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My 10 Gallon Journal


A3M0N
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Thank y'all, I'm feeling better, so is the family. Luckily I'm off on Thursdays and Fridays so I had some time to rest from being sick. I work from home though, so working through being sick isn't terrible. 

One harlequin rasbora and the mystery snail survived. The single fish appears to be a little agitated, swimming up and down the glass and not eating well. The plan for now is to restock with a school of only harlequin rasboras, like around 10-12. I like the look of neons too, but the harlequins are more active so I'd like to see a tank full of them.  I wonder if I can fit 10 harlequin rasboras and some chili rasboaras? I may even try some blackwater/tannins too. I thought about some Malaysian trumpet snails to keep the sand turned over, but afraid of them taking over. 

I'll probably make a trip to a fish store I've never been to on Tues, and probably my normal big box pet store if I need to. 

I changed the water after "the event", so I didn't do it yesterday. The CO2 has been off since then too, I need to get that dialed back in before algae starts to take over. I'll clean the filter and glass tomorrow hopefully if I have time. 

 

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On 2/11/2023 at 1:25 PM, A3M0N said:

One harlequin rasbora and the mystery snail survived. The single fish appears to be a little agitated, swimming up and down the glass and not eating well. The plan for now is to restock with a school of only harlequin rasboras, like around 10-12. I like the look of neons too, but the harlequins are more active so I'd like to see a tank full of them.  I wonder if I can fit 10 harlequin rasboras and some chili rasboaras? I may even try some blackwater/tannins too. I thought about some Malaysian trumpet snails to keep the sand turned over, but afraid of them taking over. 

I'll probably make a trip to a fish store I've never been to on Tues, and probably my normal big box pet store if I need to. 

Honestly. Take a week, two weeks and just let the tank run and settle. Go to the shop but force yourself not to get anything. Research, etc.

Let us give you ideas!!!! 😂

I'm glad you and those around you are feeling better.

I'd go with all tetra or all rasboras just because of temps. What do you think of something like the silvertip tetras or the green rasboras/CPDs?

On 2/11/2023 at 1:25 PM, A3M0N said:

I changed the water after "the event", so I didn't do it yesterday. The CO2 has been off since then too, I need to get that dialed back in before algae starts to take over. I'll clean the filter and glass tomorrow hopefully if I have time. 

Needle valve issue and too many bubbles per second or do you think the solenoid was the issue? I apologize if you already mentioned what specifically happened.

 

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On 2/11/2023 at 6:27 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Let us give you ideas!!!!

Totally fair! I don't want to wait long because the lone surviving fish is lonely. That's mainly why I'm sticking with harlequin rasboras, he needs a school! I do love celestial pearl danios, that's CPD right? But they are a bit pricey for a group, for me at least. I do like chili rasboras, but I was thinking of them for a smaller future project. 

 

On 2/11/2023 at 6:27 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Needle valve issue and too many bubbles per second or do you think the solenoid was the issue?

It was an accident on my part. The bubble counter was still pushing a bunch of mineral oil into the line, so I took it off to clean it really good. There was oil and stuff under the seals, so I was going to clean them in hopes of resealing it, but my clumsy self dropped the spring loaded check valve seal/flap from the bottom of the counter down the drain. So, I reconnected everything. minus bubble counter, and thought I just cracked the needle valve. I was resting when the solenoid opened so I wasn't aware of how much CO2 was being released, not having a bubble counter to check before hand, and it was a ton. Sadly, all but one fish suffocated as a result. 

This evening I'll open the valve just enough to let some CO2 through, and get a different bubble counter. Maybe not the same vertical kind, more like the DIY style. I don't know the terminology for it, this kind

Edited by A3M0N
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The survivor hasn't eaten anything since Thursday, I'm starting to get a little worried for him. I've tried feeding him frozen brine shrimp, nano pellets, and flakes. I'm sure he's stressed out by being alone, I'm working on that. Of course, he may not be hungry. I counted all the dead fish as I netted them out, and couldn't find one of them. Could the snail and surviving harlequin rasbora have eaten the missing fish? 

 

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On 2/11/2023 at 5:13 PM, A3M0N said:

It was an accident on my part. The bubble counter was still pushing a bunch of mineral oil into the line, so I took it off to clean it really good. There was oil and stuff under the seals, so I was going to clean them in hopes of resealing it, but my clumsy self dropped the spring loaded check valve seal/flap from the bottom of the counter down the drain. So, I reconnected everything. minus bubble counter, and thought I just cracked the needle valve. I was resting when the solenoid opened so I wasn't aware of how much CO2 was being released, not having a bubble counter to check before hand, and it was a ton. Sadly, all but one fish suffocated as a result. 

Dang.  That's really unfortunate.  Unfortunately it does happen.  I have seen tanks recover from it if you catch it in time, but it's a very thin margin. 

Ironically, the video before this one was called "give it more gas"


Maybe there is some advice in here to help you out.

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I let the plants go a little wild, I wanted to see how they looked tall like all the way to the surface. Kinda like it, but it also seems too unkept at the same time. And they're all blown over to the left from the filter outflow. I'm thinking of trimming it all way down and letting them get bushier. 

You can see the lone survivor hiding by the heater. He still hasn't eaten anything, but he did grab and spit out a few flakes I offered him on Monday. 

IMG20230214123706.jpg.c0c7497cb1b91aa040ce54d12dae8ea3.jpg

 

I got what seems like a sudden growth of green algae on the filter and pipes, also behind the heater and CO2 tubing. I know some green algae is normal, but it seems like a lot all at once. I did let the CO2 lag after the accident, so I'm sure that affected it some. I've been dosing a lower fertilizer amount for a while, maybe a need to go back to the higher amount? Maybe some lower power light bulbs? But I do love the color the current power produces. Maybe it just all needs a good cleaning. I'm not too concerned about it, just want to get a head of it before it takes over. 

IMG20230214122042.jpg.bc8be4411d453da147a5b2ab23f7bbb5.jpg

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On 2/15/2023 at 2:21 PM, A3M0N said:

I've been dosing a lower fertilizer amount for a while, maybe a need to go back to the higher amount? Maybe some lower power light bulbs? But I do love the color the current power produces. Maybe it just all needs a good cleaning. I'm not too concerned about it, just want to get a head of it before it takes over. 

Manual removal.  I'd leave it personally.  A lot of the brown dust and green dust algae is what fish like to eat on.  I'd keep dosing the lean amount and see how things change. 

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I picked up five more harlequin rasboras on Thursday and changed the water the next day. I couldn't find one of the new ones in the morning, but my son spotted it up around the spraybar. After I changed the water it was gone, poof vanished. It didn't get sucked up in the siphon tube, it wasn't in the bucket either. Checked the floor around the tank, nothing. I have no idea where it is! So I have five total right now. 

I opted for an extreme trim down of the plants. My main goal was to get as much of the black/dark and algae coated leaves out as I could. I found a ton of dead leaves and such had collected around the base in the back and got all that siphoned out. I miss the tall plants, but they'll grow back quickly.

The new little guys were getting beat up pretty good by the flow, so I drilled the spraybar holes just a tad bigger, and added three more holes a little more than 90 degrees from the main outflow, hitting the right side at an angle. This seemed to help a ton! The water is still flowing well, CO2 bubbles are floating around and not reaching the surface, got rid of a dead spot, and the fish are moving around well. 

I'll probably add some more fish in a couple of weeks, I'd like to have a school of about 12 harlequin rasboras. I did a little experiment and made some "tea" using peat moss. I have a ton from some landscaping work I did last year. It wasn't very strong, it's tough to see in the picture for sure, but I can see it in person. The fish come from a blackwater environment, and I like the way it looks. I'll be looking to add more tannins in the future. 

IMG20230218101716.jpg.13bff97d37056be6e661f106abce5701.jpg

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On 1/21/2023 at 3:30 PM, A3M0N said:

She's eating! Om nom nom

Hooray!

On 2/13/2023 at 10:20 PM, A3M0N said:

Could the snail and surviving harlequin rasbora have eaten the missing fish? 

Mystery snails do eat dead fish. Which is fortunate because it prevents an ammonia spike.

@nabokovfan87 recommended this background to me. It hides algae very well.

VELIMAX Static Cling Total... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07588J5Q6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I think it would look nice behind your scape. This is how it looks on my tank. You just need a spray bottle w/ water and a credit card (or something similar).

18EAD81A-A357-404F-8FBC-90C295362828.jpeg

Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much to update really. I changed the water and took this picture last Friday but just getting around to posting. I used some hydrogen peroxide to fight the staghorn algae growing on the s. repens in the front of the tank. Other than that, just standard water change and fertilizing. 

IMG20230225213703.jpg.257caf157ca387ef0dd0736ffee9b64e.jpg

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Another round of hydrogen peroxide on the s. repens, other than that just regular maintenance. The ludwigia is getting tall and looking red again. 

Taking pictures of aquariums at an angle sure is strange! 

IMG20230305213816.jpg.1651d93bce1145811fb33b770496d20b.jpg

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In getting ready for a trip, I put some lower power bulbs in because I won't be fertilizing or running CO2 while I'm away. After re-reading general recommendations, I think my lights were too bright anyway! I had two 1500 lumen bulbs, we'll just say that's 3000 lumens. Now I have two 800 lumen bulbs, we'll call that 1600 lumens. The recommendation I read was 1500+ lumens can be considered high light, so I was way over that. Other than the lighting change, nothing done other than regular water change and I cleaned some the green algae off the filter parts. I want to see how much difference the lower light makes in the algae department. I plan to do some plant clean up when we get back from the trip. 

After water change: 

IMG20230310114242.jpg.d1efbff5ad22a7a9ce4faec43513d602.jpg

 

3000 lumens: 

IMG20230309212704.jpg.9e53fc957a48ab31627749d7a57c4049.jpg

 

1600 lumens (it's hard to tell a difference in photo): 

IMG20230309212854.jpg.a96477cb2083d2d978d607d68a51b7cf.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a little behind after the spring break trip. The inhabitants did fine while I was gone, thanks for the advice in the general thread! Water has been changed a couple of times since I got back, CO2 and fertilizer are back to normal. 

IMG20230327100043.jpg.2a2c2facc9e3f48ff8239230a0597265.jpg

 

I was looking at my plants though. They're pretty at the tops but get a bit uglier towards the bottom. This is no competition tank by any means, so I'm not worried about winning awards, but I do want to keep them healthy. I read an article that said over time plants get worn out from trimming, so it's good to pull them all up, trim off the good tops to replant, and throw out the worn out lower parts. Any thoughts on that philosophy? I'll most likely cross post this part in the plant section. 

IMG20230327100144.jpg.be2124f221108883943089119fb32186.jpg

IMG20230327100220.jpg.ac4a48a0d0bd832b8dcb20aa5e830a27.jpg

Thanks y'all! 

 

 

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On 3/27/2023 at 8:42 AM, A3M0N said:

I was looking at my plants though. They're pretty at the tops but get a bit uglier towards the bottom. This is no competition tank by any means, so I'm not worried about winning awards, but I do want to keep them healthy. I read an article that said over time plants get worn out from trimming, so it's good to pull them all up, trim off the good tops to replant, and throw out the worn out lower parts. Any thoughts on that philosophy? I'll most likely cross post this part in the plant section. 

It's called topping.

Something indefinitely didn't understand when I was working on my stem tank was how to have success with this method.

Cut off the healthy sections and replant.  You'd want to remove the section you have showing with algae and only plant the healthy tops. Green aqua has a few videos on this. I've also seen a video from it by corvus oscen.

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On 3/27/2023 at 1:35 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Cut off the healthy sections and replant.  You'd want to remove the section you have showing with algae and only plant the healthy tops.

Thanks! I've been replanting the parts when I trim, I just never thought about cutting out and removing the lower parts. 

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On 3/27/2023 at 2:18 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’m so impressed with how great you have done with this tank.

Thank you so much! I'm planning to make a "time lapse" video at about a year to see how much it has changed too. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kind of a long update. So, TLDR: 

Large cleanup and maintenance this week. Water change, lots of plant care, CO2 line reroute, etc. 

IMG20230407213038.jpg.5cc60bbee8de81b1d561847306989a7a.jpg

 

Alright, here we go. Did my usual weekly water change, but with lots of extras. First pulled out the java ferns (they're superglued to small individual stones), trimmed off the worst leaves, and let them have a Reverse Respiration soak overnight. Next cut out each tall stem plant close to the base, not all the way to substrate, but like 1/2 inch or so. Then cut the good tops off, trying to remove all the blackened or algae covered sections.

Here's how that looked: 

IMG20230407130319.jpg.256925b4c0e318637aaabd800561992b.jpg

 

Good stuff that got replanted on the left, bad stuff that got discarded on the right: 

IMG20230407130254.jpg.69e86f2d84aa5b4760818d739cb3731f.jpg

 

The ludwigia repens got replanted all along the back and around the left. The bacopa got replanted in two main groups, in the front right corner and between the cave and middle rock structure. All the previous stems are still in place, so they should all hopefully grow back where they were originally. Then the s. repens got a good trimming, mostly clipping out the algae covered leaves. I missed a few that I'll get in the next few days. 

Finally used a magic eraser to clean all the glass, then used a toothbrush to clean off the hardscape and equipment. 

I got sick of the bubble counter that came with the CO2 kit and replaced it with this Fluval inline one. It was stuck to the glass with a suction cup, but I didn't like it there. I drilled a hole in the hanger it came with for rimless tanks and screwed it into the stand. Now it's easy to see but out of the way. I don't hide any of the CO2 stuff because I like the way it all looks. 

IMG20230408135127.jpg.fd2d28a389998b010ec9c8fcba552d34.jpg

 

And for good measure, a happy snail! 

IMG20230407213903.jpg.198254bcb27d00734520399fd24b50c3.jpg

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