anewbie
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Posts posted by anewbie
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Italia val will give that 'densely' planted look:
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male + female == territory. In general they are a bit unpredictable but adding a female is one sure way to bring out aggression.
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For a 10 i would avoid the larger anubias - but i would get something with a bit of change in tone - a couple include golden nana (lime green) and pinto (dark green mixed with white); another anubia that is larger than nana but not super large like bateri is afzelii anubia which has a different leaf shape than others mentioned. I do like coffee but it is a large plant like bateri and even a 29 is probably a bit small for those two over long term.
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On 5/30/2023 at 10:08 AM, Goldie Blue said:
My 55 is (currently) my biggest tank. After a lot of thought, I am going to exchange it for a Fluval 407. I have the 207 and 307 on other tanks, and so far (knock on wood) have had no issues with it. It's much easier to maintain than this stupid Eheim I have. I borrowed a cycled second filter from a friend until I can swap this out later today.
Yeah this was another reason I am deciding to just take it back, I'd have to spend more money just to get it to hopefully not be too strong in the tank. Once my friend said she had a filter I could borrow for a day or two it gave me more wiggle room. I was seriously not prepared for how giant this fx4 is!!!
I appreciate all your help everyone! Why do tank emergencies always happen at night or on a weekend when everything is closed? 🤣
There is a spray bar for the non-fx models sold by fluval; pretty cheap and well made. If you can't find it i can give you pointer via messaging system.
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On 5/30/2023 at 1:14 AM, nabokovfan87 said:
@Goldie Blue There is an FX spraybar kit for that filter. Start there.... This will tame the output a little bit and give you much better circulation across the 55G.
I have the spray bar for my fx6 and found it made the current intolerable for my angels (on a 120); while I like the spray bar a lot it does increase the current and you don't have any top dwellers that would enjoy that extra current.
I would be careful about turning hte flow down on these units. Fluval does state it won't harm the motor as long as flow is > 50% but it does stress the motor imho and there are other things that will reduce flow (such as gunk in filter) and if you use a pre-filter. The motor it self just turns but maget that turns the propeller but less water will be flowing through the unit and my understand is the 'smarts' in these units will try to compenstate; though I'm not 100% sure here.
To be honest I'm not overjoyed with my fx6 as it is a pia to remove to clean - the design makes it a bit of a pain to drain a bit of water out of the filter so it can be moved - anyway i also have an eheim classic and it has its own issues - but my new aquariums will have sumps - and I think i'll settle on mostly sumps and matten filters for my filtering solutions going forward. I was going to recommend a matten filter for your 55 - but i honestly think a pair of plain sponge filters will do the job given your stocking - i prefer swisstropical sponges but any brand will do - they are cheap and efficient. Just pick one that you can squeeze behind some plants - be sure not to put it against anything so water can freely flow around it. This is one of my aquariums with a matten filter if you want to see how that looks - the disadvantage of the matten filter is it takes up space in the aquarium:
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FX4 is probably ok for a 55 but on the high end; depending on socking you could just use sponge filter. You don't really have much esp if your pleco (species) is one of the smaller ones - of course if he is a common that is 2 feet long it will be a different situation.
Your embers might object to the fx4 current; they are not really swimmers. The pleco will love the current esp if you get it near the bottom (you would have to mod it as sold most of the current is upper 1/3).
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On 5/29/2023 at 9:06 AM, Lennie said:
adult angels bully them too?
After reading some people losing rummy noses to angels, I'm speechless. I wouldnt be shocked if they snack on cardinals too.
I have two angels in my 42g tank with a rummynose school. One black veil, and one platinum. They don't get that huge I guess, but I hope they don't cause any trouble in the future :))
They don't bully them; one day one of the large males discover they were tasty .... why bully them when you can swallow them whole.
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On 5/29/2023 at 3:51 AM, Lennie said:
good to know,
I remember watching coop videos and Cory saying they are usually wildcaught, and tankbreds are more expensive so generally stores don't carry them a lot, but that might've changed lately! Also my lfs guy said he saw them being raised in like huge pools but in their main environment, so basically bred in nature but kinda in captivity, I assume would still need those natural parameters.
Thanks for sharing
The florida ones aren't so bad - i forgot the name of the company but when the pandemic hit everything went south. I don't trust anything from asia these days - too much cross breeding and hormones in their breeding farms. Anyway in good conditions cardinals can live close to 10 years. They really are lovely fishes - pitty i can't keep them with my angels any longer...
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On 5/28/2023 at 9:35 AM, Lennie said:
To live, maybe. To thrive, no.
cardinals are almost always wild caught. Wild caught fish are usually more sensitive to changes and they want to be kept in what water they are used to be in. So they want quite acidic and soft water.
Livebearers are the opposite. They want hard water with high ph.
So not an ideal duo and cannot really thrive together. In terms of parameters they exactly want the opposite sides.
Could be nicer if you go for fish that share similar parameters, or at least ones that are tank bred in your local parameters so may have easier time adjusting.
Actually a large number of cardinals are tank bred either in Florida or Asia; however I have found consistently that tank bred cardinals seem less healthy than wc so only buy wc these days - having said that they are not as bad as tank bred neon which have very poor genetics. Part of the issue is that it is rather 'tricky' to breed cardinals or perhaps i should say takes more than the casual expertise of mixing water and fish.
Having said this they will live longer in soft water - it is genetics. That doesn't mean they won't live in harder water but platies like most livebearers really need (relatively speaking) fairly hard water to 'thrive' so at that point you will be pushing the limits of what is tolerable by cardinals long term. Naturally you can keep them together just don't expect them to live as long as they would in more favorable conditions. My tap water is on the soft side of thing with tds 130 but i keep guppies. They breed faster than they die but they don't really live as long as they should. When i move next month i'll be moving them to their own little hard water aquarium as my sa fishes will be getting much softer water.
To make matters worse cardinals do a lot better in warm waters - while you can find a temperature that is in the upper range that is favorable for platties that is good for cardinals; I would not keep cardinals at 74...
Anyway it isn't really the answer you want but that is the nature of these things.
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You know i was thinking about those fly and predators and thinking - what is a predator to one is food to another....
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You're the 2nd person i've seen report this - when they remove the frys dad gets pissed and beats up mom. Might make an interesting experiment.
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Actually I think i goofed; it was Blyxa aubertii that grew tall. I had three species near each other - blyxa novo, blyxa j and blyxa a and one of them grew too tall. Of course now two years later - my cat fishes ate it all last month and i hvae none. I think - unless it is hiding from the nasty cat.
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On 5/25/2023 at 10:53 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
I couldn't be happier with my Blyxa Japonica. I love this tank. Flow flow flow...
Bit confused here - mine grew a full 17 inches high - in your tank it looks quite short.
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Yea - there is an issue if you are selling bulk; local market or mail order (which is more hassle). I will say some of the less common dwarf cichild and pleco are easy to breed and sell for a high price - but most local markets aren't really interested in these fishes. Me - i don't sell fishes - if i'm willing to go to the hassle of shipping i just give them away for free - after all this is a hobby not a job. That isn't really your question - but those are the two philosophy - one catchall - you can't simply look at the price of the fish because you have to gauge the market size and ease of breeding. For example L397 are really easy to breed but still - strangely enough - sell for a pretty decent price; zebra pleco are harder to breed and their reproduction rate is much slower so while they sell for more dollars you won't get as many off springs - as for market size - i have no basis for comment.
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Every wednesday i do a water change on my 120 (as well as saturday).... today I pulled a couple of young jungle val:
These are already 5.5 feet long - how can you tell they are young - the leaves are still narrow and the root area is smallish (compared to older plants). Don't begin to ask how long the adult plants get - it is quite sad problem ... Why did i pull them - well this plant has an annoying habit of spreading into the various Echinodorus I have - not only do these Echinodorus suffer from lack of light due to the canopy created by the vals; when they spread they will sometime wrap their roots around the Echinodorus rhizone and 'strangle' it. So despite being not awful plants these particular youngsters were misbehaving and well - ones fate is often determined by ones behavior - what can i say....
I also did a partial trim of the canopy to allow more light to reach the bottom - which the fishes reacted negatively to - as they kind of prefer the shade.... what can i say someone will always gripe if you make a change.
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My bn - i don't breed fishes per sey - but my bn won't stop breeding in their community aquarium; so every now and then i have to waste a day fishing out a bunch of young ones to take to the shop; last bucket full was a couple of hundred store credit. I don't actually take credit; he offers it but i just ask for my empty bucket back and am happy to be rid of them.
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I'm a little concern if the dad is kicking them out of his cave; i've not bred my red lizard (the last batch i purchased was more brown than the first batch); but i'm presuming they are somewhat similar to pleco where daddy guards the eggs till they hatch and kicks them out if they go bad. I did a lot of reading up on these guys when i got the 2nd batch to discover why they were less red - seems they cross breed them with easier to breed species to produce more eggs and less red.... of course that isn't saying a lot since the red ones are presumed to be a hybrid to begin with.
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anyway mostly following this because i want to see how it goes for you. I'm so sick of my bn breeding - i'm hopeful for something that will be less prolific.
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I'm trying to digest this - is this another asian produced hybrid ? Btw some asian farms have started producing hybrid botia.
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Well they do need some green and you could try adding more greens to the aquarium. I feed mine some soilent stuff and they really go after it. I do have some plants being nibbled on but not sure if it is the clown loaches or festum (both willl eat plants if they feel like it). Long term those clown loaches will get very large and have big appetities. Mine are 4 years old (well i've had the oldest ones 4 years - probably 6 or 7 in total years) and they are already more than 6 inches....
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On 5/20/2023 at 6:02 AM, Fish Folk said:
PSA for general preparedness:
The upshot is this: come August, unless this resolves, shipping may clog up significantly. Costs may increase, and live fish could find themselves in warehouses and on hot tarmacs for periods longer than normal.
Hum... i just asked my fishes if it is ok if they spend time in a warehouses or hot tarmacs; and they said if they end up in those places they will either go in strike or hide in the back corner where i can't catch them.... so i guess that means something ... not quite sure what.
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8 in a 48 is probably too many - also timeout won't do much good. If the fishes are mature - in general i have found is that males will bicker until a solid pecking order is establish and then get along - this period might be a few days or a few months. females are territorial and they won't bicker - they will drive the undesired angel out of their territory even if that means killing them. The extreme in aggression with females is highly dependent on individual fishes with some not very aggressive and some hyper aggressive. With males as I said they are generally just trying to figure out who is boss of the group.
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On 5/19/2023 at 5:29 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:
OK. Then I guess it's all about the upper range and if that's good enough for your purposes. Maybe so as you won't want 0.5PPM around anyway.
But Free is more important to know than Total. Total chlorine is similar to the ammonia tests that include ammonium.
A Total Chlorine test combines the free chlorine and any chlorine compounds it created while disinfecting or reacting with the water. These compounds may not be harmful, or they may be. It's just like the ammonia tests when you could read a high value but it's not ammonia but rather, ammonium. It reads high but you can't tell which form of ammonia you've tested. So, Total doesn't tell you much about chlorine as a dangerous compound. Total tends to be more about swimming pools.
Free chlorine is the active disinfectant that is not 'used up' yet. So Total is considered less useful and may be inaccurate insofar as testing chlorine levels that would affect live critters. My guess being you want Free Chlorine testing for anything living. So, it's probably more about if topping out at 0.5PPM is high enough.
Interesting; your answer is opposite of their fish representative. Now i'm not sure who is correct 😉
When i suggested 762 - they said:
"The 762 only measures free chlorine, which is the most dangerous form, but glosses over other molecular forms that could have an affect So I would suggest the 761" but you are sort of saying the exact opposite - only the free chlorine is harmful and these other molecules are providing a false reading. Of course the converse is the "all chlorine" test would provide an upper bound so you know it is no worse than the value and if these other molecules can become problematic later (can they become 'free' later on from a chemical perspective) are they an issue? Looking at 701 it does say 'free'; but they also suggest pool and spas as the application (using their website); for 761 they toss in education, industrial and again pool and spa which they also repeat for 762 - not very useful. In fact the entire fact that I'm unsure if they know what they are talking about i posted this note on the forum here. You have three models 701,761, and 762 and it is not clear which one is most suitable. My concern with the 701 when i first saw it is that at 1ppm (the lowest resolution of this model) the chlorine might still be harmful and you really want ppb but now this issue of free chlorine and bonded chlorine is making my head spin because I don't know if it matters that much at the end of the day. When my water pass through a bed of charcole will it fail to absorb bonded chlorine and will that mean the 761 reading will be off the wall and does it matter if the chlorine is bonded in some fashion or is it still dangerous as their representative claim. Perhaps worse but maybe not - if i wanted to measure the effect of something like prime i suspect from what has been said 761 would measure near tap water level of chlorine while the 762 would measure near 0 ?
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On 5/19/2023 at 5:03 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:
Oh OK. It looks like the 762 has replaced the 761 but they seem to be very similar. In particular, the 761 has the same extremely low range, 0.001PPM to 0.5PPM. So, the above on the 762 applies to the 761 as well. It seems too granular to me, but you may have specific needs for such granularity. If you need 0.001 levels of accuracy and don't mind it topping out at 0.5PPM, then the 761 is a good choice.
Our Los Angeles water is 3PPM-4PPM out of the faucet so I'm guessing but chances are you won't be able to measure the chlorine of your water before any reduction as it's probably over 0.5PPM out of the faucet.
No - they are two different products both active. I asked them this morning about it - 761 measures all chlorine - 762 only measures 'free' chlorine if that makes sense to you. She highly recommended the 761 over the 762. btw tests for the 762 is 2.5 x more expensive ($1 each vs $0.36 for the 761).
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Yea - so that is an interesting question - what happens if the chlorine is out of range - the answer is it shows the max value (500) but it blinks so you know it is out of range. Is that a bad thing for our application? My gut sez no but perhaps your gut sez otherwise ?
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On 5/19/2023 at 4:50 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:
I haven't been able to find the 741. Is it possible that it's an older model and has been replaced by this one (the 762)?
Ultra Low Range Free Chlorine Colorimeter – Checker® HC (hannainst.com)
I only see the 701 and the 762 on their website. Between these two, the 762 might be overkill as it's graduated in PPB vs PPM.
So, converting both to PPM, the 762 will read between 0.001PPM which seems unnecessarily low and only reads up to a maximum of 0.5PPM.
Whereas the 701 will read from 0.01PPM up to 2.5PPM which seems more in the useful range for aquariums. Municiple water supplies can read as high as 4PPM so I think the 701 is a more useful range unless you have specific plans and wish to monitor the chlorine at an extremely granular level.
Here's the 701: Free Chlorine Colorimeter – Checker® HC HI701 (hannainst.com)
If I've missed the 741 somewhere, send me a link and I'm happy to look at it. I hope this helps.
I typo'ed the number it is 761; the 761 measure total chlorine 1ppb; the 762 only measures free chlorine 1ppb; the 701 is ppm. So when i wrote 741 i meant 761 which you should now be able to find.
The 761 is $7 more for the kit; but (here is the kicker) the actual tests are less expensive than the 701 ($9 for 25 vs $10 - ok small difference).
Does that help. So my question is there any reason to not buy the 761 vs the 701.
Email blocked?
in General Discussion
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It is all on your end - you told your email provider to block the email; now you have the tell it to unblock. the problem with giving you more detail is i can't tell if this is done at the client level or something different. My first instinct is it is done via the client but a bit depends on which client you are using and which mail provider. What client do you use to talk to edison mail - do you use outlook; web browser, thunderbird, .... there are 100's so it is hard to proceed without more details.