Guppy Guy

Heres another: ”Look at all the ‘bu-bu-bubble gup-gup-guppies!’” 🙄 I have always hated that show, even before I started keeping fish!

Oh, ok! Thanks! I have heard that fuses are more reliable then breakers since fuses are one and done, and breakers wear out and may not trip after awhile. I was reading about this sometime back, and the only reason breakers are the standard now is because people would shove aluminum foil in the fuse socket and wonder why their house burned down. I wish we did it the UK way here, with appliances on fuses, but those are never coming back, so we’re stuck with breakers.

The bowl I am using is a gallon and a half (≈5.7), and including the displacement from substrate/decorations and the added volume from the filter, I estimate it to be about 1.25 gallons, but I will clarify once it is filled(and hopefully not leaking). How'd you know it'd be guppies? I am thinking I will start the tank off with some of my mutts, and if all goes well for awhile, I will maybe put in some higher end guppies such as green dragons. I don't want to put anything bigger then guppies in it though due to its small size.

I finished the light! It uses 18 3 volt LEDs (12 white, 6 blue) wired in parallel. It is mounted on a CNC milled piece of acrylic (I finally figured out the software 🙃), and then sanded for a cloudy look that hides my bad wiring. Next I will 3D print a lid that the light attaches to and fits over the tank. With there being more “loves” then “sads” on reactions, I went with the 2022 quarter. It’s just the only 2022 quarter I could find was smaller, thinner, and more coppery-er. I used a penny as I probably already lost my quarter, but it looks good nonetheless. I will replace it with a quarter when I get another. What do you think?

As far as safety goes, it depends on the pump. If it is quiet when working properly, it probably uses a DC electromagnet with AC current to move a diaphragm back and forth. This kind of pump should work fine after drying out since it is so simple. If it is noisy when working properly, its probably a pump that runs off a DC motor. DC motors need a special converting circuit and sometimes a driver, but they are cheap and common in lower end pumps. Due to the complexity and fragileness of a DC motor circuit, I would get a USB nano air pump as a replacement. I say this, but if it were me, I would just get a USB nano air pump no matter what pump it is. As far as the burning smell goes, check your power strip. If water spilled on it, it could be the source of the smell. You could also move the old air pump away from the tank and see if the smell continues so you will know weather or not it is the pump.

Do you all still use fuses in the UK? Or have you started using breakers? Here in the states, its breakers.

I saw this video where a guy tested electrical appliances in water, and nothing happened. I thought it would be cool to share and discuss what happened. Here is the video. I will start off with saying I think he had no results because water on its own isn’t conductive; it has to have added metals and minerals (such as salt) to conduct electricity. That is why electronics are only cooled with distilled water. If it spills, it usually won’t hurt anything. The trace minerals in tap water aren’t enough to arc current underwater, but is enough to trip a GFCI. What do you think?

I personally don’t use an iphone, so I’m not sure if it has the floating one or not. I would assume it doesn’t, since the screen is already so small, but I may be wrong. You could also try typing in both landscape and portrait mode, as one of them will surely give you better results then the other.

Did you try the “split” keyboard? It’s a little bigger, and you may like it better. If you don’t like it, hold the “minimize keyboard” key, and click “dock and merge”

Do you see the small bar at the bottom? It is highlighted in the picture. Touch that, and drag it to the bottom fairly quickly. The old keyboard should reappear.

I use a keyboard on my ipad, but when the battery is dead, I use a small keyboard to type. Basically, make the keyboard come up by trying to type something, and hole the “minimize keyboard” Button for a few seconds. Then slide your finger up to choose what size you want. My favorite is “Floating”, but the others are nice as well. To restore the standard keyboard, do the same process, but click either “dock” or drag the floating keyboard to the bottom.

I agree completely, but know that hornwort can be finicky for me, so I prefer java moss

*Looks at all the guppies* "How did you pay for that many fish?!"

I have to agree with @Scapexghost. I didn’t think about a bad spawn, though it has happened to me. If that was your females first time spawning, that was probably the issue. Just let nature do its thing, and in a week or two, she’ll spawn again, hopefully with better results.

@Fonske, Those are great! I hope you’ve got those copyrighted, as tetra or aqueon might use them on their next glo-fish product!

It feels great here when it is raining, but as soon as the sun starts shining and the humidity rises, you can’t even breathe and instantly sweat since it is so bad.

I know it is a long-shot, but if you could get a hold of Dr. Herbert Axelrod's family for an interview about various trips, that would be amazing! For those who don't know, Dr. Herbert Axelrod is a well known author in the aquarium hobby. Though he unfortunately passed away some 10 years ago, he is still my favorite author by far.

Here in SC it is 92 and cloudy. This is the coolest day this week, but still painful from the humidity.

Sorry I'm late to the game, but how is it going? Where I am, it averages 95, a little warm for guppies. I will be trying a pond anyway though, I will just make it shady and watch the temperature closely.

I made my own awhile back, and my biggest issue was the lid's edges cracking, losing the watertight seal. My setup utilized plastic storage containers and an overflow to create a sump contained within the bucket. In theory it should work good, but I haven't had an extra tank to install it on 🤣.

I don't know if you are planning to drain the tank or not, but if you do, a small dustpan (clean of course) works great for scooping out old substrate. Just be careful to not scratch the bottom of the tank since it is sand. Since a large portion of the bacteria in your tank lives in the substrate, your tank WILL crash if you replace it with un-cycled substrate. If this is a problem for you, my go-to is always Dr. Tims One And Only. It is live bacteria that instantly cycles your tank. This isn't needed though if you are using substrate that was used in another tank.

I have a container with extra gravel in it. Once or twice a year, I replenish the gravel that was sucked out during water changes so my tanks never get low.

If my HOB doesn't give me problems, your sponge filter is definitely fine. As far as plants go, my favorite by far is java moss. Besides providing shelter for the fry, it also sucks a ton of nitrates out of the water column, so much so that when I removed all of it from my tank last year, it crashed because the most efficient filter was taken out and the existing one couldn't keep up with the bio-load. From there nature did its thing, and fish kept dying until the balance was met and everything fixed itself. Of course, I didn't know this at the time or I would have added it back into the tank, but at least I know it now.

I don't have a common pleco, but I may be able to answer your problems. I know I saw it somewhere on youtube years ago, but I can't remember who the original creator is. Basically, just take a small water pump (I use a second hand marineland maxi-jet 1200 I got for $5) and a small to medium siphon (the smaller it is, the more sucking pressure you will have) and connect them together with a small length of tube so the pump sucks water through the siphon. Them take some foam and shove it up the tube. Its done! Now just plug in the pump, and the pleco waste will be sucked up and trapped in the sponge, and the water will return to the tank. I don't use this often, as my fish aren't as dirty as a common, but when I do use it, it works really well.

I'm sure you are aware of this, but make sure the filter isn't too strong, or the fry could get sucked up or get stressed from the extra current. Feeding shouldn't be an issue, as my guppy fry eat whatever food scraps are around. Keep a layer of mulm on the bottom of the tank, as it provides shelter, food, and a sense of safety for the fry. If the aquarium is heavily planted, and I mean can't see through the plants heavily planted, just leave the adult guppies in the tank. The fry will hide, and the other fish won't be stressed from getting removed, and when they grow up(about 5-8 months), they will fit in with the other fish fine. If you go with that approach, just make sure you stay on top of water quality. Within a year, there will be a ton of fish, and that means water quality drops faster.