MarkM

Thanks for suggestions. I hadn’t used Kanaplex outside of the hospital tank so wasn’t sure if it would be a double whammy with the salt. with all the fish starting to show symptoms I’ll be dosing the main tank instead of just hospital tank. It’ll suck to lose the plants, but rather keep fish alive.

To get to the point, it looks like additional fish in original tank are symptomatic. Need help identifying what to dose with. Parameters still all normal, planted tank w/co2 so salt dosing is more difficult. Now the full story and what I've done so far. 4 days ago noticed a white spot on top of Male (silver mutt) angelfish's head. They had just spawned and the female is often rather rough so I was unsure if she just got him good and started with "wait and see". No other fish in 29 g tank showed symptoms at that point (1 female angelfish, 2 juvenile molly, 4 bronze corydoras, and 3 SAE). Parameters all normal (0 ammonite, 0 nitrite, more GH than any strip measures, KH somewhere between 40 and 80, PH 7.2 ish, chlorine 0, nitrate 25ish) By monday the spots had multiplied and it didn't look like Ich (they were protruding) so thought epistylis. Out of the main tank into a hospital tank he went. Added 1tb/3gallon salt and tried to dose kanaplex in food (1 scoop kanaplex, 1 scoop focus, 1 tbsp food, drops of water and cap of garlicguard) but angelfish won't eat. After a day of not eating got antsy and dosed water with kanaplex. White protruding spots stopped protruding overnight (I wish I had grabbed before pictures) but can still notice the spots, and where the ventral fin connects to the body seems discolored. Apologies for the pictures in advance, need to get a macro lens. Now this afternoon I am now seeing white blotches on the SAE in the main tank as well. Nothing else seems to be protruding. At this point not entirely sure what I'm fighting, but knew it was time to get a second opinion.

If you have a smart phone you can temporarily switch the entire phone to greyscale so you don’t have to convert every photo to greyscale before you can read it. https://ting.com/blog/going-grayscale-ios-android-smartphone/

You could always go with composite shims, they’ll easily hold the weight and you don’t have to worry about them rotting when they inevitably get wet. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071FRHGXX/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_BEY320NNYC0CXBSTQHT0

The next morning the eggs had been eaten again, setting a new record of 96 hours. Last Thursday they spawned again and I decided to pull the eggs after a couple hours. I was able to add methylene blue right away this time. To say there was a much higher fertilization rate is an understatement. I got curious and took a picture to attempt a count. I could pick out 236 wigglers and then there’s gotta be 50 more all clumped together. I think I’m gonna need a bigger grow out tank…

I've been using Hatchbox PLA and PETG in my aquariums for about 6 months and haven't noticed any problems yet. PETG is FDA food safe, PLA isn't FDA approved food safe, but that EU equivalent did approve it. I've made Fish Hides, Air bubblers, Breeding slates, plant holders, and more. I feel it's safe, but if I'm wrong its going to go very wrong all at once.

Could always see if your LFS would be interested in the fry, grow them out in the tub and slowly sell them off throughout the summer as they mature. (And then swear to yourself you'll take the tank down in the fall and definitely not wind up with it in the basement as a year round project. That would never happen...)

Remember, it's only like 4 months until those fry can start having fry of their own! I couldn't even imagine keeping up tank expansions with all the livebearer fry. I tend to let nature take it's course and populations are pretty stable.

I haven't dealt with proper fry, but have had them from sub 1". They're pretty much worry free. I currently have a group of 4 SAE in a community tank with Corydoras (Green and Sterbai), Mollies, Swordtails, Otos, and Angelfish. I've had also kept them with community guppies, Amano and cherry shrimp. No problems with any of them. I've done sand and gravel bottoms and didn't have problems with either. They will "lay" on the bottom on their pectoral fins, so I would just make sure its not pointy. They will also do this in and around plants and decorations. I tend to go heavily planted, but if there is not enough algae they will snack on even your hearty plants. I supplement with Extreme bottom wafers or zucchini. I also will use them to clean up decorations from tanks they can't go into (like Mbuna tank). They'll devour and entire 6" log full of BBA overnight.

I haven't used the beamswork light specifically, but I have cooked other lights by putting them inside aquariums (and other enclosed spaces). It looks like it has an aluminum casing so if its using that as a heat sink, adhering it to plastic lid will insulate it and hurt some heat transfer. I would check operating temperature in open air and then once you mount in under the hood to make sure you're not causing yourself problems. I would also be concerned about how waterproof that light is. It may not work well in that high humidity.

SerpaDesign had a video this week setting up a snapping turtle tank, but in it he uses a number of house plants where is just submerging the roots in water. I wont list all of them, but he uses a number that are easy to grow (harder to kill) and non toxic (things like spider plant, prayer plant, and rattlesnake plants).

My SAE have absolutely destroyed plants when there is not enough algae. Java Fern, Java fern Windelov, dwarf lily, red flame sword, and red melon sword are some of their favorites. I’ve even had them go after anubias before. I supplement their diets with zucchini’s and extreme bottom wafers. They eat both easily, the bigger issue I have is balancing it so they don’t stop eating the algae all together.

First sign of a problem was a massive uptick in green spot algae, which I learned from this forum is a sign of low phosphates. I verified I was at almost 0 ppm with the API Phosphate Test kit.

It's been a while but I finally got around to trying these pumps again. I tried to save them with silicon grease, but.. After reflecting over the past few months, I find I still have a use for the Nano pumps. I love the new coop pumps and am using 3 of those for my primary tanks (and will convert the rest as the old tetra whisper pumps die off), but it's really hard to beat how dead silent these Nano pumps are. Even if I have to purchase a new Nano pump every 6 months it would be worth it for the tank sitting right next to me in my office. At this point I tore them apart more out of general academic inquiry than for anything else. Reminder, I am just a hobbyist and not a professional. These were disassembled with a Dremel and hammer in my garage, not meticulously in a lab setting. I can say both units showed similar amounts of wear, but I won't be drawing any conclusions from what I found. It would just be assumptions and I am as likely wrong to be wrong as I would to be right. Now onto the carnage. I didn't take a picture, but the plastic on the shaft is not glued on. If you are scavenging parts from a dead motor, it's easily removed with pliers. Here you can see the telltale signs from the magic blue smoke escaping. The shiny gouges are from dremeling off the retention points from the housing. Here you can see how the brushes contact to commutator. The commutator seemed really torn up and the housing was filthy. The dust looks like its a combination of the commutator, brushes, and the permanent magnet. Here you can see the collection of residue on the back plate. They way I had these mounted (hanging by the c clip) this would have been up, which makes me believe the uh "percussive maintenance" and disassembly knocked this crud everywhere. This picture really shows how chewed up the commutator was. (ignore damage to the shaft itself, that was from me. ) In this terrible picture of the housing you can see the stator magnets and there is some slight wear. Like I said, this was mostly to satisfy my curiosity than to pinpoint a cause. My takeaways from this thread are more about air pumps in general. Check your stones more often than you think you should. Don't ask too much from your air pumps. Move them as high up as you can to preserve longevity. Check your check valves (avoid them if you can) as they can clog up too. Beware of back pressure and pump strain. To the last point when I want to reduce flow rather than just restricting the line, I've taken to bleeding off some of the airflow. Not sure if this is causing other problems, but it seems to be less stressful on the pump (less noise and heat, but I don't have any hard numbers). I accomplished this with a splitter and a printed screw clamp, but you might be able to get finer control from something like Ziss Air Valve.

I second the coop holders. They hold much better than other nonsense I've purchased off of amazon.

A month later and the growth of the Spiderplant in my 29 gallon has really taken off. I realized I was starving the tank of phosphates, the tank was essentially at 0. I started dosing Seachem phosphates to 3ppm and it's now nicer than any of my potted spider plants. Which isn't saying much, I'm much more successful with aquarium plants than house plants (which is itself a low bar).

Been a busy couple of weeks, but just a quick update. I was able to get some meth blue from a LFS the next day. (and have since been reminded just how well strong a stain it is. The silicone is now a lovely shade of blue). About 2/3 the eggs made it to wiggler, and another 2/3 of those have survived to day 21. I have some videos from along the way that eventually I'll put together, but think I'll wait until its more than a collection of slightly out of focus super small fry. I've been feeding a combination of Hikari First Bites (bought because I wasn't sure the BBS wouldn't arrive in time) and hatching BBS daily. It's honestly way less of an inconvenience than I thought it'd be. The pair of angelfish have spawned twice more since the initial group that I moved. I left both spawns in place as I didn't want to be overwhelmed by fry. Initial spawn was beneath my auto feeder so I put the 3d printed slate in the same place the magfloat was originally and then moved the auto feeder to the other side of the tank. Apparently the angelfish are no fools and saw thru my trickery. They moved to the other side of the tank to remain by the autofeeder, ignored my provided slate and utilized my Anubias. That spawn lasted about 48 hours before being completely devoured. I gave up trying to get them to spawn away from the auto feeder and moved the slate to that side of the tank. A week later they deemed it acceptable. I designed the slate to be held in place with a Coop airline holders, this way if I want to move the entire slate I can easily hold in place in different tanks without messing around with removing suction cups. I've left this spawn in place and so far its been much calmer than the first 2. So far we're 72 hours in and they're still there. I'm sure long term this will likely not work, but I'm curious to see what happens.

Appreciate the article and videos. They consolidated a lot of the general info I was looking for and saved me a ton of time searching. The eggs being in the tank were already causing issues as apparently the swordtails think they're delicious. I've moved them into their own 10 gallon tank with an airstone positioned beneath them. Being on a magfloat makes it easy to position them at least. I don't have any meth blue on hand, but have seen numerous reports of people successfully substituting Ich-x (malachite green). If LFS don't have any meth blue available will likely give ich-x a shot.

This past Saturday I added a second angelfish to my 29 gallon and they wasted no time pairing up. Almost immediately they were showing what I assumed to be breeding behavior and was just happy they seemed to be coexisting and not fighting. At lunch I caught them in the act. As you can see they decided my mag float was the perfect surface for laying eggs. So my first question is, can I move it? It was positioned right under my auto feeder and I don't want the other fish in the tank thinking I've laid out a new caviar plate for them (and increase agitation with the angelfish defending their territory). I can move the autofeeder, but rest of fish are used to being fed in that location, so I think ideally I'd move the mag float. I'll be searching forum for existing posts with advice, but any suggestions for good threads appreciated.

I’ve used this when I couldn’t adapt the python properly. For a long time I unscrewed the spray nozzle at my kitchen sink and jammed it in there. Worked great. Camco (22484) Water Bandit -Connects Your Standard Water Hose to Various Water Sources - Lead Free , Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EDOSKG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_396Y0EPNYP59GXQG3SBP?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I’ve taken to using the Kasa power strips. They’re like the outlets the coop sells, but each outlet is independently controlled. Bonus there are 2 USB ports to power air pump and charge auto feeder. With the Alexa integration I can just say “water change” and a routine shuts off the heaters and filters and saves my back from having to unplug everything each time. https://www.amazon.com/Kasa-Smart-Protector-Required-KP303/dp/B083JKSSR5/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=2QQMAOLBCK9ZX&keywords=kasa+power+strip&qid=1645855355&sprefix=kasa+powe%2Caps%2C57&sr=8-4

That’s half the fun of the hobby, bonus if it gives an excuse to buy a new tool.

Thank you for the info. I was looking at the reduced height as a benefit. I'm thinking about this for smaller tanks with smaller , more uniform rocks. Was more focused on the "prevent scratches and damage" aspects than weight distribution or drastic differences in shape than can create pressure points. Think I'll try it out and worst that happens is I hate it and have to buy more diffuser anyways.

Nice build. Would come in handy for housing incompatible fish in same tanks if I've temporarily run out of quarantine tanks again... I've used breeder boxes for that before, but this would give more space. Does the plastic canvas sink to the bottom normally? I just can't bring myself to put rocks, even small ones, on glass bottom tanks. I KNOW they'll be fine, but I'm still worried it'll scratch/damage the tank. That looks like it could ease those worries without having to go the whole lighting diffuser route for smaller tanks (and its cheaper too).

I know that if I was left in the sun in 110 degree heat with high humidity, I'd be dead within 15 minutes tops. Cory's post mentioned that leaving it out in the sun all summer killed one of his, so I'd say avoid that. If you're already planning on using a cooling fan for the water, getting cooling to the pump wouldn't hurt. As an update to mine, they both gave up the ghost again and no amount of smacking is bringing them back. There also isn't any more chewed up plastic inside. Both motors sound super crunchy when manually spinning. With eatyourpea's success I'm torn between seeing if they can be salvaged again and taking them fully apart. I'm also looking for somewhere to source the RF-370CA-12560 hobby motor, but so far haven't found a price point where it makes sense.