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Daniel

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Everything posted by Daniel

  1. Daniel
    TFH magazines and books. And the people who ran or worked at the couple of local fish stores I frequented really knew what they were talking about. The advice I remember hearing was that plants are really good to put in an aquarium and don't forget to dechlorinate and age your water. Also I don't remember hearing about cycling or having a test kit so there was much less to worry about. And Wow! @Jungle Fan had a homemade aquarium!
  2. Daniel
    There is always hope. Typically male flowers open first, then the female flowers. In this photo the males are the 2 taller flowers and the female is the lower down flower. Your might get something like this. Can't wait to find out.
  3. Daniel
    Like @Paul it was the 60s. I got my first guppies in 1969 and I immediately succumbed to MJS (multi jar syndrome).
  4. Daniel
    It depends, some pollen yes, some pollen no. I have exhausted my frogbit lore so my answer is, I don't know. But I would definitely try it to see what happens.
  5. Daniel
    IIRC the bad news is that Amazon frogbit is monoecious, meaning there are separate male and female flowers. But the good news is frogbit can 'self' meaning pollen from the male flowers can pollinate the female flowers on the same plant.
  6. Daniel
    @TheDukeAnumber1 used IIRC this morning and I thought it might 'Internet Relay Chat' but that didn't make sense in the context, so I looked it up and and found that it means: 'If I remember correctly'.
  7. Daniel
    I am not so good at beam analysis, but I have setup aquariums with overhangs very similar to that pictured without any failures. Not saying full support wouldn't incur less risk, just saying I have done janky stuff like that without having the tank break or leak.
  8. Daniel
    Everything @TheDukeAnumber1 just said. Most of what filter does is Provide a little flow Trap debris Home for bacteria If surface area is your goal you might want to look beyond plastic and consider what is gained with aquatic plants. Not only are the surfaces of plants very complicated but are a good habitat for bacteria. Below is the money quote from this paper published in Nature: In a nutshell the paper says not all surface area is equal and that plants have the best kind of surface area because the surfaces of plants release oxygen and exudates, which act as a substrate for microbial growth. The bacteria attach themselves to the leaves and form biofilms to get nutrients from the plants. Like @TheDukeAnumber1 says:
  9. Daniel
    Honestly, it is all mostly hunches. I usually don't track water chemistry because I don't have to. Which means I am just eyeballing it because most established aquariums can handle fairly high bioloads. I don't think of it in terms of fish though. I think of it in terms of fish food. The big aquarium with 12 discus that I am feeding constantly has a much higher bioload than the exact same aquarium with 75 angelfish that I feed sparingly. Beneficial bacteria can double their population size in 24 hours if the nutrients are there to support them. And then double again if need be. So if there is a formula, it is this: Food in = Waste out.
  10. Daniel
    No one has voted for duckweed? 🤔
  11. Daniel

    Shrimp sick?

    Daniel replied to CT_'s topic in Diseases

    Does the white stuff move? Does it look like it is on little stalks?
  12. Daniel
    Thanks Anita!
  13. Daniel
    Even though when I add fish it includes the bag water (in order to avoid netting the fish), if I had already netted the fish and had them in the aquarium, there is no way I would go back and add the bag water.
  14. Daniel
    Sweet gum, also known as Liquidambar styraciflua is in the same family as Witch Hazel. Its name roughly means 'the liquid resin and flowing storax'. It contains a pungent resin that has been used in incense and perfumes and folk medicines. But I do not have any information it is harmful to fish and I have seen plenty of gumballs in vernal pools in the woods with the salamanders and fairy shrimp seemingly doing just fine in those pools.
  15. Daniel
    Probably Pseudomugil ivantsoffi
  16. Daniel
    Stuff with it plants, get a big, big school of Amazonian tetras, sprinkle the bottom with a big school of Corydoras. Added a half a dozen Apistogramma, then finish it off with some centerpiece fish like discus or angelfish.
  17. Daniel
    Sometimes I like to break all the rules just to see how hard and fast the rules are. I broke 3 rules here: Neocaridina need water in 72°F to 76°F range (The discus tank is at 86°F) Neocaridina need non-softwater water in 6.5 to 7.5 pH range (The discus tank has very soft water at a lowish pH) Discus will eat Neocaridina It turns out the first 2 rules aren't hard and fast rules as the Neocaridina bred like crazy until the discus grew in size and then rule number 3 kicked in. 🙂
  18. Daniel
    I would add water from your existing aquarium, that way it has a head start on beneficial bacteria and you know it is well conditioned.
  19. Daniel
    But if you look at that graph you would see that if you measured you pH everyday at any time in the morning or early afternoon, your pH would always be "in-range". But if you measured pH in late afternoon or evening it would be just the opposite. My guess is most people don't realize how much the parameters swing around in their aquarium based on time of day. Especially planted aquariums.
  20. Daniel
    I have regular UPS guy and he has always been helpful to extent of giving me his personal cell number, which I have only had to use a couple times over the years. Once when I was at the UPS HUB at 7:00 am trying to get some blackworms out of jail, he saw me talking the supervisor and he interceded and got my worms for me. That sort of service goes a long way in building loyalty.
  21. Daniel
    Here are my discus checking out some cherry shrimp.
  22. Daniel
    I will do a post eventually. But in a nutshell, I had no idea what I was doing back in 2006 when I was planning the tank. I bought a lot of ADA soil that I got shipped from Japan. Both Power Sand and Amazonia (and something ADA magical potions that I don't remember). It was way, way too much fertilizer and my tank was opaque, pea soup green for many months. Diana Walstad was a member our local aquarium club and one of early dirted tanks had gone for 70 days without clearing (before it cleared) and her advice was to just wait. So, I waited and voila, at about month 3, it went crystal clear and has been clear ever since. At first I had metal halide lights but then switched to LEDS because they were cooler and less noisy. I did a little CO2 at first but eventually realized that that the plants did well enough without it. Overtime the tank became lower and lower tech.
  23. Daniel
    On one left side of the aquarium in the angelfish photo is the inlet for the circulating pump. It is a discrete mesh pipe about 6 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. It doesn't clog, probably because the flow is strong enough. Shrimp fry could be sucked in, but angelfish fry weren't over the course of many spawnings. The outlets for the recirculating water are adjustable nozzles on the other side of the tank. The tank doesn't lack for flow. At first I had a bigger Iwaki but the flow was just too massive, so I replaced the Iwaki with the smaller one you see above in 2013.
  24. Daniel
    Here is the make and model of the inline heater by Elecro: I believe its intended purpose is for heating hottubs. It has run without a hitch since 2009.
  25. Daniel
    Here is the make and model of the pump: It has run silently and reliably since 2013 with zero issues.
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