My 10 Gallon Journal

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/8/2023 at 3:16 PM, A3M0N said:

I don't hide any of the CO2 stuff because I like the way it all looks. 

I'm the same way!

Looking forward to the after photo when it's ready! 🙂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/27/2023 at 3:18 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’m so impressed with how great you have done with this tank. It’s simply beautiful. I couldn’t help but screenshot your photo from mid November just to have it near a photo of the tank now and contrast how lush and lovely it has become. 

Agreed! It’s very beautiful! And that snail is having a great time!

I have no luck with ludwigia.. 😞 I’ve had these sprigs that I’ve been moving from tank to tank in hopes they will be happy somewhere but they are in this perpetual state of looking “just good enough” to not throw away, and yet, they don’t look all that healthy. I may try potting them with just rock wool and root tabs to see if that might perk them up.

On the other hand, I have some emergent moneywort in my Walstad jar that I can try “topping” to propagate.

On 3/27/2023 at 2:35 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

It's called topping

 

On 3/27/2023 at 2:35 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

only plant the healthy tops

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[A3M0N]

On 4/9/2023 at 6:55 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Agreed! It’s very beautiful! And that snail is having a great time!

I have no luck with ludwigia..

Thank you!

I've been fertilizing using Estimative Index with a DIY solution, I think it's been working well. The ludwigia grows really fast! I don't know if that is the only reason it's doing well though.

It's kinda like me and valliseria. I really wanted a background of it early on, but it just wouldn't stay alive in my tank, no idea why. There isn't even a trace of it left anywhere. 

[A3M0N]

A little more than a weeks later, not much to report. The stems have already started growing and are doing well. 

[Schuyler]

On 2/1/2023 at 12:39 PM, A3M0N said:

I found an old cellphone and took about a 3 hour hyperlapse. Not the highest quality, but still pretty fun. The lights go out for the afternoon, and the snail appears at about 1:00 minute. 

 

I love how the snail flips the wafer as it eats

[A3M0N]

All aquarium inhabitants are just fine, but I had a different CO2 incident last night. I noticed the pressure was getting high when I fed them around 9:30 PM, but wasn't worried because there is a pressure safety valve that I have witnessed working in the past. Well, around 2:00 AM my wife and I heard a boom downstairs. The safety valve failed, the citric acid bottle burst, and the housing broke. The housing actually dented the wall and the uptake tube was across the room. I'll be emailing the seller or Amazon soon. 

[Guppysnail]

I’m glad you were not standing there and hurt when it happened. 

[Mmiller2001]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:53 PM, A3M0N said:

All aquarium inhabitants are just fine, but I had a different CO2 incident last night. I noticed the pressure was getting high when I fed them around 9:30 PM, but wasn't worried because there is a pressure safety valve that I have witnessed working in the past. Well, around 2:00 AM my wife and I heard a boom downstairs. The safety valve failed, the citric acid bottle burst, and the housing broke. The housing actually dented the wall and the uptake tube was across the room. I'll be emailing the seller or Amazon soon. 

Holy cow! Crazy.

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/26/2023 at 6:53 PM, A3M0N said:

Well, around 2:00 AM my wife and I heard a boom downstairs.

I would like to encourage you to join team Safe Pressurized CO2 canisters.

I am thankful everyone is ok.  I'm sorry about your wall!

[A3M0N]

On 4/26/2023 at 9:37 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I would like to encourage you to join team Safe Pressurized CO2 canisters.

I actually just told my wife I may just save a few bucks for a paintball tank setup. If I need CO2 at all really, I may just adjust my fertilizer and see how it goes for a while. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:51 PM, A3M0N said:

On 4/26/2023 at 7:37 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

I actually just told my wife I may just save a few bucks for a paintball tank setup. If I need CO2 at all really, I may just adjust my fertilizer and see how it goes for a while.

For me the big cost is the regulator, diffuser, and that side of things. Because of the whole shortage it's been a weird experience for me where having the smaller tanks is crazy expensive.  I couldn't tell you what size mine are, but the local shop here told me that they got rid of all the smaller tanks and replaced them with the 20Lb ones just to make it easier on rotating them in and out.

See if you have a hydroponics or welding shop and check prices on a tank, then I would look at regulators and figure out what you wish to do.

In terms of smaller kits, theres a lot of them....

There is also the bottle method used by ocean aquarium that works well too. I believe it's called a bell style diffuser in the video above, same concept.

If there's anything I can do to help, please feel free.

[A3M0N]

Things are still growing well after the CO2 explosion. I haven't dosed any fertilizer since either, I'll probably mix up a low light/low tech EI solution from the Rotala Butterfly calculator and see how that goes. 

I messaged the Amazon seller of the CO2 kit, they said because I bought it over 90 days ago they couldn't give me a full refund, but offered an 80% refund. I got it on sale, so the refund isn't much, but I feel like they did right and appreciate their offer. 

As for now I took out the CO2 bits and bobs and will go low tech for a while. If things go well, I may just keep it this way until I come across a plant that needs CO2 or wait until I can afford a pressurized system. 

EDIT: You can see in the back left tiny growth from some of the stems I cut way down in the recent "Great Cut Back". 

Edited May 8, 2023 by A3M0N

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/8/2023 at 3:38 PM, A3M0N said:

I messaged the Amazon seller of the CO2 kit, they said because I bought it over 90 days ago they couldn't give me a full refund, but offered an 80% refund. I got it on sale, so the refund isn't much, but I feel like they did right and appreciate their offer. 

As for now I took out the CO2 bits and bobs and will go low tech for a while. If things go well, I may just keep it this way until I come across a plant that needs CO2 or wait until I can afford a pressurized system. 

if it is from amazon. message amazon, not the seller.  explain the safety issue and faulty manufacturing and damage to your property.  Usually those types of things make the management actually pay attention and look at the photos instead of insist on non-fixes.

If it's going to do that to people, it shouldn't be sold.  It failed because of a manufacturing / material failure.  (made from tin foil should be steel or something)

[Guppysnail]

I have success without Co2. The plants I have not had success with are plants like blyxa japonica and other real fancy plants. My Ludwigia always threatened world domination and my Val does great until I finally get nitrate low enough for fry then it starts struggling. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:02 PM, Guppysnail said:

My Ludwigia

Does it grow for you in deeper tanks (ie:29 gal) 

mine gets unhappy. It does somewhat better in a 10 or a 5.5 where it is closer to the light.

@A3M0N these are low tech

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

yes both Val and Ludwig’s did fine in the 29 and 40. But I did have 2 lights on each at the time to prevent lower portions from shade spots. My Val does fine with 1 light the ludwigia in the 29 did not. 

[A3M0N]

Whew y'all, it's been a little while. My wife had surgery, daughter went on a mission trip, midterms, getting my internship setup, work, etc. It's been a very busy couple of months! 

Nothing much has changed since my CO2 system blew up. I lowered the lighting down some more, and just started low light EI ferts today.

Still haven't added anymore fish, still the 4 harlequin rasboras and 1 mystery snail. A new fish store opened in the next town, I'm planning to visit next week. They don't have any harlequins in stock that I noticed, but they have purple rasboras. Will they school with harlequins? 

A recently trimmed bacopa floated to the top, I just haven't gotten in there to replant it yet. 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/1/2023 at 5:35 PM, A3M0N said:

Will they school with harlequins? 

I don’t have experience with these two specific tetras but other tetras if similiar size to each other when numbers dwindle of one or both types have schooled together for me in the past. 

[A3M0N]

I visited the local fish store, not sure if we can mention local stores names, very cool store. And they carry ACO products! I ended up bringing home 6 purple harlequin rasboras, 1 didn't make it however. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Personal experience, my 10 Harlequins are with 10 Black Neons. They all hang out. Neons are funny, they split up and go do their own thing but the Harlequins are always together, will be interesting what you observe with the two types so keep that updated!

Edited July 12, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[A3M0N]

I had 4 harlequin rasboras, now I only have 2. I have no idea what happened to them, no floating dead fish, can't find them stuck around the plants. They're just gone. They were there when the lights went out one evening and gone the next day. I can only figure they died for some reason and the snail and other fish ate them. Very odd. 

Water parameters were fine. No ammonia, no changes in KG, GH, or PH. No nitrites, 20ppm nitrate. 

Now one of the remaining 2 has a white spot on its side, and its color isn't as bright as the other one. I've never used any medications, but I'm thinking about getting some aquarium salt as a precaution. Will salt hurt the mystery snail? I'll have to do some research about that. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by A3M0N

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/19/2023 at 4:30 PM, A3M0N said:

I've never used any medications, but I'm thinking about getting some aquarium salt as a precaution. Will salt hurt the mystery snail? I'll have to do some research about that. 

It's not as scary as you think.

Best course of action is to remove the snails and plants. With ich or something bacterial/protozoan, you'd want to clean the filtration and siphon the substrate well to remove buildup.

I'm sure others can offer the advice on how they handle the snail situations! @Guppysnail@Chick-In-Of-TheSea (and I'm sure a few dozen others)

In terms of how to deal with it. Keep an eye on progression, check to make sure the fish didn't poke into anything and hurt itself. Check the floor and behind the tank for any jumpers, which would indicate water parameter issues of some kind.

It's a bit of a pain to treat ich, I don't see ich I see a sore, but it's hard to tell. I'm sure that fish is very hard to get to sit still. The wound doesn't look fuzzy (so not fungal).  Ich-x + salt would be where I start and see if things improve.

I understand the apprehension about using meds though. It's a tough thing to feel comfortable with.

[A3M0N]

On 7/19/2023 at 8:03 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Check the floor and behind the tank for any jumpers, which would indicate water parameter issues of some kind

There's a lid on the aquarium, so no jumpers. I tested the water, no issues there. 

Another fish is missing, one of the purple harlequins this time. I don't get it. I guess I'll do a couple water changes and clean/look really good. 

It looks like something may have just been stuck to side of the harlequin. It's gone now. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by A3M0N

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/20/2023 at 1:03 PM, A3M0N said:

There's a lid on the aquarium, so no jumpers. I tested the water, no issues there. 

They can get through some surprisingly small holes at times. Unfortunately.

Hopefully you can figure out what is going on! I am sorry for the struggles.

On 7/20/2023 at 1:03 PM, A3M0N said:

It looks like something may have just been stuck to side of the harlequin. It's gone now. 

Maybe sand from flashing?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

If a fish dies a mystery snail will eat it.