Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    488

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics

  1. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Don’t be embarrassed, it is a great question. A few of my readings change very quickly too. Five seconds is fast though.
  2. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I somehow missed the part about not wanting to use a Ich-X because you wanted to do something natural. If you don’t have plants, I’ve heard of people beating Ich with only salt, but I don’t have any first hand experience doing it. I had no issues out of the Ich-X staining anything long term. But I don’t have that stone. It did discolor my silicone in one tank, but it did eventually go away. I also wiped the silicone down with a sponge afterwards. If you are set against the Ich-x (which works) I would do some real research on using salt. Maybe someone on the forum can walk you through that.
  3. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Cory once told me on this forum or on the Facebook group that he wouldn’t raise temperature to treat Ich. He says the trade off of stress to only speed up the process isn’t worth it. Ive treated Ich twice. Once when I accidentally left the heater unplugged and once with a mew fish that I should have quarantined. The first time I turned up the heat and had no losses. The second time I did not turn up the heat and the Ich was gone within a few days with no losses. The second time was quicker, but the Ich was found quickly and I had the meds on hand. I won’t turn the heat up again when using Ich-X.
  4. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I get 300 at the one minute mark and within a few seconds my GH begins to turn pink. I think my water is just super hard.
  5. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    My understanding with Jill stream loaches is that you need one, three, or more in a tank. One in the 16 should be ok (I think). Otos prefer to be in schools and it is generally recommended that they be kept in schools of six or more. You would probably have to work hard to keep them fed. I have heard of hill streams eating pellets too. Check out Irene’s video.
  6. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Having an established tank is half the battle. How long has your tank been set up?
  7. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Update! Its been a few days (almost a week) since I “reset” my tank lighting and fertilizer. I dosed Easy Green every day until Nitrates were around 20 ppm. I’ve tested my water every day since (Friday) and nitrates steadily climbed. Yesterday and this morning they are reading above 25ppm. During the extended fasting my Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus became very gnarly. The leaves began to fall off, the plant began to twist, and I started seeing black beard algae. That was the first sign that it was time to stop fasting. Three days with nitrates above 20ppm and I am getting large regular growth again. Since the nitrates are staying elevated and the plants are bouncing back, I decided to increase my light intensity by 5 degrees to 40%. I am hoping the increased intensity will aid in the Pogostemon bouncing back. I will also watch my slow growing plants to make sure they are not beginning to grow black beard algae. No water change this weekend. That puts me over ten days without a water change, but if the nitrates remain elevated I’ll probably do one sometime this week. I am hoping the plants consume enough nitrates that I don’t have to. I will probably feed a little less, but I am afraid to do so because I have a ton of Molly fry right now. I am considering buying some more plants, but I’m not sure which column feeders to get right now. I’m thinking the bba could be because of the frequent water changes, and letting the water sit for a while may help that battle.
  8. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Cory mentioned this in a recent livestream. You just need to submerge the head and swish it around. If you can put it and the straw in the water you can pump it a few times to dislodge any dried minerals. It is because Easy Green is water based and when the water evaporates it can leave behind the minerals, clogging the pump.
  9. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I add dechlorinator to my water before I add it to the tank. You can add directly to tank before adding water if preferred.
  10. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I keep a glass cover on my 75 gallon and I keep it pretty full. So, I get green algae on my lids too. When I notice it has started to take over I take the lids off after a water change and scrape it off with a plastic putty knife that I use on my tank. I don’t know of a way to keep it from happening, but I don’t believe it hurts anything until it starts to cover the light.
  11. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Ok, I am changing my approach to the algae issues in my 75 gallon. The past few streams Cory has indicated that he approaches algae very differently than how I have learned online. I would love to see an in-depth video on balancing a tank, but in the past couple of streams he has opened my eyes up to some of the problems I am experiencing. So I’m changing it up! This week I have reset my lights to 10 hours. I have 30 minutes ramp up and ramp down leaving 9 hours of “full” light. Full light will continue to be set at 35% intensity until I see a need in the tank to increase it. I also started dosing 4 pumps of Easy Green each day trying to raise my nitrates back to 20 ppm. I’ve been around 10 ppm for a while, and although the green spot algae disappeared the black beard has kind of hung on. Once I get my 75 gallon used to the light period and the fertilizer schedule I note what algae’s I see and devise a plan of attack from there. It’s really just a reset, but I am more knowledgeable than I was the first time I started this tank.
  12. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    There are usually a cherry shrimp on mine. I don’t see my snails on it as often, but I’ve never had trouble with shells. Maybe they visit it at night, or I guess it absorbing over time into the water can help with that. And maybe even with the plants. I try to put two in every week.
  13. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I totally understand Cory. I was more laughing it off because I realized you featured it and it’s gone. Haha. I can get them somewhere else, but I prefer to support my local shops and then you when I need something. I’ll still be ordering Easy Green soon enough. Haha.
  14. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I’ve been buying the Zoo Med Nano Banquet blocks for a while now from the Co-Op. I dropped my last two in my tank yesterday, and was surprised to find it Sold Out on the website. Then I remembered Cory featured it in a recent video. LoL. It is awesome for anyone with shrimp and snails in a community tank. I just wish I could convince me of my local stores to carry it.
  15. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Quick Update I spoke with Greg Sage (Select Aquatics) by email and he said it would be fine to do a water change. The meds have already done what they are going to do. I checked and I’m still reading .5 ppm on the ammonia and 10 on the nitrates. This evening I will probably go ahead and do a 50% water change to cut the ammonia, and dose Prime for 100% of the tank. I have until late this evening due the Prime that ai added last night to protect my tank’s inhabitants. I’m not sure if this breaks any rules, but so highly recommend Select Aquatics if you are going to dose Levamisole. I was a little worried reading up in it, but Greg’s kit is amazing and made dosing the med so much easier.
  16. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Thank @Fishdude! You are right, and ultimately that is why I decided to get rid of the stems. Their high light requirements do not work for me with the low light plants. I’m either producing algae in my low lights or starving the high light plants. It’s hard to find balance there. Maybe one day I figure that out, but for now I’m sticking with my Crypts and anubias. The Amazon Swords... I’m still working out. Haha. Mine are eating a ton of root tabs, and I’m still getting some algae on them. I’m not sure if it’s due to an abundance of light at the surface or if it’s because they aren’t getting enough light.
  17. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Today is two days after dosing Levamisole and it looks like my cycle is struggling in the community tank. I’ve been testing the new Aquarium Co-Op test strips, and my nitrates have been dropping this week. Today they looked like they were under 10 ppm so I grabbed my ammonia test strips and sure enough I had .5 ppm ammonia in the tank. This may be the first time I’ve found ammonia since I set the tank up almost a year ago. I checked ammonia and nitrates using my Master Test Kit. Ammonia was clearly .5 ppm and Nitrates looked like 10 ppm. I dosed Prime to detoxify the ammonia and I’m hoping my beneficial bacteria bounce back. I may have to water change before Saturday... and change more than the 25% I had planned to change as part of the treatment if not.
  18. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Sure fire way to determine if it’s Sag or Val, move it. If it melts back it’s Val. 🤣 About the light. It may be difficult to balance. Are those crypts to the left and a sword in the back? How intense is your lighting currently? I know the sword prefers higher light (I have a few struggling with my low light setting). You might try turning it up some, but nothing drastic.
  19. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    And I could still go valisneria. Haha. If it was labeled dwarf sag I believe it could be dwarf sag. But had I seen it without that info I might have called it val. I have some plants in my tank that I am waiting for them to grow out because I’m not sure which they are. Haha. I love this forum for the very reasons Daniel mentioned. It’s a great community with no/little judgment and a lot of people willing to help.
  20. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    Agreeing with @Daniel it is hard for me to tell some of my dwarf sag from my val. Dwarf sag can get pretty tall under low light. The stem plant to the right in the pic does look like Rotalla Indica or something similar. It also appears to be struggling with light. I didn’t know that I needed to turn my lights down, and ended up with a big Black Beard Algae outbreak. So I’ve got my lights on 35% intensity and all of my rotalla indica melted away. It looked similar to that before I gave up and tossed it.
  21. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    No bubbles today. Darndest thing I’ve ever seen.
  22. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    @Coryposted a members only message over on YouTube too. The movement is growing. Haha
  23. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I’ve read that, and I’ve read too much aeration... oh and too much protein in their diet. Haha. I’m not sure that I’ll ever know. What I do know is that it wasn’t temperature change. I used an infrared thermometer to make sure the large water change was within a degree of the water in the tank, and I have a temperature controller that allow me to see the temp. I checked it that night and was proud that I changed 50% of the water without a rise or fall in temp (It’s only the second time I’ve done such a large water change in this tank). He still has the bubbles. I’ve read they go away after a couple of days. Hopefully there are no more issues. I haven’t found anything that says it is dangerous, but I’ll be looking for him the next few days. I’ll keep you posted.
  24. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    @ColuI’ll have to research gas bubble disease. I see a lot of conflicting info. I did do a large water change this weekend before dosing the Levamisole, but the temp was close. I used a thermometer.
  25. Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics
    I really enjoyed this thread, we should keep it going.
×
×
  • Create New...