anewbie
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Posts posted by anewbie
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A few things - first clown loaches should be kept in packs no smaller than 6 and more the merrier. Second clown loaches get large. They will approach 5 inches after a couple of years and can grow as large as 18 inches over 50 years but typically around 8 to 12 inches in the aquarium. Third clown loaches will eventually need a large aquarium and a 55 is not large. Fourth clown loaches love current and hate dirty water.
As to your snail problem if you don't over feed them the clown loaches will eat them but don't get fewer than 6 and 20 is a bonus as they love company.
Now there are smaller loaches; one of my favorite are zebra loaches; these max out around 4 inches and don't get nearly as wide body as clown loaches (i.e, they are significantly less mass); again they like large groups i keep 10 together and when i move them into their new home in may it will grow to 20 but you can get as few as 6.
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There are kubotai and yoyo loaches but these are inbetween the size of clown and zebra; some say they can have a nasty temper but my group of yoyo have left my angels alone; and once again they really need to be in a large group.
Btw my angels are in the aquarium with clown/zebra and yoyo and have no issue breeding with the loaches. Pleco on the other hand can be a probelm but pleco don't eat snails.
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Also i will note that in one of my aquariums assassin snails have done diddly to remove my tumpet snails; and in another of my aquarium assassin snails are breeding like rabbits - i must have 100 in there. I'm not sure assassin snails are much better than other snails over time.
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As for my tank with loaches; oddly i don't have any snails at all and the occasional snail that gets added via new plants seem to turn into empty shells.
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On 11/30/2022 at 11:30 PM, Plechoeco said:
I have been wanting to eventually keep some angels in a second tank that’s larger than the 29gal. Would they be ok in something like a 40gal breeder or would they need the deeper 55gal to be ok?
A 40B is usually too shallow for a large male adult angels; for younger angels being grown out they can be kept in a 40 for a little while but you will need a taller aquarium. There is a 50 and 65 that are similar to a 40B but taller one is 18 inches and the other 21 inches.
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The hygger 957 is a fairly new model and inexpensive that a lot of people like (I have no first hand usage). A lot of folks also like the beamswork I've not used it. For a 29 either should work fine; the 55 is a bit taller (also a 55 is not the best aquarium to buy because it is narrow and tall - wide tanks tend to do a better job - like a 40b or 65 or 75 whatever - also shallower tanks are better for plants 'cept if you want a tall fish like an angel.
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There are three reasons for a lid: to keep critters from jumping out; to keep critters from jumping in; to reduce evaporation. I have 4 aquariums with lids and one without - I have no critters that like to jump in but a long time ago i did have such a critter who went meow meow and was very unhappy each time he did it; i had a few (3?) jumpers in the aquarium without a lid and they jumped several years ago but no one else has jumped since; evaporation is a bit of an issue - i do weekly water changes but i notice the change in water level...
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The reason i removed the lid was it got in the way of the light i was using on that aquarium.... so it had to go.
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I'm a lazy breeder; i leave my parents in the community tank (120 gallon); i feed them a variety of dry foods (fluval bug bites; some nls some omega one ... whatever i have laying around); they can easily get their frys to wrigglers; when they move the wrigglers to a convenient place like a jungle val leaf; and i'm in the mood to raise the fry i steal the leaf stick it in a breeder thing in my 29 and start hatching bbs; a few days later when they are free swimming i feed them and use a turker blaster or eye dropper depending on their container before each feeding to remove anything to decay. After a while they get bigger and i move to small dry food - i once try putting them in a pail but it turns out they are very unhappy if they can't see me so now i just raise them in a 29 and when they get larger a larger aquarium.
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On 11/30/2022 at 2:25 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
Don't use one. I or my wife keep an eye on it when we fill. Alexa reminders as well.
Hum.... so the ro unit is what 200 gpd ? Which is 8 gph so you watch it for 4 hours while filling ? Just trying to understand how you do things to see if i can use the info to improve my work flow.
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On 11/30/2022 at 10:51 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
I use Bulk Reef Supply's system. Before COVID, they were really cheap. I started with a 4 stage and over time added a second membrane and a booster pump. I have 2 32 gallon Brute gray garbage cans and a 44 gallon. I bought them over a period of time, I would rather just have 2 cans, but hindsight is 20/20. I use 2 for water changes and 1 is always just plain RO.
If I front load, I dose the cans with all Macros. If I do daily dosing, I only add GH to the cans. I fill them to just over flowing and then remove 1 gallon. This way, I know exactly how many gallons I have.
I have a 2000gph sump pump from eBay, long hose and a DYI nozzle. I run simple fountain pumps and old unused heaters to mix and bring water to a reasonable temperature in winter.
What sort of float switch do you have on the ro unit and was it diffifcult to make it work reliabably ?
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I wanted to make one other comment which might or might not be related to your problem. I had a female nijjensi in a 29 and she was more or less the 'boss' and never hid. After a few years i moved her to a 40B because she was bullying new fishes i added to the 29. In the 40B she more or less hid for 6 months and even now she only shows herself briefly when eating. In the 40B there isn't anything aggressive. The largest fish is a single male nannacara amolae but he is pretty passive and never bothers the borelli (the only other cichild in the aquarium). I think she is just sulking but she is eating well as she has put on weight.
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I've never had krobia; but with angels having multiple females can lead to trouble. The female angels are very jealous and they like to fight to the death - the males will bicker for alpha status and i can have 1 female with x males but it is a crap shoot when i have more than 1 female - in one case 2 females with sep males did sort of get along but in another case 1 female went around killing all the other females. No clue how krobia will behave once they reach sexual maturity.
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I do it all the time... not a problem.
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On 11/29/2022 at 5:29 AM, Karen B. said:
Sorry, didn’t mean to come across as rude. English isn’t my main langage
Thank you so much for all these precious information! I was leaning toward Emperor but I am not a fan of agressive behavior.
Will cross Rummy nose from the list then!
You didn't come across as rude; i should have read the post in more detail. Don't be discourage by emperor tetra; just don't buy more than 5 or so. Their behavior are a bit different than other tetra but it might be a good experience. The safest route would be candy cane or serpae (I favor serpae since they are more active); just be aware that if you have m/f cockatoo and they are young their behavior will change over time and you should provide hiding places for them (leaf litter, driftwood, sponge filter and similar).
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On 11/29/2022 at 5:17 AM, Karen B. said:
I stated my parameters in my original post - my water is around 150 moving toward 300 gh on the aquarium coop test strips.
Sorry i only skimmed the original post - ok a few comments based on the original post:
black neon tetra are similar to cardinal tetra in behavior but a tiny bit larger and of course a different colour. candy cane, serpae and black skirt are somewhat similar in shape and behavior though my serpae have always been more active than candy cane but not excessive or schooling like rummy. As i noted rummy nose tend to be tight fast moving schoolers and do better in a larger aquarium. emperor tetra are a bit more exotic in behavior and mature males can fight quite a bit also depending on source they might have more problem with very hard water.
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On 11/29/2022 at 4:53 AM, Karen B. said:
No, I don’t think they will breed. Had them for over 6 months now, nothing happened. I beleive my water is a bit too hard for it. So not planning on reproducing them.
Hard water will not stop them from breeding; it would only stop the eggs from hatching but cockatoo will breed in moderately hard water (though there is a limit). black neon are fine; I believe a 20 long is too small for rummynose which are a fast swimming schooling fish and 4 feet long is better; for the larger tetra like serpae, black phantom, candy cane, black skirt i would limit the group to at most 7. These are not as small as cardinals/black neon. For the smaller tetra like green neon and ember you could probably get as many as 10 to 12 and for the middle size tetra like cardinals and black neon 8 would be a good number. However all these fishes do better in soft water; that doesn't mean they can't be kept in harder water but of course the harder the water the less optimal. You said you thought your water was too hard but didn't provide a numerical value (cockatoo will successfully breed in moderately hard water); but if your water is so hard they cannot successfully hatch eggs then your water might be better suited for shell fishes or similar. Of course there are other reasons why they might not breed - they could be too young or the same sex.
Be aware that if you have a male and female cockatoo and they do reach maturity and start laying eggs - these are not pair forming fishes where the male and female work together. These are polygamous fishes and the way they work is the male will chase a non-breeding female out of his territory. Once the female lays eggs she will viciously attack the male if he comes near so it is critical to provide adequate hiding places for when they are not getting along. This is very different system than pair forming fishes that tend to get along when breeding.
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To answer your question first need to understand if you are trying to breed the cockatoo and if so do you expect the fry to live ?
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On 11/28/2022 at 10:45 AM, Colu said:
Cardinal tetras would do well with apistos or rummy nose tetras
cardinals are considered predatory in nature so if he plans on breeding this is not the best option... there are better options which will not prey on the frys; likewise for many of the other mentioned fishes in this thread... so it all depends on his intention.
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You really want to use pure ro water (kh 0) before using peat to lower the ph further. Also you want a fair amount of leaf littler (or similar) to keep the ph stable. If your kh is 1 you will waste an awful lot of peat and similar absorbing those extra ions.
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If you want them to breed; serape tetra are not an option. Ember will work or a species of pencil fish.
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I'm hopeful a basic float switch will work for my ro unit; what I would really like is a water level sensor that could turn the thing off (basically an electronic float switch) but no clue if they make them - i'm ordering the 500 gallon tank next week but the ro unit won't be ordered till march at which time i'll find out if things work or if there is more frustration 😉
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I sort of see but it is a bit well beyond me how to setup the solenoid - as yours looks home made. I will say that i i did get a low flow water meter so i can measure the amount of water flowing out of the sump to track how much water is being changed.
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Why did you hook up the emitter to a drip emitters? Mine isn't setup yet (setup is in may) but i figure i could just hook them directly up to output line with the appropriate psi. In the basement i have filter water and a 500 gallon tank for ro water hooked up to a well pump - there are two faucets in the room one for ro water and one for filtered water.
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On 11/27/2022 at 7:14 AM, Mynameisnobody said:
I had a 125 a few years back and it was as easy to work on as a 75. However, I despised working on the 90 gallon planted. It was beyond annoying. Hope this helps
A stock 125 is 21 inches high; a stock 75 is 21 inches high a stock 90 is 24 inches high; naturally custom build and odd and ends can have different heights.
On 11/27/2022 at 7:52 AM, tolstoy21 said:I plan on using the method I use now, which is siphoning water into a large filter sock in my sump under the aquarium (this sump chamber is also full of floss and sponge should the sock over flow). This way I pull out as much gunk/poop as I can while not affecting the water level or worrying about messing around with sloppy buckets or refilling the aquarium. If the sump get's too full too quickly, that has an overflow in it so it can discharge into a waste line (it's all plumbed into my wall and goes down into a slop-sink line in my basement). If I need to put fresh water into the tank, I remotely trigger a sump pump in a barrel of staged water in the basement (also plumbed in) and that pumps in fresh water. Otherwise the tank will be on a constant, slow feed of fresh water. Been running my 125 effectively like this for 4 or 5 years now.
My main concern was how hard it would be to reach down with a siphon and what effectiveness of a siphon would be at greater dept, but you answered that pretty satisfactorily.
I'm looking forward to having a much larger tank, but alas, that will probably not in the cards for about 2 years. But good to have a goal, right?
Not sure this is useful to you; but what I am doing is putting a hole at the top of the end of my sump and running a tube to a drain. I then use emitters common with sprinkler systems to add a control amount of water ot the than (approx 1.5 gallons an hour); the sump fills up and drains out the hole at the end into the drain.... Usually my planted tanks are such that i can't get to the substrate; but i will occasionally use a python to siphon out the corners where plant matter collect due to sponge filters. Your tank won't be planted to plant matter isn't needed but the drip system is an option if it interest you.
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On 11/26/2022 at 2:32 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
Non, I dose the incoming water to my targets and then use water changes to adjust the tank.
I use CaSO4 and MgSO4. Then set the ratio using rotalabutterfly for the calculation.
So you use per ro water so you know the base has no magnesium or calcium and then dose ?
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What test kit do you use to measure calcium and magnesium?
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On 11/26/2022 at 10:36 AM, sairving said:
Yeah, I've learned the hard way that most "easy" plants do not do well in my water. I currently have a Java fern that has 5 small leaves. It's taken 6 months to get those leaves. I keep hoping one day it will go crazy and grow. Maybe I'll go with vals again.
Hard water is the reason I usually have only anubias and crypts.
In low tech java fern always grow slow; as in order of years - in a hi-tech tank it can be a monster in 6 months (as in too large for a 40B).
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What did you get done today?
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted
It actually rotted in the middle about 8 months ago - i think the rot has stopped as it is still alive - the leaves were a *lot worse* but the panda gara have done a good job cleaning them.