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ChefConfit

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  1. ChefConfit
    That's a great idea! I'm gonna have to start doing that. My water change water that doesn't go to house plants gets poured over my compost also during the months I'm not watering outside in the hopes that some of the nutrients is retained rather than just going down the drain.
  2. ChefConfit
    Mornings Monday thru Saturday I feed Bug Bites Color Enhancing Flakes On Monday nights after water change I do frozen baby brine. Nights Tuesday thru Saturday I rotate Hikari mini bottom feeder wafers, Hikari mini algae wafers, Bug Bites shrimp granuals and blanched peas for the bottom feeders. Hikari freeze dried brine shrimp, Hikari Fancy Guppy, and Hikari Vibra Bites for the water column feeders. My fry/grow out tank rotates between Bug Bites color enhancing flakes, frozen baby brine shrimp and my homemade fry food. All foods except the flake are stored frozen in their original packaging and I take a few weeks worth out at a time that I keep in tiny Tupperware containers. I want to add live baby brine and more frozen foods into my rotation and also want to try extreme foods
  3. ChefConfit
    @Paul ram would be in addition to something for the top of the tank
  4. ChefConfit
    So earlier in the week I rescaped my 29 Hex. I broke the tank down to just substrate, redid my rock formation, changed the placement of the background plants and removed a piece of driftwood covered in Windelov Java Fern but the biggest change was replacing the carpet of hydrocotyle tripartita Japan with foreground cryptocoryne undulata red which my cories seem happy with because they have more space to swim on the bottom. Between the rescape and removing the 2 guppies I had in the tank (one died a few weeks ago and the other is moving tanks) I feel like it needs some more fish. Current stocking is 12 neon tetras 5 ottocinclus vestitus 3 corydoras paleatus 1 emerald cory 3 Amano shrimp (just added after the rescape) What would you guys add? I definitely want something to occupy the top of the tank. I'd love clown kills but have never seen them near me. Maybe harlequin rasboras? I was also considering a ram, a few cherry barbs or an angel as centerpieces. Maybe even a betta but I'd be worried about the amanos. Might also rehome the emerald Cory and add some more paleatus(I have 20ish juveniles in a grow out tank and another 20ish eggs that should hatch soon) What are your opinions? Also fully redoing a dirted tank on a whim was way less of a hassle than I expected. Once the background plants have grown back in I'll post more pictures because I think I'll be a lot happier with the way the tank looks with this layout. Sorry for the long post I ramble when I'm tired
  5. ChefConfit
    Don't know if this is one of the questions that got brought up in the live stream. I didn't get to watch because I just got home from work. An inert substrate is any substrate that doesn't impact water parameters. That doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't have any nutrients, just that it doesn't leach said nutrients into the water column. There's a lot of debate as to how available (if at all) the nutrients in inert substrates is to plants. I don't have any experience with Eco-Complete, but my substrate of choice (mineralized topsoil) is mostly inert when prepared correctly. The mineralized topsoil in my experience has a noticeable benefit to plant growth but doesn't supply nitrogen and doesn't put much nutrients into the water column so I still use easy green. On the other hand crushed coral is not an inert substrate because it has a noticeable impact on water parameters. I don't think it would do much to enhance plant growth by itself though.
  6. ChefConfit
    @Kieflow I wouldn't worry about them unless your planning to be gone over a week. They will scavenge for anything that is still edible in the tank. I actually skip a few days once a month to encourage scavenging. If you have algae eaters you can also keep your lights on longer for a week before you leave to increase algae growth so they have more to eat while you're gone.
  7. ChefConfit
    @Fishmonger_X Blue light is actually very important for photosynthesis. The green area of the spectrum is the least used in most plants which is why most plants appear green. It's the only light not being absorbed. Here's a chart showing the absorption and action spectrums of some common photosynthetic pigments.
  8. ChefConfit
    Guppies love to eat cherry shrimp, but from my understanding they won't really pursue them long. So as long as the shrimp have a lot of cover and everyone is fed well that can live together without excessive bloodshed
  9. ChefConfit
    The differences in the nicrew lights are the types of leds in the light and the available sizes. The Nicrew classic only has white and blue leds and for your tank youd get the 18-24in The Nicrew classic plus has white blue red and green leds and comes in an 18-24in model The nicrew skyled has white and RGB ( red blue and green from a single emitter) leds and also comes in 18-24in The nicrew skyled plus has white blue and red leds but comes in a 24-30in model Personally I would go with the skyled plus if it was my tank and I was only looking at Nicrew because its the only one that comes in the larger size. with any of the other lights your tank is the largest it will fit which means the leds wont start untill about 4in from the edges of the tank vs about 1in with the skyled. Beamswork and hygger lights are also worth a look when shopping for budget lights. I inherited a nicrew classic with my 29 hex and switched it out for a hygger that came in a better size and get much better growth.
  10. ChefConfit
    @pedrofisk they apparently died of a bacterial infection. What I don't understand is how you spend $16k on a pond and fish without doing your research first and figuring out that people who spend significant money on fish usually quarantine and medicate to protect their investment.
  11. ChefConfit
    Deffinetly snail eggs. Here's a Pic of my Cory eggs from a month or so agao
  12. ChefConfit
    Long Island man sues PetSmart for emotional distress after dozens of NYPOST.COM He didn’t sleep because of the fishes. A Long Island man claims something was fishy with dozens of koi he... Doesn't have many details but... Really?
  13. ChefConfit
    If your doing raw soil that would probably lead to an algae farm because it's way to much nutrients. If you're doing mineralized topsoil then still probably not unless you're insane like me and are going to spend half a year+ mineralizing the soil before it goes in the tank. And even then use one or the other very sparsely. My 29 Hex has maybe 2 teaspoons of osmocote+ under the substrate, and if I were to set the tank up again I'd skip it and use root tabs under any plants that seem to be struggling after everything else is settled in and growing well. In my experience osmocote will find a way to the top of your substrate no matter how careful you are. It doesn't seems to adversely affect any of my animals, and it actually releases nutrients very slowly when in water(the company has data available about how it works when used in water because it's also marketed to hydroponic growers) but it's annoying as hell when little balls show up every once in awhile.
  14. ChefConfit
    Coming up on 3 weeks since you planted and I know you are probably going to do an update soon but I'm horribly impatient. Does the nermal tanks substrate having a higher albedo effect your light readings in that tank? Have all the plants fully converted and was there any difference in how long conversion took between the tanks? Any noticeable growth yet? I think around 2-3 weeks is when my stem plants really started to take off in my dirted tank and I did my first trim at 4 weeks. Any noticeable difference in the coloration of the plants? Also did any of the seedlings or the bulb survive in the dirted tank? Finally any noticeable differences in algae? Types/amounts/growth rate?
  15. ChefConfit
    I'd probably bring it home, but if you don't want to then just pull the white clouds and leave it running. Pest snails will graze on algae and biofilm and keep your cycle going. And you're lily should be fine without ferts for a month
  16. ChefConfit
    Mine are in a community tank as well. I pulled a clump of moss and clipped an anubias leaves that had eggs and now have at least 16 fry in the tank that was going to be for shrimp. I also see a few fry in the community tank that are now to big to fit in anyone's mouth
  17. ChefConfit
    I have 1 female emerald, 1 female peppered and 2 male peppered cories. I found new eggs multiple times over a 2 week period about a month ago and yesterday found another batch of eggs.
  18. ChefConfit
    I feed flake every morning and rotate through a bunch of other foods for my night time feeding. I also skip feeding on Sundays, and every few weeks skip a few days in a row to encourage everyone to forage for food.
  19. ChefConfit
    Glad you found the cause!
  20. ChefConfit
    @Maggie The 3 to the right are definitely eating. They have rounded bellies. The one highest up looks like it may be concave but it could just be distorted from the angle and glass. I find that to be the best way to tell if they're eating since they tend to be shy and not eat while you're near the tank in the begining.
  21. ChefConfit
    Do you have any cories or small plecos that will eat the wafers? Sometimes seeing another fish eating them will make them realize it's food. Otherwise mine love peas. Just cook them in a little water until soft then remove the skin. I just pinch them between my fingers till the pop out of the skin. Mine also go crazy for frozen BBS
  22. ChefConfit
    How deep is your substrate? Deep sand beds are used to remove nitrate in saltwater tanks and sometimes in freshwater tanks. Typically they need to be at least 4-6 inches to prevent oxygen from reaching the bottom because the nitrate consuming bacteria in anaerobic. If you're trying to avoid anaerobic conditions in the substrate then you can limit your substrate to 2-3 inches, get sand shifters or MTS and have lots of plants (their roots also release oxygen into the substrate). I want to set up a deep sand bed tank just to see how well it works and because how they function is interesting.
  23. ChefConfit
    Here's a video about quarantining and treating fish from @Cory I think that's the right one I did have time to watch more than a few seconds to check and he has a lot of videos about it. His method has pretty much become the standard in the hobby as far as I can tell. Pretty much every youtuber I watch and hobbyist I know uses his method. As for alternatives to an actual tank... Literally anything that holds water, won't react with the water/meds and is large enough to not cause the fish additional stress. Rubbermaid totes and 5 gallon buckets work well.
  24. ChefConfit
    They're fine on most substrates as long as there are now sharp edges. The do like to sift through the substrate so small gravel or sand is usually preferred but not required.
  25. ChefConfit
    In that case... 0 and 0 unless it's a saltwater tank
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