Zelibeli's Aquarium Journal

[zelibeli]

Hey there, thanks for reading this far! 😄 I'm kind of a Covid-era aquarist with some sparse history prior. There were some tanks in my childhood. My parents had a tank when I was a child with an Oscar and a Jack Dempsey. I had a 10 gallon tank way WAY back in my high school days, a betta in a bowl, and an African dwarf frog in a bowl... mistakes were made. The internet didn't exist. Fast forward to my son getting a 10 gallon aquarium kit for Christmas one year, and being about 10 years old, he managed that fairly well. He moved up to a 36 gallon bowfront, but after 4 years, he wanted out of the hobby. I was working from home so I thought I'd take over. Sadly all my knowledge was quite out of date. He also had a 30-Rock background, purple gravel and florescent plastic plants that I could not handle in my space so research started. Thanks to YouTube, I came to realize that most of my "knowledge" was abuse and adjustments were made.

I currently have five 20-gallon long tanks and one 5.5 gallon tank. I will post about each one in more detail in posts to come. I hope that you get some enjoyment out my aquarium adventures that I share here. I know I made one of these before but it was a disaster and I think a total reset is in order.  

 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Hi!  I think most of us are in the same boat.  We started before the internet and relied on word of mouth from others.  Pet stores sold me stuff and didn't explain it to me.  When I was 12 years old, they sold me a western newt for my aquarium.  Needless to say, that didn't work out.  I've also had fights break out in the tank because I put fishes in that were not compatible with each other. Quarantine tanks didn't exist. Didn't know about water changes. If fishes survived, great. If not, we bought some more fish or some different fish.

Boy have times changed!

[Guppysnail]

Looking forward to following along. We all made tons of mistakes “back in the day” before home computers existed. Somehow fish managed to survive all we put them through. Fish are tough little survivors. 

[zelibeli]

Totally. My first betta was given to me by a friend in high school. They were tired of taking care of him. He was a bright red veil tail and they had him for a couple years in a bowl, but he was "boring" and they were tired of the maintenance. My instructions from them were to keep him in a bowl, and I must change his water daily. I ended up keeping him for another 4 years before he passed and I got somewhat experimental with him. They gave him to me in about a gallon sized fish bowl. I didn't think he was boring so much as I thought he was bored. I moved him from the bowl, to a 4 gallon glass container that I did daily water changes on, then to a 10 gallon community aquarium with a filter and a heater, but the flow was too much for him, so I tried to  put in a divider so that he was on the other side of the that... then as he got old and couldn't swim well, he ended up in a breeder box inside the aquarium so that he could have heated water but swimming to the surface had become too difficult for him towards the end.  He mostly lived on betta pellets but once I got an African Dwarf Frog, I started sharing the frozen brine shrimp with him. Mistakes were made and he was a trooper, but I did try and pay attention to what he was showing me and I learned a lot from him.

My current betta has a much better set up, but she, herself has poor health. Princess is a crowntail betta. I've had her for about a year now. She had a slight curve to her spine when I got her, but it wasn't super noticeable. After a year, it's become a bit more pronounced but she gets around fairly well. I have a very low flow on her 20 gallon long tank. She eats extreme betta pellets, frozen daphnia, frozen spirulina brine shrimp, and occasionally some krill flakes, although that's not very often because she gulps air when she eats flakes and then tends to float at the top of the tank for a day afterwards. And rarely she gets a frozen blood worm treat which are her fav. She's extremely peaceful. I had her in a community tank with guppies and she seemed to enjoy them but she overate. I lost 2 bettas the same way (unable to control their diet from the other fish in the tanks) so now she's a solo fish and although I envy people who have community tank bettas, I seem to find all the piggies. I think I'm a better betta keeper when I can focus tank care on them individually. She tolerates snails and shrimp in her tank so this is one of my tanks that gets my cherry shrimp kulls. 

I just rescaped this tank in July so the plants are just starting to decide if they like it.  The red dwarf lily decided to have a complete meltdown with the move, but it seems to be bouncing back now. 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by zelibeli

[meadeam]

Nice tank.  I like the 20 gallon long footprint.  I recently took down a 29.  The added height I felt didn't accomplish much other than a bit more water volume.  Someday I may build a rack of themed species tanks with 20g longs.  I like the 33 long as well, but they seem to be hard to find.

[zelibeli]

Thank you! I generally have my hands in the water for some reason or another so I really like that I can access the whole floorspace of a 20 gallon long without having to ruin my shirt sleeves. I got rid of a 36 gallon bowfront because of height. It was beautiful but I hated getting into it because I always had to get the step stool out. I also don't have a ton of space in my little gamer-room turned fish room so a few 20 longs allow me to satisfy just enough of my MTS. I still get that "if I had one more tank" voice in my head but I know that voice will always say that same thing and not help me with water changes.  

Edit: found a pic... sometimes I regret giving it away when I remember that Amazon sword, but I replaced it with two 20-gallon longs. 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by zelibeli

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Absolutely beautiful tank. You have a real eye for aquascaping.

Here's a link for dividers in case you wanted to have more life in the tank.

[zelibeli]

On 9/16/2022 at 10:50 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Absolutely beautiful tank. You have a real eye for aquascaping.

Here's a link for dividers in case you wanted to have more life in the tank.

I actually have those! My original plan was to have my 3 betta girls divided in 1 20 gallon tank. The dividers are now are in my basement storage.  I can see that they'd be useful perhaps with other fish down the road, but my ladies that I had at the time were not tolerating any of that divider nonsense.  

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/16/2022 at 10:57 AM, zelibeli said:

I actually have those! My original plan was to have my 3 betta girls divided in 1 20 gallon tank. The dividers are now are in my basement storage.  I can see that they'd be useful perhaps with other fish down the road, but my ladies that I had at the time were not tolerating any of that divider nonsense.  

Can't the ladies live together?  I've heard of people keeping betta sororities.  

[Guppysnail]

On 9/16/2022 at 10:43 AM, zelibeli said:

. I still get that "if I had one more tank" voice in my head but I know that voice will always say that same thing and not help me with water changes.  

Oh the tanks I could have….if only that voice would help with water change 🤣. I feel this. 

[zelibeli]

Some can but mine could not. Princess was the only friendly one. 

Nebula, you can see in the 36. She was great in that tank with the community there because the other fish were just as fast or faster than her. When I tried to put her in the 20 gallon with the dividers, she got... depressed for a lack of any other way to put it. She went from owning 36 gallons to being completely lethargic in 6. I think it was too dull for her. I didn't have the 36 anymore so I made some adjustments and put her into a 20-long community tank where she did regain some energy again, but she was never the same and she indulged on the sinking wafers for the corydoras... I never found a solution for how to feed the corys and not have her notice their food before dropsey happened and she passed. I did move her to a 5 gallon, but she was too far gone.

Same with another veil tail, Ruby. She had a 10 gallon to herself for 2 years. She was always an angry fish. When I got rid of her 10 gallon and tried the dividers, she could see just enough of something through those holes and it drove her insane. She was running herself ragged with stress. Adjustments were made, first an attempt at community, she overate too, then got her to a 20 gallon solo, but by then she was already bloated. I tried some remedies but by then Ruby was set on overeating. She took to eating ramshorn snails, sucking them right out of their shells whenever I tried fasting her. I moved her to a 5 gallon I freshly set up for her to avoid the snail snacks, but by then it was already too late. 

I think I was changing fish that were already happy where they were. I really think that bettas are unique little fish. They have tendencies based on their species but really you you have to learn their individual personalities. Redesigning my fish room cost me 2 of my bettas because they were set in their ways and I couldn't readjust in time. To add to the terrible ordeal, I was journaling my experience on youtube at the time and now I get a never ending stream of commenters of what a terrible person I am for overfeeding my bettas to death. 

[meadeam]

I have that same 36 bow front.  I too am not super fond of the depth when doing maintenance, but for the space and viewing angles it works well, and it does look good.  I am running it without a lid, and a pair of 600mm Fluval Aquasky lights with a black background.  Still setting it up, but it is looking good so far.  I should be starting a journal instead of highjacking this thread!

[zelibeli]

Hijack away! There's no denying that they look good. Lidless allows you to get some elements that extend beyond the surface of the tank too. Lots of potential! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/16/2022 at 11:28 AM, zelibeli said:

Some can but mine could not. Princess was the only friendly one. 

Nebula, you can see in the 36. She was great in that tank with the community there because the other fish were just as fast or faster than her. When I tried to put her in the 20 gallon with the dividers, she got... depressed for a lack of any other way to put it. She went from owning 36 gallons to being completely lethargic in 6. I think it was too dull for her. I didn't have the 36 anymore so I made some adjustments and put her into a 20-long community tank where she did regain some energy again, but she was never the same and she indulged on the sinking wafers for the corydoras... I never found a solution for how to feed the corys and not have her notice their food before dropsey happened and she passed. I did move her to a 5 gallon, but she was too far gone.

Same with another veil tail, Ruby. She had a 10 gallon to herself for 2 years. She was always an angry fish. When I got rid of her 10 gallon and tried the dividers, she could see just enough of something through those holes and it drove her insane. She was running herself ragged with stress. Adjustments were made, first an attempt at community, she overate too, then got her to a 20 gallon solo, but by then she was already bloated. I tried some remedies but by then Ruby was set on overeating. She took to eating ramshorn snails, sucking them right out of their shells whenever I tried fasting her. I moved her to a 5 gallon I freshly set up for her to avoid the snail snacks, but by then it was already too late. 

I think I was changing fish that were already happy where they were. I really think that bettas are unique little fish. They have tendencies based on their species but really you you have to learn their individual personalities. Redesigning my fish room cost me 2 of my bettas because they were set in their ways and I couldn't readjust in time. To add to the terrible ordeal, I was journaling my experience on youtube at the time and now I get a never ending stream of commenters of what a terrible person I am for overfeeding my bettas to death. 

Wow, such complex emotions from those little gals.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[zelibeli]

I might over-project my feelings onto them...  but that's fine.

About to start my water changes today and thought I'd add a pic of my fish room. Fish room is not accurate. It's probably not really enough tanks to call it a legit fish room. For journaling purposes, I present, the history of the room: 

Originally this was the cat's litterbox room with random furniture to disguise it as a den or something. 

Then I started a Master's degree so needed to move my gaming PC from my hubs office (where we gamed together a ton) to a place where I could concentrate for study and writing papers and terrible things like that. The litterbox was promptly moved to the basement. Luckily the cat complied with this move. 

Then flippin' Covid happened and we are all home a million percent of the day and I now had to work and game and study all in the same space and I decided to maximize every nook and cranny of our home/garage/yard for gym and fun space so we didn't all go nuts. This caused my son to realize he would like his gaming PC in his room, which meant the fish tank had to come out (which was fine, he was basically in maintenance mode out of responsibility to his fish). I told him I'd take his tank in my "office" and take over the maintenance. This was April 2020. 

Today, the degree is done and I'm back to at-work work about 80% so now I have a... Gaming Offish? It's my favorite place to be. 

 

[zelibeli]

lol, found pics of the evolution of the room.

March 2013: den

April 2020: study/gaming

And then the one above was today. I've totally gone from a proper adult to a child! 😄

[Guppysnail]

When I was younger I always tried to be more adult and such. Now I’m retired and I’m a great big kid and LOVE IT 🤗

Edited September 17, 2022 by Guppysnail

[zelibeli]

I recently rescaped one of my 20 gallon long tanks. See below for before and after. 

The log has been moved to my garage storage for now. It's decaying, but not at a super fast rate, but just a bit too much for 20 gallons. This tank is home to rice fish and panda corydoras. There is 1 old amano shrimp in here and she seems to be the queen bee of the tank. There are also a couple of black cherry shrimp I've pulled from my red population. I added different/less wood, dragon stone and went more with orange tones and bronze crypts. 

The substrate is a very thin layer of organic soil, like less than 1/4", and then capped with inches of sand and gravel of various sizes. 

I'm really happy with it so far. I did rinse everything but the dragon stone was a bit more dusty than I realized and choked the Tidal 35. I went back to a cheapy Top Fin that I had in the basement. I did manage to clean the Tidal 35 out and it's running again now, but I'll put it in storage rather than switching again. Using the established filter media.  I gotta get a new prefilter for the intake still. It's just a tad dusty still but that will clear up. It's been set up for about a week and I've done one water change already and doing another tonight. Testing strips say all is well, but I want the dust to clear up.