jwcarlson

The real minimum wage is always zero. Federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25 states can/do have their own minimum. I haven't seen a job offered that low for a very long time though, even Walmart starting pay is $12+/hour. McDonalds more or less the same as Walmart. I'm in Iowa through, so I know it's much different elsewhere.

My parents had a tank or two over the years before I started, but I don't remember too much about them. They had bluegills and bass (native fish up here) from time-to-time. For a number of years as a teenager up until about 2005 when I was 21 I had a number of tanks at home (my parents). Nothing too exotic but had a 75 with an oscar and a 55 with an oscar. Several smaller tanks with everything from guppies to yellow labs. In 2005 I sold most everything off as I was going to college. In the dorm I kept a 10 gallon with some neons and a dwarf gourami. When I moved off campus the following year, I had a 29 with a bluegill. I graduated in 2008 and eventually moved "back home" (same city, not house) in 2012. Those four years, I do not recall having any tanks. But basically on/off for the past 10 years I've bought the cheap $8 10 gallon tank at Walmart and set something up for me or "for the kids". Mollies, guppies, that kind of thing. Well, when I bought that Walmart 10 gallon going on a year ago, it was $15. I'd talked to a guy at work who has a koi pond and that got me thinking, stumbled onto Aquarium Co-Op after that... and... So over this roughly one calendar year I started with a 10 gallon community tank that is now in a 37. About 20 years ago I really really wanted discus, but because of a bunch of reasons, decided not to go down that path. But in February of this year, I finally did that (link below). And a month or so ago we re-set up the 10 gallon for shrimp and snails because my daughter has been begging for "her own tank". I've never had plants until recently and I would say that I am not great at planted tanks. Not by a long shot. But I'm enjoying trying to sort them out. For favorite fish that I've kept all-time, I still must lean towards oscars. They're big, they're messy, they do their own decorating... but I have never had another fish get so danged excited to see people, even if it's just a Pavlovian response. Bettas are probably second in the interactive regard. I'm enjoying my discus, but they're just the freaking jumpiest fish I have ever seen (like someone sneezes in another room and they'll spook). I'm a chronic hobby-er and I am realistic in my outlook. I will eventually quit fishkeeping again. I've also been a beekeeper for the last eight years and I am very seriously considering selling my bees this next spring or cutting back drastically from ~30 colonies to something like five. As I get older (I'm 38 now), I do try to approach things from a more reasonable side. When I started beekeeping I went WHOLE freaking hog and at one point had close to 100 colonies going. I have that streak in me and if I didn't have what little self control I have, I'd have my 1200 square foot basement setup mostly as a fish room and would be spending every waking hour doing that until I burn out and wonder why I ever started. It's fun to read everyone elses' paths to where they are today. It's absolutely amazing how accessible information is now compared to even 10 or 20 years ago. You old hats who have been doing it well before the internet age are incredible! I started in roughly the mid-late-90s... I cannot imagine what it was like before that... how do you see the fish when your tank is made of stone? 🙃

So with my $50, I'll take 24 hours of JettsPapa loading hay for me and I'll let him keep the change. 🙂 It's amazing what's happened to our money! My first job was $7.50/hr and I was making more than $2 above minimum wage. But I'm only 38, so less seasoned than some of you. 🙂 On topic - I think it would be merch stuff, most likely. I don't really need anything aquarium related at the moment. Otherwise, I've been looking at the new heater and the battery powered air pump from them is pretty nice, having another of those wouldn't be a bad thing if the power ever goes out. *taps temple* Cory's playing the long game... I like it.

I've got an "AQUANEAT Aquarium Air Pump 300GPH" from the online retailer that shall not be named. It's less than $25, pretty quiet, and it runs three of the large Aquarium Co-Op sponge filters double stacked + one of those double soda-can sized ones on the side. Has four output ports. I have only had it for about 10 months, so hardly a long-term test. But for the cost I've been pretty happy.

The Troop by Nick Cutter is right up with as one of the best books I have read this year. Highly recommend if you're a horror fan. Now on to Stephen King's Revival.

Would highly suggest eradicating any and all duck weed. I've tried a few floaters and the easiest ones for me and my water has been dwarf water lettuce. If you're interested I'll mail you some, @Matilyn

What's in your DIY root tabs (if you don't mind me asking)?

I finished The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time #5) and I think it might be my favorite one so far. I struggled a bit with 3 and 4. Putting 10 books or so between these beefcakes might be the key. Onto Vinland Saga 3 and then will either pick up Stephen King's new Fairy Tale or the last of The Fall of Babel (Books of Babel #4). Probably the king book because it's spooky season, of course!

Do you happen to know who the breeder was? I think beefheart is widely used because it's cheap and high protein. Clearly they aren't eating meat in the wild, but they don't eat a lot of things in the wild that are in most fish foods. I would love to read the research, I'll do some digging.

About the 225th water change for these so far. 🙂

Nitrites too high can "poison" the cycle, so water changing as noted above is a good plan. Also agree that it isn't algae on the wood, but whatever slimy stuff grows on most new wood. It will go away. Those are pretty good looking fakes! 🙂

You shouldn't play with matches, @Tanked.

I age water 24 hours for my discus water changes nightly. The main reason is that my pH shifts by 1.3 (from 7 to 8.3) and that's supposed to be stressful in large water changes (I'm doing 90%ers). If it was smaller, it might not matter. Additionally, I do not have a way to bypass my ion exchange unit (water softener) for hot water, and I don't want to use that water in my tank. So I age and preheat. I would caution everyone to always use a dechlorinator capable of dealing with chloramines because they do not offgas the same as chlorine does. Much more stable. Almost lost all my discus when the city apparently switched from chlorine to chloramine early this spring. Lesson learned 🙂

Set up our empty 10 gallon tank for my daughter to have "her own" snail and shrimp tank. I have no idea where they got a Fluval sticker, it must have come with the Stratum or maybe some biorings. It will have blue and yellow shrimp in it, I couldn't convince her to get just one color so that she could raise them and maybe sell them to a LFS. They already have local suppliers of red and blue. *shrug* Right now it's got a few different kinds of snails in it (bladders, ramshorn or something small that looks like them... they hitchhiked in and are small still, Faunus ater, and MTS which also hitchhiked). Plants from trimmings/extras and some from a fellow discus guy who has been generous with his trimmings. Thought about getting a small school of CPD/galaxy raspboras or whatever they're called now. But leaning towards not doing that just so it remains lower maintenance. Don't want to chain us to doing water changes too frequently. She has a 37 gallon community tank in her bedroom and I struggle keeping nitrates in it so we just do a water change about once a month other than topping off.

There's not much salt from a "salt" standpoint, but from an ion standpoint the exchange units add about two sodium ions for every exchanged ion (from my understanding). My TDS readings bear that out (softener water way higher). But I'm not entirely sure why I should care about TDS so that's the last time I measured it.

Your water (without anything done to it) is very similar to mine. I noticed some issues when mixing to get the right temp. I eventually went straight cold and I just age and preheat everything. Mainly for discus, but I am also setup to do the same for my smaller tanks. One thing to check would be pH swing fresh out of the tap and aerated for 24 hours. Mine swings from 7 to about 8.2-8.3, so it must have quite a bit of dissolved CO2 in it, I would guess. In any event, I would avoid the "softened" water, which is most times mislabeled as it is probably an ion exchange unit. I know some people say it's not a problem, but I'm not convinced.

I wouldn't be worried about the Brut holding up. Otherwise look for second hand pickle barrels or other food grade barrels. I use both.

Any particularly brutish inhabitants? I just have dwarf water lettuce, so maybe the root structure if different, but the roots seem pretty fragile so if there's a really mouthy goldfish or something real clumsy they might be doing damage? I know if the majority of the root gets broken off they don't seem to do well. I would agree that I wouldn't seem to take too much light to keep water lettuce alive considering where it's at in the tank.

Same lighting? How do the roots look on the ones that die off on you? I know if I break the roots off mine they sure don't seem to do too well or at least are set way back. Any different tankmates?

It's good that your fish seem to be doing better, I would be highly suspect of your nitrate readings, however. How are you getting that number? Just saying that because that's a pretty good amount of fish and I don't see a single pothos root, so I'm not sure how it would be removing anything? Maybe they're behind something? Could be that your water changes are having as much or bigger effect on the sores on the shubunkin. Bacteria typically grows faster in warmer temps, but I suppose there could be some specific kind that thrives at lower temperatures. In any event, glad things seem pointing in the right direction, hope that continues!

1) Current or Past fan? Past and current, I guess. 2) How do/did you consume Pokemon media? (watching the TV series, collecting Pokemon cards, playing the main series games, Pokemon Go, Pokemon Showdown) I don't watch any of the stuff anymore, but when I was a kid we'd watch it before school and my kids watch some of it now. My kids like the cards, but they don't play the game proper, just their version of it. Played a lot of Red and Blue on game boy and then as an adult bought an old game boy color and yellow. Now I have an emulator on my cell phone and will go back and replay either yellow or gold once every year or two. I really enjoy those games. Have played the card game electronically as an adult with the kids, but don't find it challenging enough to make me want to play it. 3) Because we're on an Aquarium forum, what's your favorite water type Pokemon? Gyrados, runner up Lapras. Here's my shiny red gyrados from my current gold playthrough, so I haven't played it in a year. 🙂

Opingtons are just the best. Won't be long now that they're squatting and those combs look ready to go! If they're milling around the yard a lot be on the lookout for them dropping an egg some random place or a hidden nest. They don't know where they're supposed to drop them. I have a couple ceramic ones that I use to help them figure it out if I start having them leaving them random places.

Do yours get them clean down to the leaves? Maybe I'm feeding mine too much. There's always some algae on most of my anubius leaves after a while. Like top left/center of your photo.

I think I have a Sean Carroll book, but haven't read it. The Big Picture, I believe. I listened to his podcast "Mindscape" when it first started about four years ago. Didn't click with me for very long, but I did always enjoy him as a guest on other podcasts. Hope you enjoy the book! I've been on a pretty hard break from non-fiction and I am not feeling pulled back to it at all.

@ConfettoHe looks like a painting! 🙂