nabokovfan87

100% Especially fast growing plants like moss and floating plants. If you ever need to setup a "QT tank" I would encourage you to do the following method in future. It is a long proven, reliable, effective, and safe way to ensure you have a "cycled" tank ready for fish in moments instead of days or weeks. 1. Have an established tank setup and ready to go. 2. Have a container setup that is clean, sterile, and safe for fish QT (10G tank, bucket, tub, etc) 3. Add a sponge filter and connect it up with your QT specific items. 4. Go to your established tank and take a handful of substrate, chunks of foam, hardscape, or cycled media and add it to the QT tank. 5. In your established tank, replace the media / sponge that you took into the QT tank. By doing that you're about as best as you're going to get without having a dedicated QT system and you can either add a pinch of food to keep the QT system cycled or add the fish. If you are going to have a lot of fish, then potentially you might need to have multiple QT tanks to spread the load. One final note. If you decide to end QT or move the fish into the tank and then something crops up, you might end up with a situation where you need to then clean your display tank. Apart from fish safety, health of the animal, and contamination, one of the biggest reasons for QT is to protect the established system from introducing things you don't want. While your QT setup is going through it's struggles, sometimes the point is simply that your display isn't.

You can use acrylic paint, posterboard, window film, a black trash bag, and a variety of other things. On any tank with light on the side I tend to black it out on the back (always) and the side affected or both sides. I use window tint, but you might have something on hand that works too! I think everything you're doing is fine. Just need to go through a few setup questions, but clearly the tank is cycling and will be cycled fully with time. 🙂 For the substrate concern I would try to email them. It looks like it's a very very fine particle size, almost sand, and that might be ok? I can't say, but I see on the front it's shrimp safe. Doesn't speak to anything about snails. Perhaps amanos is a solution here instead of swapping the substrate for the snails until you're certain about safety. I think this might be the email to contact them, but it's difficult to find the actual website. https://www.piscesusa.com/contact

Thank you! It's been a journey and it's so nice, so encouraging to see fry.

Definitely. I am excited. It's going to be an interesting week in the fish tank! I swear the swordtails are in the tank watching the tumbler like it's a TV set and they want popcorn. NO thank you!

There is a lot of unique filters and heaters. Those may or may not require electrical connections. Honestly, not an easy question to answer, but that's an awesome trip and a great place to go visit for the hobby. If possible. I'd try to find rare fish / plants as long as you can get them home.

Watching this all night now. I guess I'm not sorting eggs out.

I have 3 kinds of repashy and flakes. I'll be using the raw powder.

Getting the breeder box and stuff setup. I'll keep an eye out here for advice! Ok. Typically how long until first meal?

Not all the eggs have done anything. I did a WC today (normal maint. day) and that may have triggered some? Essentially, the tumbler was submerged the entire time, but the temp dropped (71-->66) and the tank is slowly trying to catch back up. I am assuming because they are this species, they don't have yolk sacks and need food several times a day? I just don't want to run risk of them getting tossed around or a risk of them getting starved so I know the choice is critical for success!

Update: @modified lung @Adam Swarbrick @TheSwissAquarist @TOtrees @AllFishNoBrakes (and everyone else!) Sorry for the mass tag, but it's a critical question. I have fry now.... because they are corydoras I don't see yolks, should I go ahead and try to move/feed them? Video shortly.

Corydoras typically won't bother the shrimp. They just don't really go after them too much. The best thing I can offer as advice is to have wood + moss on that wood. Rocks as well. It gives a place for eggs to go, great for the shrimp, and great for fry to hide in. Probably harder to get but the moss balls are also great for a setup like that, especially if you can get a few different sizes.

Some dechlorinators come with it in their mix.

Yep. You can drill a small hole and use an airline type of valve to drain it. Not really any way around it

For sure. I appreciate the words. The moss is growing, which makes my little grinchy heart grow 4 sizes whenever I see it. That's why I get so frustrated with the issues of the spot treatment killing a section, ordered glue to propogate it and it was all dried up, then now the wood and moss is died blue. 😂 What next..... Alright so, water change is done. Filter is back to no skimmer (it started up so nicely@TeeJay) and I remembered to turn the heater back on this time. Tank is at 72, water after the change was 66 degrees. Hopefully not too stressful on the eggs. I'll spend some time this afternoon and watch the tanks and check everything. If I see things a bit better I'll go ahead and try to sort the eggs out. It definitely looks like an intimidating process at first and so I really give props to all those hobbyists with their decked out setups and the hard work they do to help put fish in the shops. Would be so nice to have a rack right now and a QT tank to spare. I need 3 actually.... Meds are on the way for the issue in the adjacent tank and I'll be spending some time tonight checking on that fish a lot and watching that tank a lot. One of the female swordtails is actually a male and so that's likely causing the stress. With potential fin/body rot I don't want to move anything from that tank over. Either the male goes in the hang on breeder box, the female goes into QT section, or I do both. Undecided right now. Craziest thing to me is that I have 3 big box stores. 2 saltwater stores, 2 "other" stores that sell pet stuff and aquarium supplies and not one of them actually has meds that will help. Kind of pathetic. Had to order them online and it's what literally should be a very common med, kanaplex.

AH. ok. that's a good thing then. I was thinking of something else entirely. I thought it was some fancy way of connecting two tanks and then you have the check valve before it. But yeah... drain the AQ down, and then you would modify the plumbing as need be. Other than that, you'd just leave it.

Oh trust me... it happens. Can you drain the aquarium below the top of the pipe and then open it up? You're going to have some water in there. I guess I don't understand what the Y-valve does (literally) or what it's for. BUT.... that's how I would get it off.

I vote green (Kabutai) rasboras or these ones... Sundadanio axelrodi (Common name looks like neon blue rasbora?) I also think white clouds and chili rasbora is a good pick.

I appreciate all the detail you're giving with the clips and stuff. A lot of us might never get to experience this and I am really enjoying seeing it so well Not a joke, but slightly funny. I was staring at my tank and thinking to myself earlier, "well, what am I going to do with all these eggshells everywhere for the ones that don't hatch?" It's fine..... I just need some rest and coffee. LOL *takes a sip of coffee* Off to go try to do that water change.... I think I have a decent plan. Oh I was going to say. Add some wood if you can. I think Dean, and many others, has reported that it's very helpful to success.

I'm very sorry for what you're going through and I hope things are doing ok. It will get better. 🙂 There's is a quote from Walden, a book by Henry David Thoreau and it's about leaving the day behind you and trying to take each breath, step, moment, and day into a better one. For all of your tanks, I would suggest a few, maybe 3, 50% water changes (or 4-5 30% ones) in order to stop something like old tank syndrome from setting in. It sounds like you're on the way to doing that, which is good news. For this tank specifically, because it's a betta tank, I would move the fish aside into a bucket with an airstone or something for the day so you can work at your own pace. With that aside you can focus on draining the tank down and removing the duckweed with a net. Scrape the glass and use a brush or something to scrape any rocks or wood to try to remove the mass of algae. It'll like come out with a big net scoop or two. Once you're at that point, trim the plants down to a reasonable height and potentially re-plant any stems you would like to see grow out a little bit more. I wouldn't do much more than that. Modifying the duckweed means that you will be able to give those plants at the bottom more light. Whatever your lighting is right now, Limit it to 3-4 hours to try to reduce algae. You can also cut it back in power just for the time being so that you can help fight off a lot of this severe algae. I think all you really ought to do is add 3-4 amano shrimp and let them help you with the tank longer term. No big deal and the betta shouldn't be able to torment them. Lastly, I just want to say that you will eventually find that cleaning, maintenance is actually a soothing exercise. You feel like you're doing something, and it's something fun because it makes you feel better when you're done with it. You're mentally trying to improve and physically improving the tank. There is a lot of stories about fishkeepers going through similar issues and how the hobby has helped them. I'll post a link to one story you might enjoy. Try to have a good day, the tank, despite the algae, looks great and the fish is awesome. Take care of yourself and the fish! I know Bentley has one, there is one of a guy who has fish up in the mountains and I was trying to find that one. But here is one from the ACOs very own Zenzo.

If one of the mods can, please hide/remove/merge this thread. There is a duplicate and it looks like it has the photos attached. I'll head over there to reply!

Pretty sure the Methylene Blue died that moss that was killed to a blue-green color now. Very bizarre looking right now. The wood looks discolored slight too, so that's frustrating. Algae is still there though! When I first dosed it, it was super evident how severe the algae is (yet again). I might cut back the lights again or something. Unsure. It's maintenance day, which is slightly frustrating because I have to do a lot of work and I have eggs in the tank. I can try to have water aside, ready to go, but the goal is to keep the eggs submerged and to not dislodge them. There was 6 eggs on the glass literally right next to the tumbler and I am seeing them slowly fall off. there's 3 left. There is a ton of eggs in the tumbler and I still am unsure which are good or bad. I am trying to keep an eye on any sort of fungus, but even the eggs that looks solid white have some spots inside that might be eyes. I just am unfamiliar with them to know what to really look for. Some of the translucent ones I might be seeing the coloration through the egg and that's why it seems fertile. As part of the ongoing filter work, I need to swap out the filter back to the normal one (skimmer sealed off) and then I will feel a lot better. Who knows, might find some eggs in there too. I am just unsure of exactly, specifically how to handle some of the situations and I don't want to stress the tank right now. The otos seem a bit lethargic, clamped fins. The shrimp, swords, and the corydoras are all doing ok. In my other tank, I have a fish that potentially has some pretty severe fin rot (close to body rot) and that isn't great. I dosed meds last night, but I'm just a bit drained with all of the stuff going on. I need an easy week with the fish.... and algae to be nice to me. I might try to turn up the tumbler ever so slightly. If anyone has any advice on how to do the WC with eggs on the glass, much appreciated. Thank you! EDIT: Very delayed update on testing 11/18/2022 Note: everything is a mess right now because I've changed to lean dosing and less light. Temp: 71.1 (I'll end up bumping this up to 72 that way when it's colder things stay slightly warmer) 29G that needs 300W heaters feels ridiculous but that's how cold ambient is right now. Phophate: N/A (did not test) Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: 5 ppm GH: 300+ KH: 60 PH: 6.8-7.0 Chlorine: 0

Might be EU packaging or something? It's just the box. Hopefully they are finally using up all the old stock... 😂 For me, when I see them, they are all under this box: Aquaclear = AC150 = 150 G/hour ..... which is now the AC30. so yeah, old label for sure.

Oh no... these will do what they will! LOL The panda horde has earned it's right to self-regulate and they are very good about caring for the fry if there is room. I leave it up to them, to the tank, and what they wish to do. They lay eggs way too often for me to pull them 🙂

@Minanorayyou'd never believe half the panda horde is gone. More breeding behavior. Video is dark because I have blue/green/red lights on (not white) But you can see their tunnel around the anubias they formed and just how much they want to lay eggs tonight. I've got 4 or 5 right now trying to lay on front glass.

Put a bucket or a lot of tupperware underneath. A photo of the setup might help with how to address the situation. A lot of people use gate valves to shut off flow for something like this.