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Biotope Biologist

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Everything posted by Biotope Biologist

  1. Biotope Biologist
    Saltwater tanks tend to take longer to cycle but once cycled are more stable, water parameter wise. Alot of fish stores will turn you away from buying fish if it hasn't been established for 6 months or longer. If you plan on keeping gobies I would highly suggest deep sand substrate (6-8" preferred). Buying marine benthic invertebrates and worms will go along way in a tank like this for aerating sand and as potential meals for gobies. Many of the gobies such as mandarin will only eat live foods as well unless trained. If you like gobies have you thought about brackish water systems? You get the best of both worlds here, but cycling isn't as long or arduous. I am a huge fan of brackish I wish more people ran it, so I may be living vicariously here 😅
  2. Biotope Biologist
    I never had issues running a pair of Bolivian rams in a smaller community tank. Granted I adopted mine at the end of their lifespan so they were fairly docile. For any cichlid following general rules will allow you to keep them with other fish. -plenty of hiding spots -break line of sight -willingness to seperate aggressors -establish territories and "caves" for them to defend -keep in either bonded pairs or 5+ schools Follow these simple rules and generally speaking you won't have issues. Granted it depends on the fishes personality and cichlids have lots of personality. I had a Convict who was a complete puppy, just wanted to be everyone's friend. Others have had serial killers that terrorize anything living.
  3. Biotope Biologist
    Let me see if I can't find the guide saved on my college hard drive. It has been years since I referenced it. I will edit this post with a pdf link if I am able to. Wish you luck! Sorry for the fuzzy images. Being unable to use PDF's on this site distorted the original file. Credit to Carl Strohnmeyer as this information is not my own.
  4. Biotope Biologist
    When you say your hardness is off the charts I assume you mean gH right? If that is the case you may have a hard time getting your coral (calcium carbonate) to actually dissolve. I would highly recommend dosing your tap water with carbonate salts. Seachem(r) sells a variety for the reef. I thought there was another company that sold this in bulk for ponds but I cannot find it on the googles. As suggested above I would recommend playing scientist not in the display tank but in a separate container so you can get your dosing right. It doesn't effect fish quite as much as pH swings do, but it's always best not to disturb them. Reference page for those who want a rundown of water chemistry: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh
  5. Biotope Biologist
    Right it is easier to treat with both gram (+and -). Often times it is easier to just throw the kitchen sink of antibiotics at it until it dies. My veterinarian did this for me when my bearded dragon had a staph infection in his eye- He was rescued from a negligent home. Ich-X and API general cure are more or less for parasites and tend not to have any effect on bacterial infections. If you have followed the required dosage for Kanaplex and Furan-2 you do not have to keep administering it. I would just keep up with Erythromycin and water changes. I wish I still had my handy fish medication chart I downloaded from one of the UC schools. It was good at identifying whether the medication was effective or not in certain pH, kH, and gH ranges. As water parameters do have an effect on the medications
  6. Biotope Biologist
    I highly suggest it! Check your local laws you may need a permit. I am not sure of your locale but Washington State freshwater fish are amazing. I once kept a tadpole madtom and a from what I understand weather loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) with some 3 spined stickleback. Bonus if you have your own pointsource stream or pond nearby! Absolutely love that this resource has a captive care guide
  7. Biotope Biologist
    If you're artistic make styrofoam rocks. Fish aren't smart enough to tell the difference. There are also tons of brands out there now that do the same for unartistic people such as myself. Your fish tank stand is the structure here not the tank. Also keep in mind water displacement the more rock you add the less water you have
  8. Biotope Biologist
    This is only an issue with no flow. Nitrate is soluble in water so it tends not to matter where your test source is. Also it's closer to 3.44x I just rounded up because I am not in Organic Chemistry anymore so I like to break rules.
  9. Biotope Biologist
    Ammonia in tap water is exceedingly rare unless your source is a well. Any disturbance of filter media is enough to "dislodge" bacteria. I would just have one micron cloth for inflow and convert the rest of the filter media to your biomax rings. Again having sufficient flow at the bottom of your tank will also help with mechanical filtration and aeration. If the waste cannot get to your filter where it is converted than it will just sit in the water column. I do not know enough about chemipure easy green to comment on it. The website suggests it is only activated carbon and resin which I fail to see how that helps plants. But if it also contains micronutrients such as cobalt and potassium then I don't see any harm in running it for plant food.
  10. Biotope Biologist
    Next step to me sounds like establishing your macro environment. Decide what you want to have in the tank whether it be snails, shrimp, daphnia, worms, etc. and add them in now. These guys will help stabilize the cycle with their excrement as well as clean up any unwanted debris. Allow them to establish themselves over the course of a week or two. You may have to feed them to keep them from eating new growth on the plants if they run out of algae. As for the plants 8-10 hours is best I would not lower the amount of light output while they are growing. Keep doing your fertilizer regiment and pull hair algae off the plants and glass if you want. Some people, myself included like the look of established algae as long as it isn't competing with the plants. Not to mention many fish like to graze. The longer the tank has to establish before fish the better, it just depends on how patient you want to be with it.
  11. Biotope Biologist
    When I used to feed live foods my main concern was going to the fish store and getting a batch of fouled black worms. That wreaks havoc on fish tanks. For all intent and purposes feeding live foods direct from a pond is pretty safe.
  12. Biotope Biologist
    Larger South American or African tetra will be fine dither fish. Danios are hyper and are common fin nippers so you did right removing them. During feeding time puffers tend to be shy so I personally would train him/her to tong feed. Feed the tetra on one side of the tank and attempt to establish a tong feeding spot for the puffer away from the tetras. The tetra will be to busy in their feeding frenzy to realize the puffer is getting preferential treatment. I would not do livebearers they too are fin nippers when bored and they also don't really like low kH low pH environments anyway.
  13. Biotope Biologist
    I usually like to cultivate these live foods for a month, just to make absolutely sure that the population is healthy. You likely won't have anything to worry about as parasites tend to be specific to a small group of fish and invertebrates only local to your own locale. My main concern when I pull a net up from a pond is some hitch hiker that loves to prey on fish coming along for the ride. If you're anal retentive and have high value fish a small inline UV filter for the live food tank will zap any unwanted protozoa and bacteria. Just make sure to have micron mesh blocking the inflow, because UV filters will also kill macro invertebrates given sufficient exposure.
  14. Biotope Biologist
    That appears to be a bacterial infection to me. Ich-X won't do anything in this case since that is a specific remedy for a specific protozoan. I would suggest keeping up with your general bacteria sweep. You also must treat him with these medications for at least 14 days. Often can take up to 21 days. Just like a human even when the infection goes away you should treat for the duration of the quarantine or whatever is recommended on the medicine. If you have the resources you can also have the bacteria infection cultured for identification, so that you can target it more specifically. But this is not recommended for everyone and often requires proper handling to grab tissue samples without stressing the fish.
  15. Biotope Biologist
    Have you done/are interested in flood breeders? Since you have experience breeding it can provide a fun challenge. Requires close monitoring of water parameters such as temperature and pH and you will need mechanical inputs such as simulated rain and different water levels, but it is very rewarding to pull off as most people don't have the time or patience. Won't be able to get a colony though if that is a strict requirement
  16. Biotope Biologist
    Do you have any other media in the HOB filter? if you only have mechanical filtration then your bacterial filtration will never fully establish. You can add a prefilter sponge to the intake of the HOB and convert all media in the filter to porous ceramics or plastics, whatever you can get your hands on. This will allow your bacteria colony to establish itself instead of being disrupted during every water change. The other suggestion is since you have a tank with high depth low surface area either invest in an undergravel filter and porous media or a small fan to get the lower water column to move. Remember nitrate is 4x denser than water so good flow keeps it from "settling"
  17. Biotope Biologist
    "Aquarium designs" by Peter Hiscock is an interesting read I picked up in college. It is about biotope building and shows some interesting setups. I would like to make a white river and brackish mangrove swamp biotope at some point.
  18. Biotope Biologist
    mortar and pestle if you are feeling fancy. Otherwise crushing it in your fingers is just fine. Flaked food can be chewed and spat up by guppies and tetra so getting it to be uniform isn't a huge issue. Rule of thumb is feeding as much food as the fish will eat in 2-3 minutes. If within your means I prefer feeding fish 3 times a day so that they don't overeat during individual feedings and thus less waste
  19. Biotope Biologist
    Any disturbance will start with shock but in my experience Anubias species prefer emmersion over immersion. I suppose it depends on the medium you will be transplanting to, but I wouldn't expect much issue.
  20. Biotope Biologist
    When I worked in a fishstore way back when I would disturb the filter to shake out particulates of the floss and bag up the water once it ran into the tank for people to help seed the tank. So yes that is true. Also be aware that I would only do this if the store was not busy, otherwise I would just say be patient and use fish food. It is the easiest way.
  21. Biotope Biologist
    I wouldn't be concerned. This suggests to me that you are just about ready. Feeding the bacteria in your filter will speed up this process. Flaked food crumbled up and tossing into the tank, or buying macro invertebrates from your local fish store. You can also ask your local fish store for a bag of water from their established aquarium to help seed your filter are all things that you can do
  22. Biotope Biologist
    10 gallons is fine for these fish. Your biggest concern is going to be to break up lines of sight and providing adequate amounts of large shells to choose from. They are small but they are still a cichlid so following basic cichlid rules is ideal. This includes: breaking line of sight as stated above plenty of "territories" in the tank Be ready to divide fish if aggression is an issue Care in choosing tank mates Other than that pH and gH as you are likely aware needs to be high, since they are african cichlids
  23. Biotope Biologist
    What exactly are you doing to cycle the tank? Are you planning on running a mechanical filter or just the sponge filter? I see that you are also having trouble with cloudy water so I would say that you are still in the middle of cycling. But based on what you are doing I can give you advice on how to get your tank cycled quickly and ready for fish
  24. Biotope Biologist
    Nope no disease here. Your fish just gained pigmentation. Could be because of your food. Fish respond especially to carotene, krill, spirulina, and spinach. Could also just be the fish maturing. 'Gold' and 'Albino/Leucistic' are not synonymous
  25. Biotope Biologist
    hardware stores have some see through 1/4" I assume either PVC or Vinyl tubing that is clear. This is the same material as normal gravel vacs. Then you can buy a PVC reducer coupling to make a mini gravel vac. Although there are nano specific gravel vacs on the market if you don't want to fuss with that.
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