Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

jwcarlson

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,989

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    16

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by jwcarlson

  1. jwcarlson
    Didn't originally mention this... I'm not sure about the legality and restrictions for travel and wherever you're coming from and going back to, but picking up some meds might be a great idea while you're in the country.
  2. jwcarlson
    Pretty massive buffer (I think). KH is 16 degrees in tap. Also, I am not positive, but I believe it's more toxic at HIGHER pH, not lower. And yes, talking medicated feed. It says 1-2 times a day for a week.
  3. jwcarlson
    Less than 10 "spots" this evening. Fins look a bit ragged (assuming former "cysts" or infected areas get wrecked that makes sense). Changed water and fed Kanaplex/Focus/Garlic Guard mix according to directions. All were happy to eat. Ammonia at zero now, still some nitrites, nitrates much higher so whatever is going on hopefully its settled in shortly. PH on this tank is in the 6.5ish range. Says to feed for a week, does that seem reasonable?
  4. jwcarlson
    George Farmer has like 100 amano shrimp (and some number of cherry shrimp as well, I think) in his planted discus tank. At 82*
  5. jwcarlson
    Test strips, sponge filters, airline tubing... and probably just about everything else. 🙂
  6. jwcarlson
    Actually, it was half full and I was putting some fish food in it for a few weeks before that. So it's been closer to two months. But wasn't anything scientific going on. Didn't start testing until just before I put fish in. Had nitrates, but no ammonia or nitrites so figured it was "good to go". But fish have only been in it about a month and then got some more (and more plants) to QT before getting the 75 gallon set up. Original fish were in for three weeks before adding more. Might do it a bit differently if I had a time machine. And it's been 15 years or so since I've cycled a tank.
  7. jwcarlson
    A month. Actually a little more. I didn't feed yesterday and just gave them a tiny bit today. Will do WC twice a day and keep checking.
  8. jwcarlson
    I had bumped temp to 82. Yesterday AM it dawned on me that the *whatever it is* looked better in the mornings than it did in the afternoons. So I did a water change, but didn't dose Ich-X. This morning the fish look just as good if not better than they did yesterday, so another water change and no Ich-X. Somehow all of this has knocked my bacteria colony off kilter. I hadn't tested for a couple of days because I was doing it twice a day and everything looked exactly the same. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, <10 ppm nitrates. Then yesterday it popped nitrites so I checked ammonia and it was there as well. Don't know what to make of that unless repeated Ich-X was nuking bacterial colony. Fish don't seem too stressed or anything. I did switch to Fritz complete at about the same time as starting Ich-X, so maybe that caused some issue? Fritz Complete says 1 capful for 50 gallons so I do ~1-2 drops for about three gallons. To avoid using it I'm just aging/preheating the WC water which isn't too big of a deal. Also slowly turned temp back so it should be back to ~78 when I get home from work today to slow whatever might be going on. Will be interesting to see how they look tonight. Also... looks like my meds to make medicated feed will be here today and not tomorrow.
  9. jwcarlson
    Thank you, ordered everything to mix up some medicated food. I'll keep doing the Ich-X in the meantime as the meds won't be here until Friday 😞 At least it doesn't seem to be getting worse. But article does say Malachite Green can be somewhat effective, so maybe that's holding it somewhat at bay for the time being. The spots do seem to be changing, but not really increasing in number or density. Thanks everyone! I'll update next week.
  10. jwcarlson
    Seems to be at best a standstill. Looks like one spot on one fish's eye now. They are active and seem to be eating just fine. Any other ideas? Different med or pull them all out and into a tub or something?
  11. jwcarlson
    Do you notice a blue tinge that sticks around? The blue is just GONE in really short order (like... 30 minutes or less). Makes me wonder if Fluval Stratum can cause it to react out or something?
  12. jwcarlson
    Just going by label, it says up to as often as 8 hours. I can certainly wait. I figured at 12 hrs I would maybe get a better foothold.
  13. jwcarlson
    Two small sponge filters and an Aqua Clear 20 with only sponge and bio rings. Getting ready to move to bigger aquarium, but wanted to dose in this smaller one instead for quartine. I was just bumping temp slowly so as not to shock them too bad.
  14. jwcarlson
    Another pic, they happened to be out and about.
  15. jwcarlson
    First noticed ich on Wednesday AM. Got new fish Sunday and Sunday afternoon did med trio. Then Wednesday AM saw ich only on the rummy nose tetras. Did partial water change after work and redosed Ich-X. Looked worse in the morning, did another change and another dose. Looked better after work on Thursday. Changed water and redosed. Now it's spread to other fish. Everyone is eating OK and I think med trio cleared some worms out of a couple of cardinal tetras that were pretty thin, they seem to be gaining a little weight. Been changing water and dosing Ich-X about every 12 hours since Wednesday afternoon. And it's not clearing up. Rummy nose look worse again today than last night. I know it's only 'killable' in the free-swimming stage... I bumped the temp up a couple of degrees (was at 76 got it to 78 now). If no difference in the AM, I might bump it to 80 when I redose. One thing I've noticed is that the blue color in the water is darn near gone within... half an hour? It's not there for long at all. Maybe that's normal. I've never used Ich-X and I haven't treated ich in probably two decades. Pic is best I could get on one of the rummy nose. Water Parameters: pH - my tap water comes out of the tap at 7 and ages to 8.2, this tank has Fluval Stratum which seems to drop pH to about 6.5. I change water straight out of the tap. Nitrates - tons of plants also in quarantine, nitrates are rock bottom... MAYBE "5" on the test strip this morning. Hardness - 18 degrees/320 ppm Nitrite - 0 Ammonia - 0 KH/Buffer - 16 degrees/285 ppm Water Temperature - 76 before this afternoon, now increased to 78 Thanks!
  16. jwcarlson
    I've never had many danios over the years. But I know all of the ones that I had only knew one speed, full. 😄 Cool fish, I bet they're fun to watch.
  17. jwcarlson
    I can't say I'm an experienced planted tank guy. But my plants are mostly alive and GH = 18 degrees, KH =16 degrees out of the tap. Like someone stated above PPM/17.8 = Degrees*17.8 = PPM Or you can dump it in here: https://www.lenntech.com/calculators/hardness/hardness.htm
  18. jwcarlson
    Try using PayPal? Otherwise call your bank or card issuer. I've had my bank hold payment for all sorts of weird stuff. I couldn't buy anything from a UK company for awhile a few years ago. I was buying used books and if I did that my bank would cancel and I would have to call them and have them temporarily allow purchases.
  19. jwcarlson
    I really like matte black paint so far. 15-20 years ago I always used black posterboard type material and it was always getting a little wet/ruined. I never thought to paint them. I just bought a 75 gallon and the previous owner had already put a coat of black paint on it (but hadn't filled the tank yet). I put another couple of coats on it and, unfortunately, at some angles there's like 'bubbles' between paint and glass. It's not super noticeable, but it's going to bug me "forever", nut sure if his first coat wasn't great or maybe our two paints weren't compatible or something. The blackout film is an interesting option, I bet that works pretty well.
  20. jwcarlson
    Ich looked worse last night, much better this morning. Another WC and Ich-X dose. Not sure if this is particularly hard on corys. Had a dead one this morning (figured he would die eventually as he looked rough coming from store). Hopefully this is behind me here in a few days.
  21. jwcarlson
    Says every 24 at least or sooner. 12 hours works pretty well for me, I can do a quick change in the morning and redose. Would anyone suggest that or just wait 24?
  22. jwcarlson
    Are these shipping prices for real? Just out of curiosity I plopped 20 cardinal tetras in cart and shipping was only $13? That hardly seems possible!
  23. jwcarlson
    I don't mean to derail the thread, but I've read in other places that high concentrations of these things are adverse to bacteria growth (basically poisoning the ability of the bacteria to multiply and in some cases kill them). Can anyone comment on that being true and/or if that might be the case here?
  24. jwcarlson
    I'm not sure the canisters are "better" in a way we'd traditionally think of them. But they certainly have a lot of space for biological media (in my opinion). And because of that I'd imagine they can handle converting a lot of waste into nitrates, but I really wonder how much is necessary. The filter is of unknown age. Honestly, if I'd have known it would be a headache I would have just bought something else. At this point I'd just bought spares of things if I end up buying another of the same. I would guess that the seal hasn't been replaced and, honestly, it might have sat for years for all I know. So the seal could be dry it just "feels" good to me but it isn't. The first time I put it into service it didn't leak. But maybe it was a little brittle and there's some damage now. *shrug* I'll eventually get it sorted out (or replaced). 🙂
  25. jwcarlson
    I think Amazon has them cheapest. That said, you can do water changes without a python. If you for some reason absolutely had to have a pump to do it, you could get a bilge pump from Walmart (I think most of them carry one, or at least they do around here, but we live basically on the Mississippi River). You'd need to power it with 12V DC (car battery). I *think* Python connections are just standard hose connections, so if all you need is 50 feet of hose, you can probably find that somewhere easy to pick up today.
×
×
  • Create New...