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Bill

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Everything posted by Bill

  1. Bill
    Thanks @Daniel and @s1_! You guys are right, I didn't look closely enough at the top photo, thinking I wouldn't be able to see the tubes... the smaller one is definitely the male, and has been behaving that way all along. I'm no longer going to trust the size, hump on the head, or body shape!
  2. Bill
    Would someone venture a guess as to which is the male and which is the female? The one I thought was male is on the left in pic 1, the right in pic 2, and alone in the other pic. I thought so because he's a little larger and has more of a hump on his head. You can't tell from these pics, but I thought he had a little rounder body versus the other being more angular. I didn't get a look at their breeding tubes. I didn't see the first spawn, but when I noticed the eggs, the larger one was doing most of the "egg care" and the other one was the most aggressive, like attacking the vac when it was placed in the tank for cleaning. They both would do that, but the smaller one would do it 70 percent of the time, and the larger one would stay near the fry. So I started thinking the larger one was the female. I moved them to a breeding tank exactly a week ago and put a breeding cone in two days ago, and right now they're spawning on it. I'm keeping my distance, so I can't tell which one is doing what. The other thing is that just yesterday the larger one stopped taking food. He (she?) seemed fine, but for 2 days just wasn't interested in food ... I'm starting to think that may be the female. If they are full of eggs to they eat less?
  3. Bill
    I've used Seachem Phosguard before in my canister filters, and a really good LFS said they use them in all their tanks. If you don't have enough room just remove enough to fit it, it's a relatively small packet. Look at the instructions, I think they say to remove it in a few days and recheck the phosphate level.
  4. Bill
    Also, I have had API test solutions that seemed slightly off. I compared to the tap water and determined some readings were registering high, for example, ammonia that was really zero showed as 0.25. This also happened with an API phosphate test.
  5. Bill
    Did you test your tap water? Ben Ochart did a YouTube video on this. His tap water parameters changed, and had a higher than before nitrate level out of the tap.
  6. Bill
    I really don't know, but offhand I wouldn't trust that unless I read it in a scientific paper. I have read that it can survive relatively long periods of time, weeks to months, without a food source as long as it's has moving water an oxygen, like in your running quarantine tank. And you can always sprinkle some fish food in every few days.
  7. Bill
    If I could fit 4' length, I'd do a 75. If I had to do a 3' length, I prefer a 53 (not always easy to find) over a 65, although 65 gallons are OK. That's exactly what I did in my living room because I could not fit 4' length. I don't like 4' length tanks being only 12" front to back, I prefer 18". I'm OK with 30 or less being 12" front to back.
  8. Bill
    For about the same price I got a Smart Pond pump at lowes, some tubing, and a Upetools gravel vac on amazon. I really think that combination beats the python system for several reasons. I really like the gravel vac. For vacuuming, I can use the that into a 5 gallon bucket. I can either dump the bucket (if I have too much junk that I don't want going into the sink), or I can vac into the bucket while pumping it into the sink. Or pump water directly to the sink if I just want a water change. When filling, I put a 5 gallon bucket in the sink, get the water to the right temp and treat it with prime, then pump it into the tank.
  9. Bill
    I built several of these out of 2x4 and 1x6 (top and bottom shelves) for various sizes. This is a 29 gallon. I have these in my office, what I really wanted to build for my living room was the rustic stand shown below it out of cedar (I don't recall where I found the image. I could see one of@Streetwise tanks on one of those).
  10. Bill
  11. Bill
    What size tank would you like to start with?
  12. Bill
    Welcome, it's obvious that you love plants, and aesthetics because it looks great. I can't offer any suggestions because getting to be OK with plants is on my todo list. I have a rimless cube (14 gallon) right next to my desk and I'd love it to look like that! Good luck.
  13. Bill
    And do you have something against a big black asymmetrical Tidal 55 hanging on the back of your 20 gallon? LOL.
  14. Bill
    Since it doesn't look that big, seems the best way to optimize both mechanical and bio filtration would be to fill the chamber with course/medium foam as @Cory did with a HOB in one of his videos.
  15. Bill
    @RobertE, I'm really interested in this, and what works for you because I may have a similar problem. A new pair of koi spawned in my quarantine tank, raised the fry, and luckily everything worked the first time. But I also have a pair that was in a community tank. For two spawns I was not in a position to do anything, and the cloud of free swimming fry disappeared overnight both times. I assumed the other fish in the tank ate them. Next spawn, I moved all the other fish out of the tank. Parents seemed to be raising them, and they even started eating baby brine shrimp and Hikari first bites. This was a small spawn, and slowly they started disappearing. I had a gravel bottom (worst size possible for trapping fry), so I wasn't sure how many died that way. Every instance I observed the parents (both male and female) collecting fry in their mouths it was to spit them back out with the group. Last time I saw like 20 left when I went to sleep, and the next morning they were all gone. I removed the gravel after that and they spawned again (very small spawn maybe 50), but the same thing happened again. Only this time it took them longer to go free swimming, and they were gone two days after that. Again, I saw the parents collecting them and spitting them out, so either they just died, or they ate them when I wasn't looking, but it wasn't because they laid a new batch of eggs. Did you observe yours taking care of the fry (spitting them out) and then suddenly eating them? Next time they spawn I'm going to pull the eggs so that I can determine if they're dying on their own or not.
  16. Bill
    Posted a while ago on the same topic.
  17. Bill
    I had a 17kw generac installed about 6 years ago. Mine goes down for 5 seconds, then cuts over. Best 7K I've spent. I do need a UPS for my Mac Pro and FIOS box though, then I won't even notice! Still haven't gotten around to that.
  18. Bill
    I have a utility in my basement right next to my office where I have 5 tanks. It's been there for years, I didn't install it for this purpose, but it works great and keeps up with all the water changes, dumping 5 gallon buckets at a time it drains pretty quick. Here is what it looks like.
  19. Bill
    @RobertE are you saying that you see wiggling, then it just stops, with no sign of starting to free swim (like briefly lifting off whatever they are on)? I've only been through a couple of spawns, and I have given them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp, but only when they started to lift up and swim, not while they were still wiggling. I assume in that state they still have the yolk sack.
  20. Bill
    Built new stand, setup breeding tank for the koi angels that spawned in my quarantine tank. Had two cycled coop sponge filters ready. The 230 fry are doing well alone in the 20 gallon quarantine tank for a while, growing fast on coop brine shrimp. Big thanks to @Brian Scott for his advice!
  21. Bill
    Is this a newly cycled tank? I've read from more than one source that neon tetras are pretty sensitive and need a mature tank that's been running for several months with good filtration. Not just zero ammonia and nitrites, but also bacteria free water column. If it is a new tank, I'd probably use the method that Dave from aquariumscience.org uses. It's under the Cycling chapter, section titled "What I do". He claims you can get clear bacteria free water in 6 weeks using that method. It will cycle in about a week, but he continues for about 6 weeks. I've never done that, but I did use his suggestion to use Black Kow as innoculate and I cycled a tank in 9 days. Good luck!
  22. Bill
    Replaced the buzzing / rattling Sunsun 304 with a Fluval 407 on my 53 gallon display tank. After a lot of troubleshooting, couldn't take it anymore. Loved the capacity for bio media in the Sunsun, but the flow was actually a bit too strong which forced me to use the spray bar (I prefer the input jet jet). The fluval has adjustable flow. So nice hearing trickling water instead of buzzing. I was unable to fit one full tray of bio media from the Sunsun into the 407, so I put a spare Tidal 55 HOB on the tank with the extra media. Once the large sponge in the 407 builds up some beneficial bacteria I'll be able to pull the HOB off anytime I need a seeded filter to setup a new tank. Also strapped the power strip up (meant to do that 3 months ago!) and installed an Inkbird controller so I can sleep easier knowing I won't roast my fish due to a heater malfunction. Thanks to @Daniel for the Inkbird tip!
  23. Bill
    I definitely plan on building one to cover the main safety shut off functionality that the Felix controller has (kill thermometer, leak detection, and C02 for when I add that in the future). Right now I want temp / leak detection for 4 tanks. The Felix controller has 8 outlets which is perfect, but I want sensors from 4 tanks going into one controller. I'd need to buy 4 Felix controllers for that and don't want to spend $1800. I also differentiate between level detection and leak detection--level going down slow is a warning (or could be used on auto water change systems), but I'm mainly interested in immediate shutoff of the canister filter if water hits the sensor. I was unclear which they supported.
  24. Bill
    In addition to baby brine shrimp I mix in some feedings of Hikari First Bites for angel fry. You can get that at any pet store, even petsmart or petco. It's light enough so that it lingers around in the water column for a bit.
  25. Bill
    @Liz hughes if you treat the fish with antibiotics, and they are able to eat, I'd recommend mixing it in food over putting it in the water. In the directions for Kanaplex they tell you how to make it (also using Focus): Seachem - KanaPlex WWW.SEACHEM.COM Good luck!
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