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Daniel

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Everything posted by Daniel

  1. Daniel
    The RO (reverse osmosis) units stand up just fine on their own (at least the ones from Bulk Reef Supply that I and @Mmiller2001 have do). But the more thoughtfully you treat your plumbing and gear, typically the better experience you will have over the long run. That being said, I just slopped my in at first and went back and fixed it later. The install above got compliments from my wife on how nice it looked. Pleasing your significant other should never be underestimated!
  2. Daniel
    All the fish were in that same tank the entire time. No fish (except the parents) was ever netted until it came time to sell the whole lot, and even then I had to drain almost all the water out of the tank in order to catch the fish. I had purchased half a dozen dime sized leopoldis. They grew up in the tank and formed 3 pairs. Each pair had about a 2 1/2 foot cube bounded by plants that they patrolled. Eventually all 3 pairs were breeding simultaneously, all successfully raising fry (talk about thunder dome). They would raid the other pairs territories when they got a chance. There might have been 1000 - 2000 babies spread between the 3 pairs early on, but 98% of the fry gotten eaten at some point . Those six original fish are the biggest ones now. I don't think any of the babies that eventually grew up have ever gotten as large as the founders. The babies would pick off the parent's side similarly to what baby discus do. I fed the founders like crazy with blackworms, mosquito larva and scuds, but after I ended up with 50 angelfish in the tank, it was only TetraMin from then on. Also 6 angels in 500 gallons is nearly 100 gallons a fish. 50 angels in 500 gallons is 10 gallons a fish. So diet and room limited the babies just a little bit. And yes they were incredibly aggressive with the other pairs and there were lots of torn fins. But you can only do so much damage to a rival that is 7 feet away from you, and any time you spend harassing that rival is time not spent guarding your fry.
  3. Daniel
    Might be Rotala macrandra?
  4. Daniel
    Congratulations! This is the best part of the hobby. Babies! Or at least potential ones. Could be some baby brine shrimp in your future too. @gcalberto has been attempting to do just what you are doing also with Apistogramma agassizii. Would love to see any update on your methods.
  5. Daniel
    Hello! I am near Chapel Hill. Welcome.
  6. Daniel
    I think I heard somewhere it is in German, but the pictures are great.
  7. Daniel
    Is this the book you are asking about? https://www.marinedepot.com/dennerle-aquascaping-guide-by-chris-lukhaup-and-stefan-hummel
  8. Daniel
    I hate following directions. But when it comes to chemistry protocols as much as it pains me, it I follow the directions.
  9. Daniel
    I would think yours has expired. I purchased mine recently and its expiration date is in 2025.
  10. Daniel
    The reason I asked about temperature is one of the signs of being too cool is lethargy and lack of appetite. I am not that concerned about the broken heater (other than getting a new one going to warm the water back up). The CO2 injection is optional so there is probably little harm in discontinuing that for now. I don't think I have ever seen pH burn, so I am not sure what that would look like. Get the temperature back to normal and let us know how that goes.
  11. Daniel
    I leave them with the parents and see how the did (at least at first). The parents might eat the eggs, but they also tend the eggs, fanning water over the eggs and picking out any fungused one before the fungus can spread. Plus the parental care is very fun to watch.
  12. Daniel
    Personally, since it is medium size tank I would do either rams or apistos as they occupy the same general niche in the tank. Rams generally like it a little warmer than 77 to 80°F. But apistos are happy in that range. If you went with apistos, I agree with @gcalberto that cacatuoides would be a fine choice. Male and female apistos have very different color patterns. Females are often a striking yellow and black (and even more so when breeding). Apistos can be territorial, which means sometimes they are less than friendly. They are extremely territorial when breeding. Here are a pair of Apistogramma nijsseni next to my desk where I am typing this now. Female Male
  13. Daniel
    Welcome aboard! Any help you can provide will be much appreciated. There are lots of questions! Those are lovely pictures of beautiful fish. Always happy to have another cichlid lover in the Forum. As E. W Clark, Jr. said in the November 1936 issue of the 'The Aquarium Magazine'. "God gave too many brains to the cichlids and didn't have enough left over to go around". 😇
  14. Daniel
    What temperature is your aquarium?
  15. Daniel
    I would enjoy reading this journal.
  16. Daniel
    I have kept freshwater clams in my biggest aquarium. The problem I ran into was that clames are filter feeders and it was impossible for me to keep enough infusoria circulating in the aquarium water to feed them, so they starved to death eventually. Short of pouring in green water every day I am not sure how you would keep them alive.
  17. Daniel
    I wouldn’t think so. The are a variety of opinions and I almost always learn something from reading the different viewpoints.
  18. Daniel
    I do not use any fertilizer in any of my tanks. I probably should as it undoubtedly would increase plant growth. I have used plenty of fertilizer in the past and gotten lush plant growth. In this tank the discus eat a pound of blackworms and 1/2 cup of Vibra Bites each week and poop a lot. This is likely the equivalent of dosing with Easy Green. My guess the reason the nitrates are so low is that the Water Sprites eats all of it. Which is kind of the way I want this tank to work. When I put the Water Sprite in I thought it might not make it, but I was wrong.
  19. Daniel
    I got this Water Sprite from Aquarium Co-Op and put it into my discus tank. This nutrients in the tank are very low as the typical nitrate level is 0 ppm. I think this is a far less than the ideal situation for Water Sprite with basically very little food and the temperature too warm at 84°F. And yet...it is growing like a weed. I am not sure why, but an obvious guess is that it is really digging being under that full spectrum light 9 inches above it. @Jack run an experiment using the conditions you laid out above and let me know if it works. Then we all might learn what it takes (or doesn't take) to grow Water Sprite.
  20. Daniel
    Oh @RovingGinger you always push me to learn just a little more than I knew the day before. I just searched the 1936 Innes Book (available for download from this forum) and I couldn't find any reference to a sump. The only reference to drilling was drilling the frame of the aquarium to attach it to slate. I checked the advertisements in 1930's through 1945 aquarium magazines like this 1936 issue of 'The Aquarium' and believe or not cannister filters seem to be the go to filtration method (if you had the $8.50).
  21. Daniel
    Drilling was an early innovation so a metal plug could be inserted and then heated with a gas flame and thereby warm the aquarium. But by the early to mid 1930s glass thermostatically controlled heaters pretty much like the ones we use now became widely available so people stop drilling the slate bottoms of aquariums. But I think they (consumers) didn't trust a glass bottom. So MetaFrame kept the slate bottom. Eventually the MetaFrame tank did have glass bottoms so the slate wasn't really needed, MetaFrame was probably just catering to consumer preference.
  22. Daniel
    My cherry shrimp seem to be doing okay so far in my discus tank (which is 84°F). They have had babies and the babies are growing. I have also have 2 adults (out of 30) die without obvious cause. The shrimp have only been in the tank for a little over a month so I don't know yet if this will work well in the long run. I don't think you will find shrimp much hardier than cherry shrimp.
  23. Daniel
    When I first started keeping fish in '69, this was the only kind of aquarium you could buy at my local fish store. The company was MetaFrame. Then then slate bottoms became glass bottoms, but still had the shiny stainless steel sides. Next came the style we know today of 5 pieces of glass siliconed together with top and bottom plastic rims. The company was All Glass. I first saw these in the early 70s. I thought 'no more old-fashioned yucky MetaFrames for me!' Of course, now I lust after those old Stainless Steel (especially with the slate bottoms) MetaFrames. So those tanks in the photo are probably from the 50's or 60's and way cool. Did you buy them? Were they cheap? I can live vicariously through the details 🙂
  24. Daniel
    Like @Andy's Fish Den they seemed very similar to scalare to me (I've never kept altums, though I have always wanted to). If my leopoldi ever had the inclination to be skittish, that was beaten out of the them by my cats which spent an inordinate amount of time of on the top rim of the angelfish tank. I think that this desensitized them when they realized that no matter how scary that cat monster above looked that in the end nothing ever happened so the angelfish quit worrying about anything. I kept mine at a pH near neutral and temperature of about 80°F. In the end they were bulletproof. It didn't seem to matter what I did or didn't do they just rolled with the punches. I think they were by wife's favorite fish of all time. @TJB5280 I think you are the right track. Getting a half dozen and letting them sort out the pairings has always worked for me. The longer I keep fish the more mysterious it all becomes. I really have no idea why some things work and some things don't. Biology has too many variables to be reduced in to a simple formula (at least for me). I think I have tried enough different things over time that at least something was bound to work out. I look forward to seeing the updates on your angelfish project!
  25. Daniel
    @Streetwise points out the Neptune Apex work with Alexa to control lights, heaters, pumps, etc., but even super inexpensive products live automatic fish feeder like the iLonda can be natively voice controlled through Alexa. Hat tip to @Bill Smith for this one. Just recorded this:
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