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Torrey

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Everything posted by Torrey

  1. I made my own airstone powered gravel vac so I could clean gravel and sand, catch sediment, but not *have* to do a water change (that whole living in the desert thing). I used clear uplift tube and the top directional flow from a UGF, and tie a filter media bag over the directional flow. It's great for my nano and pico tanks, I'm thinking I'm going to try Bev's for the dining room tank once it's set up. @Guppysnail I leave my mesh floating breeder boxes in the tanks, suspended with zip ties over bamboo skewers (in my 10 gallon tanks). That way they have the biofilm ready. I'm playing with breeding the danios in the breeder boxes with those plastic 'aquarium gems' in the bottom. I'll be finding out next month if the fry escape the mesh I ordered, my current mesh is too big for danio fry (working great for endler fry, and they love hunting the baby amphipods!) Suspended in the bedside tank, with endler fry growing out so I can identify which males I am keeping and which are going to the store. 'Aquarium gems' in the bottom provide decent bb action, and provide babies with biofilm to eat. Please excuse the assassin snail xxx action.
  2. Yes so much to this!!! Although my impeller was clean on the pump? But a pump I had pulled from another tank when I was sick, and didn't have the spoons (or patience) to figure out why it was making a *noise*... was gunked up and baby snails had decided it was their ideal buffet. Took me 15 minutes to get it clean and functional again, longer to get it properly wrapped in sponge to [hopefully] keep any more snails out...
  3. @Emika_B it goes back to the middle of last century when the egg crate light diffusers first came out. Large egg farms used a slightly larger model to sort eggs into different grades and ship off to be cartoned and sold. If you use wire snips, like for fencing and for building wire cages for rabbits and poultry, you can [mostly] clip the plastic nibs flush against the plastic you are keeping. @Bev C you can see my cheap "hinge" is a zip tie, lol. Here's Cory's explanation on why the polycarb needs to be lined up a specific way. I have found the Amazon polycarb is a little sturdier than the stores, plus it gets delivered to the door. With tanks smaller than 20 gallons, or with big tanks that have the middle support, I have not needed the egg crate under the poly carb.
  4. @Bev C when I lived in Whatcom Co, WA, I was almost 2 hours away from *any* store. I hard relate. I only went to town on Sundays for Friends Meeting and all our shopping. I hope you and your brother are able to get the supplies you need, and build a lid that meets your needs. Here's the hinges, and it's under $5 if you are covering 4 different 10 gallon tanks. With careful cutting it's $10/lid for two 55 gallon tanks.
  5. An even cheaper way to get the rigidity of the egg crate, and the security from escape of the plexiglass (without having to get a thicker, expensive piece of plexiglass or polycarb) is use wire snips to cut the egg crate down to size, and then (with thinner polycarb or plexiglass) you can use utility scissors to cut the clear to size. I cut a feeding notch out, and add a hinge (DIY hinge with silicone is easy) so I don't have to move the whole lid to feed. I avoided lids for a while, using the aquariums to provide humidity in our home, but after 2 months at under 6% humidity, maintaining my water parameters are getting tricky due to evaporation. So I am using saran wrap on the egg crate until the polycarb comes back in stock. @Bev C the open dimension of each square is 1.5 cm x 1.5 cm. My zebra nerites can't escape through the holes, baby limpet nerites can. Polycarb and plexiglass can be attached to the egg crate in a variety of ways. Up until last year, it was cheaper to buy clear light panels (sold right beside the egg crate light diffuser) and make lids out of the egg crate and clear light panel (the clear light panels aren't sturdy enough to use individually but stay flat on the egg crate, and polycarb and plexiglass both warp with the humidity and heat). Now, it varies by shipment.
  6. I am not going to count. 🤣 More than the Pink Floyd song, and I'm okay with that since they all bring me joy.🤷🏼‍♂️
  7. I'm taking a break to rehydrate, a whopping 6% humidity outside🤣 Setting up my pond now that I have enough floating plants to keep the surface mostly covered to reduce evaporation. Picking up a temporary air pump this evening for the porch pond. Have a great day everybody!
  8. Because most of the US thinks New Mexico is a foreign country that requires a passport and shots🙄, our insurance here accepts the EU listing on electronics for safety. 🤷🏼‍♂️
  9. My Patient Spouse™ got me something so I can finally see the tiny things in my tanks... I still have to practice using it, because my focusing abilities are sad indeed🤣 I did get a picture of amphipod babies on a hornwort leaf! My shrimp are choosing to be incredibly photogenic! Snails felt left out:
  10. I have had the experience Baphijmm has had: so sensitive I can skew results if I'm not careful. I'm typically testing 6 to 13 tanks at a time, so I lay a paper towel on my "fish tank cutting board" and walk through doing the 3 second swirl and laying flat on the paper towel. By the time I get to the end, my first strip has hit the 60 second mark, and I start reading the strips. Most of my tanks were well over 600 TDS back in January (water comes from an aquifer, and so much calcium it causes kidney stones. I mix distilled or ZeroWater with Pur filtered tap water until I get 180 TDS... but accidentally dropped my KH, so still testing water religiously until I get this balanced) My GH was a magenta purple when I got my strips in the beginning of April. Weekly water changes is slowly lowering the GH, and this week I have 2 tanks down to a perfectly matched 150 GH ppm. My ZeroWater tests at 0 ppm for both GH & KH, and our treatment facility has changed something, bcause last October (when I ran out of strips and reverted to exclusively using the API liquid reagents) my Pur water out of the tap had 300+ GH and between 120 & 180 KH ppm. Now, the Pur doesn't even have 40 ppm KH, and out of the tap is between 40 and 80 ppm KH. But the GH is still through the roof, and TDS out of the tap is well over 400 now, and down to 280 TDS out of the Pur faucet filter. A friend works at the Labs, and periodically gets permission to test local water samples. My strips and my API tests have been within acceptable parameters/deviations when tested against the labe (not as precise, but correct in the "between this and this" parameters). It is absolutely critical to get the strips horizontal immediately. I like laying on the paper towel, so no drops of water move between the pads, skewing the test. Worth the extra attention to detail so I don't have to shake a test tube or reagent bottles until my arm falls off, lol
  11. I'm in awe of your tank. Bottom picture, red plant bottom center, what is that? I'm sure Seattle_Aqarist will help you get your plants healthy, I'm just going to appreciate your tank.😁
  12. My tanks are all on timers. So much easier to get healthy and consistent growth that way. For photography: 1. Make sure the front glass is cleaned, scraped on the inside and wiped clean on the outside. Let everything settle for an hour after cleaning, so the filter can clear things up. 2. Turn off all out of the tank lights. Sometimes it helps to have an LED flashlight to shine on the shrimp from an angle that isn't reflected into the camera 3. Switch to "pro" on your camera. Select the 100 ISO, and use a tripod so you don't get any movement (makes images blurry) Here's my camera's autofocus: Versus "Pro" mode at ISO 100 (shorter focal length, sharper focus, and less light gets in the aperture) See how the camera focused on the tree and moss in the autofocus, but I got a clear closeup with ISO 100 and the background got blurry? If possible, get the camera against the glass, to minimize refraction. You are going to get refraction from the water, no matter what. May as well minimize it as much as possible, so a specimen container, or coax them to the front of the tank (I use the bamboo skewers, coat them in food, and wait for the shrimp to come check it out. I sat still for an hour to get a dozen awesome photographs)
  13. Follow your normal acclimation, just you are using the bucket in a few days to do the acclimation in. Temperature is the biggest parameter they don't like sudden drops in. Here's Cory's interview of Gianne, an IBC Betta judge and betta breeder, with information on how to keep bettas the happiest and healthiest.
  14. I like livebearers for new hobbyists, and I don't like them to get overwhelmed, so I actually promote a mix of livebearers (whatever they like the look of) along with a decent sized school of danios or mid size tetras (to keep fry under control), and snails (to help with cleaning). These don't tend to overwhelm biofilters, livebearers will eat eggs, and egglayers will eat livebearer fry they can catch, and snails eat waste and leftover food, keeping the tank clean.
  15. I suspect we can find ways to maintain educational approaches, without wording things in ways that hold the potential to contribute to lateral and unintended harm. I really appreciate the commitment to keeping the Forum as positive and helpful as possible, and the gentle reminders that we all have room for improvement. I agree @modified lung, as an over 50 yo fish keeper, I have learned a lot from some of those "What problem is seen" and "Can you share why you don't like XXX" By the same token, I am in here because the negativity elsewhere is getting overwhelming. I am in sessions all day long, hearing from various people of all ages, who have been/are being bullied, and are incredibly sensitive (I call it being an emotional burn equivalent to 75% third degree burns) to perceived attacks... like Cory's example of a kid just getting into the hobby and his tank is full of Glo Tetras so they don't have to be self-conscious about having the Glo Light on in their tank all night (for any kids reading, I am over 50, and I have a bedside tank that is lit at night instead of the day!) I would feel horrible if I recommended someone to the forum, and they read something that negatively impacted their healing journey. So I appreciate the reminder to share information, just be mindful in how we present the infromation we are sharing... and be careful in the questions we ask so we don't unintentionally do harm.
  16. My sister went to NCSU for forestry management, and work for F&W. Identifying invasive species has been all but beat into us, which also means identifying native species... which requires knowing the available resources for identification.
  17. Cool! Wordle guessed in 3/6! Can you do better? Try this wordle: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=lscopx ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #mywordle Wordle guessed in 3/6! Can you do better? Try this wordle: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=bzrnp ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #mywordle A challenge option from last week: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=wdfqzkahfq and in keeping with this week: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=wagkttkrj
  18. Finished up the bedside tank and the T4' tank: I'm waiting on a plant delivery, and waiting on 2 species to come back in stock, so lightly planted right now. Spouse's tank got a new pump for the waterfall, 10 gallons worth of plants removed, and a 50% water change over the course of yesterday and today. I have to cover the top half with a towel to get a decent underwater picture. Here's the top and bottom:
  19. @KittenFishMom I think y'all are doing phenomenal. Try reaching out to your states elder and disability care, we were also told insurance only paid a max of 10 hours a week for hospice, but a little digging got us 48 hours straight of respite care up to 2x a month. Apparently, coverage varies by state.... so if you need more help it's worth reaching out and asking. We also learned Medicaid covers up to 60 hours a week of in home health care (with a doctor's prior auth, Medicaid will cover 24/7 in home care). If income is low enough, and if you are in a state that utilized the federal funding for expanded Medicaid, that's worth exploring as well. Again, varies by state. I'm glad you and your mom are getting this chance to enjoy each other's company and relive positive memories. It's the best gift and is absolutely priceless.
  20. I get in touch with my county extension agent, and verify they are native species. If they're native, they get to stay. If they're invasive, they get caught and I follow the state's invasive species guidelines. The kids used to make the invasives be pets😁
  21. Yeah, clowns aren't supposed to have spots. Glad you are treating him and I hope you, the family, the tank, and the pleco all do well! My kids learned a similar lesson: Don't get livestock until everything is ready I expanded it into discussions on responsibility, accountability, and as they hit puberty discussions on how relationships can be evaluated for health. Fish keeping makes us better parents, and offers up amazing learning opportunities!
  22. A lot of guppies get sick at the lower temps, especially if it is too rapid a drop. Our house stays at 68 F year round, and our porch goes as high as 92 F in the summer (water hits upper 80's) and below freezing over the winter (ice on pond if I don't break it down), and the temperature changes have made my guppies and endlers much sturdier. The delicate flowers simply don't survive. However, I have a massive clean up crew (similar to Cory) so I don't get ammonia spikes. The snails and plants take care of it. If I am gone for 2 weeks, nobody comes and feeds my fish, they graze on microfauna and microflora. Most guppies aren't tolerant of the extremes of living with me, and I am positive the endler genetics have increased their resilience.
  23. I'm going back through and rewatching all the videos with my biz account, and will be commenting on the specific benefits of videos. It's a nice journey to watch how Jimmy's skills have evolved, how much more comfortable the entire team has gotten with being on camera, and the reminder that your ethics and specifically the fact you actually walk your talk @Cory is why the ACO is so successful. I really wish your business videos were a required viewing in business schools around the globe, because taking care of employees is a universal key to success that far too many people overlook/undervalue.
  24. I don't typically add fish until I am ghostfeeding the tank the amount of food the fish would be eating. Don't want to get the ammonia over 1.0 ppm, because it can overwhelm and crash the cycle. Getting the ammonia level up to 1.0 ppm, and then within 12 to 24 hours (and without a water change) you have zero ppm ammonia, and nitrites are close to 1.0 ppm, and then you see nitrates rising and zero nitrites, your tank's beneficial bacteria are ready for you to *slowly* start introducing fish. I like a seasoned tank more than a cycled tank... and admit I didn't used to have the patience for a seasoned tank.
  25. It is so hard to patiently wait for the box of water chemistry to be ready for live guests. I don't know of a single aquarist who hasn't learned the value of waiting without making similar errors. Consider it the crash course of aquarium keeping, and I am sorry ya'll are struggling. Exactly what kind of pleco did you buy?
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