OnlyGenusCaps

Well @Patrick_G, you have once again come up with solid and useful advice that has come in after I've already made mistakes precluding me from using it. 😆 Seriously though, that would have been great advice, except I bought this in spray cans. The black was way, way more forgiving, so I suspect I'll probably use the same stuff again on the last 4 aquariums I have planned for this space. Although, I have to say, I'm real tempted to do a green backed one for one of the ideas I have. Real tempted! I am happy to report that using every last drop of the remaining blue PlastiDip spray can seems to have helped! Without question though, it is far less forgiving than the black. Not just because the blue is more transparent so you can see the mistakes better, but also because it seems to be more liquidy. I did a test spray of both colors on a piece of card board, and the blue dripped down 4 inches while the black stayed put. But, I think I cloud make it work with green. Wouldn't green be cool?!

I've been in on a bit of a jazz kick recently. Lots of stuff that I might post here. But right now, I'm really enjoying Heather Rigdon. Here is "Young & Naïve":

What a lovely land! I'll never forget hiking up Mount Tongariro through a driving mist, among the twisted southern beech trees and curious tānekaha shrubs. It seemed everywhere I turned in the wild lands of Aotearoa, there was something unexpected, interesting, and beautiful!

I did with a razor on the second tank, once I learned a bit. However, it still had these little stringy sections that tried their best to stay with the tape. The best thing I found was to let the tape hang from the frame with a gap. That solved the problem on the second tank best.

Haven't seen you in a hot minute. Good to get the update! Are those gobies ones that have a larval stage, or is this about to become the goby biotope?

Thanks, both! Seems like consensus is I should use the last of the can in an effort to smooth the looks out. I should be able to do that today. As annoying as it will be to cover and tape it again, you are probably both right. Thanks! That's an excellent point about the gunk! I do have a trick up my sleeve though to try to minimize that. Stay tuned... 🧐

Sure does! The bubbles still work the same way for that. Absolutely! In fact, I plan to try to tuck the one heater I'll be using in there. The room is heated, but one species likes it a bit warmer, so that one will get a small heater - right behind the mattern that doesn't have the overflow. All tucked away out of sight! ---------------------------------- Today at lunch I learned I have no future as a graffiti artist. I pained the backs to the tanks with two colors of PlastiDip. These are the first tank backs I've ever pained. I started with the blue; perhaps a mistake. You can see from the outset, things are not going well. Even coating? No chance. By the time it was done, it did have a bit of a waves on the seas pattern. Sort of... I chose to use PlastiDip because it can easily peal off. While I am excited to have a blue backed tank, I've never had one and I didn't really want to commit fully. So the idea that I could just peel this off easily was a bonus. Unfortunately, the feature is also a bug. The paint stuck to the tape and made getting the tape off without peeling the paint off a challenge. On the next tank with the black, I decided to put down a base coat first to give the second layer something to grab onto. The first coat was really transparent, and it became obvious I would need to do many, many coats. I think I ended up with like 5, 6 in a few spots. But, I think this one came out better. Black might also be more forgiving, I don't know. Anyhow, here they are finished. And back in the garage. You may notice that in addition to the dribbly background on the blue tank, the paint also doesn't match the filter sponge. Ugh! I'm trying to decide if I want to try to find a spray paint that does match and start over, or all it good for now. The missing piece of my lack of commitment to a blue background is that I forgot that one does not just pull and redo a 75 gallon tank on a whim. It becomes a project. I'd welcome input about whether I should just leave it for now, or try to get a matching paint and start over.

I don't know what you are talking about. 🤓

Just saw this thread. Wonderful summary of the genetics behind this. We like to think of hybridization as having "hybrid vigor" all the time, but you can just as easily have a genetic mismatch which leads to disorders never seen in the original populations. I say populations because you can get this sometimes within the same species from different geographic populations too. Genetically, the best results are often obtained from keeping large enough populations within a specific area. But that doesn't always line up with what a breeder wants to do, so... You might consider contacting Karl Trochu of Miami Swordtails. He gave a wonderful talk to the Minnesota Aquarium Society a few months back about breeding swords and dealing with this exact problem. He seems like a knowledgeable and accessible guy. And he may be able to give you advice on the breeding aspect that is missing from the scientific papers. Just a thought. Regardless, this was a great summary of the issue. Thanks for posting it!

I don't want to pull from this awesome journal, so if you want to talk CP, start a thread on off-topic, tag me so I know it's there, and I'll be happy to do so! I've scaled back (to make space for tanks!), but at one point I was keeping over 75 species, and serving on the board of the international society. My point is, I can be coaxed into talk about those plants. 😏

If you are thinking about Arbusculohypopterygium arbuscula (sorry @Biotope Biologist, I had to!) here, I am going to guess the answer is "no". I had trouble keeping it on a mist bench. The trick with this one (I think, but then what the he🏒🏒 do I know, I killed it after all) is that it doesn't tolerate drying out fully, but it must dry out some. I over misted it, I think. It was a shame because I got the moss from a friend who brought it back from Chile for me (he studies mosses and has both the export permits and import permits as well - yes, not only am I a nerd, I know nerds).

Have a minute to do a short update. It was a full, rich day of silicone adhesive! I was able to finish sealing the new 75 (I feel like part of the problem people experience with the big tanks busting later is the manufacturers use as little silicone as possible, so I add some more to around the top and bottom rims). And I got in the braces for the corner matten filters! If you haven't installed a corner matten it's pretty straightforward. I measure the distance from the corner where the braces need to go, and mark them with a sharpie on the outside of the tank - the later to be wiped off with alcohol. Then I run a tick bead of silicone down the marked line. After that, I place the pre-cut glass brace in place, and smooth the silicone along the corners with my finger. That's it for the braces. Really easy. Let me take a quick moment here to explain why I am using corner matten filters here, and why I am using mattens generally in my rack system. I feel the need to do this because I am like a rash all over this forum professing my love for sump filters, and here I am installing matten filters all over the place. I do still love sump filters. It's just they are not appropriate or optimal in every situation. Including this case. So, the big first reason I am doing corner mattens here is that they are air driven. With a sump you need a water pump, and in this space, I have invested (and I do mean invested given the price!) in a linear piston air pump. Because of that, I should be doing everything I can as air driven, if possible. You might be asking yourself why I am not just using sponge filters. It's a good question. Matten filters have much more surface area, so do I think I need much more filtration? No. I could certainly use sponge filters and the water parameters would be just fine. I'm not a college-kid, canister bro - though I totally had friends at the time who fit this stereotype: Him: "Dude, want to see my new canister filter? It's so powerful!" Me: "Why do you have the largest Magnum filter on a 20 gallon tank?" Him (attempting to justify his insanity): "I totally need the filtration. I'm going to put a huge oscar in there!" Me: "This raises other questions for me." Him: "You just don't get it. You don't even understand canister filters." Me: "Ah." Obviously, matten filters and sponge filters work the same way. So, why go to the much larger expense, and greater work to install these corner mattens? For me, it comes down to two things in this case - aesthetics. Well, aesthetics in two ways. The first is that I don't really like the look of sponge filters, and though matten filters are larger, they can more easily become the background. I have black sponge for the tank I will be painting the back black, and blue for the soon to be blue background tank. The other thing they do is obscure my overflow for my automatic water changer. You can see in the second photo above that the bulkhead fits inside the corner matten braces. Now, I'll probably have to cut down the sponge a little to get it around the overflow pipe, but at least I won't see it! The other advantage of hiding the overflow would be that it is no longer is a danger to fry. But if I am honest, and for the species that will be in these tanks in particular, I'm in it for the looks. That's also one of the reasons I like sumps - they can hide equipment in the display tank. The last bonus is that I have hard water, and no matter how good the airstone, it's going to clog. The Jetlifter tubes that these use clog far less often in my hard water. And when they do, a super quick clean with an old toothbrush and some H2O2 brings them back to perfection. Plus, they work better than any airstone ever can, simply because the bulk of an airstone blocks part of the tube, reducing water flow. Just physics. How it goes. The combination of the Jetlifter tubes and the power provided by the linear piston air pump, means I can get basically attain powerhead level flow from them when they are in good repair, if I want to. Between ease of maintenance and the flow potential, I've started to steer away from airstones.

That's a convenient resource!!! I will say though that people naming mosses didn't exactly get first crack at the best names. I feel like there are many conversations that go something like: "Hey this moss has a sheen to it. Like iridescence. Let's call it rainbow moss! What was the Greek goddess of rainbows?" "Iris" "🤬" <-- Which means "drats, foiled again" kids.

That moss is endemic to the Valdivian Rainforest of south-central Chile. A climate not unlike where you are, though probably closer to the CA/OR border in terms of winter cold. But, no, that one doesn't grow near you - unless some has escaped and become naturalized and I've not heard about it. Which could be, I suppose. 🤷‍♂️ Possibly the nearest thing to that around you would be Climacium dendroides. I encountered that one in lawns even on the coast side of the Olympic Peninsula. It's pretty cool too, but doesn't get the full umbrella of Hypopterygium arbuscula (which I just found out when I went to go make sure I spelled it properly, might now be a syn. of the new designation Arbusculohypopterygium arbuscula). Oh mosses...

I go to rock yards and pick out rocks I like. We don't have the biggest selection of landscaping rocks around me, mostly limestone based stuff. But fortunately I have very hard water, so it doesn't matter much if I use lime based rocks. I've been going to rock yards for aquarium rocks since I was a kid. When the stone is solid by the ton, aquarium quantities can be purchased with the change in your pocket. I'm (slowly but very slowly) working on a larger tank, and not long ago got 400lbs of rock for about $20.

Oh, Aulacomnium. Interesting! I think of those as thread/yarn mosses. I find them in seeps, and fens, but not in bogs, which are quite acidic here. Huzzah! 🥳 Whatever it is commonly called, it's a very nice moss! Not as nice as my favorite moss in the entire world, Hypopterygium arbuscula. But I'd had a devil of time cultivating that one. I really like the structure on yours. It has really nice promise for some cool growth!

Help me out here. When I think "bogmoss" I think Sphagnum species, which that doesn't look like from the photos. What moss is that?

I've heard those are a great way to have a lazy source of nematodes around for fry. I'll be curious how those progress for you. I like the ease of harvest for banana and micros - simple wiping finger across die of container. If vinegars can do that, I might have to look into them. Thanks!

I had a chance to quickly drill the new 75. I thought I would post a couple picts. I know @Jawjagrrl was talking about drilling for her 55x55 project, so I thought I'd post a couple photos of this drill. Only four more in my immediate future to finish this new project. 🤪 This is my setup. I do painter's tape on both sides of the glass. I lay the tank on foam board on its side and then lay a towel inside with thick foam board on that. That setup soaks up water, make clean up easy, and prevents the glass plug, if it falls, from damaging the tank. Then, I place a jig I made from plywood over the area I want to drill. Has the same side hole obviously. Clamp that down, and I am all set. And after about 20 minutes, keeping it cool with water... Success! As you can see the hole is not perfect. Not my best work. Chips around the edge. But not bad enough that the bulkhead won't seal. One step closer!

One day I hope to have a clamp collection to rival my hole saw collection. Hole saws seem to be like Pokemon for me - collect 'em all! I always seem to need a size I somehow don't yet have.

You can have some of mine! But you should get it quickly. Supposed to be 13C here today, and it's sunny! Although yesterday was supposed to get to 6 and only ever got to 1, so I'm skeptical. 🤨

Thanks, @Odd Duck! That's what I wanted to know. It was sort of what I feared - potentially workable in concept, but doesn't pan out in practice. I think I'll only try it now if I can get a free culture starter locally here, because I suspect it'll crash. So, I might still give it a go, but with vastly lowered (read: more realistic) expectations. Thanks again for sharing your experience, Odd Duck!

I'm curious, has anyone tried to grow banana worms in old fruit fly cultures? I'm always looking for ways to get more use out of materials especially when it comes to rearing live foods (which I have very little space for), and it seems like this could work. FF media is mostly potato and yeast, which should be a good match for banana worms (or microworms). So, I'd think it would work with fresh FF media, but would be so much better if you could get a second life out of old cultures. The only question would be whether the FF deplete the media too much, or pollute it too much for the worms. I'm going to have FF again soon which is why this might open up growing banana worms for me. But if old cultures don't work, or if this attracts too many mites, then banana worms are probably not in my, or my fry's, immediate future, sadly. Has anyone tried anything like this?

I think I am up to date. Maybe not. I'll check. I don't use anything for photo software except "preview" on my Mac. That's what I rotate and save the file in when needed. Not always needed though. 🤷‍♂️

That's always true for me. I tend to go landscape most often anyhow. In my case at least, the photo is properly oriented on my laptop when downloaded from my phone there, and only goes sideways when it gets uploaded to the forum. I then delete it from the forum, got back and rotate it, save it, re-upload, and the problem is gone. It only started happening in the past few weeks for me. Has their been an update to the software? Just grasping at straws. I don't really the inner-workings of the computers, like you do, sir.