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MattyIce

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  1. MattyIce
    I bought some wasabi starts online, got them in the mail, and I've been trying to create some kind of Tatamiishi growing area. I made this, this morning: I used chicken wire and zip ties to make a gabion, and I used multi wall polycarbonate on either side of the gabion to make a kind of sump design, I am trying to get good flow under and over the substrate to prevent anerobic spots: Along with the wasabi I planted some dwarf papyrus clones, a little Colocasia, some curly reed, and some other stuff I had Darn, sorry to hear about that, fish deaths suck. All in all, aside from remodeling, it sounds like you are doing everything you can.
  2. MattyIce
    This is a Great video that Cory put out years ago if you are into South Americans/giant tanks, at around 39:30 Mel starts getting into cold water changes and tank temps during spawning time vs winter time. and mentions 78 during the summer and 70-72 in the winter, and how it helps them recognize the seasons and spawn better, but also stresses them a little to help them spawn better. But that is for that specific kind of fish, if you have different fish, it might be different.
  3. MattyIce
    Sounds like an amazing set up, good luck with that, I am not too familiar with geothermal. If you could lower the temp from 81/78 you would probably save some money, try seeing what the lower limit of your fish are. At different occasions, you know due to life, my jack Dempseys have been down to 65ish, real skittish, but none of them died or jumped out. if you lower the temps, the water is perfect, and they start getting a little skittish, raise it back up a degree or two, and you've probably saved yourself some money right there. If not maybe start looking into a 7' drop ceiling, that would save you a couple thousand cubic feet of heating each year. Also, if your electric company has an app that lets you see usage from a couple days back, start checking that every day and experimenting to see where you can save money.
  4. MattyIce
    When I said I had my tanks spread out in a big room that I was heating to 73, it was a big room. I was heating a 15' X 20' room with a pitched ceiling at 10' on one end and 12' on the other end. Essentially, I went from heating 3200 cubic feet to heating 450 cubic feet. I am not sure how inefficient aquarium heaters are, I think it has more to do with their lack of circulation, same with any heater kind of. if you have a 400 gallon pool pond and all you have are sponge filters, it is going to be horrible, but if you have it inline with a 2000 gph pump, you could probably heat that 400 gallons with a 300 watt heater. though as far as gas/oil, I dont think it is cheaper, instead I think that with a furnace or hot water heater, you are already putting energy into maintaining that water at like 160 degrees 24/7, so syphoning off a few gallons of 160 degree water to mix with colder water is kind of like using something you already have while the in tank heaters are extra electricity.
  5. MattyIce
    I didn't do this today, but figured I'd share. I have been planning this tank Tetris move for nearly a month and finally got it done a little over a week ago. From right to left it is 2 custom low boys I made out of 29 gallons, sitting over a 150 gallon tub, sitting over a 40 gallon tub, then a 20 gallon long sitting over a 100 gallon tub, next is a shelf with a 40 gallon, a 29 gallon, and 2 10 gallons, sitting over a 75 gallon, with a 40 gallon tub kind of hidden on the floor in the back right corner. Next is a 50 gallon tub and hidden under that in the back left corner I have a 55 gallon drum for aging water that I pump out of my well. Also under the 50 gallon I have a trash can on wheels hooked to a transfer pump for water changes, and then all the way to the left is a 100 gallon tub. I used to have all my tanks spread out in a big room, I'd heat the room to 73 ish with a 4000 watt electric heater, and use heaters in the tanks closer to the floor that I needed a little warmer, now I have them all in this 8' x 8' x7' tall space under my loft/bunkbed, with a whole bunch of curtains hung up around it to trap the heat. So for the last week I've been using a good fan for circulation and the hot air from a dehumidifier to heat the space. The coldest my tanks get are 73-74ish and I'm down 20-30 kilowatts a day. This little change could save me 200+ dollars a month on electricity during these winter months.
  6. MattyIce
    for just one beta, id cut back on the dosing, you are building up a lot of bacteria, when you add the fish, stop the ammonia, and start feeding your fish like 5 hikari pellets a day, you aren't going to be generating anywhere near even 1 ppm of ammonia a day. Alot of the bacteria that you've built up is going to starve and that can cause issues too. I'd cut back to around 1 ppm, or even stop with the ammonia and just feed the tank appox what you would feed the beta each day so you build an amount of bacteria that is closer to what you need. Id also probably do a water change a a few days before to take out anything that might have built up over the cycling process while giving a day or 2 for the tank to stabilize from the water change prior to adding the fish. All in all though, I'm sure you can keep doing what you are dong and you'll be fine.
  7. MattyIce
    In the first pick I think the Tuna sun, ect looks better, You can see the greens better on the sword(I think) and the underside of the crypt is more clear. Though, I think this is because the sword is blocking a lot of light and the sun's single point intensity directly above the sword is able to get through the leaves better. In the recent pick you don't have the sword anymore, a lot more light gets through to the carpet, looks good.
  8. MattyIce
    So all the emersed stem plants that I tried to submerse died. sold off about 100 Val and pot Gayi cheap to the local club started a third tub using dirt substrate and a crushed coral eco complete substrate mix. Taking a bunch of the Val, I trimmed it down to individual plants or plants with a small runner and divided them between the old tub and this new one It has been about 3 months since that happened, don’t like the crushed coral eco complete, I still get algae and the algae clings really well so I end up pulling the substrate out when removing the algae, the pea pebbles are heavier and rounder and the algae does not cling as well: All three tubs have white clouds and cherry shrimp. the middle tub also had 3 Florida flag fish and the bottom has an oranda gold fish after replanting the val it has not grown back as well in the first Val tub and unfortunately the emersed stem plants never took off: but the dwarf sag is doing pretty well and the pearl weed is doing great, I also also have some nice red bacopa Carolina and there are still a few Taiwan Lily’s alive but that is about it in this tub: the gayi tank is doing great, after harvesting it’s taken right back off, and the jungle Val is also slowly taking over: The pearl weed I had gotten and was almost entirely melted, has bounced back very nicely: but the Nuri crypts arnt making any real improvement:
  9. MattyIce
    So I've looked into this and I just looked into this again and I think I understand it some more now. There are 2 types of weathering Physical and Chemical, Physical is people walking on a path, waves crashing and rocks rubbing against each other. Chemical is organic acids from plants breaking down rocks and forming mineral clays and stuff like that. Mineral clays like kaolinite have a CEC of about 10 meq/100 g, while illite and smectite have CECs ranging from 25 to 100 meq/100 g. From what I understand it seems Eco complete is Inert in a closed system, but when going through chemical weathering organic acids break down the silica allowing minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, ect to be released while also creating the high CEC mineral clays listed above. So you are both right. it is an inert low cec substrate that, due to chemical weathering, breaks down over time, slowly releasing basic minerals and generating high CEC Mineral Clays. Though I may be wrong so please double check. https://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens211/weathering&clayminerals.htm
  10. MattyIce
    Started on this yesterday, finished up today, but I Found space for a 150 gallon pond in my fish room using a sticks and stones support kinda perpendicular to my 100 gallon pond:
  11. MattyIce
    Friend hooked me up with some 175 gallon totes. Today I got 2 of them ready for summer tubbing. I put 3 bags of pea pebbles in each, built a connected pvc over flow, and added sponge filters. Then I took some 27 gallon totes, drilled 1 1/2 inch holes in the corners so I could thread bamboo through them for support, and drilled 100+ Small holes in them using a drill bit so I can use them as pond baskets:
  12. MattyIce
    I had it bad with Jack Dempseys, tried Prozi, salt and epsom salt for a week, it got worse so I switched to feeding metroplex with focus and garlic guard, along with the salts for a week and worse still. I got some levamisole and the worms stopped moving soon after dosing, after about 4 hours they started falling out of the fish. I have never tried Nematol, the active ingredient seems to be something for those types of worms so I would think it would work, I would try it.
  13. MattyIce
    I have a 300 gallon Rubbermaid that I had emptied last year but I left it out over winter where it had filled with rain water, leaves, ect Today I found out that it is packed full of daphnia, and my fish love it:
  14. MattyIce
    consolidated a 3 ft rack of tanks and a 40 breeder into a 4 ft rack
  15. MattyIce
    Pond snails, a hydra, and a water stain
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