Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

anewbie

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,638

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by anewbie

  1. anewbie
    In my case an algae film formed on the surface of the 600 (attached is old picture). I cleared it up using power heads - which have since been removed for a couple of months. It hasn't re-appeared but i'm thinking there is some algae in the water - the 550 on the other side of the room - i only have to clean once every 4 or so weeks - it is hard to clean since the particles are very small (fish waste). The date on that picture was Nov 30th - i have a thread somewhere here - this forum search option is painful - anyway i think it was totally clear by end of Dec or so - but i suspect invisible particles are still in the water. Anyway in a couple of weeks i'm going to replace that sump with a sponges in a 40B - it will be a very painful project but it will do two things: I *hope* be easier to clean and lower the sump so it is easier to get in there - their sock tubs are extra high so gravity and flow the water into the media - this sort of gives a wet/dry effect on the bio media (very efficient) but increases the height of the sock tub (you want to make sure your stand is tall enough for you to easily get into the sock tub). In my case the aquarium is 24 inches high and if i had made the stand any higher i'd need a stool to feed the fishes - something i didn't want - anyway i find getting into the tub a royal pain on the three tanks that are 24 inches - the ones that were 18 inches high i made the stand taller so it is less of an issue.
  2. anewbie
    rio ampiacu I believe is a catch location not a species; i think vaguely this was posted on another forum - the guess was that you had two species cockatoo and ortegai and both can be rather violent - i.e, with potentially 3 males and 3 females you will likely end up with 1 male and 1 female or less depending on exact species and m/f combination. Also tetra will likely eat frys if they were to breed. I associate 'purple' with ortegai - lovely fish if that is what you actually own but certainly in both threads there is a lacking of details to identify the exact species. If they are the purple cf ortegai they really deserve better with regards to a breeding setup as they are not overly common and an extremely lovely fish. I'd be less excited if they are a cockatoo species both in terms of behavior and looks. Also be aware both of these species do not pair - the male and females will never be 'buddies' and there will be periods of non-harmony among them hence the need for a spacious aquarium with lots of hiding locations. Last but least if these are wc and the named species they are going to prefer acidic water that is not too hard. cockatoo are more of a clear or white water species and minerals are less of an issue. I'm less familiar with the various species of ortegai but i vaguely believe they are a blackwater species. Also you do not want to keep either species with cory. The cory wont' respect their territories which will create a lot of stress and it is not uncommon if a breeding female plucks out the eyes of the cory.
  3. anewbie
    No matter what you do ph will flucutate during the day from co2 gas exchange esp if you have plants. This is normal. The fuctuation itself isn't a problem though as i mention at suffiicently low and high level the type of bacteria will change which can be an issue depending on species. However kh/gh doesn't fluctuate much in a 24 hour period (unless something leaches); they do change longer term but much slower in general.
  4. anewbie
    Ph is less important than water hardness; though if they have always been kept in acidic water there might be bacteria in higher ph water they have no resistance. I would not use products like sachem regulator. It just isn't the right long term solution to this problem. What you really need is not the ph but the kh and gh. In most cases the ph is useless and misleading. There are many reasons why the ph will change frequently during the day.
  5. anewbie
    pictures with the stuff removed: Not sure why but the pink flamingo seems to be growing. Also that plant in the very back is more than 2 feet wide as this is a 4ftx4ft cube.
  6. anewbie
    Are you using their sump? If so be sure to test which way you want the door to swing to get easy access to the socks. The sales druid told me about once a month for cleaning but i'm finding on the heavily planted aquarium it needs to be cleaned once a week. I'm actually replacing the sump with a glass cage full of sponges to see if that makes my life easier.
  7. anewbie
    They don't fight; is this species passive or will they fight as adults ?
  8. anewbie
    You can't kill a lilly unless you find someone to eat the bulb; don't worry it'll come back as 50 in about 6 months.
  9. anewbie
    So soon? They grew fast ! My apisto take at least 6 months before they are ready to leave.
  10. anewbie
    In the end this was cyanobacteria as many suspected. I fixed the issue using chemi-clean per instruction (under dosed a bit); seems resolved but will update this thread if (a) it comes back and (b) i can find the thread again (which is very difficult on this site) 😉
  11. anewbie
    The final resolution is they sent a new motor under warranty (i had indicated earlier in this thread they were going to send a replacement before we got into the discussion with voltage). The new motor is dead silent - i believe the flow is a little less than the older one (but can't measure that) and the cord is definitely a lot cheaper (pre vs post pandemic); but the thing is dead silent 😉 Unfortunately i cant' play with the voltage issue suggested in this thread as they require that i cut the cord on the old motor as part of the replacement policy. I suppose i could try to replace the cord on it if i want to test the voltage fix but on the other hand given a choice between mucking with the cord or doing a 200 gallon water change on my 600 gallon aquarium - i rather focus on the fishes than the motor 😉
  12. anewbie
    There are two standard dimensions for a 120; mine is the 4x2x2 - so only 48 inches long. Yea 5 could fit in there but a longer tank would work better.
  13. anewbie
    This is my 10: Some plants include: red lip pontederifolia (plant on right); some green grecko (basically a nice green wenditti); nurii rosen (they are on the left but not very visible); golden anubia (right front corner); hornworth (in middle); marina moss (stuff growing on the sponge filters and all the driftwood as well as heater); pearl weed (at the very top in the hornworth (snail ate most of it); some small buces; a couple of crpyts (forgot species - front left/left center); ... Not a fan of parva - takes forever to grow - this tank is 3 years old no co2; infrequent fertilizer but weekly water change - 10 gallon.
  14. anewbie
    Would be helpful if you provided your tank dimensions; after all some plants that are great for a 5 gallon aquarium don't work so well in a 500 gallon aquarium.
  15. anewbie
    I tried it once for 2 weeks; didn't seem to do much.
  16. anewbie
    One of my large L172a (i have 2 large ones 1 medium one and 1 small one). The others have caves in areas which are hard to photograph due to glass thickness - one is very cute hang out at the top of a notch in driftwood during feeding time - (s)he eats the food that falls into the notch as it floats from front to back; this one took a sponge (why i don't know - it initially dug a huge cave under a rock - but maybe someone else chased him out. Btw i have a yoyo that does the same thing - i'll get his photograph one of these days - in his/her case it is an itsybitsy piece of driftwood next to the side:
  17. anewbie
    The only way they are 2.5 inches after 4 years is that they are runts or not actually sae but one of the similar looking fishes like flying foxes. My SAE - which i started in a 29 quickly out-grew it in under a year and then i moved it to a 120 and quite frankly i found the 120 small for it. These are very very fast fish.
  18. anewbie
    Sure - i'd email him - i mostly want to confirm diet and acceptable temp. So my D's are only a little warm - with the blue rams there i'm pretty committed to the 81-83 range. The D's have been the best behaved of the Ls i have. They are not super aggressive at eating; they are very polite (the a and t are super aggressive running over anyone and everyone in their way; much like the krobia). They don't hurt anyone they just shove them out of the way 😉
  19. anewbie
    To be more precise on the 172a; the information i had on them suggested 74-82 temp range was good for them but when two died at 77 i started looking for a solution and it seems the recommended temp is 82-86; i'm still confused about this data point. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on them but i'm now suspecting they are one of the species that require very very fast flowing water and mid 80s; there is also a lot of conflicting information on their diet - and yea i used what i considered moderately reliable (planetcatfish, seriouslyfish (which has a lot of errors); fishbase; ... I'm not convince they require 80+ temp but the ones i have are still alive after a couple of months; so i'm reluctant to lower it. I'm also confused about their diet with some sources insisting they need a fair amount of greens and others insisting they will eat exclusively mullesk and snails (though these haven't eaten my snails yet).
  20. anewbie
    panda gara will eat bba. Mine did an excellent job of cleaning my anubia.
  21. anewbie
    I've heard story that some cichild (any species) will discover they like tetra eyes; trap the tetra and eat them (i've read this is true for angles, discus, and various dwarf cichild); but never experienced it first hand. What i will say is the follow (as dwarf cicihild go) i've found nannacara amolae to be extremely clever and adaptive (mine never bothered the small rasboras i had with it but it did eat ton of baby pleco); i will also note that a 20 long is too small for rummy-nose but that doesn't help you. Beyond those two comments i can't really add anything else - oh if you have a pair (m/f) of nanncara amolae - they are not pair forming and the female will likely kill the male in a 20 long when she has frys unless you have extremely good scaping for him to hide (the females are very very aggressive when they have frys).
  22. anewbie
    Mine is a little warm; sadly i had to raise the aquarium temp to 81 because some of the pleco (L172a) i got the information i had on them were incorrect and they really want a warm tank. Of course 81 also plays nice with the blue rams and eventually the winemilleri when i get them. Sadly the cuviceps and the sterbai suffer a bit at 81/82 - not sure what to do with this - if it was a smaller aquarium i'd fish the pleco out and lower the temp to 77 but that is the pia of a 4 foot wide aquarium - what goes in is pretty much there for life and i made some really bad decisions.
  23. anewbie
    I've not noticed that in my l.a; i've had them before. The primary difference i noticed is the male is much larger and have a hump in the head. The one i said is a female never colours up at all. In fact among my l.a., i've never noticed much change in colouring 'cept when breeding unlike some of the other fishes i have which are very moody. My discus will frequently go from dark brown to very light orange depending on their moves (as well as raise and lower stripes); the festum - you can tell right away when they are angry - the fins raise and the stripes get very dark. There is one in particular that is always moody when has very dark aggressive posture - the first time i thought he was guarding an area (breeding?) but i never identified a female that was interested in him. Domestic angels of course i see very little change depending on mood- wild angels the stripes are a dead giveaway on mood.
  24. anewbie
    Much to my amazement since i'm not feeding them i still have krobia frys and they seem quite a bit larger. No clue what they are eating but i havent' lost any fingers. However the purpose for this post is every now and then is see this; the very first time i saw it i panicked - i mean one of my festy died or something. I believe what is going on is they are 'fish' for insects and stay perfectly still (no fin movement) and occasionally turnover. The angels of course have no clue what is going on but they will swim over and 'poke' at them while they are in this state (i wonder if they do this in the wild since they two species co-exist in the wild); if you look at the bottom you can see one of my head standers (Anostomus ternetzi). Btw the pictures of the fishes in this aquarium (esp from my desk) will never be great because the glass is so thick (it is a 10x4). Not sure what to do about that aspect. In the background you can see a l. theyari (those guys are similar to the krobia in behavior - general monsters - I think i favor the l.a. and l.d. Probably l.d. wins out overall. The l.a are nicer looking but they are also very aggressive eaters (none of these fish have shown general aggression); the l.d are much more reclusive. The 4 i have tend to hang out together and mostly get along - they stick by the blue rams which are also a quieter fish. The krobia and l. theyari are the most aggressive eaters i have - if you wait 30 seconds they act like they haven't had a decent meal in weeks and will eat anything that touch the water aggressively. Still mad at the krobia for eating my cardinals 2 hours after putting them in the tank. Later i'll try to get a good picture of my discus aquarium - i'm waiting to see if they eat the cardinals. From my reading it is 50/50 much like angles sometimes it works and sometimes it doens't but the discus are definitely more reclusive and the slightest change will send them to a corner. The tetras cant' decide what to do with them. When I first moved them into the 180 (72x24x24); the tetra and rams stayed on one side of the tank and the discus on another. When i had workers over today the discus retreated to the bottom right corner and refused to come out and the tetra retook the entire tank but when the workers left the discus came back out and the aquarium got split in half again. The cardinals are definitely leary of the discus as are the rams. Oh well time will tell.
  25. anewbie
    I don't know about yours but mine are mostly dirty white 'cept when they display to each other than they get the very rich colouring i posted. Were yours wc or tank raised?
×
×
  • Create New...