castiel
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Everything posted by castiel
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This is why I shouldn't post when I have a migraine lol, I don't need to drain the tank to put the vinyl on I'm not sure why I thought that.
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So I ran this by some friends I bounce ideas off of and they reminded me that I bought some vinyl to black out the back of the tank but never got around to draining the tank and putting it on, so knowing that the sunlight is probably a contributing factor I'm now thinking about taking the tank down (storing all of the plants, snails, and substrate) and setting the tank back up after putting the film on the back. Do you think this change in variables could make it worse? Should I try and get rid of the hair algae before doing this or does it not really matter either way?
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I have the stock Fluval light that comes with the Spec V. It's on only 1-3 hours a day currently since I've been trying to get rid of the algae, but it does get a small amount of indirect light from my windows. The tank has duckweed, stellatus octopus, crypt parva, christmas moss, and monte carlo (last I checked it was still alive). It's only inhabitants are an army of MTS and ramshorn snails. It also has some lucky bamboo and two pothos plants with their roots in the tank.
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I've been battling an algae outbreak in my 5 g Fluval Spec for months. I've tried changing the amount of lighting (adding more lighting, less, and doing blackouts), changing the amount of ferts (adding more, adding less, more water changes, less water changes) and removing as much of the algae as possible but have been unsuccessful in winning this battle. Can anyone ID what type of algae I've been fighting? It grows thick enough I can't even rip it out, I have to cut it out. I've been considering tearing down the tank and setting it back up but wanted to see if anyone has any ideas before doing so. I haven't tried Easy Carbon because there's so much algae in there I don't think the filter could handle clearing it all out.
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Long time no see everyone! It's been a while since I've hopped on the form. I've been fighting a major algae outbreak in the tank and haven't been able to get it balanced back out so I'm thinking of breaking the tank down and starting over. I'll most likely keep the same layout, I just need to remove as much as possible since changing the light/nutrient levels doesn't seem to be working. A little picture to show how bad it's gotten in the last few weeks since I had time to do in depth maintenance.
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Deciding Between Ramshorn, and Malaysian Trumpet Snails
castiel replied to TimmG's topic in General Discussion
I have both in my 5 gallon and they serve very different purposes from what I've seen! The MTS spend 90% of their time in the substrate or on lower decorations, while the Ramshorn go up on the plants, floating plants, and glass, more then along the substrate. -
For my scape I decided to keep it simple given the limited amount of plants I had at the time. I decided to use a glass Starbucks bottle I saved a while ago for Shenanigans and since I was setting up a Walstad esq jar decided to make it a dirtied mini jar capped with fine gravel. I used a cutting of my Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus" from my main tank and originally was going to leave it at that but ended up adding some duckweed to help curb the nutrient spike. With the addition of the duckweed and running an airstone on very low a few hours a day, as well as many water changes, it's cleared up and the Octopus is starting to grow in. It's a very simple setup and doesn't require much maintenance. I'm going to keep it until at least the Octopus grows emergent but from there I might gift it to my best friend, he's been wanting to do a jar setup but is worried about the upkeep with his job so one with just a plant would be best for him. Most up to date picture, followed by freshly planted and first fill. The octopus lost some leaves during a water change (I've been using a turkey baster and accidentally sucked it up into it)
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Inaugural St. Nermy’s Day ‘Scapes from Scraps
castiel replied to Beardedbillygoat1975's topic in Photos, Videos & Journals
oh we are allowed to put our scapes in multiple categories? I thought it was one only for some reason. -
I ordered some more ramshorn snails of various colors for my tank, and set up an air pump with a leak valve to add a small amount of air to my Walstad inspired jar to get some water circulation while it settles. Also glued a bunch of mini Christmas moss to a rock I bought at my LFS. (ignore my jar of random plants next to it)
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I don't actually have any fish at the moment so that's not really a concern in my case.
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I'm hoping to set up an outdoor tub pond this summer for guppies and probably some snails. Do you think using the pond as the quarantine for the guppies / dosing the med trio in the pond as needed would work?
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I swear the plants have all doubled in size. I'm actually going to be trimming back the octopus to allow for some more new growth. Also added a pair of MTS and am planning to order some different color Ramshorns. I've also decided the stocking of the tank will be fire red neo's but I'm going to wait for the weather where I am to clear up a bit before ordering (so delivery trucks stop getting stuck in the mud). Most of glare is just from the light but the tank is in need of a cleaning but I wanted to show off how it looks.
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Here's a teaser for my scape
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I'm really hoping to do a tub outside this summer, probably like a 35 gal. I just can't decide what I want to stock it with, expressly since I don't really have room for more tanks inside so I won't really be able to keep my lines in between seasons. I've been leaning towards guppies anyway just because they're so fun to breed in mutt colonies and I have a preexisting relationship with selling fish to my LFS and their wholesalers guppy quality has been lacking a bit.
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I have a Fluval Spec V on my desk and while it's a nice tank and I'm happy with it I personally don't see much justification for the price being so much higher then other similar tanks, it's a nice tank as I said but it doesn't have the best footprint for any type of scaping.
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I have decided from now on all water changes will be done via turkey baster because it's so much easier since the tank is on my desk and it's just much easier to maneuver and I spill less. And I'm less likely to suck up a snail that way. I'm still figuring out how to get the lighting to work for taking pictures without a huge glare but in the meantime here is one of the now adult Roomba's who I'm pretty sure is actually a ramshorn snail not a bladder snail but it's not quite big enough for me to tell yet.
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I don't have any before pictures but here is what it looks like after. I'm going to do another small water change in the morning to get another chunk of it, I'm mainly leaving the stuff on the glass for the Roombas to eat.
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Just did a 20% water change since the diatoms are dying off to get rid of them as well as took out half the duckweed, the tank is looking really good and the growth on all the plants is great expressly the Octopus and Crypt. Also noticed at least 4 egg pods from the bladder snails as well as a bunch of babies which is exciting, also managed to break one of my syphons but luckily I had a spare that actually worked better.
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Put in another Co-Op order for the Walstad I want to set up, also finalized the plans for my scape from scraps setup I want to do and am gonna get that started this weekend, just need to pick up some substrate first 😉.
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Also just to clarify, we are allowed to buy stuff for the scapes right? I only have a few plants right now so I'm really hoping the answer is yes lol
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So much for me only having one new set up going at a time lol. I'm excited to see what everyone creates and I'm planning to have something ready to but we'll see 😉.
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For sure lol. He was smart enough not to bite me since I was the one who fed him but if anyone else put their hands in the tank he'd break skin, he was very vicious. He also liked to pick on the nerites in his tank and would flare at them a lot.
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Unfortunately found one of the Roomba adults floating today and it had indeed not made it. I'm not really sure what happened since there's plenty of food and the parameters are still the same 0/0/20 but it was the larger of the two adults so I'm thinking it may have been older.
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If your fish can fit in the syphon you use for water changes never leave it in the tank unattended. One of my old Bettas swam up into the syphon and luckily I was watching and was able to get him out with only minor fin damage. For the rest of his life he would attack that syphon when it went in his tank as if he didn't swim up it 🙄
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I don't really have a way to attach the pothos to the tank yet which is why it's in the vase, it's in tank water that I've topped off since then but if I don't see a root starting soon I'll figure something out to get it in the tank. I'm glad you like the tank! I'm super happy with how it's coming along so far and now that this diatom outbreak seems to be curbing back (expressly with help from The Roombas as my family has nicknamed the snails) so I should be able to post more pictures soon.
