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Torrey

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Everything posted by Torrey

  1. Torrey
    True sign of MTS!
  2. Torrey
    How did pH drop from 8.4 to 6.91? What is the pH of your tap? I don't think the pH drop itself is necessarily to blame, but I do wonder what is causing the pH drop. Fish are generally more resilient than we give them credit for, the problem is we are landlubbers and fail to take into consideration **all** the stresses we subject our fish to... Shipping is a stress. New water is a stress. The med trio is a stress. Not eating for 48 hours before shipping, followed by not eating during shipping, followed immediately by not eating during treatment with the med trio is compounded stress. Followed by whatever generated the pH drop. That's an awful lot of variables, right there, making discerning what is correlational and what was causational a tad tricky. Quarantine does need to happen, so identifying what caused the pH drop would be the variable you can control. Possibly may want to feed new fish with BBS and other nutrient dense foods between shipping and med trio, also.
  3. Torrey
    Yes, there is. When you read the cleaning directions that say "use a clean dry cloth to wipe the nozzle, don't get the nozzle wet" the reason you don't want to get the nozzle wet is because water facilitates a faster bond. I recommend using gloves (I have lost skin by not following my own advice), ensure that the plant is *wet*, and only put a tiny dab of Gorilla glue on the rock where you want the anubias (or any other plant) to stick. Too much glue / too dry surface = lots of frustration I like the green thread, and I would not have remained calm, lol
  4. Torrey
    I do love the Fluval AquaSky, for clearly telling me it's time to go to bed. G'night everyone!
  5. Torrey
    So, about an hour per day?🤔 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yeah, I had that experience. Once. Now I may use almost as much gorilla glue as MD, and should probably buy stock in plastic craft canvas, lol
  6. Torrey
    The crypts will melt, they are sensitive little creatures. Walstad method has people start the tank out as heavily planted as one can afford.... which means my tanks start out kind of sparsely planted🤣 With ammonia that high, you want some plants that feed from the water column. If you are planning on having any kind of floating plants, right now is the perfect time to add them. If you already own the Anubias and the dwarf hairgrass, you can try putting a small amount in (not your entire stock) and test them out. I have had dwarf hair grass take off and send out massive amounts of runners as the dirt let off a lot of ammonia, and I have also had dwarf hair grass stick out it's tongue at me when setting up a new tank, play dead, and then surprise me 2 months later when runners I didn't know existed suddenly erupt in new dwarf hair grass. While the majority of aquarium success is determined by our patience, a large chunk of our actual learning comes from trying things out, documenting what we do.... and then waiting to see what actually happens versus the theoretical 🤷‍♂️ The only thing that is absolutely guaranteed, no matter what the parameters or who is keeping the fish is.... 💦Water is wet💦 There are too many other variables to account for to know absolutely, 100% how something will turn out. I do know that ammonia is easier for most plants to use for food, than nitrates. That's why the Osmocote is **loved** by plants, it's much easier to "eat".... but it can kill our fish if it gets loose from the substrate. I know, I am clear as mud. At least I am honest mud🤷‍♂️
  7. Torrey
    Oohhh!!!! I have reactions again! 💜💜💜🐡💜💜💜
  8. Torrey
    @The Goatee amazing job! You photograph your tanks really, really well.
  9. Torrey
    That sounds wonderful 💜
  10. Torrey
    Oh, I kept my promise to my mum, I never became a nurse. Too much work, too much stress, and never enough pay. I worked in the ER for 2 years, long enough to know that I can't handle the sensory nightmare we call hospitals. I support birthing parents with homebirths.💜
  11. Torrey
    How did you know that despite me being thrilled that you are taking care of yourself, I was missing listening to you during tank maintenance? Thank you! [And I am really sorry that there are people who complain no matter what you do. It's a reflection on them, not the Aquarium Co-op.]
  12. Torrey
    Here's my regular view from my bed I talked with Diana, and I didn't use quite enough dirt for the amount of plants, and the dirt in the back right corner was deep enough to have a build up of hydrogen sulfate. That would be why those stem plants died. So, I poked the right mound with a stick, releasing the gas buildup, and added 2 oz of black worms, then added a little more soil during a water change and so far, so good. Every 3 days I poke the dirt hill again, until no more gas bubbles erupt, and then I can replant. Contrary to worst fear scenario, no snails, fish, or apparently blackworms, appear to have died from the toxic gas releases. The air [gas] bubbles race to the top of the tank, and offend me far more than they offend the tank inhabitants. In other words, Cory was right about "toxic gas buildup in deep substrate". It will be something that I need to be mindful of when I finally start putting water and substrate in the dining room tank. I'll be sure to take better pictures and document each step once I commit to starting that project 😅 The milfoil is currently growing faster than the duckweed is multiplying. I need more brain cells to come back online so I can remember the *correct* names of plants. I lost over 2/3 of the stem plants on the right. Larger leaves, softer stems, turn a beautiful pinkish fuscia red under high lights I'm trying to save these 2, I stuck healthy stem through the canvas mesh and I am floating them at the top of the fry tank. The leaves are just barely submerged, as evidenced by the duckweed using the leaves as a life preserver 🙄 Definitely a completely different plant from the stems on the left. The short stems that only add a pair of new leaves each month it seems, is the bacopa carolinia. I love the ramshorns! So that's how we are doing!
  13. Torrey
    @Atitagain I'm so sorry for your betta. I might get another one, some day. A new fish friend breeds them about an hour drive north of me, I'm thinking that I might get 3-5 sisters in the spring and do a sorority in the dining room 4' tank.... I'm just not sure. I know that I won't be buying from the stores any longer, my last rescues illustrated a lot of the aquarium breeding problems Gianne spoke of... I love what you are doing with the plant grow out tank! I need my brain to get on board with plant names, I keep messing up the rotala and the ludwiga... But bacopa carolinia I solidly identify! It has to be the slowest growing stem plant I have **ever** worked with.... it's also impossible to kill.🤷‍♂️
  14. Torrey
    Now, I am listening to The Monkeys, courtesy of @Guppysnail
  15. Torrey
    My mum brought home one baby sister, and 18 months later brought home another baby sister, but sent the first baby sister to stay with grandparents for a while, because my dad was never home to help😅 I was a very confused kid for a while. My parents left for the hospital the second time with a toddler in tow, and came home with another newborn that was back in diapers. Absolutely *nothing* like the really cool fish in the 10 gallon aquarium 🤣 They didn't even have cool colors like the fish.🤷‍♂️
  16. Torrey
    @Sev all great artists start by copying others. Literally. You go to school by first copying a piece of art, and only the applicants that copied it the best are then admitted to the school. I went to art school, until I realized that I like delivering babies and helping parents more than I enjoyed the egos of art school (I still use some of what I learned, though). @Ryo Watanabe is a great example where he took a picture and imitated the picture (and you can see his latest scape in the IAPLC). Because of my background designing illusions for the stage, I chose Josh Sims to follow. He's an amazing scaper who defies a lot of the 'rules' of classic scaping, and designs illusions of vast depth by putting larger plants, thicker wood, and the biggest rocks at the *front* of the tank, and then using the thinnest leaved / tiniest plants at the back of the tank. Here's my planted tank in my spouse's room, where I am playing with textures and different mediums to give the illusion of a much larger tank. It's designed from my spouse's perspective when they are on their bed, or sitting in their chair, on the far right of the tank. From their perspective, it's a stream moving towards them and then curving off to the right.
  17. Torrey
    Apparently the allelochemicals have zero effects on cyanobacteria 😅 Here's a better close up of what has tentatively been identified as milfoil (sp?) Guppies/endlers photobombed for a size comparison. I believe that the following is a rotala? Definitely gets more red with more light! Yes, I light from the side by putting a single submersible Aqueon in between my two pico tanks. They are taller than they are wide, and putting the light between them is the only successful way I have found to grow plants. This is the Back2theRoots model.
  18. Torrey
    I have to second Guppysnail. Guppies are not called the miilion fish for nothing. I bought feeders from my lfs 18 months ago, and once they had reproduced enough, they learned how to work together to chase the turtle off of her own food. They will scavenge everything!!! I have witnessed them eating hair algae, as well as the white fuzzy growth you get on new to aquarium wood. And this is on top of the BugBites color enhancing flakes they get. TBH, I am pretty sure my 'feeder guppies' were actually endlers with just enough guppy in the line to have larger females. So far, the females are the only ones showing any guppy qualities, the males are 100% dead ringers for endlers. Even when we had to go on an emergency trip, we came home to more fish than we left. I am now deliberately separating males with the tail I like from the rest of the fish, and separating females, for intentional breeding of selected traits. Only problem I am having is what I swore was a 10 week old female (based on time being separated out of the pond) may, or may not, *stay* female🤷‍♂️
  19. Torrey
    Oh my goodness!!!! This makes me homesick💜💜💜💜💜💜
  20. Torrey
    Last night I went out and filmed the sunset. Earlier this week I filmed the moonrise. Currently, we are watching the storm tracker, so I can go film lightning. I was **supposed** to be editing film today, but the internet was glitchy and I kept having massive technological issues with everything I attempted, so getting out seemed to be the best idea.... after I finished tank maintenance 😅
  21. Torrey
    This answers the issue!!!! I've been working in health care fixing people! Fish keeping is my self-care. Electronics are merely a nightmare 😅 Also, I am back out of reactions 🙄 They must have a max # to use and gives back a few once the 24 hour mark past the initial use? At any rate, CONGRATULATIONS SANDRA!!!!
  22. Torrey
    This is the smallest canvas I buy, I also get 12" × 18", and I buy a variety of colors. I use these to make my "plant-in-a-box" so that the turtle doesn't eat my plants (I underestimated the determination of my ornate ornata to get **into** the plant in a box if I have a bad flare and don't change out the plant in time, so I have to make a new one), I use it to make custom sized UGF, and rolled up you can put them on end ==> fill with dirt ==> stick stem plants in the sides and plant plants that need **strong light** on top (I will be doing this to create a few "mesas" in my 4') I made floating moss tubes out of canvas scraps for my bettas, and they loved lounging in them as they aged. Now my danio fry and male guppy/endler crosses use them to play hide and seek. I put straws under a scrap of canvas, and test outdoor mosses to see which ones will convert to aquarium living best, too. So far, the moss on the right that came from an acequia is growing the best. The duckweed liking the canvas was a surprise that I have capitalized on, as a means of keeping duckweed from overtaking tanks. Cut a piece of canvas in a pleasing shape, add sealed straws or airline tubing underneath to act like a flotation device, and the duckweed stays reasonably well contained. Works with my water lettuce, too. This one is still a work in progress, as I am looking for a flowering plant for my spouse's 4' tank. The plastic canvas is supporting the pothos for now, and in the spring I will add more dirt to the back (unless someone changes their mind. Apparently the baby guppy fry hide in the canvas and eat back there, so this may stay a permanent guppy nursery🤷‍♂️)
  23. Torrey
    I figured she was going to have a dozen, eat 10, and bring 2 home🤣
  24. Torrey
    Oohhhh!!!!! I have reactions back! At least for a few minutes 🤣🤣🤣
  25. Torrey
    Yay!!!! A fellow technonoob!!!! After @Streetwise & @ARMYVET help get you set up, I might ask them for help on a wifi timer I was gifted and unable to get set up😅 Fish? No problem. WiFi? I might be more effective if I didn't get so frustrated. Maybe I need more coffee first🤔
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