LaurieinIA

Can you explain more about the assembly of 2 stacked sponge filters? With Photos if possible. I recently moved and my 40ish gal (Appx 18x20 floor x 24tall) is now in my living room. It has a HOB and the water sounds are driving me nuts! I don’t have much floor space to accommodate 2 separate sponges. Will stacking work for me? 2 mediums or 2 larges?

True… I’ll see what happens when we get there. Honestly, I’m wondering how much of the plumbing issue is lack of maintenance/cleaning by the previous tenant. Thank you for the input!

I’ll take an RO system into consideration. I was going to start slowly changing them over to tap water, but held off for some unknown reason. Kind of glad I did now, with the move. I’ll see how the new water comes out and then decide how to move forward.

@Odd Duck thanks! Actually, I plan to take as much existing water with me as possible. Thankful for my pond pump and my local hardware store for letting me borrow trash barrels 😊 I plan to do a water change tonight or tomorrow, then, with the move, it will “theoretically” be like another big water change next weekend. Right now the new water is liquid rock - to the point that both toilets had to be replaced, etc - but we are having a softener installed on Monday. I buy RO water for all but the cichlids already, so they should be OK. I just don’t know how soft the new “soft water” will be, but that’s a simple fix if needed.

I’m probably a little late in asking about this… I am moving to a new town - about 30 miles away - next week. I have a 75 gal African cichlid tank, a 40 gal planted community setup, and a small betta setup. Should I do any preventative meds, etc before/after the move? The cichlids and betta have been 100% healthy for months. no signs of illness. In the community tank, I have lost a couple of Tetras in the last 2-3 months to what appeared to be dropsy… One at a time, spaced weeks apart. Still trying to figure that issue out, but haven’t treated for anything since the cases seemed mostly isolated and water parameters are stable with regular 25-30% water changes.

I cheap, simple “U” tube could be a washer drain hose holder from the hardware store

I use a pond pump on my 75 that is as far from plumbing as I can get in my house 🙄 I know... not the smartest idea, but I like it in the living room I pump out of tank into a 32 gal trash barrel, then pump out of barrel out the front door (I could go straight from tank to outside if I bought a longer hose). For filling, I let tap water run into a 5gal bucket sitting in the sink. Put pump in that bucket and pump it into the trash can. Wheel it across the house and pump into tank. I think the pump cost me $20 and I got my hose at the hardware store.

Looks a lot like my Golden Mbunas. Mine are a bit more aggressive compared to my other cichlids, but I’ve had them about a year (since they were about 1.5 inches long), so they’ve all learned to get along for the most part.

My 40 gal is 25” tall on a 39” tall stand, so 64” total. Kitchen chair, long tongs, and a tank top. Lol Same for my 75, without a chair. Standard setup, but it still is “armpit tall” for me.

I do 1x a day, usually when I get home from work, every other day. Even months I feed on even says. Odd months in odd days. I have 6 different foods - flakes, pellets, frozen - and have them generally feed two kinds each time and rotate thru so over the course of 6 days (3 feedings) they have a chance at everything on the menu. Works for me, water is crystal clear, no algae, and I can easily go at least 10-14 days between water changes... even on my African Cichlids.

Glad to hear she took it well! I’m not sure what a Parrot cichlid is, but from Googling it appears to be a South American cichlid that would prefer a lower pH (6.5-7) and softer water than the others, which are African cichlids that like harder water and high pH (7.8-8.6) I know some stores in my area keep pretty much everything in neutral water, so that might be how/why they were all together at the store? I struggled when adding African cichlids to my setup until I figured this out (I was new and didn’t think to ask or to drip acclimate, etc - just floated the bag a while and let them loose) I stopped shopping at those stores and stocked my setup using only one store that kept them at the higher pH - with much better results. mixing the different cichlid types could also be an issue. IMO

I have a 40ish gallon cube shaped aquarium that is 24” tall. This is two months in with dwarf sag, tiger lotus, PSO, and ludwigia ovalis with floating hornwort for some added hiding spots while the rest fills out. There’s also some Val in the back, but it melted and isn’t really coming back yet. Trying to be patient.

I would go ahead and say something, though you cannot control her response. Also, if she took your advice and joined the forum, she’s likely going to see this thread and will know your opinion of the situation anyway...

A little more reading and I was able to find the answer per the Seachem website

I used Purigen to reduce tannins, but am done using it for now. I’ve bleached it per the instructions and now have it soaking in Prime, as instructed. What is the best way to store it for future use?

I don’t disagree... but since the OP is in a “fish-in” situation, I am inclined to try to help the current situation if I can. Once the current crisis had been adverted, then hopefully they con concentrate on understand how/why they ended up in this spot in the first place. I understand that you meant no harm in your comments. Maybe I’m too sensitive, but in my experience as a beginner, sometimes people’s strong opinions on how to correct a problem can make me feel worse about the situation. I already know/realize that I messed up... help me fix it... then, once I'm not in panic mode, I can concentrate on learning to do better. Yes, it’s learning backwards - solve the problem and then learn how to avoid it in the first place. But sometimes we’re “thrown in the fire”.

To expand on @Patrick_G’s comment, here’s a link to seachem with dosing info based on the level of ammonia and/or nitrite and water volume using both standard and metric measures and dosing is in mL, capfuls, and/or drops so you can measure whichever way is easiest for you. https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000125454-Info-Seachem-Prime-dosing-instructions I’m new to the hobby and suffered many losses to the learning curve on my first tank, but I’ve also personally had success following the steps for a “fish-in” cycle found at the link below when I was upgrading tanks and moving fish around. I did use old media, etc so had a head start on the cycle, but also believe it helped me work thru the “hiccups” with a manageable amount of stress - both for me and the fish, I hope. I feel it’s a structured flow that somewhat balances use of products with water changes while eliminating the guess work a bit. It might help you as well. https://fishlab.com/fish-in-cycle/

Looks great! I can’t wait for my plants to fill us as lush as yours. I’m on my way though. I’m finally done rebuilding/stocking the 40 gal you were helping me with. I’ll have to send you an update sometime soon.

@ChefConfit yes, I understand this is just a tool, etc. 😊 I’m just experimenting with it as one source of estimation info if I make some filtration changes to my existing setups. Are you saying if I have a small sponge filter that I should select “user defined” then enter “10”?

I’m playing around on AqAdvisor. What is the best way to enter info for my ACO sponge filters? Specifically the small one, but the other sizes, too?

Today must have been the day for water change disasters. Thankfully mine was a NEAR disaster. I have a 5, 40, and 75. I siphon/pump all water into a large, commercial grade trash can, then wheel it to my front door and tip it over. Today, for some reason, the wheeled base came loose as I was going over the first threshold. Water sloshed all over, but cleanup of my wood floors was minimal. Took forever to empty by hand until I could lift it onto the base again though. I couldn’t slide/drag it without scratching the floor.

@sudofish mine too! Especially my African cichlids. You’d think I was chumming sharks! I have snails in all three tanks and use algae wafers. I have seen the snails in the betta tank devour them... it was actually quite interesting to watch. Beyond that, I think my fish eat them up before the snails even know they exist.

@H.K.Luterman that is one unusual fish. Thanks for sharing I looked at some loaches, but I’ll be honest... they’re kind of cute when they’re small but the larger ones creeped me out a bit. I have similar issues with plecos 🤷🏻‍♀️ I decided on some Albino Corys. Their color on my black substrate, along with their size, is what sold me. thanks all for the suggestions!

@HH Morant an interesting looking fish. I don’t know if I’d want to go quite that large though. Maybe for tank #4 😉

@Nirvanaquatics I have black diamond sand substrate. Sorry I forgot to add that info. Thanks for the link... I’m a visual person, so the photos are great. @Patrick_G I’ll do a little research on loaches. Thanks!