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.