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

nabokovfan87

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    11,086

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    69

  • Feedback

    100%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    The main issue is simply that no matter what, you have such a large risk because you have a shared filtration and one fish in one tank sends the pathogens to the other fish in the other tank. Even having something like 3-4 tubs might fit, lower your losses once we exclude other circumstances. Aeration looks fine, but I do see some foaming on the top, just a note. Definitely one of the circumstances and variables at play here. I can't speak to what is common, but going back to that otocinclus video, I would suggest trying to offer more food. This is also going to lead to more issues with water quality depending on what you're feeding and at what rate. If you're doing a very lean feeding 2x a week, I can't say that every fish is going to eat. That alone might be enough to contribute to the losses. It all depends on how hungry the fish are before they get to you. You will very likely have a much better result doing this yourself and it isn't difficult at all 🙂 If you can easily see illness do you remove those fish? do you treat for anything in your tanks?
  2. nabokovfan87
    I just filled a tank with CaribSea Crystal River. It's very similar to the "moonlight sand" but it's about double the particle size. I would not recommend BDBS, but I would recommend using either of the two above. If you want something cheaper, then I would go ahead and look out for pool filter sand. If you prefer black substrate, I would recommend Seachem flourite black (or black sand) for the tank. If you are doing a planted tank, I would look into using something underneath, capping it with any of the above mentioned substrates.
  3. nabokovfan87
    I am definitely not experienced in this, but I did have to do it. Let's just say there's a reason I have 3-4 buckets on hand at any one point in time for fish stuff. Plants in one, rocks in one, fish in another. I setup their destination ahead of time and then I took everything out and tried to QT it or remove dead parts of plants and such. Fish were fine, rocks were generally fine. the biggest issue for me was rocks and hardscape that had plants on it. It kind of always has to have a place to go. This is kind of where I like Dean's indoor tup setups for the sake of having things with a place to go, even for a few weeks, indoors. My tubs were indoors, I didn't have to worry about pests only algae. I had planned to clean the bins when I was done, after about 4-6 months of use.... no way. Not worth the time and effort and they were toast. Especially with the stuff I was dealing with. My process, sorry for the rambling, was to just clean everything as best I could. I wanted to have a place for it to go and keep everything wet. Take it from the pond, clean it, do whatever trimming or prep need be, then move it. When all the scape and plants were moved, then I moved the fish.
  4. nabokovfan87
    You feel like poison ivy because you have moss fingers from gluing moss all afternoon. Sidenote: currently playing rain sounds for the corydoras to set the mood 😂
  5. nabokovfan87
    Well, I can confirm that's not the panda pattern in any way shape or form. They are basically white the entire time. I do see the signature orange spot on them, so I do see the pattern. I am just totally intrigued at the striping along the top of the back / tail. Very cool stuff. It'll be fun to see how it changes when they get about 1/4-1/2" long or so.
  6. nabokovfan87
    Ah, very good point. I would totally add 2-3 drops on each tank just to have extra air. Tetra makes an AP300, one per tank would be perfect. It's meant for deep / pond style applications and you could very easily get 2-4 airstones per output. (Ap150 = 1 output, AP300 = 2 outputs) This subject and treatment, I would consider very relevant to what your fish go through prior to when you receive them as well. (minus the wood) Maybe @modified lung can confirm this given the industry knowledge!
  7. nabokovfan87
    In my situation, it's hot. very hot. when need be, doing a large water change, I'll dump ice into the bucket and then dump that into the tank. I use my hand to stir it and equalize the temp of the bucket. You can do this same thing by taking a large frozen bottle of something and setting it in the bucket that is 2/3 full. You run the water around the bucket with a pump head or your hand and then after 10-15 minutes it should be about as cold as it's going to get. You can also do the reverse to cool off beverages on the hot days. Add salt Ice and water to a container, stir it around, bottle is Ice cold. This also carries in to Japanese style cold brew coffee, iced tea recipes, etc. Essentially, ICE. That's your friend. In some reusable being preferred. I want them to spawn so frickin bad tonight. I just spent 2 hours working on the tank. 😂
  8. nabokovfan87
    Yeah. Is it a chance it's a mix of another species? I would've thought they were pepper corydoras or something. When I had panda fry that size they got their traditional black stripe. Then this is what my black one's looked like:
  9. nabokovfan87
    From what I saw and looked into. Eco Complete is just lava rocks. It's likely a mix of a few things, but just keep that in mind. It has these things in it, but they might not actually be readily available to the plants. I would imagine, no matter what you're using, if it's not soil itself (or soil balls like stratum and the others) then you're going to end up just using root tabs anyways. A lot of the planted substrates are advertised for the high ability to retain nutrients and not necessarily the ability to start with nutrients available to the plants. It's a rabbit hole, but just something to look into when you decide which one you use.
  10. nabokovfan87
    Awesome stuff, very interesting patterns right now.
  11. nabokovfan87
    Is each tank with it's own filtration or do they connect? My assumption is that it's related to a QT issue and prevalent in the tanks as a result. Using city water isn't really an issue as long as you're aware of the quality of the water itself. As long as the fish don't mind those water parameters, it's not really an issue. The second key determination is going to be how you're acclimating fish when you receive them. Is it an option for you to have tubs beside each of the tank that contain a very large water volume? Fish come into your care, they go to the tubs for QT, then you move them to the display tanks after you assure they don't have any issues? Maybe pond style tubs in general is just easier for this application and water volume?
  12. nabokovfan87
    I bet the corydoras love relaxing in that piece of wood that covers the sides underneath the trident. It's definitely struggling and looks like a lot of our tanks! It'll be interesting to see the journey with the tank 🙂. Looking forward to it! If you were to replace the Trident, or add a plant with some verticality behind it, what plants do you think will do well in that spot in this tank? I believe I am very familiar with this stuff in the back! Algae on the intake / piping?
  13. nabokovfan87
    Yeah. You'd be shocked to see someone mix up 5-10G of saltwater and to see exactly how much it takes. For context, there's a video of Cory doing the ich-X+Salt on the 800G for ich and it's just a cartoonish amount. It's not entirely what you'd use for straight salt water either.
  14. nabokovfan87
    Your PH is monumentally high. I don't know how much I trust that strip. I would try to ask a shop locally if you can have them test water for you. PH, KH, GH, Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia, and temperature. I think you're dealing with something called old tank syndrome. Second to that, because it's a goldfish tank you could be dealing with issues from a buildup of thiaminase. In terms of how to "fix this" there's a few things that need to happen in order and we need to investigate further to resolve it long term. First, we need to understand where the tank is at now. Getting the water tested from a secondary source. Whether that's a different test kit or a place that will do it for you. Second, we need to understand what your tap water is doing. This means the off-gassing test. A. Test water from the tap and record that data (tests mentioned above) B, Aerate that water sample for 24 hours with an airstone and retest. When you do your water changes in the tank, this is the parameters you'd expect to see as a result of that water change. C. Compare the results from test B to your tank water testing results. Third, 30% water changes, 1 every 24-48 hours to rebalance the tank and equalize your water quality. You'll need to do a good gravel vac, clean filters, clean impellers, and verify that everything is working properly to maintain water quality. Fourth, long term care at this point. Gravel vac once a week. Water changes once every 7-14 days. Testing weekly. And hopefully all of this results in a tank where parameters are stable for the fish and they can recover. Can you please share your filtration and how you have it setup?
  15. nabokovfan87
    oh it definitely has, 100%. I've torn it down and sprayed equipment and everything with the H202, but I'm not great at treatment with that. I have notes from OG on how to do it and I'll research some more. It'll get there. It's such a battle with this stuff and it seems to be more common these days so it's some pretty volatile stuff.
  16. nabokovfan87
    Yes, correct. The good sign is that other stuff is the tank is dying off. Not everywhere. I would need to do a massive treatment, try to clean every surface of the tank to eradicate it. Based on the conversation I had with OnlyGenus and the things I've been seeing. The waves and the cycle of treatments with this tank.... I need to make sure the spores themselves, in the water and that hide on every surface, equipment, hardscape, plants, substrate, etc. If something is left untreated in some capacity, then I will have a bloom at some slight imbalance and then things take off again. The cycle I have been seeing and makes sense with the above added detail is that I clean everything, do well, manual removal and things die back. I add new plants, they take hold, then "something happens" and then things fall off and the algae blooms. I see new growth, then I see that get covered by the algae. Then I go back to cleaning, new plants, etc. The moss is fighting this stuff off, I am having very "clean" water, and seeing the plants do the work this time. So that's a good step. I will end up treating the wood, rocks, plants, and do one more big clean and see how it goes. I will try to manually remove it from the bark of the wood to avoid the big bloom and then treat it with RR after that point.
  17. nabokovfan87
    Yeah, that's where I got mine. Same bag I've seen everyone else use. Locally where I'm at there's a ton of metal manufacturing, so maybe that is why. I can't explain it. The only "black sand" I'll end up trying one of these days if the tahitian black sand if it ever exists again. Beyond that, I'll be content with white. I can't use the cichlid mix stuff because of my water. All good 🙂
  18. nabokovfan87
    I would 100000000% try to do silvertips if you've never kept them. That schooling behavior might be intense for the gourami. I would try to have 2-3 gouramis if you can just so they have a herd and then your 2-3 smaller nano fish. I know groups of gouramis are a major issue. Upper water: Gourami Mid water: nano fish Lower: Corydoras, Catfish, or Ram or Apisto In terms of size, I think green neons and neon tetras work well. Chili rasbora, ember tetras as a second group for contrast. In terms of rasbora they tend to like cooler temps, but I would check out the neon green (kabutai) rasboras as a place to start. Something yellow would be the silvertips, and your pseudomugil. As long as they have plants and cover, I think it all works and you have a very active tank with separation. Temps for all of that seem to work. Maybe even instead of a bottom cory you have a pygmy one. I don't know how they do with temps, but it would go back and forth between bottom and midwater and interact well with everything.
  19. nabokovfan87
    Send a photo if you can of the water surface, if you see any surface film. Usually what you're describing is just an algae bloom and it's very normal. You don't really do anything to treat it but monitor ammonia and nitrates and water changes.
  20. nabokovfan87
    Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about! I was going to ask "white mopani?", but it's one of the more common woods I have around me. Hot tip, if you go to the big box store and the selection in the fish area isn't great be sure to check the reptile section. It's all sold by zoomed and they sort things all by flat spots and what works best for which specific type of animal. I had an issue once where I bought a decently size piece and it had some weird mold or issue with it. A type of sap. I emailed them, they asked me to send it to them and they sent me back basically a perch for a giant bearded dragon or something. It was the size of a dinner plate, about 4-6" thick and 10 or so inches square. Mopani is cool, it's cheap, and when you find good pieces it'll last forever basically. Moss loves it too! which is awesome.
  21. nabokovfan87
    I know it's not remotely possible, but... would be fun to work on someone's tank for a day. You come and work on my algae mess, I'll mess with yours! 😂 I dig the way you have the wood arched over one another in that way. I tend to do that a lot with my hardscapes and it's so nice when things grow in and the fish have these lanes to go into.
  22. nabokovfan87
    Yeah. It's this red algae aka BBA / Staghorn stuff. I was talking with OnlyGenus about it and I'm *pretty sure* it's literally in the water into the house at this point. Went from normal water to septic and I'm sure this stuff is everywhere. What you're seeing is kind of hard because the glass bending the view a bit. The seiryu is grey and white, there is a crevice and in that crevice you're seeing the brown diatom, then you have the black staghorn stuff, but it's short, on either end of that brown diatom algae. That white patch in the middle or light brown is just the brown diatoms. LOL, I'll let her know you said hey hey. There was one today, just swimming around trying to find a spot. would stop for 1 second, taste the algae, "nope" then fly around to another. Amanos are so picky sometimes. I actually saw one of the black corys grazing on the brown diatoms on the Seiryu this morning. It explains why they don't eat food much, they got enough 24/7! 😂 Then under the center of the tank in the flow, the big female cory, the big male, and their little one hanging out. The little one wanted to be in the middle, Pops wasn't having it so he moved, then the little one chased him around. LOL. They figured it out, but that's my morning. Very interesting. I have some doing this since I added CO2. Bacopa. You might see similar behavior from those ones as well. These were cuttings, stems are having issues and the leaves are wilting away and covered now. The algae went from black to brown with CO2, but the actual stems themselves, where the leaves meet the stalk I'm seeing new plants pop up all over.
  23. nabokovfan87
    I have almost never seen this coloration! It's always green+blue or green+red. Looks awesome! Murphy looks GIGANTIC. wow. Corydoras from Cory. How awesome. I am super excited to see how they do for you. I always find myself wanting some.
  24. nabokovfan87
    Adorable little guy. 🙂
  25. nabokovfan87
    There's totally a reason for it! But I think I really appreciate how he views things. He takes a tank down when he sets one up, etc. He evolves things. His video on "when to give up" was one I always find myself going back to. He's a thoughtful one with his advice. And who doesn't love the clones!
×
×
  • Create New...