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Steph’s Fish and Plants

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Everything posted by Steph’s Fish and Plants

  1. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I’ll certainly admit that UGFs are very much out of style atm (I don’t think we even sell them at my LFS) and while all the above is very much valid, I do think that one other disadvantage (which credit to Cory for bringing this up in a livestream) is that most UGFs are one size fits one size, there’s no one size fits all UGF that is functional at the same capacity as what you’d expect. They’re not upgradable if you get a bigger tank, whereas other filters you can always run smaller filters on bigger tanks in conjunction, and use that to help quicken the cycle with needed. It’s not necessarily a con that you can’t use it for the cycle, but more so lacking a perk which canisters, HOBs, and sponges all have. I did consider using a RFUGF for my saltwater mantis tank build but ultimately went a different direction. Ultimately, I think that the turnoff for me for UGFs is the lack of upgradability, and I think that goes for a lot of people in the hobby right now, most people end up moving or upgrading or swapping tanks a lot more frequently and UGFs make that more complicated than other filter styles that can run on a wider variety of tank shapes and sizes.
  2. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Lookin good! I miss when I had my pogostemon from the coop really growing, maybe I’ll have to order some more…. great plant and you will not be disappointed, keep those trimmings going!
  3. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Some smaller updates, I did end up getting 3 more CPDs yesterday and they’re so smol 😭 so I’ll be feeding lots of frozen and live foods to help grow them up, and get the adults spawning. I got my pink crypt flamingo from the coop and got it planted in the easy planter, however I Did take it out of the rock wool and planted it in eco complete in the pot, I’m excited to see how that goes. 2 easy planters in a 20 long does take up quite a bit of space tho 😅. The crypt is melting back hard but I’m hoping 🤞🏻 It comes back for me. Also, I got some great photos of my apisto hongsloi so I had to share. I’m going to try and find him a girlfriend this summer 🤞🏻
  4. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    My dorm itself had no rules on how many tanks, just couldn’t be over 10 gallons (oops I broke that 😅) my current apartment no limits on how many, just that they can’t be over 20 gallons, and nothing about no salt or fresh or whatever.
  5. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I’d call it about a 2 reading, which is pretty low. If your Kh coming out of your tap is a 7 then I’d just do a few water changes and bring that Kh up slowly, no need to dose anything.
  6. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    It’ll definitely be big enough for some clowns and nems long term. Now, I’ve been researching saltwater for over a year and a half, and I’ve had a tank running since mid January this year, so I’ve got a bit of knowledge/experience but I’m still very much a noob. That being said, I’ve seen a lot of other reefers struggle with anemones, especially early on, so i would recommend getting the tank really established and getting a lot of other corals under your belt. Anemones are technically an invert, not a coral, but have very specific light requirements. The tuna blues I’ve heard good things about, but I have no idea what you’d need to set them to (I use an AI prime, and a much smaller tank). If you’re not already, I’d highly recommend getting onto the ReeftoReef forum, since it is saltwater focused and been around over a decade, so there’s a Ton of good info on there and it’s really well organized. I’d also recommend checking out Saltwateraquariumdotcom on YouTube and BulkReefSupply on YouTube as they have a Ton of good info for beginner reefers. Maintenance wise salt is very similar to fresh, but there’s a lot more chemicals to keep track of and a lot more problems that can occur. good luck and enjoy the build!
  7. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I wouldn’t be too worried unless you start seeing some fin nipping among them. You could try adding more line of slight blocks, aka plants decor etc. so when they do start chasing it shortens how long the chasing is.
  8. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    With mine it seems to be random, some days they’ll be super active and others they’ll be super shy. I currently have a group of 5 in my 20 long (I’m about to get more in the next few days). That being said, I had a group of 6 Glo lite danios that were shy in a heavily planted 10 with 1 betta, and I just added 3 more on Monday (so now 9 total) and theyre starting to come out more.
  9. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    So I technically did all this Monday 😅 I waterchanged my three tanks, threw out a ton of duckweed, got some credit for some subwassertang at my LFS, set up 2 new breeding projects, started a round of brine, glued some coral frags back down, added new fish to my tank, and cleaned my glass. Doesn’t sound like a lot but took me about 6 hours 😂 . I had to catch-up from being on a vacation haha.
  10. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Alrighty, so I accidentally took a hiatus from this forum because college is Busy, so here’s gonna be quite the update. I’ve lost a few fish randomly here and there, so rn I’ve got 5 CPDs, 4 gertrudae rainbows, 6 habrosus corydoras, 2 super red plecos (1 male 1 female) and an apisto hongsloi male in my 20 long. My 10 gallon is exploding with shrimp, has 9 Glo lite danios (added 3 more yesterday) my betta Drogo, and 2 stiphodon gobies. My saltwater tank is doing well, I have a purple spot mantis shrimp and lots of corals. Got a pink crypt flamingo coming in the mail from the CoOp, and about 10 minutes after I got the shipping notification I realized I forgot intake sponges 🤦🏼‍♀️ So I’ll be ordering those and the ziss brine Hatcher probably. In addition to the Glo lite danios I also got some S Repens for the first time and a red crypt wendtii from my LFS on Monday. Today or tomorrow I’ll probably grab a few more CPDs. Monday I also isolated a pair of my CPDs and my gertrudaes into breeder boxes with subwassertang to try and get them to spawn. I’ve had CPDs spawn once for me in the past right before I went on a 3 week vacation and lost the fry while I was gone. Since then I’ve added an apisto and haven’t seen any fry since, so I’m gonna try with the breeder boxes again. woo, alright I think that about sums it up at least for now 😅
  11. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Thanks for the help @Danielbut I’m actually trying to change the name of a post on a different forum than this one 😅😅 sorry it’s complicated lol
  12. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Thanks for the tip @Garren I’m trying to find it 😅
  13. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I work at my local fish store and the day before we got the notification we had just sold out of and ordered more moss balls. When the moss balls arrive we aren’t gonna put them on the floor, I’m not sure what my managers have planned but it’ll be good for sure. I think I’ve had probably 15 people in just 2 days asking for moss balls. It’s crazy how popular those things are. We have been told to educate those asking about them as best we can about the situation and that it is affecting all moss balls, not just ones from our store.
  14. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Yes I am 😁😁😁 yup that was probably my thread. I ended up getting a different species than the title tho but idk how to change it 😅
  15. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Thank you! I’ll go check them out 😁
  16. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Fiddler crabs require brackish water to survive, so they wouldn’t be a good species for a freshwater tank with freshwater fish. A brackish tank yes. But not fresh. There are true freshwater species of crabs such as vampire crabs. With crabs it’s important to have shallow tanks with a land portion for them to live in along with a water portion. At least with vampire crabs they spend most of their time in the land portion. You could do crabs in that tank but you’ll need to do some modifications to it. Also there’s no guarantee the barbs won’t pick on them when they’re in the water portion.
  17. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I’m in the same boat with a few of y’all as far as favorite plants go. I too became enamored with the Crinum thanks to Cory and the 800 gallon; so I have one myself now (second attempt, I moved the first one around too much) and it’s been going strong. Rn it’s covered in black short hair like algae (black beard? I’m unsure) so I’m working on that, but I’ve got it in one of the coop easy planters and couldn’t be more thrilled with how it looks in my scape. now my second favorite would have to be bucephalandra because there’s endless varieties and it’s got cool colors and leaf shapes and care is similar to that of Anubias
  18. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I’ve used colored gravel with no issues for years. I think rinsing it before putting it in the aquarium is a good idea to get rid of any dusts or anything from the factory, and perhaps there are toxins on it that got rinsed off. But at the end of the day, as long as stuff is rinsed I think it’s fine. Same with decor. I do think that @ChefConfitbrings up a good point about gravel source. Mines always been from a pet store and designed for aquariums, so it’s definitely possible that ones from other sources are toxic.
  19. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Here’s why I think you’re doing way more work than you need. The cycle is supposed to have nitrites at one point, and that’s ok. The snails and shrimp will be fine with how low that is. In my opinion, all the water changes are just slowing the cycle down, because the bacteria isn’t growing to consume the nitrite if you’re changing it out. 1ppm is barely toxic and the bacteria colony will grow and consume it, which is the point of the initial cycle period. Now, there is an issue with your water but not with the cycle. It’s your Kh, or carbonate hardness. Ideally you want it at 3 or higher because below 3 it’s gonna crash your pH. If your pH drops below 6.4, the ammonia instantly converts to ammonium and isn’t consumed by the bacteria in the cycle. Ammonium, thankfully, isn’t toxic to fish, but the problem is that the longer the pH stays low, the more bacteria dies off without a food source. Since you have hard water, when you do a water change the pH will rise again, and will convert all the ammonium back to toxic ammonia, but now it’ll be at a very high level and you won’t have the necessary amount of bacteria to process it fast enough. So you need to buffer your Kh up. I’ve used crushed coral and seachem alkaline buffer, both with success. Crushed coral is set it and forget it whereas alkaline buffer requires testing and dosing and then testing again with each water change. So, pick your Kh buffer and buffer your water up to at least 3, then don’t do anything for a few days and you should see the nitrite go away on its own.
  20. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    I moved 5 times in one year with 3 fish tanks, a 20 a 10 and a 5. In total it would take the better part of a day to tear down all three and get them ready for the move, and then the rest of the day to get it set back up. The biggest things to consider when it comes to the 75 is gonna be how long it’s gonna take to drain and then fill at the new place, how easy it will be to catch out all the fish, having several buckets ready to separate the fish so you don’t have too many in one bucket, and then being able to carry the 75. 75 gallon tanks brand new and completely empty take 2 people to move usually. Moving one that’s already been setup means you’ll have ~70lbs of substrate in the bottom, and hopefully you take out all the rest of the decor. It is possible to move it once it’s been setup but it will either be the same or harder to move than the tanks you have now. If you stick with the nanos, try and move each on a separate day if possible. I’ve moved everything (including all my own stuff) all on the same day and I’ve done it slowly over time with each tank going on a separate day, and separating them was MUCH easier and I was able to get them fully set back up the same day. As far as rhe move itself, regardless of which path you go, I suggest getting some USB or battery powered air pumps and sponge filters for the car ride for your fish. I’d also toss your filter media in as well if you don’t normally use the sponge filters (use the sponge filters roughly a week before the move so they’ve got some bacteria). This way you can keep the water oxygenated and somewhat filtered in the buckets with the fish while moving. Doing that will improve your chances of survival of all your fish. I was able to move with 2 days notice 18 hours without a tank and only lost 3 rummynose tetras out of 15 fish by doing this. Good luck with your move 😁
  21. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Yeah there are 😂 just how I like em 😁. I do need to trim back the water sprite in the 10 gallon tho it’s getting a wee bit crazy 😅
  22. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    It depends on the type of filter media Youre referring to. I see filter cartridges with carbon that you replace monthly as (mostly) a scam. There’s a time and place to use them. The fine floss is nice for cleaning out particles, and carbon can be beneficial. But you don’t need to always use it in a freshwater tank. The constant replacing of the cartridge means that you’re constantly throwing away at least some of your bacteria as well. Now other media’s like sponge and ceramic media’s that don’t do any chemical filtration, that are just surfaces for bacteria to grow on and take particles out of the water, I don’t believe those to be a scam since it’s a one time purchase and that media will likely last the entire time you’re in the hobby.
  23. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Can’t believe how much progress there’s been! Lookin good. That stain is gorgeous too wow
  24. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Wow can’t believe how long it’s been it feels like just yesterday was the start of this thread 🤯 congrats on your success thus far. They’re absolutely adorable! And such a good size now wow
  25. Steph’s Fish and Plants
    Hi guys, So my LFS just got in some Desert Gobies and I want to get them but I wanna know what I’m getting into before getting them, but I have yet to find any good info online. Has anyone cared for these before and can elaborate or maybe point me toward a source for some good information? thanks 😊
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