jwcarlson

Two females spawning is interesting. I wonder if there are circumstances in which a male would be part of that equation if he'd have been available. Biologically the male wouldn't mind an additional female as his genetics are going in either circumstance. But if a male is in the mix, the females have to be concerned that their fry would be competing with the (now) rival female. Interesting dynamics. Like you say, perhaps is the best way to get rid of their eggs. Do you have pictures of the male?

Interesting, mine is actually way more quiet than it was with multiple pumps. But it's also in an area that isn't normally populated or trafficked (the basement). So maybe I just don't notice it much. But a lot of that is pump dependent.

As long as the pump has the capacity, it should work just fine. Looks good though. An air header is a great, pretty easy solution to simplify your fishroom. It's one of the better things I have done. Now I have air anywhere I might need it instead of having to screw around with additional air pumps and all that jazz.

I'm worried about next to nothing that I can actually test for in a tank. Once you get a good feel for your water and your "systems" in general, you end up kind of knowing where all that stuff sits just by observation and the general passage of time since your last water change or test. I might have a fry tank with nitrates 0-5 ppm that by conventional wisdom "doesn't need a water change". But I'm absolutely changing water in those tanks as large and as frequently as I can manage to do reasonably. As others above have stated... there's next to nothing we are actually capable of testing in our water. And those are all of the things that I'm worried about.

I usually feed (lightly) during QT, but also change a lot of water. It depends on how "ready" your tank is for that bioload. But it also depends on the circumstances. If you buy a group of well cared for, plump fish then feeding can take a back seat. But lets say you had some fish shipped and they might have been basically in transit from various fish farms and transhippers for many days or a week or more... it might be more important to feed them ASAP. Eating is also a good indicator of overall health as well as what I am most worried about in QT, which is internal parasites.

Looks good! 🙂 I find the metal valves difficult to turn and (at least the ones I have) extremely sensitive to adjustment. I can find the sweet spot, but feels like I can breathe on it and send it out of whack. I'm not sure I've seen many plastic ones in the US that look robust. The yellow ones you have look pretty solid though. Happy with it so far? Looks like you just went one long header up top? Or is there another run of pipe down above the bottom row of tanks?

Ah, yes, the random cichlid murder spree.

I wipe down the sides/bottom/back of my discus tank about once a week. With heavy water changes I basically have no visible algae in my discus tank ever except on the bottom side of the lids occasionally. I suppose if I didn't do that, it would probably grow quite a bit. A paper towel does the job just fine as long as I keep up with wiping down. If it's tough to reach, you can wad up the paper towel and use a big pair of tweezers, I do that on a couple of deeper tanks. That said, it will absolutely be a pain having it up against a pitched ceiling because it will somewhat limit your access.

@Cjbear087 Make sure to consider how you're going to keep the area behind the 3D background clean. Especially if you're going to being growing out your discus. And, given your water... just a reminder that you don't have a lot of wiggle room before things will go sideways fast. I'd save the 3D background for adulthood (or ditch it entirely) and opt for something external when you're growing them out.

Seems like you're not cycled. From the FAQs on the Seachem website: Seachem - Prime

I went on ebay or something similar and bought a big brick of melomine foam blocks for next to nothing many years ago (like $10 for 100 blocks kind of cheap). I'm not even sure where they are in the house right now, but I've got one that I use for aquariums and it holds up just fine. The thin sheets, I would think wouldn't hold up very well. 95% of the time I just use a paper towel folded into a square. Works great.

Hard water with my sensitive fish can make the journey more difficult, but it doesn't mean you can't do it. I've had pretty good luck with all sorts of soft water fish in my liquid rock water. I will say that discus have been especially challenging now that I've had them for the last couple of years. I'm struggling with an on going infection inside of at least one of my fish. But that's besides the point for here. With most of your bog standard fish from Petco/Petsmart, they'll likely be just fine in your water. I breed sterbai corydoras in my liquid rock. Same with CPDs, furcata rainbows, bristlenose plecos... there's a ton of options with just your normal tap water in almost every circumstance. But it can present challenges. I think you'll be fine with what you've got most likely.

I'm sure every fish is different, but none of mine act scared/stressed/etc during or after a water change... even in the tanks that I change water in infrequently. My discus are left on the bottom of the tank completely on their side with fins out of the water and they'll start eating as soon as there's enough water that they're upright. Unless I forget water conditioner. The rams will attack my hands and the tube if they have recently had fry. But everything else just carries on. And I usually don't do water changes much less than 75%. In tanks with fry and big mats of hornwort, there's almost no swimming space left. And I might leave them at that drained state for 20-30 minutes. I drain all the tanks I'm changing water in until I'm ready to refill. Most fish seem happy for water changes, honestly. But I always use aged water at the exact same temperature as the tank (unless I'm trying to trigger a spawn or something).

I'd be more concerned about why you think your fish "hate water changes".

I do not believe that's a legitimate concern. 🙂

You're over complicating it. And making it too big (in my opinion). I would run one header just above your top tank and run all my drops from there. No siphon issue that way.

I'd be more concerned with it draining out onto the floor than into the pump. The problem with check valves is they cause a drop in pressure, which basically "consumes" air. Anything below the water level could get water in it. But if your pump is lower and the PVC header farther up, then you will be fine. The worry would be if it's lower and it could fill up your header and there's inevitably a small leak somewhere. Granted, this is pretty low risk, but you might even decide to shut off the air for maintenance or something.

It's hard to get an exact scale, but they look pretty small? They look most like sterbai, but I'm not an expert by any means. However, the pattern isn't normal if they're sterbai. And they have zero hint of the orange pectoral fins.

I doubt the GH is an issue, but not seeing any nitrates seems like your tank might not be cycled. But it could be that your plants are keeping it all down. On another note, I have had absolutely terrible luck with bettas. I've been keeping fish for 25 years and bettas just never seem to last very long for me. I've only ever had 3 or 4, but they just don't seem to do well for me. Meanwhile some kindergarten teacher probably has one in a quart of water that's never been changed for the last six years. 😄

Ask your co-worker how he got them to quit breeding. 🤣

I don't know that the pipes need to be higher up out of necessity, but mine are up out of the way. It works. Yours could be lower. Mine is not a "loop". It's just a long stretch that I've bent into a U. Maybe I'm getting away with it because my pump is oversized for what I need. I will say that the end of the line does seem to have a bit less pressure. But it's not horrible. I could pretty easily cut into it and complete the "loop". I have no plans on expanding anything, so I should be good like this. I would guess you could get by with the same setup. Here's a way simplified version that's in my fishroom's... side room. 😄 Separate pump, it just a couple tanks, couple aging barrels, and a couple brine shrimp hatchers. This type of setup would be plenty for your setup, I would think. Just make it the width of your tank and pre-assemble two drops per tank on average. There's different colored PVC or paint that sticks to PVC that you could use if you want it to blend in a little better. I didn't glue or seal any of my joints. I don't hear any leaks, but I'm sure there's some loss. If needed I want to be able to disassemble and reconfigure. Both of the airpumps that I'm using are fairly quiet, but I'm not sure they're "living room" quiet. It might make sense to run something through a wall and put your pump in a different room or a closet. Not sure about your house layout, but that's something to consider. Edit to add: one of the benefits of having it all up above water level is there's no chance of a siphon starting if your pump fails.

Those are interesting patterns. How did you get them and how were they labeled when you bought them? They look a little like trilineatus, but no black spot on the dorsal fin. And it doesn't look like yours have any hint of the black spot up there at all. They look a little like sterbai, but sterbai don't really have all that connection in their pattern. Could pretty easily be a hybrid as well.

With that setup, I would run just one PVC header up above and run all the drops off of that one header. Unless you're worried about drop length for some reason? There's no reason to run a header at each level when you can just run a little big longer drop. That way everything is above water level as well. Here's mine. It continues to the right and runs 10' back along the other wall. So it's basically a "U". If I need another drop I just drill/tap a new hole and thread in a valve. I will say it's a bit of a pain to adjust because of how far up I put it. But I rarely adjust anything and this way the kids can't easily get to them. Ignore the paint job. 😄 😄

We use salted minnows to fish for walleye when we go to Canada for fly-in fishing trips. Used to make our own, but Canada changed some laws and I don't think you can bring them over the border anymore. Maybe you could make salted guppies?

To be clear, mine spawn. I would guess the guy at the LFS has too. BUT, they are sneaky spawners, in my experience. Mine spawn, but the eggs can't hatch because *some water issue even if it's soft enough*. So now I've eliminated all caves except one that I can see into. Otherwise, you have to try to spotlight them to see in the cave.