FishyThoughts
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Posts posted by FishyThoughts
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Well, was successful this time. The flower pod opened days ago now. But it’s still growing and is bigger than I was expecting it to be.
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Like many others mentioned, it works great as a top. I got a sheet of it for doing my lid on the 75g, and replace the glass on I broke on the 20g.
As for the lighting, to me this material almost seems like it spreads the light out more across the tank. So the lighting in the tank looks more as if it comes from the whole top instead of just a light strip. But I don’t have any test equipment to verify any of this.
And it cuts easily with just about anything. I used a razor blade, drill bits and hole saws for cutting mine. It allowed me to cut the top so that any openings were very minimal.
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As mentioned, shrimp are great at getting in places. And really it’s not bad having some in the filter side anyway, they’re eating buildup off the media.
I have a tank with the built in sump, once my shrimp started reproducing they spread throughout the whole tank. And there seemed to be a bunch that just lived and bred in the filter side as well. They don’t seem to cause problems in the filter section, just not in the display area for viewing. And eventually you should have plenty for viewing anyway since they breed easily. -
I guess cutting the flower shoot off at the base when the pod wilts is the right thing to do. Mine sent another shoot up and across the tank. Hopefully this one flowers will flower for me.
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13 hours ago, JettsPapa said:
I fill one or two of my larger tanks with a water hose from outside when doing water changes, but I don't want anything automatic. If I had that I just know I'd walk off, get distracted, and wind up flooding the house. It's best for all concerned that I have to stand right there with the nozzle in my hand.
Have to set it up fully automatic, float switch or something to shut it off. But without shutting off automatically, I could definitely see myself using way too much water to mop the floors! 🤣
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16 hours ago, tnnlynch said:
This is what has me nervous about buying petco tanks. Multiple fairly recent reviews detailing total disasters with leaking tanks after a week or month being filled have me hesitating to buy at any price. Most of the recent happy reviews are for reptiles or hamsters. Unfortunately I can't fill it with water to test as it could freeze in my garage right now.
The problem with most of the reviews on petco is they’re probably from someone buying a tank for the first time. They could be just deciding to set the tank on a piece of furniture that won’t support the tank and warps causing the leaks. Every manufacturer will have the occasional issues with their tanks. But if you consider the volume of of tanks sold through petco it is still likely to be as small a percentage as the rest. Almost every aquarium forum I’ve seen has post talking about when the next $1/gallong sale is. And often someone in there mentioned that they’re planning on buying several tanks at once.
@Janelle for the most part the issue with aqueon tanks is the aesthetics of the silicone. Their tanks are not built for show quality tanks. But then they’re not show tank prices either.
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As @Maggiementioned, Irene has a great video on setting up the tank with bettas.
I’d suggest removing the betta from the tank. Move a few decorations around. And the watch Irene’s video and follow her recommendations for introducing the bettas back into the tank.
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Using a section of tubing to suck out the sand as previously mentioned works great.
And if your wanting to add that substrate to a specific section without mixing in the rest you can use a funnel and section of tubing to direct where the added substrate goes.
I agree with the comments that planted substrate is not required. My first planted tank I used plant substrate, the plants grew fine. Second planted tank I used sand only, the plants grew fine.
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I have not use filter sand or play sand. I’ve used the sand marketed as aquarium sand, super expensive if you were to need more than one bag. And I’ve used sand from a landscaping supplier, is a cheaper option with limit choices when you need a lot.
But filter sand is much finer and uniformed grain sizes, while play sand is coarser and not uniform grain sizes.
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1 hour ago, SarcasticWit said:
Isn't lead toxic?
Yes it is. And there’s no guarantee that was actually lead. That item was using a fishing weight as the weight. Many weights are being made from other materials than lead, like magnesium or zinc. But inherently retain the common naming “lead weight” from which they originally were.
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47 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:
I got nothing but love for pond snails. I'm a big time snail lover. Pond, Ramshorn, Mystery, Japanese Trapdoor, Malaysian Trumpet, Assassins I got 'em. 🙂 I like nerites too, but they don't breed. I want rabbits, but I haven't seen a consensus on what plants they won't eat. Only reason, I keep pond and ramshorn snails with assassins is because they are my best producers.
Those rabbit snails do look pretty cool. Have you seen the chopstick snails? They’re a plant friendly, smaller version of a rabbit snail. Don’t believe they have all the color varieties, not as commonly available or reproduce in freshwater.
@KyleKVK You’ll likely want to do a second tank if looking at loaches to clear your tank of snails. And if you wanted all except the mystery snails gone, I’d remove the mystery snails. Add the loaches and wait for them to do their thing. Then move loaches to the other tank and move mystery snails back.
Assassin snails won’t likely clear your tank of the snails unless you got a large group.Reducing available food and/or collecting and removing are some other options.
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4 hours ago, Nomad said:
Ok so I'm looking for some input on the fish I am getting. Ok so I have a 10 gallon kit tank(Filter, Heater, Light) and I plan on doing a planted tank. I have a great piece of driftwood and a cool rock I'm using for hardscape. Now to the fish. I was going to get some nerite snails(2), blue velvet shrimp, chili rasboras(10), and black neon tetras(6)? To much? Not enough? Other fish to add later? Thoughts?
I don’t really think “not enough” is a thing with an aquarium. This hobby focuses on your preferences and creativity. I’m sure there’s people that like the plants more than fish so they make a tank full of plants with a few or no fish as to avoid taking away from the plants. And I’m sure there’s some more towards not liking plants and only do fish.
Then “too much” really comes down to how hard you want it to be. If you can put tons of fish in a tank and it will work if your doing a ton of maintenance to keep up with it. Where if you put very few fish in a tank you might not have hardly any maintenance.
Anyway, overall that group you listed should work alright.
With both the chili Rasboras and black neon tetras being schooling fish they may be more appealing to watch if you got a larger group of one. With being easier to do larger group of chili Rasboras versus larger group of the tetras in a 10g. If you wanted a second fish I’d suggest looking at one that didn’t want the same swimming area, maybe a bottom dweller.
But most importantly get something want and would enjoy.
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27 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:
I feel pretty confident now that assassins prefer a smaller meal.
I did some reading on assassin snails awhile back. One of the topics mentioned was regarding how they tend to go for the smaller sized snails over the larger ones. At least as long as there’s wasn’t a shortage of food, at which point they would group up and eat the larger snails.
And from my experience with them I would agree with that. Mine are in a tank with ramshorn and pond snails. Once the ramshorn get to a certain size it seems like the assassin snails no longer go for them, based on the empty shells at least.
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32 minutes ago, Daniel said:
It funny, and I don't have the energy to document it, but probably about 75 - 80% of the products that people have asked for on this thread already existed. Even the product that Cory wished for as it turned out already existed.
Yeah, there’s tons of speciality items out there. And sometimes difficult to find exactly what your wanting online if you don’t know a name for it.
There’s even a start to the one you wanted. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01K3UGZAA/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
Still a little bulky, but don’t think it was designed for the purpose of aquariums.-
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The only other thing I could think might impact it is the location. Not necessarily due to traffic though. From my experience guppies don’t mind the traffic as much as some fish. But maybe something from the kitchen is getting into the tank through the air. Smoke, air fresheners and detergents are a couple possibilities.
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Your water parameters are fine for guppies, they can tolerate a wide range of parameters. And none of your parameters are drastically skewed to one extreme or another. To me it sounds more like stress problems.
Are you taking the time to acclimate them? The bag of water might be on the cooler side by the time you get home with them, so could be a temperature shock if not acclimated. Are you starting a med cycle after adding them to the tank?
To reduce stress you could also dim or shut off the tank light. Don’t do meds until they seem like their not stressed. Limit maintenance or anything with the tank for a few days.
You can ask the store what their water parameters are to check against yours.
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3 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:
I have seen several shell dweller tanks with Cyprichromis in the top part of the water and it does look nice. Only problem I would say for you is that you are only doing a 20 high tank. Cyps need swimming room. the smallest tank I would do cyps in would be a 40 breeder and even then I would almost prefer a 4 four foot tank. In a 20 gallon I would go more for a tetra or killifish
Yeah, that’s what I wasn’t sure about. From what I had found I’d didn’t seem like the fish themselves would be fairly compatible. Was mostly the tank size I was unsure of.
I’ll have to check out some tetras, killifish and hatchetfish.
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You could check into a pool heater if you wanted to heat it. Believe there’s options for natural gas, electric and propane.
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50 minutes ago, StephenP2003 said:
I impulse bought a strawberry spotted hillstream loach at my LFS, and released it into my 90 gallon on Saturday. I saw it in the glass that night but have not seen it since. Hopefully it'll emerge when it's more confident. That was a $20 fish.
Yeah, they can get expensive. But they are entertaining to watch.
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Just now, StephenP2003 said:
Dang, that's like winning the hitchhiker lottery.
Definitely! 😁
16 minutes ago, Harpsandfish said:I have a single reticulated hillstream that came as a hitchhiker on a plant from the Coop, and he lives happily with a bunch of green neon tetras, rasboras, a couple sunset honey gouramis and a bunch of snails. He plays all over the tank and isn’t shy. He’s beautiful!
Hillstream are not as timid as kuhli loaches. But they do still seem to change how they act when not in a decent group. I recently purchased a group, and then lost a couple doing med treatments. The behavior from when I had the 6 I bought to the 3 remaining has changed.
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As @Colu mentioned it’s better to get a group of the same ones.
From the different loaches I’ve kept, different types can be in the tank together and be fine. But they different types don’t socially interact with each other. And I believe that even goes for the different types of hillstream loaches, spot bornea, Chinese, compactus and so on, don’t socialize together.
And it really is worth seeing them when they’re in a group, their behavior changes drastically. Even kuhli loaches become less timid when kept in a decent sized group. They’d swim around with each other, lay on the plants in the open with the light on and not be hiding all of the time.-
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On 1/10/2021 at 12:19 PM, JaredL said:
My interpretation was that it converts nitrates back into ammonia. I believe the idea is that the aerobic bacteria and anoxic bacteria create a cycle of ammonia to nitrates and nitrates to ammonia.
Anoxic is not a bacteria, but a condition or environment. Anoxic filter is an environment that’s supports anaerobic bacteria. But is not completely an anaerobic environment, only low levels of oxygen.
The common aquarium filter setups take ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. Setups that support anaerobic or anoxic conditions as well are supposed to convert nitrates into nitrogen and oxygen. Which then out gasses from the aquarium or gets used by plants.
On 1/10/2021 at 1:17 PM, AdamTill said:The biohome material claims to be able to do this, but I’ve never seen anyone prove that it works in small scale. Most hobby size aquariums have too much flow and oxygenation.
Yeah, I couldn’t find any reliable/consistent regarding biohome. So I bought some to test out. Hoping it will work, but will be awhile before the results will reflect if it works or not. I did find some post stating that the dechlorinators that detoxify ammonia, nitrite, nitrate can cause issues with anaerobic bacteria. But again, hard knowing how reliable that information is.
19 hours ago, ChefConfit said:Isn't this also how deep sand beds work? If you have substrate deep enough an anaerobic layer will form that can support bacteria that consumes nitrates.
Yes.
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I have done the sand capped soil. As Brandy mentioned, works great and looks great until you move something and it gets all mixed up. I ended up tearing that tank down for moving the fish to a bigger tank. Which I decided to do sand only. Many of the plants were transferred over to the new tank as well, and seem to be growing as well. Maybe even slightly better since they’re not as crowded. I have not been using fertilizer tabs and only occasionally use liquid fertilizers. So wouldn’t say either is better, just personal preference.
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I believe @Cory discussed the bala sharks in his video, if I’m remembering correctly. Might be good to check out.
To answer some of your questions. Yes I believe you will be overstocked once everything starts growing. And there’s seems like a good chance for compatibility and size issues as well.-
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What's your dream aquarium product that doesn’t exist?
in General Discussion
Posted
The product I want is a digital water tester that could test all parameters/nutrients of the water. And was accurate without requiring constant calibration.