CT_
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Posts posted by CT_
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I remember in a video/live stream (or multiple?) cory mentioned that he can tell whats going on in a tank by how foamy the bubbles are. I noticed both my home fish tanks and outdoor pond-tub have fairly "thick" water. I put thick in quotes because I don't know if it has higher viscosity, but bubbles tend to be larger and they take longer to pop and my tank water wets surfaces differently (spreads out more). I only noticed this when I setup a tiny shrimp tank on my desk at work (which has a different municipal water source) and noticed that I can get much finer bubbles out of a never clog air stone vs at home where the smallest I can get are about 2mm diameter.
So my question is, other than meds (I have no meds) what else can effect this? I know there's a broad array of answers but what would be plausible/most probable?
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They're super mellow hanging out on the top. and only get scared down my me. I've watched them just hang out and have a flake bump off their head. 😕 in the 5g tank at the same temp they were much more active. and swimming around mid water (though in a 5g thats only 2-3" below the surface)
I set up the tub about 2 months ago and just kept throwing my excess floaters in there, with the plan of starting when the floaters don't die from the night cold. I gave up on that and threw a heater in there a couple days before I put the fish in. I also have an air stone going.
I did a unknown size water change the day before this post (>20%) and another maybe 10-20% change yesterday. My current plan is to just keep daily 10-20% changes and hope they start eating 😕
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I put mymedaka in a tub 5-6 days ago and they haven't eaten sense. The flake I give them just stays on top for hours. They mostly just stay still at the surface until I startle them and they swim down.
Any idea why this is? Paramiters are 72f, 300 gh, 80kh, 7.4-7.8ph, 0/0/0nitrogens (5 new fish in 30gh. They were living at room temp (68-75) in a 5g before the tub was ready and we're always excited about food. -
My guppies and tetra are jerks like that too. I started giving Soilent and wafers at night after lights out. I think it helps but I can't see to well when it's dark in there.
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I may be way off here but I think potassium is one of the macros that you can have in excess and it won't cause problems. It doesn't solve the strip problem but maybe its less necessary.
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3 hours ago, Cory said:
I personally think that how dense the calories are with brine shrimp is not a useful metric the aquarium hobby. Everything in the world has more value when it's fresher. That doesn't mean I don't reheat leftovers tomorrow.... In a practical sense, we could look at Dean's procedure. Most would consider him a successful aquarist. He feeds the brine after hatching for 36 hours, then again at 48 hours.
I think for those who are worried about min/maxing the brine shrimp. You can focus on water quality, or other live foods and that would have a greater impact on actually raising fish than the gains to be gotten from different brine shrimp hatch times.
awesome. If its good enough for Dean its good enough for me!
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2 hours ago, Fish Folk said:
Allowing for a full 48 hr hatch is best. Enough are ready at 36 hrs, though, that we usually feed at that time.
Whats the trade off here. I head 12hr old (after hatch) are worse nutritionally. is it worth the wait for the extra bbs?
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1 minute ago, Fish Folk said:
were you experiencing any troubles? Or were you just concerned by the near proximity of the "C and E"??
I was mostly concerned about safety. I didn't have any issues. Most big stores (target, walmart etc) won't sell things that don't carry the UL or intertek (ETL) mark, because they haven't been tested to meet safety standards and in some cases (i think?) people can sue them for selling unsafe products. A lot of stuff out of china thats REALLY cheap and connect to mains voltage are death traps waiting to happen, this can be especially true for USB chargers where either they weren't engineered with enough isolation or they cheaped out on components that may kill you when they fail.
24 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:Not sure how you came by your price point estimates at the end,
Partly because of the cost cutting measures that were there. A one sided PCB, and a third coil on the transformer for feedback rather than an opto-isolated feedback, smt components glued and wave soldered instead of reflowed. And partly because cory said they added a dollar or two to the pump.
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disclaimer: I'm not a certified PE, nor do I specialize in consumer electronics safety. I'm also not a lawyer, or your mom, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm just some dude on the internet.
TLDR: Its not marked by a US test lab but seems like its actually designed well, safe, and usable.
I decided to take apart the USB power supply that came with my air pump. It didn't have a mark from UL or intertek and the CE mark looks suspect (the C and the E are too close), so I was a little worried about it. Below you'll see my photos.
It's got a 1 sided PCB with Chinese electrolytic capacitors.
Inside it looks like a standard flyback topology used with most low power AC to DC supplies. I can't identify the exact controller IC (it's marked FT8378A), I assume its some Chinese chip not indexed by english speaking google. The mains voltage seems well isolated from the low voltage side and the noise suppression cap is a proper Y rated capacitor, meaning it's unlikely to fail shorted and connect mains power to the output. There's also proper separation between the high and low voltage side with a cutout in the PCB near the two closest high and low voltage points.
There's a disc punched out of steel taped to the top. I have no idea what this is for but I assume its to make it feel heavier and higher quality. It sits right above the transformer so I guess there's a possibility its there to lower magnetic interference (??).
The two colored outputs are identical and have their D+ and D- lines connected together. This should make any USB power delivery compliant device take up to 1.5A from the socket, which makes it a pretty decent phone charger too. I don't have a good load tester so I can't verify the 2.1A rating on both outputs but 4.2A total seems like a lot to me. I also didn't take the transformer apart to verify that the primary and secondary windings are properly isolated, this could be another possible path from mains to the USB output.
Over all this is clearly a cheaply made power supply (which isn't a bad thing, especially to run a motor) but for what I assume is a 1-2$ price point it seems properly designed and built.
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Also try not to feel bad or panic. Fish are cheap livestock. You shouldn't intentionally hurt them but you shouldn't be flagellating your self over them either 🙂
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4 hours ago, Irene said:
FYI @OrdinaryGamertag @Rosanne @SWilson, Cory just posted a video on how he tested the pH and nitrate strips with known solutions.
That being said, I have had similar issues with the results from the API pH test not matching the results from pH test strips (from multiple companies). After researching into my city's water treatment methods, I found out they are artificially raising our tap water's pH using a lime slurry process (because the higher pH kills off certain pathogens). I'm not a chemist, but my theory is that whatever reagents are commonly used in pH test strips are not able to detect or react to whatever is artificially raising my water's pH.
I've seen Cory talk about all the testing on the live stream a few times and I have no doubt they're accurate under the conditions tested. But I feel like he's gas lighting (probably unintentionally) a bit about their accuracy and ease of use by saying how easy they are for his employees to use and how accurate* they are in his tests. The conditions of my aquarium cause my pH to be read way lower than it actually is on ALL test strips and GH to read off too (though the ACO ones are consistently closer). I posted about this a month or so ago and Cory said he wanted to get to the bottom of it but never followed up. I did my own investigating since I have the resources to do so, and found ways to get better results on some tests but never figured out why ph strips work so poorly in my water.
*: I'm talking about significant differences ph 7 vs 8 or gh 140 vs 300.
@Irene I've also found out my water supply has added sodium hydroxide to raise the pH and prevent pipe corrosion. Lime slurry is calcium hydroxide. I wouldn't call either of these additives artificial in the sense that the pH increase is fake, but they are artificial in the sense that the water doesn't naturally have those. I wonder if metal hydroxides interfere with the ph pad's chemistry somehow.
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fish food also takes time to decompose so it could be residual coasting from that.
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I don't see a reason for nitrogen parameters to move that fast. I suspect there's some error in your testing. I also don't quite follow your chronology but if you only did the one test after a water change you may have ammonia or nitrate in your tap. 0.25 ammonia isn't aweful as long as your ph isn't 9 or something. It's true you should aim for 0, but don't beat yourself up over 0.25, unless you have something special you're fish will most likely be totally fine.
Even a cycled aquarium is going to take some time to "catch up" to the bio load of new fish as well. You could try slowing down on feeding, eg feed every other day or every third day for a week or two until your bacteria catches up.
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10 hours ago, Diving Aquarist said:
Edit: just remembered the English term... I meant 'organic'...
ah makes sense!
just a PSA: In the united states organic doesn't mean pesticide free (though most people here think it does). It just means* you can't use the newer pesticides and as a result organic stuff may have no pesticide or it may have a lot (the older ones require higher doses to work, but who knows whats more dangerous to people and shrimp).
*:there's of course other conditions that are required to meet USDA organic labeling requirements.
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21 minutes ago, Diving Aquarist said:
I personally would only feed stuff that is biological, just to make sure that there are no pesticides etc in them.
Sorry for my ignorance but can you elaborate on what "biological" means? I'm not sure I've heard the term in this context. To me all food is biological unless you count minerals like salt, and water as food.
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I've read is "snow flake food" for shrimp is mostly soybean husks compressed into pellets. Does anyone feed shrimp fresh soybean husks? I've been throwing mine away.
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3 minutes ago, Brandy said:
Personally, this past year has been incredibly hard on me as a scientist, when I feel both politicians AND scientists have been ignoring science and data in favor of emotionally charged anecdotal evidence in the media.
uuf. yeah I feel ya there. It's been very frustrating.
27 minutes ago, Hobbit said:ORRR maybe they’re sticking ammonia on something else? If I’m remembering my organic chem correctly, it’s not hard to get ammonia to bind to something and lose a hydrogen, like this:
- ROH + NH3 → RNH2 + H2O
(I cheated and pasted from Wikipedia. For non-chem people, the “R” in this reaction just means “something.” Like x in math. It’s a placeholder.)
Sort of like what @CT_ was saying about an NH2 ion, but not a free ion.
yes this. or perhaps it just sterically traps NH3 like the fabreze doughnut molecule
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19 minutes ago, HomerJay said:
Hey guys, i just wanted to get your opinion about drip acclimating amano shrimp. Is it really necessary? I dont get why you should do it other than temp.
The stated reason for why you should drip acclimate is to have a smooth adjustment of parameters like pH, hardness etc. I actually think it doesn't help with temperature too much as a small bag will cool faster especially without a heater, but I've never actually tested it.
As to whether or not you should, there's varying opinions so I have no idea whats "right"
Edit: I'm inclined to think you don't have to for most things because its suits my laziness. I still do it with cherry shrimp though, because I've had one or two die after introduction to a new tank.
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11 minutes ago, Hobbit said:
Honestly I just net the larvae out of the tub and stick the net directly in my tank. 😅 @Daniel said he’s never had fish get pathogens from collecting and feeding wild food, so I just go for it. But as my signature says, I’m not afraid of trying things. 😁 I’m not the most cautious fish keeper.
Excellent. Could you try and pick up one of those tiny ants that collect around a dropped popsicle and feed them to your fish and report back 😛 ? I think I may be onto a source of unlimited fish food at my house.
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1 minute ago, tonyjuliano said:
Obviously, if your digital tester and the lab model agree, then the strip is the “outlier”.
indeed. but I'd really like to know why the strip disagrees. Maybe there's something relatively rare in my water that directly interferes with the indicator dye. I'd love to figure out what it is.
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1 minute ago, tonyjuliano said:
(pH changes with temperature, and by the time you get your sample there, it will most likely have changed).
pH does not change with temperature that much. depending on the solution, it might change 0.01 to 0.5 over a 25C change, most fish stores don't keep their thermostat at 125F.
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I have the exact same problem with my co-op test strips. co-op strips read about 1ph lower than my API kit, my cheap but calibrated electronic probe, and the 1000$ calibrated probe at the university. most recently its been reading <7 and my other methods read ~8.
In the live stream a day or two ago cory implied errors are user error. I've done a lot of fiddling trying to get the test strips to match analytical standards that I have and I can now get them pretty accurate on everything but pH. The tricks I've found is that you actually have to wait the full 1 min, but not too long after that 1 min or the color keeps changing, nitrate especially for me. I've also found that the pads interfere with each others readings if a drop of water bridges them after you take them out of your tank.
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Yeah unfortunately mixing colors will make the babies mostly brown. 😞
If you want babies to breed true (you'll still have to do culling) then you have to stick to one line. But there's nothing wrong with just keeping a mix of colors and culling 95% of the babies too if that's what you want.
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13 hours ago, Hobbit said:
@CT_ the heater sounds like a better plan than mine!!
🙂 yeah I did the math and its only a few dollars of electricity for the month I'll need it. I ran an extension cord and joined it in one of those dry boxes made for chaining Christmas lights.
10 hours ago, SWilson said:@CT_ and @Hobbit we unexpectedly found sooo many mosquito larvae in our backyard pond which doesn't have fish in it yet (we just moved in in July, the idea is to convert it into an aquaponic system eventually) -- I have been catching them and feeding them to my amazon puffers. They love them. We read online that you net the larvae and put them into a jar or container of tank water, add salt (to sterilize I guess?) and let it marinate for an hour (use a lid! I've had those buggers turn into mosquitoes during this process), then net them out of the container and feed them. I also give a little rinse with tap water before putting them in the aquarium.
I'd been wondering how to fed these to my tank. My cardinals would go nuts (they're vicious!). I didn't try because I was worried about other pathogens, though I just threw my rice fish in the same pond so how worried can I really be?
What makes water "thicker"
in General Discussion
Posted
WRT bubble size this seems to be the case with fresh water and I've tightened the bigger bubble one to max finger tight.