Jump to content

Krys

Members
  • Posts

    15
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by Krys

  1. Thank you! It’s one of those things that you don’t know until you know lol I have some plans now that I understand what exactly I need to do so I am excited to get started, tho I didn’t want to waste the $$$ on a tank I don’t plan on keeping long term.
  2. @face Yeah the 40b doesnt have a cross brace. I was using a plastic clamp to hold the end of the python syphon down into the tank to fill and the pressure from the clamp broke the frame. this is one of the big things i am contending with. The python syphon always flings out and get water all over my living room. Its because the hose to attachment connector is so heavy that it pulls the syphon out of the tank. After that I ended up just buying the python hook. I have to find a new solution however since the seal on the attachment has failed and leaks terribly.
  3. Hello everyone long time no post haha. I have a question for y’all. The frame of my 40g breeder cracked a while ago. The glass itself is fine, and I tried to temp repair it with 2 part epoxy but it’s just on the outside as I didn’t want to risk it getting into the tank. How worried should I be about the tank failing? The petco sale is on right now so I could go buy a new 40g and move everything over. However I’d like to avoid this since I would like to downsize. In my condition maintenance on the 40 is just extremely difficult so I am in the process of trying to find ways to make things easier for me in terms of fishy maintenance, one of which would be downsizing the tank. If I can go a few more months before replacing it, I could choose something that will better suit my needs. Thanks yall!
  4. Thanks so much for the help, since I’m still trying to figure this out. When cleaning the tank, I use a step ladder that does elevate me a decent height above the tank. I also added seachem purigen to my filter to remove the tannins which makes it a lot easier to see in the water with less light / sunlight. Part of the problem with the lid is that it doesnt actually fit properly and I’m not sure what’s really wrong with it. It is the proper size for the tank, it is just that something is either wrong with it or the tank. So, In order to get the lid to lay flat, it needs to be set crooked. The glass edges cut into the plastic rim a bit And get stuck, and make it difficult to lift the lid with the handle in the front. Because of the ill fit i took off the plastic guard at the back since the out flow of the filter was pooling on top of the lid. If i move the lid even a few millimeters it will fall into the tank. Ive attempted to straighten the panels of glass, i think they are not perfectly parallel, or something like that. I don’t know if there is anything i can do to salvage the lid, or I’d end up spending just as much as making a siding or lighter lid as i would buying stuff to deal with the glass lid. ultimately i think the sliding lid would be the best choice for now. I’m also considering a canister filter in the future if only because it will be below the tank and not tucked behind the tank and easier to get to. as for the lights, shop lights would be a good idea. I’ve also seen hang flood lights over their tanks. Atm i am going to try to attach our regular mounted lights to a another piece of polycarbonate (the one linked to me seemed to have a decent amount of extra) and hang that above the tank using plant hanger hooks. I dont know how the lights will fare so far from the tank when it comes to lights penetration so shop lights may be the alternative if this doesn’t work. Fortunately we can return the stuff from Amazon lol It’s a 40g that is currently stocked with 7 spotted corydoras, 7 amano shrimp, an assassin snail (after our pond snail population got out of control while i have been keeping them around for pea puffer food), a decent number of neocaridina shrimp, maybe like 20? They’re still shrimplets and that’s how many I’ve been able to count. We have since moved the mama shrimps to a 5g breeding tank. We plan on adding a school of medaka rice fish and a breeding set of clown killifish in the next several months, and perhaps an apistogramma and a dwarf goby but at the moment we aren’t exactly sure. I am waiting between each addition for the bacteria to catch up for several weeks and quarantining them accordingly. as for plants, i think it’s pretty decently planted. i wouldn’t say heavily but it’s getting there. We are waiting for the plants we have purchased to grow in now since there are a decent number of them but they’re baby plants and i think i am finally done messing with the scaping. For a while at least. I think. Our substrate is ecocomplete so it’s not hard to clean, not like the sand in the puffer tank. The cories have done a good job of keeping it looking clean, but i do at least change the water at least 25% once a week to replenish nutrients in the water for the plants and shrimp since i have noticed during my initial (plant in) cycle, several weeks without water changes results in a decent drop in KH. Despite having a pretty high ph (7.6ish) our KH is very low (about 2, or 40ppm). There is some crushed coral in the substrate help buffer against a major kh drop. I will try finally downloading tiktok haha I’ve been avoiding it like the plague as i don’t really get along with social media well. Especially if these ideas don’t work out. When it comes to water changes we have a python, which works great, but i have to hold it in place. I was thinking of getting the python hook but i haven’t been able to find a baffle for it to prevent shrimplets from getting sucked up so I haven’t purchased one yet. If i can diy a python hook that i can baffle, that would solve a lot of issues. i hope i answered everything. Thank you for your help!
  5. Thanks so much for the correct link! I have been scouring posts and youtube video descriptions to find the right product. If you don’t mind, Were you able to cut it yourself with a utility knife? i had a terrible time cutting the plastic piece that slides on the edge of the aqueon glass top to make a hole for the HOB. Eventually i just threw that part out. That would be amazing! Thank you! I didn’t even think of something like that!
  6. Hello again everyone, i haven’t been on much since I’ve joined, life is interesting right now. I am in the process of trying to modify my 40g breeder set up so that it is easier for maintenance. briefly, the story goes like this. About 7 years ago i fell on my shoulder and after going to dozens of doctors since then I’ve only recently been diagnosed with, basically a pinched nerve that has to be surgically resolved. Who knows when that will happen. The symptoms include not being able to reliably hold my arm up parallel to my shoulder without losing all feeling in the pinky and ring finger. Its a degenerative issue, so i hadn’t noticed how difficult it was for me to deal with until i weekly began needing to remove the glass lid from our 40g tank in order to gravel vac, and cutting my hand several times when my fingers went numb and i couldn’t maintain a grip. I also can’t see inside the tank to clean it with the lights off. first I was going to try to make those pendulum lights like the kingofdiy’s but he doesn’t really tell you anything about the bulb that goes in the lights. Or actually what products he uses at all. I bought These e26 light cords so that i could hang them over the tank, thinking i could just adjust their height when i needed to move them out of the way and i wouldn’t have to reach up too much to do it. The light bulbs i got don’t seem to penetrate the water column at all, despite being 100w (or the led equivalent of 100w incandescent). I have all low light plants and don’t want to spend $40 for a plant light bulb, that seems ridiculous honestly. The other modification is to get a lighter lid. I was going to make a polycarbonate lid, in 2 parts, so it is easier for me to lift for feeding and such but it has not been available in my area for a while. There are the clear polycarbonate sheets that are more like glass but they are only .08 inches thick and that seems too thin. At least its not the kind cory used in his video about diy lids. We want to purchase clown killifish in the future so the lid is important, otherwise i’d just leave the lid off and get a python hook to top off the tank every few days. Plus it would allow me to put my hang on back filter on the side instead of the back of the tank and it would be way easier for me to get to it to clean. It wouldn’t look at good but, beggers can’t be choosers lol. Does anyone have experience with this stuff? i really appreciate everyone’s help once again, i want to make maintenance as easy as i can so we can keep the aquariums because they truely give us joy.
  7. Thank you so much, everyone! I have ordered a bag of crushed coral and media bag from the coop's site and am going to try putting it in the HOB (I think when I set up another tank, I will put it in the substrate. I want a desktop cube nano tank for breeding shrimp for the pea puffer to eat in my studio eventually, that one will rely on it). I think it was good timing too because one of my shrimp is berried and I want to make sure the new baby shrimp develop properly.
  8. Thank you! We have very similar water, then! It is always helpful to have several people confirm especially because aquarium stuff on the internet is overall inconsistent at worse and vague at best, so I get excited when several people agree on something. It is definitely the plants! The quarantine tank's parameters have been completely stable this entire time with no plants or substrate. I thought crushed coral would boost my pH so high it was uninhabitable so I hadn't even considered it. I was also worried about the mystery snail. In the week we've had 'em, he's grown a half-inch of shell! I am very worried since some things say they need 0dkH, but others say they need at least 80ppm! I am... very confused. I would rather be safe than sorry. Plus, the bamboo died with a failed molt. I read that water changes can force a shrimp to molt prematurely, but typically if the water parameters are good for the shrimp, it should be able to molt properly. Husband really wanted a bamboo shrimp, so I would like to get him a new one and keep it alive this time. @quikv6 @tolstoy21 When you put the crushed coral in your HOB, how much do you put in there? And, ah, if the pH climbs higher than desired, could I not just take the filter bag out of the HOB? I would presume that it would get kicked back down when I do a water change. Do you try to keep your water changes smaller to make sure the kH/pH doesn't drop too much? I'm also worried about shocking the tank with a water change and killing everything.
  9. I agree! I am choosing fish that, from my research, can live in my water. The problem is that the pH drops very quickly, and currently I need to do a water change every 3rd day to prevent the pH from dropping. By the end of 7 days, the pH drops by almost a full point, which I thought would kill the fish - or the water change would kill the fish when it is suddenly higher again. Therefore, I am looking to stabilize the pH, really, not.... change anything. Maybe I am lazy, haha, I sort of don't want to need to change the water daily.
  10. This is the mindset pushed by, who I now perceive as, those who are more interested in making money than helping you keep your fish alive. When I was at my "LFS" (which is actually owned by a big box disguised as a LFS with horrifically inflated prices) I asked them for THEIR water parameters (the store) and despite asking several people who work there, even though most of them said they kept fish at home themselves, they repeatedly told me "water parameters don't matter" and even started to shame me for looking up stuff about the fish. "I've been keeping fish for 4 years, I know better than what the internet says, you're just being gullible, are you this dramatic about everything? its not that big of a deal, god." etc. The kicker is this: They have a 48 hour return policy (as in they will give you a new one). When I called after the amano shrimp died within 24 hours, they wanted me to bring in a water sample to prove my water parameters were good, and bring them the dead shrimp. They have 4 1/2 stars on google, but if you go through the very few 1 star reviews, its people saying they never honor their 48hr policy. I am even more determined than ever to get this to work now LOL But I will never purchase anything from them again. I felt like I HAD to because they are the only place locally other than petco and walmart, and I was afraid of shipping fish but I think paying for shipping for healthier fish is going to be worth it plus most places have a DOA policy. I also think they completely lied about their fish being bred in the US. It seemed like one of the guys was really pushing me to believe they buy all the fish states-side, but I know that's literally impossible. Some fish are ONLY wild caught, and some of them are not bred in the US.
  11. I have no idea. All the "information" online as to what individual species need is extremely inconsistent. It's definitely been a pain to try to figure out. I was trying to avoid adding crushed coral / wonder shells / anything that raises pH/gH because it's pretty clear that the water is already densely packed with minerals. I wish the information was more consistent. Perhaps the question should really be how much can the pH fluctuate before it's dangerous for the fish? To maintain the current pH, I have to water change every 3/4 days, and I don't even have fish in it. With fish I feel like I will be doing water changes daily to prevent a pH crash.
  12. We have a 40g planted tank that has been up for a month. Currently, it has 1 mystery snail, 1 amano shrimp, and 4 neocaridina shrimp. We also have a rice sized pea puffer who is in the quarantine tank, since I wanted to dose it for parasites. Puffer is going in his own tank (that has yet to be set up). The water parameters are as follows: pH: 7.5 gH: 300ish? (co op test strip) kH: 40ppm (2.25~dkH) (both coop strip and API kH test) nitrates: 5ppm (might be due to fertilizer) nitrites: 0 ammonia: 0 According to the water company: gH: 289 TDS: 410 pH: 7.8 We have cast iron pipes and get water mostly from surface water and ground water (from what I can research, but Ohio makes it REALLY hard to find information about your specific water source when you live in an apartment). I noticed over the past several weeks, that the pH drops an entire point with nothing in the tank but plants over the course of a week and from my research, it seems all fish but especially inverts are sensitive to pH fluctuations, but many also need higher kH than I have. I read mixed reporting about using baking soda to raise kH (as it is claimed it doesn't raise pH). I attempted to raise the kH of my tank (before adding the shrimp) to 6dkH, but it most certainly rose the pH of my tank to 7.8. I did a 75% water change to get the parameters back to normal. The stock we have has been here for 8 days. From the initial stocking we have lost 1 amano shrimp and a bamboo shrimp. After the 1st amano died, we haven't seen the second, however I haven't had any ammonia spikes so I have chosen to closely monitor the water rather than stress out the shrimp looking for the amano. Should I be concerned about the lack of kH? Is there something I can do to help stabilize my kH and pH without making it higher than it already is? I have been doing water changes every few days because the pH drops. What pH stabilizer would you recommend? To note, the pea puffer in quarantine has no live plants, substrate. etc in order to facilitate cleaning and making sure not to complicate things further (for me, the new fish keeper). This pH flux doesn't happen, nor does the kH deplete quickly. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
  13. here is the best picture i got of ‘em in decent lighting. Getting washed out on camera but irl the dark spots are vibrant. With a microscope i can see fins!
  14. YO! I finally joined up, haha. Thanks for always being so helpful! I started feeling a bit guilty bothering you so much, lol I am really being careful with that pea puffer, it is SO TEENY but I think they've grown over the past week, and has gotten more active - so far so good! We haven't named it, I think we're already so attached to the little guy that we're afraid to name it because we'd be so heartbroken if it doesn't make it through quarantine lmao
  15. Hi everyone, I'm new at aquariums and I am in Columbus, Ohio (newly moved here, too). @laritheloud is my sister-in-law and is primarily the reason we got into aquariums in the first place! Despite loving aquariums, I never thought to try to start my own but hers really inspired me to get into it! I figured I shouldn't constantly ask her about everything, and she highly recommends this forum, and so here I am!
×
×
  • Create New...