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Torrey

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Everything posted by Torrey

  1. Torrey
    @SWilson any update? And were you able to watch the last Co-op Members video on cories?
  2. Torrey
    I forgot to explain, I have a bathroom shower curtain in between the front of the tanks, and the heavy duty curtains, to keep more humidity in with the tanks and plants, and less humidity in my bedroom. Bedroom is staying around 40% humidity, racks require top off only every week or so. I have to keep the danios water low, because those buggers jump, lol. I'm mid tank maintenance, please ignore the mess.
  3. Torrey
    @Vanish a rack with hot tub style insulation around the back and sides, as well as across the top, and a winter, heavy duty curtain across the front will work. Put your warmest fish on the bottom, and then you will generally only need to put heaters in the bottom tank. Use a Pyremeter or something similar to monitor temps and control the heaters. Because mine is in my bedroom, I put the blackout insulating curtains over the hot tub insulation, and an insulating curtain in front. Spouse is happy in their 68° room, my bedroom stays about 70° and the fish on the rack are cozy. I do have heaters in the turtle pond (bottom shelf) and the middle shelf. That keeps everything else cozy. From the front <above> and with the curtain pulled back <below> Obviously, not a whole lot of space to work with... but it works!
  4. Torrey
    @CT_ it sounds like your pothos is telling you it's happy in the tank. Shorter internodal length, plus lighter colored leaves = sufficient light. New growth means plenty of nutrients. I use pothos because in addition to being great at removing nitrates, it's a tattle tale about light and water quality. New growth, short internodal length, nice marbling = healthy, happy plant. Longer internodal length, darker and larger leaves = this plant wasn't getting sufficient light or nutrients. Lack of marbling is the big tell, and the yellowing here isn't marbling but a macro deficiency
  5. Torrey
    I have also had great success with the plastic water bottle traps. Tips I found to make them more effective: skip feeding for 2 - 3 days, and then put the trap in with frozen blood worms or similar right before tank lights go out. Check in 2 hours, and reset the trap. I actually kept 6 traps😬 Rubbing alcohol is the only thing I found that appears to kill planaria....so I used a fresh trap every 2 hours, and then dumped the bottle in the garden and poured in an ounze (shotglass) of rubbing alcohol to kill anything left in the bottle. Feed fish in the morning, fast for another 3 days, and reset the traps. Personally, I liked the plastic bottles better than the glass trap I bought: 1. Easier to remove, just turn it upside down before removing from the tank. 2. Easier to clean, and if algae grows in spite of the isopropyl alcohol bath, i put the bottle in recycling and replaced it 3. Holes are smaller, don't require me to cover them with my fingers, and planaria are less likely to crawl back out.
  6. Torrey
    We no longer live on the farm, and no longer have barn cats (or any cats). When we first returned to city living, 2 of our cats came with us (the rest stayed to continue their duties keeping vermin out of the chicken coops). These 2 had been trained as service animals and fetched specific items on command. According to the cats, city food was not adequate for us two leggeds who were too slow to effectively hunt, too dumb to walk on all 4, and too handicapped to grow an adequate fur covering. They reinforced their complete lack of confidence in our abilities by bringing warm, furry animals into bed while we were sleeping 😬
  7. Torrey
    @GGobblin you are being responsible
  8. Torrey
    I cut a long runner that had shed old leaves. It rooted quickly into the soil, through out another root about halfway up the stem when I finally filled the tank to the halfway point, and now that the tank has been full for two months is putting out new roots en masse at the water surface. I add pothos to new tanks, and gradually increase the water level as they grow (if possible) to make the transition from immersed to submerged a little easier on my aquarium plants. Works great... for almost everything but my stems😅
  9. Torrey
    My favorite part is: I am finally growing and sustaining live RED LEAFED plants!!!
  10. Torrey
    (no clue why the picture inserted itself at the top of the post🤦‍♂️) I learned to float the stem plants that aren't looking great. Watch for where the stem starts to root, cut just below the newly emerging 'root ball' once the roots are over an inch long. Frequently, this results in the bundle of 5 stem plants turning into 3 - 15 stem plants 😅 Either the plants acclimate and I will have 3 sets of roots on each stem, along with new leaf shoots, or all but one stem plant dies🤷‍♂️ I did discover after rewatching Irene's video on plants, that part of my problem is plant food. I have not yet mastered the hand/eye coordination to see when plants have outgrown the amount of food I am giving them, and then adjust accordingly. Wisteria? Growing great. Water sprite? Multiplying on every leaf. Duckweed? Can't multiply as fast as the turtle eats it. Stem plants? Hit or miss, and it was starting to feel more like miss.... but the Waldorf tank has restored my plant abilities. Probably because the soil is doing a great job of nourishing the plants and it's harder for me to under or overfeed the plants 🤔 Plus, a full clean up crew of blackworms, MTS, and amphopods break down waste and return mulm to the soil. The milfoil? (Not positive on plant ID) in the back is growing faster than the ones mid tank. The rest are recuperating from the immersed/ submerged adjustment melt. Copepods and amphopods were thrilled to clean up the mess! (Guppy photo bombed)
  11. Torrey
    @ARMYVET I am glad your wife is finally on board! I spent quite some time trying to get my spouse on board, and right about the time I was ready to admit defeat..... I offered to move the 4' tank out of my spouse's room and was told no in no uncertain terms. Today I was heralded with the new adventures of the latest fry, and last night we were looking at guppies together. After watching the fish at the livebearer show in FL, I was told no guppies because they looked miserable and couldn't swim right with the long tails, followed by "I thought these were guppies?" Then we looked at videos of endlers livebearers.... and identified the so-called feeder guppies I got from the lfs for the turtle. Still not as fully on board as your spouse, but starting to show interest in the 4' build I have spent 6 months gathering stuff for. I'm waiting for full buy in, before I finish setting it up.
  12. Torrey
    🎊🐡🎊🐡🎊 Congratulations @laritheloud @OnlyGenusCaps @Hobbit! Well done!
  13. Torrey
    I don't run CO2 in any of my tanks. Carpeting still happens, it just takes a lot longer if you don't use the siesta method. If you work with the fish and plants, it will carpet faster. Dr Diana Walstad found that plants use all the CO2 in the first 4 to 5 hours lights are on. Therefore, she recommends to use this knowledge by turning on lights for 4 to 5 hours, turning them off for 3 to 4 hours, and then back on for 4 to 5 hours. It seems to be working. The dwarf hairgrass is already putting out runners!
  14. Torrey
    Glad to have been of service! I need to update my journal, and add that a dirted (deep tannin water) tank with 5 hours of light, 4 hour siesta and 5 more hours of light is currently outperforming a friend's CO2 tank for growth. I was at 4/4/4 but the plants asked for more light.😳 Still no algae growth, but if you want astonishing growth out of plants @Guppysnail dirted definitely delivers!
  15. Torrey
    Here's the most densely planted tank I have at the moment. There's a crinum hiding in the back on the left, and a milfoil behind the hornwort. Tank light is a Costco shop light, basic white, 5,000 lumens. 4.5 hours on, 4 hours off, 5 hours on. This is my Walstad tank, click on the link to learn how the past 10 or so weeks have gone.
  16. Torrey
    @Emil plants with out CO2 use up all the available CO2 in the first 4-5 hours the lights are on. To maximize growth with out using CO2, simply add a 3-4 hour siesta in the middle of the day.
  17. Torrey
    It's either what Gardenman said about roots, or it was undernourished when it went dormant. Try protecting the roots, and if that doesn't make a difference try increasing fertilization. Some bulbs need a heavy duty fertilization in a separate container, which will protect new root growth while providing more nutrients. This should facilitate renewed growth.
  18. Torrey
    I was up watching live at 5 am, lol My favorite was Josh Sims, but I have been a fan of his aesthetic for a while. I hope they will offer the entire portfolio of submissions, as they have in years past. I would like to see how a few friends who submitted scored. The submissions from Malaysia this year were astounding! My spouse was able to identify which country most of the submissions were from, by the time we got to the top 20. Eastern European scapes had a different feels from the Malaysian and Filipino tanks, that I probably wouldn't have noticed if my spouse hadn't watched with me.
  19. Torrey
    The secret to red plants is bright lights and **higher nitrates**, not iron. If you have the same shoplight [and it's the same distance from the plants] as another person, and you are getting flowers, but not turning red, I suspect you don't have enough nitrates in the water. Hope this helps!
  20. Torrey
    I didn't hear anything about CO2, so I suspect I have an idea of what is happening: 1. Plants use all the CO2 within 4 to 5 hours of the lights turning on. No CO2 = no photosynthesis, which means no competition for the algae. I work **with** the plants by setting my timer for 4.5 hours on, 4 hours off and 5 hours on. The 4 hours off allows CO2 levels to go back up, so when the lights come back on there's sufficient CO2 for photosynthesis. 2. This will allow the plants to outcompete the algae, which will mean you can go back to using dechlorinated tap water, which is both easier and cheaper *and* provides much needed macronutrients. 3. The increased growth will mean the plants need more nutrients. Start with weekly liquid fertilization, watch the plants, and be prepared to increase fertilization as needed. Irene, in Girl Talks Fish, does a great job explaining the different vitamin deficiencies if you don't see an improvement in the next 3 - 4 weeks. Mostly, patience. Plants will melt with every water parameter change, and can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months before reassuring you that they have chosen to live, lol
  21. Torrey
    Sweet potato requires temps in the 80's, so I don't recommend it for most tanks, as a long term solution (it's fabulous with discus, however). I think the better question is what kind of growth do you want above water? Pothos will be vining and need supports and/or regular trimming. Monstera will be bushier, and generate "pups" for propagation. Both have been pretty similar in removing nitrates.
  22. Torrey
    It's been a while since I updated. Turns out Mexican azolla needs a lot more light than the ambient light the tank was getting, so I had a massive plant die off which cascaded like dominoes, lol. I decided that rather than lose all the plants, or break down the tank and move it.... I would buy my first, true aquarium light... So I am now the proud operator of a FluvalLight and I learned how to program it😅 Lots and lots of melt happened, and now we are back to exponential growth. Like so much rapid growth the nitrates dropped. So, I added some young female guppies that don't have gravid spots yet (fairly confident they are all female and will remove any that prove otherwise) to prevent an overpopulation explosion.... and keep some females for me to be more selective with in the future. Here's the tank tonight, you can see the massive melt back on the right side, and you can see the phenomenal growth on the left now that I bought the light. Have a great week everyone!
  23. Torrey
    I would quarantine the affected corydora. Fish (and pretty much all animals, including humans) can regularly have 'harmful bacteria' and parasites and we will never know, until a stressor disrupts homeostasis, and we see evidence that there is a problem. Have there been any changes that could have elevated the amount of stress? Anything from a new tank mate, to an aggressive water change, to accidentally leaving the lights on for too long, or a nitrate spike can be the one extra stress that weakens a fish. My solution is typically Q/T, identify issue, treat accordingly, and determine how to eliminate the stressor so the issue doesn't repeat.
  24. Torrey
    I work with NPO providing trauma training, trauma care, and facilitating debriefings. I also see a therapist regularly, and I am on meds for C-PTSD. Planning out / designing/ setting up a new tank is probably my singular best self-care, and I tend to do one big project every 8 months to a year. Could I make do with out aquariums? Yeah. Would anyone want to be around me unless I was masking? Probably not. When we had the farm in WA, i didn't need an aquarium because I had 22 acres, 2 creeks, a pond, and a spring. We had free range poultry, fish in the pond, and 5 acres of apple orchard I tended... I didn't have time or energy to tend fish tanks. We had a turtle tank, but no fish tanks. Now, I'm stuck in an apartment. I need to have live plants and dirt to get my hands in. Plants grow best with fish mulm. I need to be able to breed and watch genetics play out. Fish are the only apartment friendly breeding that's going to happen. Growing things sustains my hope for the future. Hope is as necessary as breathing... So yeah. I could probably find another hobby, I just don't think it would be as life sustaining....
  25. Torrey
    @CT_ My turtle light is a ZooMed that has to be replaced every 6 months. Is there an LED option that promotes Vit D production and doesn't have to be replaced every 6 months?
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