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nabokovfan87

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Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    That's awesome. Something I wish to accomplish one day is a crazy planted tank that does that with wood for things to climb and latch onto. Rock wall or something for moss to climb up, cork wall, something.
  2. nabokovfan87
    Prompt #2:
  3. nabokovfan87
    Amanos? I'm gonna say "they can't be bothered." LOL. If it was shorter, they'd go to town. But after a certain length, nah.... that's on you.
  4. nabokovfan87
    There's a lot of "thrown together" concepts that I am certain I point to every single chance I get and then I find myself sitting there rewatching the same advice over and over because it's such great advice. One video I would love to see modernized, even the concept itself is the "how to net a fish" where he is asked a question and then makes a video. I don't think I've seen that opening to a video more than once, but I'm sure I've seen videos as a result of questions a few hundred times. This is one of the videos I always find myself returning to. Not my answer, but it's really, really up there.
  5. nabokovfan87
    Hey hey everyone, I don't know that I have an answer to this question quite yet. I think Cory's stream today was very poignant and relevant to the topic. "we might not be asking the right questions." Let's say you're sharing a video with a friend who is considering getting a tank. Whether you're sharing an amazing story, a very natural habitat on where the fish come from, or just a very beautiful tank..... you get one video. What would you share. why?
  6. nabokovfan87
    What is the temp on this tank...? What is your PH and other parameters? For columnaris, photos really would help out. Try doing a video. Feeding might get the fish out.
  7. nabokovfan87
    It will. If you want to minimize spray on the lid but essentially maximize the ability for the tank to dissolve in air then you can use the Aquaria Neo Air diffusers Same as CO2 diffusers, but designed for air. Second to that, the ziss air stones work really well, just be careful with back pressure damaging your pump.
  8. nabokovfan87
    I'm going to guess it starts with an S. That's interesting! I wonder why.
  9. nabokovfan87
    Max for me is 10. then I up brightness.
  10. nabokovfan87
    That's beautiful... Only grows emersed or?
  11. nabokovfan87
    Let's just say building a classroom for fish study is an epic journey? I moved 2 tanks, I'm exhausted and waiting for the hobbitses to cook second breakfast. 😂
  12. nabokovfan87
    Thank tank I will dry out, the other one that has the mopani I'll move on that stand. I probably will end up adding it to the sides for the shrimp. Help me see them, if anything. The black cory tank has that pest algae on the seams and so I don't want to use that tank longer term if I don't have to given I probably damaged them trying to clean it out. They like to go up. LOL. I had to drain the water a bit, but once that was done, no biggie. When I took out the adults water was still pretty high and they thought they could get out.
  13. nabokovfan87
    It's been a week.... Weather here in "Sunny SoCal" hasn't gotten any better and it's not a bad thing at all. This is from yesterday morning, 2nd day of snow and the temperatures especially at night are expected to stay pretty cold for a few weeks. Kind of reminds me of looking out of the window at Grandma's house in Denver. There's been a few changes and things shuffled around. Not a great accomplishment visually yet and my room is a massive pile of messes that got moved around. I would've loved to move the dresser in the spot that was a "closet" but is really a sheet of drywall and nothing more. Unfortunately getting power there isn't the easiest. I opted to move all the coffee stuff and go ahead and place that on the far wall, move the future shrimp tank by that wall. I am using the stand that houses the black corydoras, so they were officially first to be moved out of the way. I want to give them a calmer move and when all said and done that tank will basically run off an air pump and nothing else. Once I get the big tank setup, the black cory tank will be empty and I can finally put the rubber pad on the stand. Before: After (phase 1): Inspection crew doing their job. Phase 2: This is just the black corydoras and the black swordtail males. The other fish are in a second bucket with the amanos. Tank in place Finally done with the first part of the move. You tell me if you can spot the 75G "hole" 🙂 Tea this morning. I am going to have to figure out coffee here shortly, but that's for another day. I think I decided on the 75G to run one tidal unmodded and one fully modded. I don't have a prefilter sponge for the second one, so that is just what it's going to have to be for now. I haven't modded anything, but hoping to have enough silicone and that it didn't dry out yet. Grace bumped her nose, has a little bit of damage there, but I think she's ok. One of the large corydoras, might've injured itself. All of the big ones freaked out on me when moving, but everyone was up and around today like nothing happened, which is a good sign. I'll keep an eye on ammonia and try to give them time before anything happens next. I already don't like fish right next to the door because it does freak them out when they hear the doors close in the hallway. (especially with no real walls on either side of the room) I used a tub to hold water, tried to reserve as much as possible to keep parameters similar. This will matter a lot more when I move the shrimp and when I move this tank into the 75. We'll see how it all goes, but step 1 is done. Ended up finishing at about 3 AM last night. I hope I didn't make too much noise and I'm glad it's done.
  14. nabokovfan87
    Long term they need the KH to keep shell health. You might get some stress molts, but eventually it will cause deaths for most shrimp species. My tanks are at ~60-80 ppm KH. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea what is your KH? Just curious because of the molt stuff you had going on.
  15. nabokovfan87
    I gave it 48 hours with 1/2 lb per 5g. That first test was to just see if there was any difference, then test every few days following that.
  16. nabokovfan87
    😞 I thought you had longfin pandas. My mistake. Sorry about that! @Cinnebuns Do you have some!?!?
  17. nabokovfan87
    When I had my barbs I would always have 2-3 of the pack that just didn't seem right. Bloated or just always getting picked on or bacterial issues from stress (being chased). I think now looking back, a lot of that was just from the way the tank was setup and as plants grew in they had places to hide and recover. I also thing part of that was literally just egg bound females. My point being that sometimes the fish is fine and we (especially I did) over analyzed things. I think that black spot might just be a pattern on the fish, but hard to say. I don't see anything wrong with the fish other than drab colors from the stress it's under. Airstone and clean water and time is what I would do in that situation. The way I dose salt is that I dose it, then slowly dwindle the level down with water changes. Salt might be full dose for a week, then a week off with 3-4 good water changes before I dose in more. I tend to want to give the tank as well as the fish a bit of a break. Hopefully things improve or you have the confidence that the fish is perfectly healthy soon. In terms of one other thing you mentioned about tetras wanting a buddy. That's where I prefer to have the 3 black sides on the aquarium. fish can hide in the back of the tank and feel safe without needing decor or other things. I put a cave or a piece of wood in the tank as well, but I tend to opt for that method as well just to reduce stress as much as possible while the fish is feeling ill / exposed.
  18. nabokovfan87
    You are showing ammonia in the water.... Job done in my book. I've set up "a few" tanks. I added a QT tank the same day I bought the tank and had it setup with a filter, heater, and one fish. There are a million things you could add to an egg dish, but none of them are necessarily wrong and things like background, your own experiences, your preferences, your struggles, and so on will all shape how you decide to accomplish something. If I was starting from day 1 with a new tank, no matter if it's a 10G or a 120G, I set the tank up, add air, and let it run. I don't care if it has a heater, I don't care if it has anything in it. I want the water to move around and be water in an aquarium for a little bit. As this point, maybe you need to do a WC if you didn't clean the tank beforehand. Check level, fix anything you need to, then proceed to cycling. Tip #1: Water changes do not break / stop / kill your cycle. Changing water in a tank is normal. If you see fungused food, yeah it's contributing ammonia, but "fresh" decomposing food probably does a better job. Think of it the same way you'd feed compost. If you want to keep the bacteria healthy, you need to feed it, mix it, churn it, etc. If you're going to change water every 2 weeks, change water and don't be afraid to. If you don't want to change water, don't. It's entirely up to you. Check your PH, KH, GH and track those in addition to your ammonia cycle, nitrites, and nitrates. Tip #2: You need ammonia, not a specific amount. Water+Ammonia is the key here. That's the chemical reaction and that encourages bacteria. Once you get ammonia, then you get nitrites and eventually nitrates. Tip #3: You need patience. "Good food takes time" as they say. If you want something handcrafted, artisan made, beautiful, and that does the job well, then you need to take the time to make sure the process is done well. Sit back and picture what the tank will be. Research, ponder, dream. It's a glass box with limitless potential and could be anything you can envision, so take time to breath, imagine, and let the tank cycle. Give the plants time to grow. Give the substrate time to compact. Give the bacteria places to colonize. Give algae time to do it's thing and give the light, atmosphere, and the room itself time to acclimate with the tank. You might find a humidity issue, you might have a window light issue, you might need to do a ton of different things or adjust the stand. Get it setup right, then enjoy how well you did it. Tip #4: Once you have nitrite and nitrate take your time to add fish. This is a specific point and it extends tangentially to the previous tip. If you try to add a lot of fish you will cause too much stress on the animals, potentially have ammonia / nitrite poisoning issues, oxygenation issues, and other trials while you get to the point where the bacteria in the filtration can handle the bioload of the tank. Add a few fish every week, maybe one species at a time. Each time you add fish, move decor around to reset paths and boundaries. Tip #5: You don't have to, probably shouldn't feed the fish right when you add them. Add the fish, monitor them. give them at least 24 hours if they have been fed regularly in QT. If you have struggling fish, you might need meds and some fish won't eat in that case. If they are bloated, you probably want to give them a few days to clear up. Most of your ammonia comes from fish respiration. Let the tank acclimate to the gill function of the fish and that aspect of the tank load prior to dumping in food.
  19. nabokovfan87
    There is tumbled lava rock. There is also eco complete which is lava rock and some have reported issues with corydoras and that substrate. Others have reported no issues. If you want black, I'd check out fluorite black.
  20. nabokovfan87
    Start here.... I am with you. In my shrimp tanks I don't want anything like that.
  21. nabokovfan87
    While I do enjoy the stands... I would like to have a rack one day. Nice work, I hope you find it makes things easier and enjoyable for you!
  22. nabokovfan87
    Yeah, mine never had any! 😞 Beautiful albino BNP. Nice choice.
  23. nabokovfan87
    cc @TeeJay @Guppysnail GuppySnail, can you post a photo of your long fins? Kitten has been trying to get a grasp for how long the fins are and quality of her corydoras 🙂 I'd suggest reaching out to flip aquatics. They just did a tour on pecktec's channel and they have a rescue tank that they use where people can adopt fish that don't meet their standards or quality. Bent spines and that sort of thing. Given your own situation and what you've shared, they might be willing to help out. I can't speak for them, but it might be a place where everything can go and take off that burden from you. Genuinely, I hope you find a good home and getting a place for these fish and this stuff is easy on you.
  24. nabokovfan87
    There is a long answer to the question.... Essentially think about how stable or unstable your water is. Let's say from the tap you're at 6.4-6.7 and low or no KH. Waste or just oxygenation lowers and PH drops to 5.5-6.0. If you add say 1/2 lb per 10g of crushed coral and then give the tank a few days, maybe your PH will go from 6.4 to 6.8, but you have some KH now that can make it more stable. If you add 1 lb per 10g of crushed coral and then give the tank a few days to settle, your ph might go in the 7.0-7.2 range. Once waste happens or a water change you might have the PH drop back down to 6.8 and then slowly rise again over the next couple of weeks. If you add more, PH would buffer higher, KH would buffer higher, swings should decrease, etc. Depending on how you set up the coral in the tank you can somewhat control how things go, but you're buffering the tank and there are variables to doing so. If you add slightly more, slightly less water, then that might change how the buffering impacts the tank. If you're stocking in the tanks need 6.5-7.0 ph then dose on the lower side and target a specific KH value. If you're stocking in the tank needs 7.0-7.5 ph then go ahead and lean towards higher KH value. Eventually, and with testing, you'll be able to regulate things by your KH value and adjust the buffers that way. CC is designed to be a slow release over time. What is your KH from the tap and in the tank?
  25. nabokovfan87
    There is CC available from the co-op. I'm not sure on price difference. Just make sure the aragonite / CC you get is what you want. The aragonite commonly sold is sold as substrate and has a very very high QTY per gallon to be added as if you were always trying to max out the KH in your tank. If you're slightly trying to buffer the water, do so slowly. Run some tests in a 5G bucket and scale up accordingly. If you get coral that's crushed really fine it'll dissolve quickly but may not last as long as larger Coral to buffer over time. Caribsea has about 3-5 different versions of aragonite so just be careful with what you get and how you use it. Someone on the forum had posted ( @Chick-In-Of-TheSea) and things didn't go well. We are still trying to understand what happened and why. Just one of those things.... Whenever you buffer water run tests at scale, verify over time and try not to shock the system (the tank) with massive swings in KH, GH, PH, temp, well... You get the idea.
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