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nabokovfan87

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Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    pH being low is indicative of excessive waste. Unless you're running blackwater, botanicals, or a ton of wood, the PH should be 6.8 or so. Active substrate will tend to buffer down things, but stabilize once it's charged in that 6.8 range. First thing I would do is dose in prime, add air, and give yourself some time to test the KH of the tank as well as your source water. Clean the filtration and make sure that is working properly. Once you have confirmation where things are the likely next step would be water changes, adjust filtration, adjust KH, and/or adjust air. Fish at the surface could be temperature too, affecting oxygenation. Let's check everything and see what parameters should be and triple check everything. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh
  2. nabokovfan87
    😂 Well you definitely win the more fun story. I just felt like an idiot for a bit. Not even a 'whoops", but mad I had this crack eat the wheel on my skates and whatever happened happened. My mom worked late that night, nurse, and so she got home and went to bed. My grandma was over with us and I can inside and sat in the chair trying really hard not to move for a few hours. When my mom woke up she talked to my grandma and was pretty frustrated she didn't get woken up, but it is what it is. I still remember that day and some of those moments in the hospital like yesterday. Pretty sure I just played in shoes after that. ....and it wasn't even the worst injury from street hockey. (I'm a pretty awesome goalie and my shins have the dents to prove it.) I learned, I failed really, really hard at life because I could not mentally or physically understand how to eat a taco left handed. Just couldn't do it. 😂 I commend you all for being able to have fish tanks with that. I could do it now, back then.... Nah. Water changes get to wait, unless we bust out the python.
  3. nabokovfan87
    Very sorry for your loss. 😔
  4. nabokovfan87
    @Steele I apologize for the tangent about water mixing! I know you're trying to do your best for the fish and I can't confirm if it's causing the deaths you're experiencing. I would keep an eye out like @Guppysnail mentioned for aggression and mating behavior. Hopefully some of the other rainbow keepers can chime in here as well with any related advice and experiences too!
  5. nabokovfan87
    I wouldn't do the step of adding the buffer and shaking it. One you let it sit, things will stratify and that's partially what you're trying to avoid. Meaning.... Just add in the buffer whenever you aerate the water for your water change. After about an hour everything would be mixed, dissolved, and oxygenated. I've seen reports that ~30 minutes is enough if you really are pressed for time. A note from the salty side of things... much longer time to dissolve and mix, but it is specified on each brand of salt. Once the desired salinity level is reached you should let the water continue to mix and aerate for the amount of time recommended by the manufacturer. Some salt mixes are best used within 3-4 hours of mixing (Red Sea Coral Pro) while others should mix for 24-48 hours before use (95% of other salt mix brands).
  6. nabokovfan87
    @PotatoFish I can't say for sure, but I think the puffer is missing it's tail? There might be fin rot going on there. That's awesome. I love the attention to detail to shift things around for the fish to explore. 🙂
  7. nabokovfan87
    @Colu Here's the vid. I noticed some listing to the side at the 3:45 mark or so and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea mentioned also seeing it at the 2:43 mark. I understand, I agree. I just really don't know what else to do as far as reducing the stress on Spike. Watching the feeding, the tetras are immensely active and he's just sort of staring at them with the, "you done yet"? I don't think rams are timid at all, and being able to cut way back on the food would help the bacteria in the tank as well. I'm not sure when the tetras are safe to move... but I think removing them may help in some way, that's all.
  8. nabokovfan87
    A lot of times, you'll see people who breed and keep shrimp say you need to drip water back in. You don't. A lot of the time issues come when water has been sitting and used or their is older mindsets where they say you have to use "aged water". For some lines of shrimp, dripping the water back in slowly is absolutely helpful. Basically, you want stable water. Water in = water out, reducing all the shock and stress as much as possible. That's all it is.
  9. nabokovfan87
    Just combine these two. 2 hours is plenty to dissolve the minerals and give the water time to "wake up".
  10. nabokovfan87
    Are you able to move out the tetras any time soon? 2:43 also & not sure. I’ve never had a fish with a swim bladder ailment. @Colu and @Odd Duck If you have any thoughts based on the video it would greatly help to try to make the right next step. OD mentioned being extremely busy this week, but just wanted to tag for the sake of helping at all. Thank you both. We appreciate you!
  11. nabokovfan87
    It's basically all minerals, the difference being that for saltwater one of those minerals is NaCl
  12. nabokovfan87
    Yep exactly. For shrimp as well, you don't want to "bomb the tank" with non oxygenated water. It will and can kill them pretty easily. There's some details in the video, happy to explain further. The word your looking for is stagnant water. I.e. you don't ever want to store water when it's stagnant and things can grow. One of the easiest ways to counter that is to keep it in a sealed container until you're ready to use it. My suggestion would be, adjust the method so that you store water, then when you're ready to do a change that day, day of or night before, aerate it and add in your buffers. That gives the buffers time to mix and they won't stratify. They water won't off gas your buffers because it's a short time period as well.
  13. nabokovfan87
    I was playing street hockey at the time. 😉 Landed on my elbow.
  14. nabokovfan87
    It should last a very long time, not just a year. There's no reason to ever replace soil unless it's actually turned to mush (crushed). 5-10 years is pretty normal. 2-3 minimum. The big thing there is just to look at the root development. Good soil (charged.and full of nutrients) would have a lot of root development. The plants will anchor themselves and send out roots looking for nutrients and accessing them.
  15. nabokovfan87
    You want to aerate the water for a few hours before adding it back to the tank if it's sitting. Buffers take time to dissolve, but letting them sit can cause issues. You might be off gassing them or letting things settle out if you mix too far ahead of time. Day before or sat of is usually best. Having a trashcan on wheels might be a lifesaver for you. Essentially, if you add in water and it's not aerated, it could cause the fish to not have the oxygenation in the part of the water and cause some stress or other issues. Like swimming into a room full of smoke is the analogy (no oxygen). Just something to keep an eye out for. This one has the bit about when to get the water mixed:
  16. nabokovfan87
    Sounds good. S. Repens can get really dense and bushy. If you feel adventurous there's others that fit the bill too. There's a few "mini" stems that could work also where they are designed for mid ground or foreground, but might be a perfect background in this setup.
  17. nabokovfan87
    Active substrates means that "things change". The soil has a certain charge and ions from the water are attracted and held into the soil. This also means that sometimes, the soil isn't very potent and it takes water changes, waste, and time to really charge it up. Other types, not so much. In aquascaping, you'll see tabs right away as well as a layer of powder nutrients, Powersand is another one, where you have a layer of initial nutrients to start that process quickly and give the substrate some nutrition long term. I tabbed my substrate about 2-4 months after I first planted it. I used old substrate as well that had a lot of nutrients in it as well as a cap. That being said, I still have run into issues and it's a situation where I'm going to pull off some stuff, add more soil, and reset the balance here again... Tabbing again. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but yeah. Soil, just like in farming, depletes over time and managing the soil is critical to long term success. Basically I would say yes and no. No you don't need to move plants around. Light plays a factor in positioning too. Plants often will get shaded out.
  18. nabokovfan87
    Definitely try to get an air pump and something for you to use long term. I don't know how effective the fan will be. When the water has meds or salt it's thicker. It's harder to move. So using a pump or air to help move the water is also part of the reason for that. After treatment and water change, then add in the stability. If you're going to do another treatment, I don't. Lower light helps with the stress on the fish and they don't feel the need to use energy coloring up, for instance. It's not a requirement and you don't need to do so for kanaplex. Levamisole is light sensitive and you would want to. Could be. That's why it's important to hold back food. Fish will eat off hard scape too. They can definitely go a week without anything. Yeah. It's the fin rot. It takes time for things to develop. Meaning, you're dosing rounds of meds and it takes time to raise up the level or the antibiotics. Salt helps. If it's been 2 treatments and you don't see an improvement, there are 2 other meds recommended for the disease treatment.
  19. nabokovfan87
    For trees? Yep! For Christmas type things... Very regional and depends. Awesome! Hopefully they enjoy it. 🙂 Very sorry about the arm. I broke mine on a sidewalk crack one day and it was definitely an experience I haven't forgotten. 😂 You'll be out of the cast soon!
  20. nabokovfan87
    In terms of water changes, I assume mixing station and the water is prepped ahead of time? How far ahead of time? From the sounds of it, I would eyeball the tank and check for aggression issues similar to what @Guppysnail experienced.
  21. nabokovfan87
    Just going to note that you might have an issue with the volume of water being changed. It might be beneficial to compare tank parameters to the tap by doing an off-gassing test. Take a sample of water from your water change source, test it right away. Then, aerate it for 24 hours and test again. Compare that data to what you're seeing in the tank. If parameters are off and you see something like old tank syndrome setting in, that would point towards stress on the fish. As far as feeding, how is that going? What kinds of foods are you using? Given that the issue is sudden it sounds like an injury. I wouldn't think that food is an issue, but it never hurts to check all the basics.
  22. nabokovfan87
    When I first setup my tank I had Dwarf hair grass from the coop and the emersed growth looks like your sketch. It might not be the same plant, but just wanted to note that in case that's what you saw.
  23. nabokovfan87
    Hm. That slope in the back really limits what you could grow in the back. Essentially you're looking at a big carpet I would think as opposed to something like stem plants as a focus. In the back, something like staurogyne repens might be really beautiful and give you that visual appearance of stems without growing too quickly or very tall. In the foreground, I would stick towards something that isn't tall like monte carlo. On the wood, I'm not sure what would fit. A lot of mosses will overgrow that area pretty quickly I think. I would stick to buce or anubias nana petite. ....... If the tank is such that you do have a ton of room and height for stems and bigger plants then it would be interesting to do a micro sword or hairgrass carpet. S. Repens in the mid ground would be cool around the base of the wood. Having hygrophila pinatifida would be a great one to have. For shrimp and corydoras having bigger leaves, wider leaves on things like crypts or swords will be helpful for their grazing behavior and laying eggs. I would actually use things like crypts around the midground as a contrast with the SRep and it's bright green leaves. There's a lot of really colorful swords, crypts that work well in the background. In terms of all of those fish you're wanting to have with a Betta, I would highly encourage checking the temperature recommendations for the species you plan to keep and ensure compatibility.
  24. nabokovfan87
    I just looked at my tank today doing maintenance and I've got a few females that have to be stuffed to the gills with eggs. It definitely is that time of year.
  25. nabokovfan87
    Highlight the text, then it'll pop up a box to quote it. Welcome to the forums, extremely interesting stuff! When you talk about aquaponics, one of the big things I would imagine is chemical use, what is allowed, etc. for anything that is designed for human consumption. A lot of people love the idea of adding in some plants to the top of a tank or using it to go from a tank towards tank+hydroponics style setup. Do you have any insight on aquarium stuff we use all the time and what is safe to use?
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