Chris

May 5

If you don't mind me asking, which dealer did they come through? I'm interested in keeping a few more natives.

May 5

Goldfish are about as hardy as they come, IME.

I'd recommend against the Equilibrium and use crushed coral instead. Its a much more gradual way to accomplish your goal, and will put less stress on the fish.

May 5

I'm a big fan as well. Most of my community fish love it. Rainbow Shiners go nuts for it too.

May 4

Here's a quick status update on all of the tanks in the fishroom.

The flowerhorn is still doing well in his 75. I'm considering trying to plant a crinum in the center of the tank - not a huge fan of not having any decor, but this guy injurs himself on anything hard I put in the tank.

Ricefish are doing fine. Still tons of eggs, plenty of fry, but haven't been raising any up. I need to get on that. Tank is completely overrun with duckweed, so plants are just doing so-so.

This is the tank the golden white clouds got added to. It's doing fine - the fish are eating, and water parameters are good. I removed the mopani from the tank to get rid of all the tannins, not a look I'm enjoying.

Here's the Long Fin Mocha Clownfish. Tank looks terrible, I know, but water is pristine. Fish look good. Maybe a little skinny? Hard to say. I'm going to feed a bit more and watch for parasites.

Rainbow Shiners are doing awesome. Loving the color I'm starting to get, just doesn't show in pictures very well yet.

This is just a mutt guppy tank I started. Haven't really played with guppies much in a while, and thought it might be fun.

May 4

They do best with large, fast moving tankmates. Preferably ones that swim in open water, not near surfaces like the cats do.

I've had good success with keeping them in large tanks with giant Danios and larger barb species. Very active, unlikely to be stressed by the constant movement, and too big to swallow.

May 4

I kept a group of 6 in a 5.5 for a few months. Totally fine when they're juveniles, imo, but on the small side for adults. I think a 10 gallon would be better suited to their adult size.

That said, I think you could totally keep a group happy in a 5 for a long time. Just keep up on maintenance and leave plenty of swimming room.

May 4

Consider feeder shrimp too. Whenever I've kept picky carnivores in the past (Lionfish and frogfish) they've responded well to cherry shrimp when small. IMO, they're easier to breed than guppies, and it may be easier to ween the fish from a live shrimp to a frozen shrimp than live fish to pellets.

May 4

Kenya Tree coral is looking pretty good in the 4 gallon.

Put out some white clouds into a tub outside, and got a school of golden white clouds to play with indoors.

May 1

Hey guys,

So I just set up a tank in my living room. It's the first tank I've had in a living area (AKA not in a fish room) in years, so I'm going out of my way to make it look as nice as possible.

I moved some plants from my fishroom, one of them being Anacharis. It grows great for me, but tends to grow out rather than up - so instead of growing straight up towards the surface along the stem, it'll split off at different points and go every which direction. It also throws roots all over the water column.

I've just been getting in there and chopping off the unsightly bits and replanting them. Is there any way to encourage "straight" growth? Or should I consider a different stem plant?

Thanks!

May 1

I'm gonna second that hard water doesn't typically inhibit plant growth IME. I have very hard water here in central KY (off the charts on most test kits) and I've never really had any issues with plants, or any fish for that matter. There are others on here that know far more about plants that will be of more help, but I think you may be on the wrong track by looking at water hardness in this scenario.

April 28

Added some substrate from another tank yesterday on a whim. Tired of looking at a barebottom tank. All of a sudden I've got several more fish coloring up the next morning. Interesting stuff!

Fishroom has also been a couple degrees warmer this weekend, so possibly a coincidence or combination of them.

April 23

Doing this sparingly is fine in my experience.

I've got a flower horn that allows me to pet him. I only do it every now and then, and always gently. Never noticed an issue.

April 23

I'm not seeing anything glaringly wrong, but I'm no master tank designer either.

I know @Zenzo has a tank with Indians, so he may be able to chime in on whether the extra water volume would be worth it or not.

April 23

Finally getting a little color on a few of these rainbow shiners. We're about 3 months in and they've doubled in size. The hints of blue on these guys has just developed recently.

January 14

I spent the morning putting together some worm cultures. I've got vinegar Eels, banana worms, microworms, and grindal worms.

January 5

Rainbow Shiners and blue shrimp didn't show today. Hoping they're doing okay in the mail.

Here's a quick video tour of the tank as they sit tonight. Nothing special, just things settling in.

January 4

On 1/3/2024 at 11:14 AM, Shadow said:

Wish I could overnight you some Microworms...if you end up ever needing more, I usually have 2 cultures going at all times. Don't mind dropping a culture in the mail for you.

Thanks! I found a seller on Aquabid, who's sending me Microworms, Vinegar Eels, Banana Worms, and Grindal Worms. Should be here before the second round of eggs hatch.

On 1/3/2024 at 11:43 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Macro gives a real rockpool vibe to it…it’s a bit like a saltwater planted tank in a way…

Tigahboy did an amazing thing with that tank. 😍

I agree. I love macro tanks, but they can be even harder to keep in good shape than reefs.

I'd love to try some actual seagrasses, which is an actual saltwater plant (where macros are algae).

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2691511

January 3

On 1/2/2024 at 8:39 PM, Shadow said:

All this is why, even though I got 2 tanks for free, I am only going to set up the one 14 gal. It will be primarily corals and that's it...like I said before, might get a couple fish, but I just want it for the coral honestly.

Macroalgae tanks fascinate me though. Been watching a lot on them.

Yeah, Macro tanks are amazing, and can be more beautiful than even a good reef. My favorites are usually Tigahboy's - he's a well-known Macro buff.

Here's just a couple of his well-known tanks:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/reef-of-the-month-may-2021-tigahboys-macroalgae-paradise.804/

To be clear, I'm not really trying to do a macro tank... More trying to include a couple varieties of non-calcified Caulerpa for nitrate reduction, kinda like how you might add a fast-growing stem plant in a fresh water tank.

I got the ricefish back into their tank tonight. I thinned out their scape a bit, mainly to encourage them to lay their eggs on the spawning mops.

I've got medaka fry! Just two, and I seriously doubt they'll make it. Microworm culture isn't here yet 😞 too small for BBS and my fry food, too.

Everybody is doing well tonight.

January 2

On 1/2/2024 at 10:11 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I’m slowly getting into saltwater….how has it worked for you @Chris?

I've done saltwater for about 6-7 years now. I think Cory put it best in a recent live stream - "I could keep like, two reefs, or my entire fishroom."

I love saltwater fish and all the variety you can have, but I've found most of my reef tanks to be too needy. I get a bit burnt out, spending so much time on one tank. So, for me, I decided to tackle it a bit more like my freshwater tanks. Add water, fish, plants (Macroalgae coming soon) and skip the coral and advanced filtration. I think it'll work well, but we'll see.

The plan is to keep a breeding pair of Banggais and a breeding pair of clowns in simple Fowlr setups. I'll add sand and a bit of live rock after QT, and the angel will move to a display tank in the living room. I'll probably keep a powerhead in each tank and remove the sponge filters once they're properly cycled with rock, and add in some green macros to help with nutrient export.

I'm going to get a brute trash can for water storage, and just pump the water from the can to the tanks (already heated and at the correct salinity) so that, operationally, they'll be the same as the freshwater tanks.

That's the plan, anyway. Not sure if it'll work out or not!

January 2

Also, fed the new fish some BBS this morning. Doing well so far!

January 2

On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Sorry to hear about the cracked tank and the Banggai Cardinals. Bummer. I recently had a fish that wouldn’t eat as well, including live foods. I did lose the fish, unfortunately.

Man, that's rough. Sorry to hear. Sometimes it seems like there's simply nothing that can be done, at least with our current set of knowledge.

On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Your fish room is coming along nicely though. Props to you for plumbing tanks. I’m too scared to do it. I’d buy the predrilled because I worry I’d goof it up.

Thanks! Believe it or not, drilling the tanks hasn't been so bad. I ruined one while drilling (just had too much breakout around the hole), but the other's I've drilled have been fine, at least until I cracked that 10 gallon this weekend lol. I was nervous, too, but so far so good! It helps that these tanks were all bought on the 50% off sale, so relatively cheap if you make a mistake. I'd be much more upset if I had cracked an expensive tank.

On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Unfortunately I know that sound.. got the tank quickly drained and down to the curb, but halfway there the bottom fell out of the tank…

Yikes! It's a really awful sound, isn't it? You just know the rest of your day got worse. Luckily this was more of a hairline crack, so just dripping. I've come home to a shattered bottom, though - last time I use a pressed board stand!

January 2

Alright, got quite a bit done today.

Here's the tank with the new drain system. The PVC coming out of the elbow sets the water height.

On the outside of the bulkhead, I've got a 1" slip to 1/2" MPT elbow that goes to an MPT to barb connector, which runs into a vinyl tube into a 1" tee into the drain line. Much simpler than version 1.

I have all 4 10 gallons set up, and plan to work on the 20s through the week. I picked up my pair of clown fish and a pygmy angel I ordered through the LFS this morning, too.

January 1

I really need to buy like a 1000 ct bag of plant weights... I always find uses for them, even if it's just weighing down food that wants to float or something. Definitely a tool that I'm constantly finding myself needing! Like pipettes, lol.

January 1

Alright... So, guess who managed to crack a tank today?

This guy!

Yeah, I'm an idjit. I was trying to add some tubing to the valve for draining the tank, and the small amount of pressure I was putting on the plumbing cracked the tank. It's a 10 gallon, so thin glass, but still... It was so little pressure that had I not heard the crack, I never would have thought to check for it.

So, I drained that tank (it was the 10 gallon the ricefish were in) and moved them into a bucket with their sponge filter for the night. Lowe's opens at 9 in the morning, so I'm going to have to wait till then to get a replacement tank set up. I'm going to go ahead and remove all of the valves from the tanks and start from scratch - no more valves. I'm going to go for a much simpler, but less efficient system instead. An elbow inside the tank to set the water height, and soft tubing to a PVC tee in the drain line. I'll just fill the tank using a python and let it overflow into the elbow and drain.

Originally I was concerned that an overflow-based system would be too expensive for my saltwater tanks, but I'm finding that the actual calculations wouldn't be much over what I'm already paying in monthly salt costs since I wouldn't be doing frequent large water changes - plus, these are fish-only tanks, so no sensitive coral or inverts to worry about.

So... yeah, that's gonna be a pain in the rear tomorrow. But, very happy to have learned this now before I have the last 3 tanks set up.

Now, in fish news... I lost the other Banggai Cardinal. So I'm down to just the large male. However, now that he's alone in the tank, he's eating like a pig. Maybe the stress of having another male in the tank was causing him not to eat? Not so sure.

December 30, 2023

Woke up to a dead Banggai Cardinal, with another one on its way out. They're simply starving - I can't get them to eat even live foods.

Depressing way to start the weekend.

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