drewzero1
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Posts posted by drewzero1
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That is a lot more work in two days than I've done on my tanks in two WEEKS! I don't think it sounds awful at all not to change water for 6 months... my record is about 18 months in my heavily planted white cloud tank. (I kept testing and it kept coming back okay.)
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Prime Time is probably my favorite fish channel right now. Girl Talks Fish and Rachel O'Leary are also pretty great. Just recently I've been enjoying Tiny Menagerie and her species profiles. I subbed to Everyday Fishkeeping for his gourami tank videos. Plus a handful of others, and many more for a handful of other interests. (If you think multiple tank syndrome is bad, try multiple hobby syndrome!)
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About 150, give or take. I've been on there a while so they're not all active any more unfortunately. Of those there are probably about a dozen that I watch regularly. I also don't have TV and rarely use Netflix, so that's pretty much it for what I watch these days.
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On 5/17/2022 at 4:57 PM, Griznatch said:
Neon tetras.... Pretty little fish, but they can have so many issue,s and ugh... trying to catch them in a fully planted tank.. I still have nightmares about that.
I've never been able to get into them. I get why they're popular, just not why they're as popular as they are.
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On 5/17/2022 at 1:45 PM, Patrick_G said:
Every other hobbyist 😂
I totally get it. For a while I regretted my cories, thinking they weren't interesting enough. Since I increased the school size and added more catfish to interact with the cories have really grown on me.
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I don't really like tetras or to a lesser extent danios or rainbows. I tend to prefer fish I can tell apart, and find it harder to make a connection with a group of fish than recognizable individuals. (I love my WCMM but I probably wouldn't try to give them names.) I've been trying some lamb chop rasboras and despite their bold color I still find them kind of boring to watch. (That's fine, since the tank is on my desk. If it wasn't boring I'd never get any work done. 😅)
I also don't care for cichlids, I find most of them a bit ugly (aside from Geophagus and their close relatives, for some reason). I've only once kept a cichlid, a large angelfish given to me by a friend. I rehomed it as soon as I could because it was too big and too aggressive for me. I definitely get why people like them, but they're probably not my thing.
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When minnows have died in my tanks I've mostly found their bodies resting on top of the mat of moss in the lower part of the tank, so the elodea is a possibility. My white cloud mountain minnows have been my most bulletproof fish, besides possibly my danios, so I'm holding out hope that she's just really good at hiding! (If there's only one, be aware that they can get stressed if not kept in a group of their own kind for schooling.)
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On 5/6/2022 at 11:27 PM, Atomicfish said:
I find it hard to figure out why it would only be on your live bearers. usally if its a really a serious sickness everyone would be effected.
My hypothesis would be that the livebearers may be less able to fight off the infection... either less happy about the water, or less hardy in general. As far as I'm aware they tend to like the water harder than the other listed fish, but I wouldn't expect that to be a deal breaker for guppies or endlers as much as it might be for mollies. What are the water parameters?
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On 3/29/2022 at 3:53 PM, Guppysnail said:
The only two things that really get my knickers knotted are cleaning canister hose lines 🤢🤮and nitrate tests. I cannot differentiate color well even on coop strips (though those are easier a bit to see than api liquid). Everything else is an adventure to me 😁
Wait, you're supposed to clean those? 😳
On 4/1/2022 at 9:49 AM, Tanked said:What bothers me most is #1 Balance, and #2 the lack of absolutes in this hobby. They go hand in hand. There is no formula for balance in the aquarium. There are guides for getting there but no precise recipe. Balance is a moving target. When we move into the realm of planted tanks, I think we have as many "could happens", as absolutes.
I don't remember if I said it before, but it drives me a little bit nuts that nothing ever stands still. There have been a couple of times where for just one day everything aligned and I had a clean, happy, and healthy tank, but it seems like there's always something coming or going.
I suppose if I could somehow permanently balance the tank it would get boring pretty quick. For a while I barely looked at my white cloud minnow tank at all, because they never needed any attention.
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I set up my first tank in a hurry, and used rainbow gravel that was left over from when I had tanks or bowls as a kid. Found out the hard way that it takes a lot more gravel for a ten gallon, it looked like I just threw a handful of gravel in the middle of a bare-bottomed tank (which of course I had). Later I got some blasting sand and instead of carefully removing the gravel, I just dumped the (rinsed) sand on top. So for five years I had pieces of colored gravel working their way up out of the sand and peeking out.
I tore that tank down a few months ago and reused the sand in another tank. Didn't feel like picking out the gravel, so it's still in there. The look has kind of grown on me.
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On 4/25/2022 at 11:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:
I totally understand the frustration.
The way I usually handle that issue is to go ahead and clean the filter constantly, every 2-3 days. After a few times it should equalize the bit and the tank/filter work a bit better together. If you're still having issues you might be running too much flow and just clogging it that way. (you can run a sponge on one size, add an air stone on the other to keep circulation, but lessen the load on the sponge itself.
A secondary option, go out and grab a cheap HoB and run that for a day or two and then remove it. That should help as well to let the sponge clear out the chunks if the tank is just filled with mulm or something that is clogging the sponge.
Lastly, depending what is clogging, you might be over feeding? You can try keeping track of what the fish eat when feeding and what is left over after 10-15 minutes and adjust accordingly.I've never had "the luck of" letting a sponge run for a long time. Maybe it's just me and what my tanks look like and how I feed but I stick to weekly/biweekly cleanouts these days. Try weekly at the least (just for the sponge itself, not even changing water) and see if that fixes the issue as well.
I didn't consider it, but I do run an airstone inside all of my sponge filters. (Can't stand the blub-blub of bigger bubbles, or the splashing/mess.)
Feeding is also a consideration- not only amount, but ingredients too. I haven't looked into it in a while (haven't had extra $$$ for fancy food) but certain foods can be significantly more wasteful either from leftovers breaking down, or inefficient digestion.
What's your mulm situation like? Do you gravel vac?
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On 4/25/2022 at 11:07 PM, PineSong said:
Another option for such a large pond might be mollies. I'd go for orange mollies or yellow sailfin mollies because I love the warm colors, but I could see white ones also showing up well.
This sounds awesome! I would have loved to do that with my first round of mollies. At feeding time I'd open up the top and give them some food on my fingers, and they'd swim right into my hand. They would've loved a pond if I could keep it warm enough.
I've got a few black mollies now but they're fairly new to me and not very friendly (yet). They wouldn't show up very well in a pond, lighter ones are definitely the way to go.
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It might just be that your tank's mechanical filtration needs are more than a sponge filter can provide (it's really not their strong suit). Have you considered other types of filter? I used to have a sponge filter for bio-filtration and a HOB for mechanical filtration, which seemed to work pretty well. I have a sponge and a canister filter on my 40 and that seems to be a good compromise for not taking up too much space in the tank. If you like air-powered filters as much as I do, there are also other types of sponge-adjacent filters with different trade-offs: rocket, corner matten, undergravel, etc. (Okay, maybe not undergravel if you don't want to reconstruct the whole tank. 😆)
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I've got two sponge filters in my 20 long. One would probably be enough, but I like having a spare sponge seasoned and ready to start a quarantine or whatever. Mine are the Aquatop 25 sponge filters (40ppi) from my LFS, and I've only had them clog up when I slack on maintenance for a few months. Two weeks is really quick for any filter to clog. What's your stocking like?
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On 4/25/2022 at 5:45 PM, Dancing Matt said:
You could consider trying over-wintering. In Colorado springs this winter I had a 75 gal tote buried in the ground with an improvised green house cover using shower curtains and PVC (I need to make a post...). It has common goldfish in it, It didn't freeze over until late January or Feb and even then I put a "small" pond deicer in it and that ended up keeping the whole pond thawed.
Golden White clouds look good from above, I just moved some the other day and had to stop and appreciate them. Looking at the picture I wonder if you could separate them (put 'em in the top portion?) and let them breed to increase your population. I started with 10 from a big box store and now have 6x that number or more, mostly from one tub.
Check this post out
Hey, it's me again! (I'm all over this place.) I kind of forgot about longfins over the winter. Thanks for the reminder to order some!
And yes, you do need to make a post on that greenhouse! It probably wouldn't do a whole lot for me when it's -30F, but it could help extend the season a little. Mostly I just love seeing what clever projects people are working on.
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Caught my eye during a water change. Someday I need to get a lowboy... or a pond.
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I've been seeing a lot of the banjo cats which has been nice. The banjos are the quiet downstairs neighbors who just want to be left alone, and the cories are well-meaning but clumsy upstairs neighbors who keep accidentally awakening them at odd hours.
"Hey! Keep it down up there!"
Lost one of the pagoda snails shortly after the last post. I had been worried that might happen, since a lot of the ones at the store seemed dead/dying. I was just so excited to have found any at all. 🙄 At least the other one is doing well.
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On 4/23/2022 at 10:48 PM, Juancho said:
That’s awesome. There’s a YouTuber in Australia that did something like your gonna do. It’s a great idea.
I'm mostly following info from a great series on YT done by Rachel O'Leary where she sets up a few aboveground ponds on a budget.
On 4/23/2022 at 10:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:Depending on how tall the pot is, I really like these. It looks good. we just had some concrete poured for the backyard to give us something to stare at besides dirt. I'm always interested to see people's backyard setups. Especially something that can overwinter, it should be pretty easy to do that here.
https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Whisper-AP150-Aquarium-Applications/dp/B000V7KM32
It's relatively tall... I'd really rather it was wider. If this experiment goes well I should be able to get something bigger in a year or two. Nothing overwinters here unless it can freeze solid, so it's getting drained in the fall.
I've wanted a fish pond since I was a kid. Now that I've got a house with a yard, some experience keeping aquaria running, and (most importantly) spousal approval, I'm excited to get started!
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On 4/23/2022 at 10:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:
Pics?
Not much to see at the moment. I've got an upside-down terracotta pot and a plastic pot for planting (which will hopefully stay put in the middle when it has something in it). Maybe an emergent plant or two for the center pot, something like cattail or arrowleaf. I'll run an airline out from the house to power a sponge filter and provide some surface agitation.
Stocking will be light since it's only 12 gallons; I've got some white cloud minnows that bred in their species tank last summer. I'd also really like to try some variatus platies but it might be a bit on the small side for them.
If I can get the project going I'll start a journal, but for now it's just a pot of water.
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@nabokovfan87 This week a coworker suspected my aquarium of causing a weird smell in the office. Turns out it was another coworker's dog, chewing on a dried beef pizzle. Fish have been the least stinky pet I've ever had.
@Streetwise I think so, but my connection's always a bit spotty so it's hard to tell. Thank you!
I was working and playing out in the yard all day and kept an eye on the sunlight level and water temp in the patio pond planter. My kid started playing in the water and almost immediately fell in, so I had my worries confirmed that it could potentially be hazardous. I'm looking into some kind of barrier or cover that might discourage toddlers and other neighborhood wildlife from entering the water.
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I just got a picture of a molly mouth, for reference:
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I think mollies end up having a wider/flatter mouth than platies as well. o—o
I'm in the process of reintroducing mollies into my community tank. Over the last couple of years I had a bunch and gradually lost them all. One of these days I should really get some platies, they look so fun!
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I've only kept the brown/standard white clouds, but I can confirm they've done fine down to 50°F in my tank the last two winters. I started with six and have four of the original adults, and eight fry from last summer. I'm hoping to try them in a tub this summer.
I've also heard of others keeping rosy red minnows in ponds. In my experience it's hard to get healthy ones (since they're usually sold as feeder fish or bait) so quarantine the heck out of them! I'd really like to try them again because they're pretty and their cave-breeding behavior sounds very interesting, but my previous attempts did not end well.
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What is your oldest piece of decor or your favorite you no longer own?
in General Discussion
Posted
When I came back to fishkeeping six years ago I tried to save money by pulling some of my childhood aquarium supplies out of storage, one of which was a plastic hornwort which I ended up using as an anchor for some java moss. After a few years I couldn't see the plastic plant any more, but I was reminded of its presence by the needles that would constantly break off and drift around the tank. (How lifelike!) I've since completely drained and scrubbed that tank, but somehow I still keep finding those plastic needles.