Minanora
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Posts posted by Minanora
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I love everything you've shared so far. Don't be shy! Sharing with others is always really nice. Pretty sure that's why a lot of us are here. I came here because my IRL companions are not interested in aquatics. I'm enjoying your adventures! Please don't apologise for your joy. ^_^
I look forward to reading more on your projects!
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Just placed the bulk of my plant order. A few are out of stock everywhere so I'll have to get them later. But I have A huge order coming in, hopefully this week. My regulator gets here on Thursday. I really hope I don't kill all of the plants. 😂 Some I had to get tissue cultures... I prefer tissue cultures but they're not ideal for this application. Hopefully they fill in and don't get outcompeted by algae.
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Alright, time for an update!
The shrimp sanctuary is booming. Lots of tiny babies, lots of berried females. I haven't done a water change on this tank in a long while. I think I'll do that tonight. My allergies are keeping me from doing anything else.
The shrimp I moved into the Chili Ruins had their first hatch of babies! So far there are at least 10 babies that have survived with little cover from the Chilis. Another female is still berried and I expect more babies will follow. I haven't changed water on the Ruins tank since December. I just top it off and add small amounts of minerals every few weeks. This mini colony of shrimp has had 0 deaths.
The most surprising update: The shrimp in the 75 are breeding! I have seen two berried females today. At this rate I'll be overrun with shrimp and will have to offload them to the shop. Hooray! I was worried that the water parameters would be too high on GH/KH for them to breed. Currently the shrimp are breeding in there at 77 degrees, 8.0 pH, 14GH, 12KH, <10ppm Nitrate.
Mama shrimp feasting on algae. (another mama on the back wall, but she's blurry)
Still a bit cloudy but better. Tiny shrimp all over the glass.
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On 3/29/2022 at 4:12 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:
For whatever it’s worth I think your 75 looks awesome! I’m a sucker for having some algae on wood & rocks because it looks so natural & nice to my eye
IMO combating algae is all down to nutrient consumption, lighting, and water changes - I had a lot of hair algae in one of my low tech tanks recently and so far (about one month later) it’s doing a lot better. I manually removed as much algae as possible, did a heavy gravel vacuuming combined with several water changes equating to roughly 400% of the tank volume, raised the light by about 6”, capped over the aqua soil with some sand, and added a lot of fast growing stem plants. Kept to regular water changes and light nutrient dosing after each WC and so far it’s a lot better.
For whatever the advice is worth this is probably how I’d approach things with your 75, it’s by no means expert advice it’s just how I’d go about it
-get a good dual stage regulator as well as all the other necessary gear like a drop checker, a good diffuser, good water circulation for the co2 bubbles, etc. I have heard that GLA’s quality has dropped off recently which is unfortunate, fzone regulators are what I hear are the current good bets for the money
-before installing co2, do a heavy gravel vac to remove as much waste as possible and physically remove as much algae as you can, and remove any plants that look like they’re melting to reduce future organic breakdown
-run the light a 6hr photoperiod at first IMO, and probably not at full blast at first if the light is adjustable - maybe 60-80% to start with
-add co2 and dial it in achieve a 1pt ph drop. IMO it’s best to do this over the course of a few days, know your baseline ph and then start with a small amount of co2 and slowly increase it until you achieve a 1pt drop (drop checkers help too) after the co2 has been running for a few hours. Then coincide your light to turn on once the co2 has diffused enough to cause a 1pt drop. Doing this slowly and ramping up the co2 over the course of several days will allow the livestock to adjust easier and it’s better to have too little at first than to have way too much. My 75g has relatively hard water and the co2 runs for 4 hours before the lights switch on, and then turns off 1hr before the lights do for whatever that info is worth - your water chemistry and tank setup may mean your co2 diffusion schedule needs to be different
-get as many plants as you can reasonably afford right off the bat and try to stuff the tank with new healthy plants. Make sure to have a decent number of hardy faster growing stems at the back, as they will soak excess nutrients from the water column and help to outcompete the algae for nutrients
-dose the water column with a good all in one fertilizer. I’ve used NA Thrive for years with excellent results, and have been testing with easy green and achieving good results with that too.
-do regular water changes of 50% every day or two (for the first few weeks; then slowly phase back), and then dose the liquid fertilizer at about 50% of the recommended dose after every WC. What this achieves is that you’re constantly removing algae spores & waste, and resetting the nutrient levels which is important IMO
-once the plants become established and start growing in, you will have to adjust the lighting & nutrients as necessary based on your observations of the tank, and likely increase them slowly over time. It can be tricky to learn the intricacies of getting lighting/fertilization correct in a high tech tank, but you got this and water changes & nutrient level resets are your friend in the meantime
-don’t let the plants get too overgrown, trim & replant as necessary so they dont start to shade themselves/others out and shed too many leaves resulting in more organic breakdown
I hope that helps, there are many ways to achieve a balanced ecosystem but this is just my 2 cents on how I’d go about it. Critters that graze algae are certainly helpful but plants are the heavy lifters in preventing algae by outcompeting it. George Farmer’s advice of “plant heavily from the very beginning to give the plants the best chance at winning their war against algae” is good advice that had always served me well 🙂
Also, if you’re comfortable with it, I’d be happy to mail you some stem plants to add to the tank and we can discuss the particulars privately - I have a couple of species in mind that are absolute weeds and can easily ship you some
This is an epic post of personal experience and guidance. Thank you very much for taking the time to write this up.
I turned the light back on in my 75 this evening. Lots of shrimp working on algae. I DO love some of the algae that is on the biggest piece of wood I have. It's just the wafting mess of extra long poopy stuff that is attached to most of the other things that is driving me mad max. That stuff is at a standstill for now. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.
I'm going with a GLA regulator. They have a lifetime warranty. The Fzone ones are only a year and are rated for a lower working pressure which makes me nervous. I mean, sure, there aren't that many moving parts but I would rather have that warranty that they stand behind for something that will be under pressure. I bought a single stage based on what Roy and I talked about a while ago. I may upgrade to a dual stage if it does dump but I doubt that it will since the temperature will be stable in the cabinet.
I plan to order a trunk of plants over the weekend. I'm picking them much more meticulously this time around. Going to be expensive regardless, but I'm ordering maybe 7 different types of plants this time. Instead of 12-15. I'm narrowing down my species list still. I would love to set up like 7 more tanks to scape with all the options there are! It's so hard to choose. My previous layout was great but I wasn't giving the tank enough ferts, and of course, no CO2. I'm hoping that this time around will be a more stable attempt.
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On 3/30/2022 at 8:39 PM, drewzero1 said:
I use an extension called Dark Reader, it can be set to turn everything dark mode or on/off for certain sites.
Oh. My. GOODNESS! This is so much better. Bless you. I don't know why I never thought to use an extension/addin. Durp.
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I've had the light off on the 75 for two days. Ironic since I just got a new light.
Anyway, I turned it on this evening for a few minutes to check on everyone. Saw many orange shrimp picking away at algae on various surfaces. I need to pull the snails and check on them. They have not moved. I fear for the worst. The light scared two otos. The amano shrimp are out now that there are orange shrimp. They like to hang out with them. I've seen 3 now!
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I'm going to be redoing my 75G in the near future. As frustrating as it is. It's kind of a blessing in disguise. I'm in a similar boat! I have learned a lot since my hair algae invasion. So the next attempt will hopefully reflect my learning. I hope I've learned well. 😂
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Actually I can't tell if that's real wood or not. But still! 😛
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On 3/27/2022 at 3:50 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:
Doin a thing 😄
Once the top shelf is finished (that’s not the final layout in the pics) it’ll hold two 15-20g tanks underneath and up to six 10g’s on top. Planning to consolidate a lot of my smaller tanks down here in the basement for ease of maintenance and to save space upstairs, so this rack will hold some of the existing setups with room for more. And then I already have a 30” wide metal shelving unit that will have a 20tall on the bottom shelf, the Krib Moliwe’s 15g on the center shelf, and probably a few of my nano tanks on top. Then I’ll just be down to a 29g and a 40g left upstairs which will stay where they are 😄
Please. For me, put something under those blocks that are touching your lovely wood floors. I just can't. Ouch.
I do love that though. I wish my DH would let me build a rack for some 10G tanks.
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Found a bunch of the orange shrimp in the 75.... They're living inside the intake sponge. I have no idea how I'm going to clean it with them living in there. Also I've dropped my feedings down to 1 time a day in the 75. So the swordtails and the guppies are eating the algae. Bright green poops! I dig it. They can keep eating algae. There's plenty of it.
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The shrimp I put in the 75. I see a max of 6 at a time. I saw one corpse two days ago. Failed molt. But I've seen molts scattered around.
So far my attempts to help combat the hair algae with shrimp and snails is not a huge success. The snails have moved all of 1 inch in the last few days. I think the baby swordtails are bothering them too much.
I ordered my tank for my co2 project. I bought a diffuser. I'm still hashing out my regulator choice. I've decided to get a gla regulator but I'm not sure which one I want. It's the spendy part of the project so I want to be 100% happy with it.
I know I bought a new tank but my local airgas store fills tanks as well as does exchanges. So I will have my tank filled with beverage grade CO2. I do this with my beer gas as well.
I did get a fluval plant 3.0 for the 75. Though I was expecting to buy one later this year... I got it for a good price so I had to jump on it.
Before
After
And yeah I know all my moss is gone and there's lots of hair algae. Working on it. It's driving me crazy.
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On 3/25/2022 at 9:12 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:
Thank you for taking the time to explain this in more detail to me! I think I better understand now. You certainly raise a number of interesting questions! There is a lot to think about there with surface killing, or ballast killing. Residue. Time of contact vs. efficacy of kill. Does it need to be chemically neutralized after. And then there is the issue of compliance (impinging upon convenience in America can be dramatized as "tyranny" - silly, but it happens all the time!).
Given the number of unknowns inherent with your suggestion, may I offer an unsolicited suggestion? You might try contacting a lab that researches invasive mussels rather than an agency. They might either have insights into the answers to your questions (which I do not even pretend to have), or be interested in exploring them. Once those questions become known, then agencies would be more likely to be responsive, I suspect. Just a thought. If you want to try that route, and are having trouble identifying a lab, DM me and I'd be happy to try to help in your search.
I'm sorry I did misspeak though, I DID suggest using it in lakes. I didn't read my own content thoroughly... Embarrassing. I was running on fumes last night. I should have been asleep but I was waiting for my small human to vomit, cry, need water, or otherwise wake me up, again.
I think you have a good idea there for reaching out to a lab. I had not thought of this! Hmm, I have some ideas of where to start!
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On 3/25/2022 at 8:53 AM, lefty o said:
sleepless rantings can be entertaining!🤪
Indeed. I did wake up and read most of my post and totally didn't read the part where I tried to break the environment with mass die-off. I honestly thought, "there's no way I would say that, that's silly and I know better." Apparently not when it's midnight and I've had a total of 16ish hours of sleep over the week.
I added 6 hours of, mostly uninterrupted, sleep this morning so I feel okay. Hopefully I can get 8 hours soon. My little has been making it impossible to get a full nights sleep.
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Good lord my original post is a mess. I did talk about ridding waterways of mussels. Sheesus. This is why I should sleep at midnight instead of posting ridiculous ideas. 🤣
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@OnlyGenusCaps I completely agree with you. I was not suggesting that we use it to rid entire lakes of mussels. (EDIT: *PFFFF* Yes I did) It could make it possible to sterilize boats, ballast tanks, live wells, etc. It would be pretty amazing to be able to stop hitchhikers with an organic compound. It could also be used inside barges, fresh water intakes for motors that are cooled with lake water and not rust or corrode equipment. It could possibly shorten quarantine for boats that have been on infected bodies of water. Even floaties, lifejackets, cozies, towels, carpets etc could be soaked with it and not get damaged.
The best way to manage them is by preventing them from moving, of course. But being able to 100% be sure your vessel and equipment is mussel free would be great to help encourage people to prevent hitchhikers. Ballast tanks being a likely place for them to hide. With lake Havasu, lake Pleasant, and lake Mead all being infected and destination watersport lakes, it would be great to prevent them from spreading into lake Powell. With the popularity of wakesurfing and wakeboarding fueling boats to have more and more ballast it is difficult to get everything dry.
It could help people be less fearful of visiting these infected lakes as well.
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Nice. Pretty sweet. Header looks good. Why the fire blocks in such a small space? I've only ever spanned studs for windows, doors and actual fire blocks in larger spaces (if not required by permit). Just makes it harder to run wire later if you close up the walls. But I'm just curious. I'm happy to learn.
I'm not a contractor, just a person who builds stuff where I can.
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I've never had seed shrimp or copepods eat snail eggs either. I imagine your eggs hatched and you just didn't notice. often the pond snails, bladder snails, ramshorn and mini ramshorn just hatch out without much inbetween.
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Probably copepods. I often have them even in "virgin" tanks. Nature finds a way.
I wouldn't be worried. You can add micro predators or any fish really. They'll eat 'em. However, they won't harm snails or their eggs.
I've never had a fish eat snail eggs. For me, sadly.
I mean, never. Goldfish, killifish, rams, guppies, mollies, swordtails, rasboras, danios, shrimp... none have eaten snail eggs.
Plecos and loaches as well. Corydoras. They don't eat 'em. >.> "No planaria" however.... that kills all the snails ime.
If you lived near me, I'd give you ramshorn and bladder snails for free. Please, take them. Lol
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Saw the first dead shrimp in the 75G. I saw a bunch of molts today. The dead one I saw had the white ring of death. Failed molt. That tank has like the highest GH/KH in the lot. So that's out. He must have just been too shocked. Bummer.
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I should give some context to those who are not mussel wise. If you have a boat or even a paddle board or other floatable that goes to a lake. You're responsible for protecting our water from invasive mussels.
You know how you get random snails on plants? Then they blow up? Well, mussels are like that but millions of dollars more expensive. Sometimes billions. These mussels can live outside of water like snail eggs, and hitchhike from one body of water to another. They can destroy recreation and municipal water supplies. They clog up pipes, sink docks, ruin propellers, motors, you name it. They can live in your life jackets, floaties, empty bottles/cans. For 30+ days.
If you have been to a lake or river that has quagga or zebra mussels. Do your part. Clean, drained, and dry. Before you go to any other body of water with those toys. Ballast included. Don't surf or wakeboard without knowing your impact. You could infect a whole lake with one boat.
Do your research. "Don't move a mussel". Look it up. Be mussel aware.
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GH on my co-op test strips is impossible to read on my tests. Of course my GH is like.... 400 out of the tap right now and is going to get even worse by the week. We're struggling with local municipal well draws so we're pulling up liquid rock and it's not even summer yet.
Even My RO water is at like 60 TDS. Even with 4 stage. 😞 I can't filter efficiently without wasting water so this is life for me.
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Alright Fam,
I'm a class 1 mussel inspector for two of my local lake ramps. I have it out for Zebra and Quagga mussels.
However, as a person who keeps fish. I have had experience with Betel Nut Palm extract, aka, "No Planaria".
COULD THIS KILL MUSSELS!?
I have no access to invasive mussels to test this. Does anyone?
Could we help rid our smaller bodies of water and water infrastructure of mussels with this organic solution?( redacted due to being posted while sleep deprived: Maybe it would work, but it could also kill a lot of other things and create a huge ammonia spike, just like in an aquarium). I have reached out to our local water quality team and the EPA and gotten no response.We need to protect our waterways. Let's do our best to fight the spread of zebra and quagga mussels.
This is a really big deal. Someone should pin this. I'm not being silly
. If we can find a way to rid bodies of water of these mussels, without killing fish and native species; we need to act.(redacted because I was sleepy and that's a great idea, but it would not work without harming a lot of other things in the lake)🤦🏻♀️Now that it's morning time; I want to update this. IF it did kill mussels: We could use the extract on boats and other items and equipment that hold water and create an environment that could host hitchhikers.
These mussels are a HUGE deal and everyone needs to be educated. If you have a boat, you're responsible for keeping invasive mussels out of our lakes and waterways. If you're interested in learning about the ways to stop the spread of invasive mussels, the following links are great resources.
https://fws.gov/story/clean-drain-dry
https://stopaquatichitchhikers.org/
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On 3/18/2022 at 11:08 AM, Lizzyduff said:
How did your snails do? I suppose I could pick them all out and put them in a different tank for a while. Nuke this one, then put them back later... 🤔
So I had a hydra outbreak in what was supposed to be my shrimp tank. I got that "No Planaria". It worked great!
Then I got hydra in my 75G that had a huge population of snails. I used no planaria. no more hydra, then, bonus, kinda, no more snails. It kills snails.
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I love your passion for variety. You could pick up a sony a7 and do some stellar video. The adapters for lenses is unparalleled for that generation of DSLR. The tracking is great.
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Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted
Okay. Today was the day! The 75 has been replanted! I thought it would take me like two hours. WRONG. My husband came home and I legit said "you're home early! What's the occasion?" He replied, "It's 5:30..." O.O' Dude.... I stood over that tank for 6 HOURS!
So it got a black background, pulled out wads of hair algae and staghorn algae. Added 3 different types of java fern, some new rotala, star grass, more S. Repens, two different types of hair grass, Hygrophila pinnatifida, a new crypt species that I had to get as a tissue culture, and a new moss.
Before:
After:
After some melt I hope things start to fill in. I've got the CO2 tank filled and waiting for the regulator that comes tomorrow. I'll slowly start up the CO2. Not using a drop checker or anything fancy. Going to follow the advice from @Cory surrounding low and slow, and visual cues. Great advice from the members stream last week. Thank you again, Cory!
Did a 30% water change with the replanting. Putting that background on with the tank against the wall was a PITA. My arms were just barely long enough to squish out all the air bubbles. Can't be sure I got them all because of the mass of algae on the wall though. Lol! I always wondered why people used the razor blade scrapers and stuff. I get it now! The hair algae fills the magfloat like a ladies hair brush!