jwcarlson

Making me miss my oscars! I put some pothos cuttings and philodendron cuttings in my 75 discus tanks, I like the look of the roots hanging down. My only concern is what to do when the plants gets massive. I guess just keep trimming and dealing with it. @TeeJayWeird that your pothos won't get going. The nodes have a very visible root bump on them. Unless you're just cutting a leaf off (not taking any of the main vine), they're tough to mess up. Fresh cuttings do take a bit of time to get rolling. But once they get a decent amount or root going they start rolling. How long have you had them in?

@pixlweaver - if you can track down some Seachem Stability, it can really help get the ball rolling in your cycle (in my experience). @Cinnebuns Do the different colored ramshorns throw odd colors when they inter breed?

I really like my bladder snails, I think their "pest" status is overblown. They're not pestering anything except algae and otherwise uneaten food. There's a ton of them in my community tank, but at no point has it ever been a distraction or anything. I like watching them.

Not the best pics and not a monthly update. But they looked nice after the water change. Some recent additions of some sort of hygrophalia (spelling?). Person who sent it said giant, but it doesn't look like google pics of that variety. Also six lemon tetras who have survived thus far. I want to get at least ten more of the tetras, but store only had six.

I do nearly a 100% water change every night on my 75 gallon discus tank and a lot of the time the siphon is just sitting there unsupervised because I can clean the bare bottom pretty quick and then just need to drain it. Last night my parents stopped by and I forgot. It drained down like it normally does, but I'd forgotten to turn off the heaters so they were out of the water and... quite warm... when I got back inside. It had melted the end of my python quite a bit, but thankfully not through the plastic so it's still functional. Whoops.

What kind of blood worms are you feeding? I know some people have trouble with blood worms carrying pathogens, but most everyone always trusts Hikari brand.

Fire & Blood was quite good! I'll start The Books of Babel #3 tonight - The Hod King.

If you bring over the filtration to the new tank you should basically be "instantly" cycled unless. The load changes drastically (like adding a bunch of new fish). As far as bacteria starters I had good luck with SeaChem Stability.

@Darktower805 I have not read a ton of Crichton, but have read... Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, and at least one other that is escaping me. JP was the best of his that I have read. I agree that his style doesn't necessarily trip my trigger. I would suggest you read some Blake Crouch if you like Crichton. Dark Matter or Recursion are both fantastic, with a slight lean to Dark Matter. Very very fast paced techno thriller in the Crichton vein. At least one huge MC fan says that Crouch feels like his spiritual successor. I do not often have books that keep me awake reading, but both of those have. I own his Pines trilogy and his very recently released Upgrade. I also have enjoyed some time watching Ants Canada, a very passionate guy and some very fascinating information/videos. My kids love it too.

Yeah, King yapped a lot about Trump in Billy Summers as well. My main complaint about it is it sometimes feels forced or inserted for no real reason. Maybe it's because it feels like I'm stubbing my toe on a jog on something that shouldn't be there. I suppose in 20 years it won't be as jarring. Plenty of other political/presidential references in his older stuff too. Anyway, no politics on the forum. 🙂 I am enjoying Fire & Blood more than I would have thought. It makes me wonder why I struggle to care about The Silmarillion. Perhaps it's the writing style or something. Finished Doctor Sleep on audio and very much enjoyed it. I have not read The Shining. In fact, I have not read many of the most popular King books - The Shining, The Stand, Salem's Lot, Carrie... others, I'm sure. I'll get to them eventually as most of them are on the shelf! Started If it Bleeds on audio last night walking the dogs.

@Darktower8052nd book didn't list SK as author, third book does. 3rd book is pretty good and LOTS of DT references.

I like this forum, but from a mobile standpoint it's a mess. Not sure what's going on with this quote that won't go away. I finished Nettle & Bone last night, it was a very very good book. I started Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin.

Scribd is great, I listen to a lot of books and everytime I look into Audible I don't understand how it's worth it. But Scribd is such a great value comparatively that I don't bother. Unlimited access, can download the audiobooks so if you have data limitations it helps there. I download a few books at a time while I am at home and listen to them at work, on walk, etc. I'd give it a shot. There's 104 King audiobooks on Scribd at the moment.

@Darktower805I'm listening to Doctor Sleep right now, but I've never read The Shining (but have seen the movie). The Shining wasn't on Scribd, or I would have listened to that first. I think it's interesting how different people experience things differently. I didn't particularly like Rose Madder, but I actually chuckled that it was too dark for you, but IT wasn't. 🙂I thought IT was brutal, BUT it's a lot deeper and so there's a lot of additional 'stuff' to dice it up a bit. Plus, we are all different, of course! I almost hesitate to suggest King because of how different tastes are... there's some really heavy stuff and I think that I become blind to it after awhile and worry that what I consider a "light" King novel could actually be a pretty rough. I have a friend who started reading The Dark Tower series and really... struggled... with certain scenes with demons with some of the main characters. Scenes that weren't particularly impactful to me as a teenage boy or as a 20 or 30-something on re-reads.

I have the first three, but haven't started them yet. I have read the first Mistborn Trilogy and The Rithmatist by him and enjoyed those. Stormlight... They sure are massive books and I will eventually get to them. Sanderson is one prolific fella. I need to decide if I'm going to finish Wheel of Time before I think about starting another big series. His "coming clean" announcement awhile back was absolutely hilarious:

@Brandon pI lost one after dumping in Fritz Zyme 7 early on. No clue what happened, but they were in very rough shape. Then the other one was just a non-eater from the get-go and finally died after about four months. If I would have been more observant (it would eat, but would always spit it out in the beginning), I probably would have done some treatment sooner. But that's learning for ya! I never kept them 20 years ago, so I can't agree or disagree, but these Stendkers have been around for awhile and they seem to do just fine in my extremely hard and high pH water. The perception certainly was that they were hard to keep, which is what turned me away from them at the time. Sometimes I think that as information becomes more readily available things appear "easier". For example, I'm pretty comfortable tearing pretty deeply into our vehicles because I can go find step-by-step guides or detailed videos on YouTube about my exact make/model in most cases. That's a pretty new phenomenon. ~20 years ago there were some forums and websites, but it was very much lacking consensus as I recall. The internet in general is still very much like that. However, with so many more people involved and trusted/knowledgeable people as fixtures, it's easier to root out bad information if you're willing to do the work to find out. For example if I hear Cory say something that agrees with advice I heard on a Facebook group which lead me to do some digging and find an old thread on on a fish forum from 2008... I can be pretty darn sure that's good advice. That's one of the reasons I think being (tactfully) critical on forums/social media/whatever is important. I've learned a lot over the years by someone being "mean" to me on an online forum which lead me to do more research and learning. Which led me to the decision to NOT get discus 20 years ago, but also led me to be a much better fish-keeper at the time. Maybe I'm just pretty good at vetting information for the most part. I also keep about 40 honey bee colonies and rear all my own queen bees. I'm not sure there's a hobby more rife with disinformation and charlatans than beekeeping.

I feel both sides of the discussion. In a very real sense I just have a glass box that I put food in and keep the water very clean in. That is not remotely difficult. But I am quite good at monkey-see-monkey-do. That said, I have still lost 20% of my discus in five months. One to something I did and one to what I think was something that could have been treated had I dealt with what I think was hexamita sooner. The treatment (12 days of metro) turned around the one "runt", but the other didn't get so lucky. They do seem pretty finicky and of course there's a lot of time and effort and some money tied up in them. But they sure are pretty. I keep thinking about getting a school of rummynose to out in with them, but an "old timer" says he has abandoned rummys for lemon tetras for hardiness. But man I sure love rummynose. Just need to set up the QT and probably give them six weeks in it for my own sanity. I am still quite concerned that I am going to collapse them! I do appreciate the kind comments, though I want to make sure everyone understands a caveman could do what I am doing as long as you're willing to change a bunch of water daily. Though I do have a pretty nice setup that gets my water changes done with maybe 15 minutes of hand time every night.

I waited 20 years haha

Few days late, but here's a five month update. Biggest ones are a bit over 5". I don't measure them all and I don't try to get super accurate, they're over five. But not 5.5" yet. The solid turquoise (or Flachen) is growing quite nicely now. I think I've got pictures of all of them though they didn't all turn out.

I'm not breeding them at all. Just growing out some juvenile ones. I wouldn't want to do water changes like this on anything more than one tank, I don't think. As they get older and slow/stop growing, the changes will be less frequent. And they'll be (hopefully) some plants in the tank attached to some driftwood to help eat up some of the waste products. Right now it's pretty plain (ugly?) with three big double-stacked sponge filters from AC. Link below for some fish pics ---\/

Python just gravity fed down into basement utility sink, but it's semi-permanently plumbed in through the wall down through the floor with standard garden hose so all I do is pick up the siphon and start it. It's bare bottom so I can clean most of the stuff up with a quick vac of the bottom then I just let it sit in there and slurp down while I do some other thing. I let it drain down to approximately an inch above the bottom trim on the 75 gallon. I have an aging/pre-heating setup that's semi automated. Once it's drained I walk downstairs and and hook the same hose up to the submersible pump. Takes about 15 minutes to refill the tank. I just set a timer on my phone for 12 minutes so that I don't overfill it. So I pump in the aged and preheated water. When it's done I shut the pump off (everything is controllable though a 'smart' Kasa power strip, which works amazingly). Then I walk back down, disconnect the pump, and put the hose back into the drain position in the sink so that I don't have to take a trip down to start a water change. It takes about 20 minutes for the water barrel to refill (using Python pump between sink and my setup with an always-connected 10 foot piece of hose). I set a timer for 18 minutes to shut the water off and put the hose back on its hanger. The whole process probably takes an hour. But as long as the tank isn't horribly dirty I don't spend more than 10-15 minutes of interaction time. It dovetails alright with my other chores like feeding the pets (cats get fed downstairs), cleaning litter boxes, and laundry. Most nights I start the change while we're eating dinner. And I'm doing the other chore stuff whenever I go down to move hoses. I have the parts/valves in order to more permanently install everything. And also to put a float switch on the barrel so that it will shut off when it's full. But the timing just works out and it's not a particular big issue at all. I have python hose to run through the house that I hook up for the tank in my daughter's room. And it has it's separate aging/preheating barrel and control. We don't change water much in that one, so I just fill and use that as needed. In case you're wondering, I age my water because the pH swings from 7 out of the tap to 8.2 or maybe 8.3-4 when aged/aerated. Apparently it's got a decent amount of CO2 in it. I will occasionally use my hose and just drain it into the front yard and have the kids haul the water around to water plants in the landscape if it's been really dry. That's very very slow compared to going to the basement, so I only do it when things need watered. I do hate just shipping it down the drain, though. I have considered pumping it out, which would make the draining really quick. I might do that just so that I have a spare pump to get it back up out of the basement. The day that my pump dies is the day I have to make like 20 trips downstairs and then back up with buckets full of water. That's going to be unpleasant. But the kids, honestly, would really like the watering task. So I think I might do that. At least seasonally it would be a good idea. In case you're getting the idea that this is something really elaborate (it is not)... here's the setup:

Yep, for the time being at least. I've had them five months and they're still growing out.

Interesting regarding the nitrate connection possibility. My discus tank is usually <5 with the daily 90% changes. Plus some pothos and philodendron just in case any nitrate sneaks by the water changes. 😄

I got a really long siphon so that my hands/arms aren't in the tank too much. I do discus water every night, but (other than starting the siphon) my hands/arms stay pretty dry. On full wipe down and filter squeeze water changes every week for wipe and every month or so for filter squeezes - I get more wet. I wash with dish soap after doing WCs. Have gotten some arm itchiness in the past, but none of note.

Kind of depends on your personal tastes, I'd say. King is obviously mostly "horror" though typically not extremely gory. Certainly "adult" themes with words I don't necessarily want to plop on here. I particularly like his characters as they are usually quite well developed. I am not old enough to have lived through the life of "Richard Bachman", but I think they are pretty good books as a rule (though I have not read them all, by any means). I like Thinner, The Long Walk, Running Man, and Road Work. The Long Walk is the best in that batch IMO. And they're all relatively short. If you like a good exploration of grief - Pet Sematary. This book is usually dislike by a lot of people, but I thought Lisey's Story was a pretty good book. Coming of age - The Talisman is solid and Later is also quite good. King does a pretty good job of writing as a younger person in spite of not having been particularly young for about half a century. Different Seasons is four short (?) stories that give quite a bit of flavor. Shawshank Redemption is among them. If you like westerns, I think The Gunslinger is a good book. It is the first (and most say the weakest, though I don't think I agree) of his The Dark Tower series. More recently published stuff - The Institute and Elevation (more of a short story or maybe novella) are pretty good. Elevation isn't particularly highly rated, but like Lisey's Story... it isn't quite typical King and so I think that might turn off some of the Constant Readers. I don't mind rolling with the punches and can appreciate seeing some range. If you'd like to just hear more about his writing technique and/or style his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is pretty entertaining and personal. Hitman with a conscience? Billy Summers is your book. All that said, if Misery wasn't for you then maybe King just isn't for you. I'd be curious to know if there's a lot of King fans who hated Misery, but still liked most all of his other stuff. Some of the shorter stuff won't be a huge time investment if you still find it not to your liking. If horror and psychological elements aren't your jam, then you're not likely to enjoy much of King's writing. His plots can be meandering and not particularly well paced, but I am a character reader first and foremost. I really think King could write a novel about someone watching paint dry and make it incredible. Edited to add: I might be important to note that pretty much all King's books are interconnected in some way or another. The Dark Tower is kind that underlying connective tissue, but in almost all cases - you don't need to have read any other books to get the vast majority "out" of any standalone. Additionally - The Eyes of the Dragon (discussed a bit ago by a few of us) is a great King novel that's probably well connected to his other works, but a very good standalone story. King has narrated a decent number of his own books (including On Writing). I greatly enjoy his narrations. If you happen to have a Scribd subscription or want to sign up for a free trial, you could listen to the vast majority of his collection on that platform. I think I pay $10-12 per month and probably listen to about that 8+ books each month while working, keeping bees, walking dogs, water changes, etc. I grew up reading King at a pretty young age, including The Dark Tower in my early teens - the final two books were published the year I graduated HS or perhaps the year after.