Coming back to the Fish scene

[Todd C.]

Hey Folks,

Getting back into fish after being out for about 30 years and starting up a new tank again, lots of stuff has changed I have noticed.

I am in a totally different area since the last time I had a tank, still city water but I live in a very small town pop. under 100.

I am glad to find so many people in the fish community.

Todd 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Welcome, if you have a tank, pics pics pics!

[noctiluca1101]

Hello! I am also just getting back in after several years being out, and things certainly have changed. I am very excited about the availability of live plants though, that always seemed to be a struggle, but maybe back then I just didn't know where to look. Internet wasn't what it is now 😜

Edited May 4, 2021 by noctiluca1101
typo

[CalmedByFish]

Welcome @Todd! 

Where you live, will it be practical to order supplies online? Wondering because ordering online helps me SO much. 

I hope the 30 years' worth of changes turn out to be fun for you!

[Todd C.]

xXInkedPhoenixxX asked for pics, and since I didn't have any at the time I could not post but I took one of the tank setup I have  so far, one live plant and a Betta whom I call Charlie (as he is my chicken of the sea), it has been a couple of weeks since starting up and I am hoping Charlie will help the cycle, cycle as it were, so far water is very hard GH is at 300ppm, and PH is testing at 8.4 not sure how much I trust the tetras 6in1 strips though and since I am on a limited budget at the moment can't afford an API test kit yet.

Although Charlie seems to be doing well with the water conditions, I have some wood and more plants on order should be here next week. he will have tank mates when/if the water stabilizes, or if it stays the same I plan on getting some guppies and an algae eater.

And thank you for the welcome to the forum.

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Todd C.
Spelling edit

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Personally I'm finding pots, when you've already laid substrate (in this case gravel) down really helps me with live plants recently- I can move them easier and it makes for a nice look depending on what you find- I've done bamboo pots for my 10 gallon breeder (bare bottomed tank) and just this weekend 3 wood like resin pots and 2 ceramic "rock" pots. I also use suction cups to hold Anubias down (airline holders with a tiny bit of tubing, then tied to plant, and anything with a rhizone gets attached to a rock or a bit of driftwood. I don't run anything fancy nor fertilize at this point so I only pick plants labeled "easy, no co2 required". 

[Todd C.]

xXInkedPhoenixX

I like your tank pics they look good but I am more of a natural looking plant tank, that's what I used to have and I like the look, so I will be planting in the substrate, on logs and floating plants, with the hardness of my water, which is mostly calcium if the faucets in my home are any indication, i don't see adding to much in the way of fertilizer for the plants, what I would like to find is some kind of lily pad plant so the betta can float under it and I like the thought of floating lily pads rather then the stem ones.

[Todd C.]

Also when I ordered the heater I thought it would be much smaller, so I have a smaller one on order and will be using the current one for the 55gal when I start setting that one up. 

[Todd C.]

9 hours ago, CalmedByFish said:

Welcome @Todd! 

Where you live, will it be practical to order supplies online? Wondering because ordering online helps me SO much. 

I hope the 30 years' worth of changes turn out to be fun for you!

Thanks CalmedByFish,

Yes I can order stuff online but there is also a petsmart in a close by town, about 20 mins away. and I am about 1 1/2 from Minneapolis and have had good luck with 2 of the local fish stores there only thing I am worried about is the transport time if I buy fish in Minneapolis.

[CalmedByFish]

9 hours ago, Todd C. said:

I am worried about is the transport time if I buy fish in Minneapolis.

Glad you've got some supplies and fish close-ish. Regarding transport time, maybe look into those tiny green air pumps ACO sells. The product page says they can run in a car, though I didn't look into how.

[Andy's Fish Den]

11 hours ago, Todd C. said:

 

Yes I can order stuff online but there is also a petsmart in a close by town, about 20 mins away. and I am about 1 1/2 from Minneapolis and have had good luck with 2 of the local fish stores there only thing I am worried about is the transport time if I buy fish in Minneapolis.

Fish will be fine being transported that long. as long as they are bagged correctly and you keep them warm. If you ask at one of the stores, they more than likely have a styrofoam box laying around that fish were shipped to them in that they will gladly give you. My wife has to go several times a year to doctor appointments in Cleveland, which is a couple hours away from me, and I always stop at a couple of LFS when we are over there., and most of the time I end up bringing something home. I make sure I have one of my fish boxes in the car (I have several sizes from small for one or two bags of fish to a large one that will hold 15-20 bags) and keep the fish in there until we get home, sometimes it will be many hours from purchase until we get home. 

[Todd C.]

2 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

Fish will be fine being transported that long. as long as they are bagged correctly and you keep them warm. If you ask at one of the stores, they more than likely have a styrofoam box laying around that fish were shipped to them in that they will gladly give you. My wife has to go several times a year to doctor appointments in Cleveland, which is a couple hours away from me, and I always stop at a couple of LFS when we are over there., and most of the time I end up bringing something home. I make sure I have one of my fish boxes in the car (I have several sizes from small for one or two bags of fish to a large one that will hold 15-20 bags) and keep the fish in there until we get home, sometimes it will be many hours from purchase until we get home. 

Thanks Andy,

I do have Styrofoam boxes available to use I will have to keep one or 2 in the truck when I head into the cities, I never thought about using them for that.

[Isaac M]

@Todd C. welcome to the forum and back to the hobby! For the floating lilly plant, the only one I can thing of that is similar to something like that would be amazon frogbit. There are others but frogbit is likely one of the more readily available ones. 

[Eric R]

20 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

Fish will be fine being transported that long. as long as they are bagged correctly and you keep them warm. If you ask at one of the stores, they more than likely have a styrofoam box laying around that fish were shipped to them in that they will gladly give you. My wife has to go several times a year to doctor appointments in Cleveland, which is a couple hours away from me, and I always stop at a couple of LFS when we are over there., and most of the time I end up bringing something home. I make sure I have one of my fish boxes in the car (I have several sizes from small for one or two bags of fish to a large one that will hold 15-20 bags) and keep the fish in there until we get home, sometimes it will be many hours from purchase until we get home. 

@Todd C. another thing you can do is let the store know how long your drive is (if they don't ask). The owner at my LFS always asks how long a drive customers have when bagging fish, so that if they have a longer drive he will bag the fish in a larger number of bags, such that there are fewer fish in each bag. This will help reduce ammonia concentrations during the trip. I've had fish shipped overnight a few times with no losses, and they are usually in their bags for 18 hours or so, with those bags in a styrofoam box with heat packs if it's cold. Though I think one thing fish shippers often do is reduce or stop feeding fish for a couple days before shipping, which would be different than if you got the fish at a store.