabs. The biggest thing I did was remove 1 piece each of mopani and cholla wood, the only ones that didn't have plants attached to them. Both release tannic acid and I have a feeling with the large, dense pieces of mopani, it'll be leaching out for quite some time. I don't mind the slight color, but it is messing with my pH. I checked my tap water and it's only 1 test drop difference from the tank (using an API liquid test). So, out go two pieces of wood in comes 4 pounds of aragonite. I'm not happy with it, I don't like the striking white against the dark Fluval Stratum substrate and the wood. But, if it's what it takes to make good water and therefore happy fish, I'll live. I'd hoped to put it into a canister filter but that thing leaked like no one's business. Oh well. I had modded a fluidized filter with aragonite but it wasn't really enough to make a difference. So, I put it back to its original purpose. That means there are two fluidized filters and one small sponge filter for use in the hospital tank when needed. I'm not happy with the bubble size (might mod the lid with some filter floss), but I do love watching the media tumble. I gave my snails a treat. I wanted to try out the Repashy food (boy, does it set fast!). I dosed it out to a candy heart mold and after it had set I dropped 2 pieces into the tank. The snails loved it and had eaten pretty much all of it by the time I went to bed. Oh, and since I couldn't find an underwater camera, I did the next best thing and put a storage jar on a coral frag platform and dropped in a PTZ Wyze cam. Unfortunately, it has a very wide field of view, so there's lots of reflections. I put a stationary Wyze cam outside on the opposite side of the tank and there are no reflections. My husband really wanted an in-tank camera, like an ROV, but those don't seem to exist. Oh well, this'll do for now. Here's the latest look:

Tory - I’m following this one, too. GH is at least 300 ppm, KH is 0-35-ish depending on the test. Fortunately my pH has held steady but I’m trying to boost the KH to prevent swings. Good luck, all!

BisScottie - I’m in a similar boat with low KH. All of my filtration is internal, so no hang-on-back for me. However, I did modify a fluidized media filter to have a media bag of aragonite. I figured that since there’s constant airflow through it it’d ‘disburse’ the benefits better than just plunking down a bag of it behind a chunk of wood. So far there’s not been a change, but it’s early days. You can see what I did in my 40 gallon planted journal. Good luck!

Kammaroon - I was just reading that post 🙂. According to the Aquarium Co-op blog, “Typically, freshwater aquariums should be between 4-8 dKH (or 70-140 ppm).” I’m still only about half way there, which is frustrating. I’m thinking I’ll add another cup of the aragonite to the modified filter and give it a week to see if there’s any movement on the KH. If not, I’ll get out the canister filter and fill the media baskets with aragonite/crushed coral (whatever my local fish shop has in stock) and go from there. I like my scape the way it is, but there is one piece of mopani wood that I could remove (no plants on it). I know there’s some correlation between wood and GH/KH/pH. I may be working at crossroads by keeping the wood in and adding the crushed coral.

H.K. Luterman - handsome little guy you got there and I love his name 🙂. I adopted one from a friend; it’d terrorized his tank nearly to oblivion and he didn’t have room to add another tank. I was fishless at the time so I took the little guy in. He was fun to watch but a pain to feed - he’d only eat live brine shrimp.