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Woowala

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Posts posted by Woowala

  1. Just bumping this up and spreading some love for uncle ned's.  When I went there for the first time many many years ago I was floored by all the rare fish and how willing Ned and Dan were to go out of their way to help out a young kid who was crazy about fish.  Extremely knowledgeable, kind, and passionate about the hobby- they are the standard by which I judge all other fish stores.  

  2. I did this with my first reef, a 75 gallon, way back in high school.  Changed it over to a big colony of Julidochromis transcriptus.  Ditched the skimmer and all the hardscape, kept the wet/dry and some of the lights.  Relatively painless.

    The thought of maintaining and paying for a 300 gallon reef gives me anxiety lol. 

    I would do a tanganyika tank- julies or some kind of rock dweller, cyprichromis for the top,  an area for shellies maybe,  and some open sand bed for enantiopus or some featherfins. So many options with 300 gallons. 

    • Like 1
  3. manifold.jpg.3366e6d5f91cc9d18f1f79d8ce8bc78c.jpg

    What's truly exciting though, is about 4 months ago I finished the first part of my water change system.  I've got about 20 small tanks ranging from 1-10 gallons and water changes were the bane of my existence, so I basically copied Jadren Aquatics' and Daku Aquatics' systems (many thanks to them if they ever see this) with one little tweak- I used a diaphragm pump for a water cooler instead of a way overpowered (for my needs) RO booster pump.  Around 30 bucks for the pump iirc. Whole thing cost about 150 bucks.  I still have to drain water manually with a siphon and bucket for the time being, planning out a Dean style sump bucket system to pump water outside, but filling the tanks is a dream.  Turn the valve for each tank, turn on the pump that's plugged into a smart plug with my phone, and enjoy my 6th cup of coffee for the day while I wait.  Takes about 3 min per gallon, which isn't fantastic but it's a good compromise as I don't like to add water back to shrimp and fry tanks too quickly.  The reservoir is in the laundry room and the pump handles the 8 ft of height and ~30 ft of RO tubing just fine.

    I may make a separate thread just to get more eyeballs on this, but if you've got more than a couple tanks and hate water changes (who doesn't? crazy people, that's who) I can't recommend doing something like this enough.  It has saved me so much time in just 4 months which I have wasted gloriously. 

    dpump.jpg.b5d1e37651df5167258d0aa2c8a35b2e.jpg

    station.jpg.bb69886cbca566edf1086374a09f19c1.jpg

    res.jpg.4b7b8d705fd899e712e078128c93648b.jpg

     

    • Like 2
  4. Anyone like The Expanse?

    Anyway I figured I'd start a journal, mostly to share bad pics of things I'm excited about with people whose eyes won't glaze over like my friends' do when I talk about fish, or like mine do when people talk to me about video games and comic book movies.

    Of the many things I'm not good at, photography is one, so don't get your hopes up. 🙂

    Some of my emersed plants started flowering instead of dying.  Pretty cool, would definitely recommend.

    S. repens

    repens.jpg.0f97292bb0f702a1c29deb2e68bc5e66.jpg

    A. nana petite

    nanapetite.jpg.cc2ce30a437cb08fcc4d629f3f423b02.jpg

     

    And after what's felt like forever, my Pseudomugil gertrudae Aru II eggs started hatching about a week ago.  Many of the initial ones I collected just never hatched.  I can still see them in the tank I was throwing them into, fully developed and just sitting there like 3 weeks later.  Ultimately blowing into the jars with some airline to drop the pH worked great to force them.  Didn't think I'd have to do that cuz my water is pretty soft (gH 4, kH 4) but that's what worked. I think I've got around 30 or so fry.  The setup is a bare bottom 5.5 gal with a sponge filter, 2 males and 3 females, a big ol' potted crypt, java moss, and 2 mops on either end.  I get around 15-25 eggs whenever I check the mops, many of which fail to develop.  They're young fish though so hopefully that will improve.

    PgAru2.jpg.aec074c6456bb3737ae1a38204368a09.jpg

    PgAru2b.jpg.9dcc2113d51d6b3979b8cefa150ee33f.jpg

     

    • Love 2
  5. Yes, atlantic salmon.  These are landlocked from a fairly small reservoir and the river they spawn in is very small so most are around that size.  I've got some video of them digging out redds and spawning I might post.  Probably not the best quality but still cool.

    Those yellow perch are so nice when they're colored up like that, great fish!

    • Like 1
  6. I would hold off on the harlequins as they're obligate starfish predators, and I'm almost certain a hawkfish would eat them immediately, depending on the species.  But other than that saltwater isn't much different from fresh.  That said, it is more difficult with a narrower range of acceptable parameters and a greater number of variables to balance.  Crabs, snails, gobies, and large polyp stony corals like frogspawn are good beginner choices (soft corals and zoanthids are even better).

    I second checking out some saltwater forums, research until your eyes and brain bleed, and then go SLOW.

    Good luck, you can definitely do it.

    • Like 1
  7. My dominant luminatus male was ridiculously aggressive as well.  Conditions were not ideal (3m 3f in a 10 gal, not enough plants, no spawning mops) so that likely contributed.  Never had amanos so can't comment on that.

    I would add a mop or two at either end of the tank, or remove the dominant male to another tank for a few weeks before reintroducing.

  8. Hi everyone.  First post, long time hobbyist, used to be mostly into dwarf cichlids and nano reefs. Last few years I've been getting into the stuff I ignored for so long like community fish and plants (real black thumb until recently, now it's just a really dark green haha).

    I've got about 20 small tanks with the usual stuff- cpds, endlers, neos, easy plants.  Mostly focusing on breeding Pseudomugil gertrudae right now.  Really learned a lot from Dean's videos about how to efficiently use a small space, as I'm sure many here have as well.

    Anyway I've got questions and hopefully answers to contribute.  Just wanted to introduce myself.

    Jim

    • Like 1
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