wendypizza Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 (edited) (It's me. I'm baby.) Getting back into the hobby after a yearlong break. Tank & filtration: 36g bowfront The back is painted with black acrylic Aquaclear 50 HOB (+ aquarium co-op coarse sponge, purigen, minus the top because it rattles a little and that annoys me) Marineland Penguin Filter (+ aforementioned coarse sponge, matrix, spider plant, and rosemary) Lettuce. Not sure if I should count this as part of filtration or part of the plants, but oh well. If it grows, I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to eat it, so it'll probably go to the fist :`D The prefilter sponges I had on hand were way too fine, so I cut into the coarse sponge to create a makeshift prefilter for both HOBs I don't currently have a light big enough for the tank, but that's not a big priority at the moment, just because it is so hot. But next payday I'll probably grab a Nicrew. At the moment, I'm using a little Nicrew meant for a smaller tank (it was bought for my betta, who's sadly passed on.) In the next post I'll add in info about the plants and fish! Edited October 1, 2020 by wendypizza added tags 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 Plants! Java Fern Anubias Golden Anubias Coffefolia Vallisneria Water Sprite (floating, not planted) The Java Fern, Anubias Golden, and Coffefolia are from Aquarium Co-Op. Considering the plants were stuck at the post office for two days after arriving, then I didn't have time to plant them for another day, they are looking fantastic! The Vallisneria and water sprite is from a LFS, added as an experiment to see if the fish will tear them up. The driftwood and stones are from two separate LFS's, and the sand is CaribSea. Fish! This Lionchu This Oranda I'll be getting them tomorrow! I was planning to use a 12g to quarantine them, but due to the high temperatures this week, they'll be going straight into the display tank and I'll medicate from there. Only difference is I'll be using way less salt than I'd planned (maybe 1tbsp per 5-10 gallons). Other miscellaneous things...dosing easy green 1x a week, planning to feed repashy and a sinking food (any recommendations? I'm leaning towards either Hikari or Extreme). I have a mini shelf to put above the outlet to keep the wires and surge protector off the ground. To try and keep the temps down, the lid is staying off the tank for the time being, and I'm gonna be running a fan during the day. Tomorrow's update: picking up and acclimating the fish, beginning quarantine treatment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexa Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 Is that rosemary in the hob? Awesome setup. I can’t wait to see your goldies in there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 @Alexa Yes it is! On a facebook group I saw that someone put watercress in all their tanks, but couldn't find any at the store, so I went with Rosemary. Eventually, I'd also like to propagate some pothos and put that in the aquaclear 🙂 Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 Friends are here! They're preemptively named Andagi and Nori. Andagi is very skittish, both are camera shy & stressed, so I'm holding off on any other pictures or videos, but predictably they've both eaten by now. I started off quarantine with a light dose of aquarium salt (4 tsp) and general cure. The lights are staying off both for stress purposes and to keep the temperature down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Andagi and Nori are doing great! They've pooped, eaten most of the lettuce I left out for them, chewed up the potted lettuce roots, uprooted all the val and one of the java ferns, and are taking chunks out of the water sprite. They're not nearly as stressed as yesterday, and no longer dart away when I approach the tank. I managed to get a quick video of Andagi digging around the java fern for a bit of lettuce. Both of them like playing in either the airstone bubbles or the filter current. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Added the second doses of general cure and paraguard! Tomorrow I'll probably have to top off the water. The new 'lid' is egg crate, which hasn't been cut to fit the tank :`D I also grabbed a nice anubias (I think it's barterai?) from a LFS store today. They had tiny albino corys in stock...it makes me want to setup another tank and try my hand at breeding corys again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 Not much went on today! More paraguard went into the tank; tomorrow I'll be doing a small water change per General Cure's instructions. Aunty took a peek at the tank yesterday and suggested the name Mochi Ball for the Oranda (I wasn't sold on the name Nori tbh). Might be renamed to Mochi Crunch? I also did some retail therapy at the Coop today; later this week when the package arrives I'll probably redo the minimalist aquascape + possibly add the unboxing to this journal! I'm excited for the day I get a light that covers the whole width of the aquarium 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 6, 2020 Author Share Posted October 6, 2020 So, fearing an ammonia spike over the weekend, I didn't feed, providing instead their usual lettuce (both fresh and microwaved) and water sprite, which I'm trying to keep for them to forage as needed/wanted. This went over well until today, when they took offense to the lack of microwaved lettuce and tore up a good portion of the plants. me: (andagi is vertical in that picture because I had the misfortune of taking a picture just as he was trying to grab some water sprite. truly he has great timing.) I was planning to rescape with the plants that should be arriving from the Co-op this week, but decided to go ahead and start now. I'm not sure how I feel about the log standing upright (it looked much better in my head). I'll probably mess around with it more when the plants come in. I ordered plant weights, and I might stop by the hardware store for some pond stones to scape the back of the tank. I ended up doing a cumulative ~30% water change throughout the day; one in the morning and two as I was rescaping (I now fully believe it when people say goldfish are poop machines). In the meantime? They won. The goldfish got their repashy, and I learned they'll be patient for two (2) whole days before deciding they're absolutely starving. If I ever have to fast them for longer, I'll probably provide more vegetables. I've heard about feeding them spinach, cucumber, and zucchini; does anyone have any other favorites they like to feed their goldies? short video. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 More plants! I have a 12g I might set up as the planted tank I crave if the fish are gonna go to chow town on these guys. The bubble wall is from amazon, and it's very noisy. Not a fan. I might just throw the air stone back in. The spider plant I bought to stick in the filter kinda...rotted away, but the root system is still there. I'm leaving the roots in the hopes the plant will sprout back up again. Has this happened to anyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 An update! Looking back at this I'm amazed at how my plants are growing (or, er, not dying). I got a plant from my aunty, who got it from one of those petsmart bulb packages. I switched out my clip on light for my bedroom lamp with a plant LED which mmmay cause some algae problems down the road, but oh well. I'm also trying out a sweet potato in my HOB! Admittedly, I can't tell if the fish are actually growing, but they seem happy. I pulled the swords and crypts from this tank; they're now in a planted 12g I'd like to breed ricefish in. The little cup has this guy! Next up: a workable lid, and a new addition. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted December 8, 2020 Author Share Posted December 8, 2020 An update Winter is setting in. With the AC on, the water temperature in the tank finally dropped below 80! Added a third tankmate to the 36g; a one eyed Oranda who caught my eye at the store. I qt'd him for a week, but due to poor visibility in the qt storage tote, I added ich to the tank. Oops. The original residents didn't show any sign of ich throughout the treatment process. I also added pothos to the aquarium; it took weeks for the first roots to appear. I put in a larger cutting in the hopes this one won't take as long, but if I go to the hardware store this weekend, I might grab a whole plant. My goldfish were supposed to be juvies, but I'm 95% sure they've spawned (see picture of the mystery fry). I feel like they haven't grown much, if all, since getting them in September. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with the fry; 4 fancies in a 36 is a bit much, even if the first three might be stunted and the tank will eventually be heavily planted. In the meantime, I'm planning a rescape of the tank, adding more rocks and plants. pictured: pothos, new and weeks old Mochi crunch the chocolate Oranda! Mystery fry (presumed oranda/lionchu) Full tank shot! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendypizza Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 (edited) New light: acquired! Excuse the mess; haven't done maintenance on the tank in a few weeks. Edited January 17, 2021 by wendypizza Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Looking really good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Goldfish are great. Looks like your plants are doing really well with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Nice looking tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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