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BigRedd

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Everything posted by BigRedd

  1. Also did a 50% water change on my main tank
  2. Alright, don't exactly have another tank but I made a make-shift quarantine tank with a bowl, water from the aquarium, cut off a little bit of the filter media and put an airpump through some sponge and put it in the hottest room in the house (stays around 78 degrees) Added some salt, and he seems to be moving more than he is in the 75 gallon. He was pinned up against the corner next to the filter after I took the photo. Hope he/she will come back!
  3. so should I setup a temporary rehab aquarium and use some salt in there or treat the whole tank?
  4. Poor fella, just noticed this today. Have no idea if it's an illness or if it's a physical injury. Here is what they are supposed to look like, what should I do?
  5. I've found that reading the chart on a computer and putting the vial up against a white background works well as the light coming from the monitor passes through the vial and allows for easy reading.
  6. I'm not trying to assume you did it incorrectly, but I remember whenever I do those tests for anything other than ammonia, I have to consult the instructions. Did you shake the liquid you add 2nd vigorously for 30 seconds before adding the 2nd drops for the Nitrate test? I believe if you don't do that, the results won't be accurate. You also need to shake it for a minute after you add the 2nd dose to ensure accurate results (hence why I use test-strips, too much shaking for me) Also, just out of curiosity, what are your ammonia and Nitrite levels at? I'd imagine if your ammonia and Nitrites aren't spiked, it could be user-test error.
  7. Yeah I only use the freshwater API kit to test for ammonia. I use test strips to test for hardness, and nitrates. Too much work to do it for other things that a test strip can easily handle. Could be maybe you didn't quite administer the test correctly? That's what I'm hoping for. Beneficial bacteria should still colonize in the filter, what type of filter do you have?
  8. Dang what did you do to get the Nitrates that high? Never seen the red before, looks about 80 to me. I usually use this: and hold the color up to the screen
  9. Yeah now that you mention it, could be. I went ahead and removed it
  10. I was looking at my tank and noticed a new type of invertebrate in there. At first I thought it was a plant trapped, but it looked like it was intentionally moving its snout around looking for food. It doesn't seem to have a shell, and seems to have an assassin snail-like snout. Can anyone help me ID this invertebrate? Posting an external link because file is too big to upload here. https://i.imgur.com/5vDvo5C.mp4
  11. So this is what I ended up doing. I got a bulk thing of filter media that I cutout into the shape of the cartridges I was using, and I put this before the sponge filter media. I believe the white mechanical media starts out very coarse on the side closest to the incoming water and gets finer as it goes through it. Then it goes into my biological filtration, the sponge filter media. The reason I chose this order is because I don't want the sponge clogging up with dead plant matter. I've got a heavily planted tank and don't want the sponge to clog up because I've read it can kill the bacteria by basically suffocating them if it gets so clogged.
  12. Have you had any issues with the sponge clogging? I've got a lot of plants in my tank and the decaying bio-mass might end up clogging it over-time.. not sure... I've got 20ppi sponge and on the website it says to use a more coarse filter media prior to the sponge. I'm definitely looking to ditch the cartridges and upgrade my filtering. Good idea with keeping the frame though to make it easy to take it in and out
  13. So would I want to use something as my mechanical filtration? I've got this product: https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Experts-Aquarium-Biological-Mechanical/dp/B08FRQB9FF/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 And it says that it's not recommended for mechanical filtration, and to use something else first for the mechanical filtration or it might clog somewhat easily...Don't know if I need something in-front of the sponge or if they are just trying to sell their other products. Only reason I'm still using those cartridges is because I bought them when I first got my aquarium so might as well use them up
  14. Hey everyone, I recently purchased a good bit of sponge filter media and put some in my filter intake. I was wondering if it's beneficial to also put some sponge filter media into a HOB filter in addition to filter cartridges I'm using. I don't know if there's such a thing as 'over filtering' but just wanted to check if this is beneficial or if I am wasting my sponge filter media. The sponge filter media just sits on the bottom of the HOB filter and some water passes through it in addition to filter cartridge. I figured it gives more surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow and will help filter the water some more. Is this correct? The pieces of sponge filter media are around 4-5 inches across and currently has some muddy looking stuff on it. I'm guessing it's decaying bio-mass from plants?
  15. Gotcha. So basically I have a normal filter with carbon added on the back of it, i.e. not a carbon filter. I changed them once and read that you don't have to change them out often, so I haven't changed it since. My filter does have some mud looking gunk on it, that's fine I presume? I think I'll add some sponge in the back of the filter sump as-well. Not too keen on replacing the carbon every few days. I like the hand-off approach and It's hard enough for me to get both my bio-wheels turning as one side usually ends up taking most of the flow and I have to position my filters just right to get them both spinning. (thank you bio-rings) So when I add some sponge to the filter sump as-well as the filter intake, how often should I be rinsing those?
  16. Ok so I am a little confused. Is my filter carbon or something else, link is here: https://www.petsmart.com/fish/filters-and-pumps/filter-media/marineland-penguin-rite-size-c-power-filter-cartridges-5073694.html It says it has activated carbon and to change it monthly, so does that make it a carbon filter? It has the thing on the back of it that you linked to @lefty o on the back of it. I haven't used a sponge on the intake, but I think I will add that.
  17. Just curious because I hear that sometimes you don't need to really mess with the filters if the balance in the tank is good. Do you need to rinse them? Or how often should you really change them, if at all? I have a slot for two filters, I changed one once, and read that you shouldn't really need to change them at all. So I haven't changed any since, but I have rinsed them one time in aquarium water.
  18. I think the plants will be fine. They're receiving the full spectrum during the day, although less intense, but as long as they are getting light, I think they will be alright. It's easy to give plants too much light and get a tank full of algae so I think your approach of starting low and going higher if needed is good start. Especially when plants are just getting started in a tank, they probably won't be able to use all of the light anyways so it's good to start lower. I run a white-LED that's not very intense all day from 8am to 6pm and then turn on my full spectrum RGB light around 11am and run it to 2pm. The room that my tank is in has light that often lights up the tank enough to view it, so turning light off early for me isn't a problem for my viewing pleasure. My only suggestion would be to maybe increase the white-light around mid-day if you can, that way some of the more light hungry plants get some extra.
  19. I would get some amano shrimp (the big kind) and a few more ottos. I've been making a nano tank and I've been coming across all kinds of different breeds of ottos, they are really cool to me. Maybe look into getting one twig catfish if your tank has room. How much light are you giving your tank? I had a problem with hair algae when I first started my tank and was giving the plants too much light and went a little over-board on easy-green.\ Also, how often do you feed your fish and how much? I used to over-feed my tank a little bit and it allowed algae to grow.
  20. mine did the same when i added them to my tank, there's new leaves growing from the bottom and the old ones aren't dead, just old and I don't know much about plants but I'd imagine it's focusing more energy on the newer leaves than the older ones.
  21. I personally setup a 75 gallon tank with plants and to cycle it I used dosed a lot of easy-green and shrimp pellets until I was able to detect the ammonia spikes and nitrite levels. Got the nitrite levels around 5.0 and then waited until they went down. Then I waited a week and did it again but with half as much easy-green and shrimp pellets. After I suspected the cycling was done, I added normal amounts of easy-green and shrimp pellets and watched for any spikes. If no spikes occur, I would consider the tank cycled. Whole process took around 1-2 months. Also when you go to add your shrimp, only add like 10 at first to see if they survive. Sometimes when you suspect cycling is done, the tank can 'mini-cycle' and you don't want that for your shrimp.
  22. I run a 75 gallon planted tank and I always have around 20 ppm. As long as your ammonia is below .5 and no nitrites are present, you will be fine. I've had a fish die that I couldn't find and I didn't even notice an increase in the nitrates or ammonia levels. Plants actually need low levels of nitrates, it's food for them and they aren't toxic to fish at levels under 40.
  23. I have two lights. I ran into a similar issue as you, but with black beard algae, and my solution has been the following. I have a light that is not very intense, but lights the tank up enough to view it well. This the light I primarily use and have it set to run from 8am to 4pm. I have another intense light that I turn on at 11:30 (simulating the intense mid-day sun) and then turn it off at 2pm. That way the plants that need the bright light get a burst of the intense lighting, but it's not full-blast all the time. Another thing to consider is how much nutrients are you supplying your plants? If they are receiving too little nutrients and too much light, that's when algae grows. Also on the contrary, if they receive too little light and too much nutrients, algae will form again. It's important to find that balance. Are you using any supplemental nutrients? Also try to turn on the light on a schedule according to what times you would likely be viewing it. If you're at work all-day and don't get to view it, maybe have the lighting schedule according to when you will be viewing it(when you get home or whatever), as you don't want to give plants too much light they cannot use. Edit: I also have a tiny blue and white light that barely emits anything, but in total darkness it gives enough light to view some fish nearby. It's like a fish night-light. That helps with viewing it before I go to bed (i sleep in the same room with the tank).
  24. Just subscribed! You look like you have a lot to talk about so don't want to miss out. Your comments on the video are turned off, so I'll just give a video idea here. What if you did a video where you introduce us to all the different kinds of fish you have and explain their personalities?
  25. BigRedd

    Is this Ich?

    Yeah, I did a google image search and ich is a lot more like chicken pox for fish. Do you think it could be a respiratory infection or is it just how he looks probably? I haven't noticed it until yesterday, but I never really looked too closely at them and they seem to all be really happy and always searching for food.
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