AllFishNoBrakes’ Journal

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:20 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

wanna make RO water, add salt, and pay waaaaay more money for saltwater fish.

It’s definitely a more exclusive hobby than freshwater, I’ll give you that! Somehow the Swiss do saltwater really well, like there’s no dedicated freshwater LFS within 2 hours train of me, but I know of at least 3 100% saltwater shops, the closest of which is about 20 mins on the bus away. 

Anyway, Xmas is around the corner 😁

[AllFishNoBrakes]

What’s up everyone?

Hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving if you celebrate. 
 

Another round of maintenance in the books. Moved the Blue Axerodi Rasboras to the cube and they’re looking great. It’s so nice to have some movement and color in there again! I was surprised at how quickly they colored back up after taken them out of the QT tank. A feast of bbs for dinner and they’re zooming around looking fantastic. Hard to photograph, but I think I got a decent picture:

Caught the shrimp hanging out eating bits and pieces, too. I know I’ve posted a picture like this before, but that’s okay. I dig it:

Got one orange guy towards the top right. If I see him out and about I may move him to a different tank. I’m not stressing it either way. 
 

Also pretty hyped that the easy flow kits released today. Wasn’t going to buy them, but then I couldn’t resist temptation. Literally while doing maintenance and fiddling with every single air stone today I thought, “I can’t wait for those things to come out. I’m so tired of doing this every week”. Hyped! Not sure I’m going to use the flow kit on all the 10 gallons or the 20 long, but I will on the 20 high, 55’s, and 29’s. 
 

Also decided that instead of purchasing 2 new nano filters, I’m just going to replace the nano filters with the smalls I already have, and then the nanos will be used in the 2.5 gallon tanks when I’m hatching eggs and starting to first grow out fry. I don’t know why it took me this long to think of that option, but I’m glad I did. 
 

Cheers, everyone. Fingers crossed my flow kits get here before maintenance next week so I can install them all 🤞

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Longer maintenance session today, but it was well worth it. Ripped out every last air stone and replaced them with air collars/easy flow kits! I’m so SO STOKED to not have to mess with air stones on a weekly basis moving forward! 
 

Couple of things I wasn’t anticipating and had to work through/will continue to work through. 
-Had to adjust the 4 way metal gang valve just a bit to have all 4 kits flowing the way I wanted them to. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting to do this. Looking back I definitely should’ve been, lol. 
-My (4) 10 gallon tanks on the bottom rack are powered by a dual outlet (non-ACO) air pump. Each outlet is then T’d for a total of 4 drops. The left outlet on each T was having some trouble. Great air flow just a couple inches up in the tank, and then basically nothing where the sponge filter was sitting. For now, I turned some plant baskets upside down and put the sponge filter on top. It’ll work, for now. I want to maybe throw an adjustable valve on the right side of the T, and see if I can bring that side down to push just a little bit more on the left side of the T. We’ll see. 
 

I also bagged up a TON of Java Moss, ~20 PSO stems, and 23 baby Amazon Swords straight off the vine to take to the LFS tomorrow along with 15 Panda Angels. I’m curious to see what they’ll give me for all the plants. I even offered to portion them all out and was told not to worry about it. Definitely saved me some work today. 

Boiled up some tannins, saved up the blackwater tea, and dropped all those botanicals in the blackwater tanks. 
 

Was like a 7 hour session today, but I’m feeling good about where everything is at! Definitely time well spent  

Black Neons should be in either tonight or tomorrow, and the LFS is gonna hold them for a while which is much appreciated. Definitely going to QT them when I get them as well, but I’m thankful they’re cool enough with me to hold onto them for a bit. 
 

Took photos of some of the easy flow kits. 

55 Angel tank. 

29 Blackwater tank. 

29 Pea Puffer tank  

 

[nabokovfan87]

How was balancing? I have one pump with the collar on one tap and the ziss stone on the other and it's been a bit of a challenge. I had to open up the ziss to be able to not have the pump angry at me with the gang valve. I think that helped a lot. I was hoping that having everything on collars would make it a breeze again, similar to having everything on airstones.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@nabokovfan87 Balancing with the gang valve was super easy. 3 of the 4 (20 long, 20 high, and the 55 Angel tank) are about 3/4 open, and the 4th (29 blackwater) is fully open. Took me about 2 minutes to figure it out, and I’m glad I started by putting the collars/flow kits on before doing the maintenance. I noticed while doing the water changes that taking water out of the tanks obviously changed the flow. The 29 Blackwater was POURING water with the level lowered, but it makes sense as the valve is fully open. Once the water was back in all the tanks it was right back to how I wanted it. Shouldn’t have to mess with it moving forward. 

 

Still need to play with the other pump with the T’s to see if I can get it how I want it. Worst case scenario, I’ll buy a new air pump and install a 4 way metal gang valve there, too. I already have proof of concept for the 4 bigger tanks if I need to duplicate it. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

We’re on day 2 of the Nerite experiment, but so far both of them are still alive:

 

They’re in with the Pea Puffers and I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I figured they had a decent chance of surviving due to their shape, but you just never really know. 
 

If this experiment continues to go well I’ll probably add a few more. I gotta find something that’ll help me with the algae in this tank. Hopefully these will survive and will help out!

I was reading the newsletter from LFS #2 that I’ve mentioned plenty of times in this journal, and they mentioned that they now carry ACO products! I’m excited to check it out and see what they have. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Tuning in much earlier than usual! I think this is for a couple of reasons. I started maintenance about 9:30 this morning. Typically I get started a little later. That being said, I water changed everything in under 3 hours today! Typically it’s 4-5 hours depending on what I have to do, so to get under 3 hours felt huge. I think part of this is because I did a “water change” on the baby Angel tank by just adding a gallon of water to it, so I saved the time of taking out multiple gallons and then putting them back in. Also, I didn’t have to mess with a single air stone! Man, it felt so good to not have to mess with airline tubing/air stones/sponge filters. I’m curious to see how much time it takes me next week. Was this a fluke, or is this the new normal? We’ll see. 
 

Things are moving right along. Still fighting some algae in the Pea Puffer tank, but the Nerites are still alive. I may add a few more if it continues to go well. 
 

We have our employee appreciation party this evening, and then just a couple more work days until I take some time off. Definitely looking forward to that!

Cheers, friends. Hope all is well in your world. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Off work for the week and saw that LFS#2 is now an RPP store, so I took a little trip down to check it out!

 

Decent selection behind the counter. Pretty cool to see ACO products out in the wild. Also really nice to see that products are offered at the same price as online. I picked up a pack of 25’ airline tubing and a pack of algae scrubbers. Pretty neat that if I need some Easy Green I can just take a little drive instead of only being able to get it online. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

What up what up?

Started maintenance pretty early this morning since my girl got up early to go help a friend. 
 

Cruised through all the small tanks. Did a water change on my girls shrimp tank, even though I vowed to never do it. I’m not sure a water change has been done on that tank since we set it up. A couple of top offs, for sure, but I think this was the first legit water change. 
 

Moved onto the bigger tanks. Siphoned out the algae in the Pea Puffer tank and removed a bunch of plants from the Angel tank. The whole right side was basically dark, so it feels good to have some light in there again. 
 

Removed the 107 and cleaned that out. It had been probably 4-6 weeks since I’ve done that. 
 

I have a new “U” tube coming for the Fluval C2 on the 20 high, and a new power cord that I hope works for a c02 canister. 
 

Really just trying to get everything cleaned up and looking nice for my girls family that gets here in a couple of days. 
 

Nerites are still alive in the Pea Puffer tank! Next time I’m by the LFS that I have credit at I’ll probably pick up a couple more. If I can get this algae under control in that tank I’d be loving where I’m at. 
 

Merry Christmas, friends. I hope you have a great holiday!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks that one of the pieces of wood in the 29 Blackwater tank had basically disappeared thanks to the Swords finally gaining some height. Simply needed to move it to the bare left side of the tank. I made that move tonight, and was rather pleased with it. 
 

I looked to the left at the 20 long Blackwater tank. I’ve had this Anubius Nana Petite just chillin in that tank. It’s been there for months. Still in the pot, growing, looking really great, but I just hadn’t decided what to do with it yet. I knew it needed to go somewhere, but just hadn’t picked the spot yet. And then it dawned on me. 
 

With the “new” piece of wood now on the left side of the 29 I had spots to fill with plants. I took the Petite out of the 20 long, busted it out of the rock wool, and ended up with 3 pieces of rhizome. 2 went into the 29, with the final piece staying in the 20. 

20 long. Little piece of the Petite ended up on the right in the picture above. I’m diggin’ how it ended up. All Anubius (No Brakes). 

29. Pretty stoked on the subtle changes. Big impact, though. It’s nice to have just a little more greenery on the left side of the tank. Helps balance it out and the sponge filter is still open for easy maintenance. 
 

It’s crazy to me that I’ve had these materials this entire time and just didn’t see the vision. Then with one small change of moving a single piece of wood it all came together. Gotta love it. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Hello hello,

We have family with us still, so I didn’t do the normal routine today, but I did manage to complete the things that needed to be done. 
 

Aquaponics tank got a top off, Angel grow out tank got another gallon of water added to it, 6 gallon dirted cube got a bigger water change, and the Pea Puffer tank got some algae sucked out and the normal 10 gallon water change. After that, every tank got a little fertilizer. We’ll get back on track next week when we don’t have visitors. 
 

Only picture I took was this one:

The 6 gallon dirted cube is dealing with a little bit of green water. Again. This would be the third time this has happened to this tank, lol. If I do everything consistently, everything is fine. Any time I make a slight change, this happens. This time it was because I removed the dying red root floaters. There’s basically 0 nitrates in this tank to sustain the red root floaters, but if you remove the floaters you get a little bit of green water 🤦‍♂️.

All good, though. I’ve been here before. A couple extra water changes/a couple bigger water changes and we’ll be back on track. 
 

Someone else on the forum was talking about “cloudy water” and was asking about fixes. I also snapped this picture to try to help them out. “Cloudy water” could be particulate matter, tannins, green water, a bacterial bloom, etc. I snapped this pic and shared it for them to compare to in order to try to narrow down what they’re actually dealing with. 
 

Cheers, friends. I hope you’re enjoying your tanks!

Edited December 28, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/27/2023 at 6:55 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Someone else on the forum was talking about “cloudy water” and was asking about fixes. I also snapped this picture to try to help them out. “Cloudy water” could be particulate matter, tannins, green water, a bacterial bloom, etc. I snapped this pic and shared it for them to compare to in order to try to narrow down what they’re actually dealing with. 

Mark's shrimp tanks has a really solid video on the topic.

Enjoy the time with your family!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

What’s up everyone?

Hope you all had a safe and happy New Years!

My girlfriend’s family has gone back home, and things are starting to settle back to normalcy. Always nice to have them here, but I also enjoy my normal routine. 
 

Did just a couple of tanks that needed it last week. Got back to the full routine this week. Water changed everything, cleaned out a good number of sponge filters, and then I sliced my finger open mid-maintenance. 
 

I was cleaning a drop checker and I dropped it in the sink. Shattered it to pieces. Carefully removed those from the sink and got them in the trash can. Me being who I am, I didn’t want to waste a good suction cup as I still have a couple other drop checkers. Trying to remove the remaining glass from the suction cup my hand slipped and I got myself. Just one of those things. Gotta love it…

I didn’t want to put my bleeding hand into the tank anymore than I already had to, so the remaining sponges will wait until next week. 
 

I’ve also noticed that a couple of my air collars weren’t putting out as much air as they were a couple of weeks ago. Really hoping it’s not the ACO dual pumps getting weaker already. Still need to do some testing to confirm. I will say that the sponges I cleaned today that are hooked up to the easy flow kit had by far the most gunk come out of them that they’ve ever had. The first one was even almost hard when I first started squeezing it. That Easy Flow kit works wonders. 
 

Still fighting some green water on the cube. When I did the water change today the water was definitely super green in the bucket, and the fish were hard to see in the tank. Going to need to do some additional water changes throughout the coming weeks on that tank to clear it up. 
 

Cleaned everything up, fertilizer every tank, and chucked some Indian Almond Leaves in the blackwater tanks. Speaking of those, here’s the water that’s coming out of those tanks as of today:

20 long. 

29 gallon. 
 

29 is definitely catching up to the 20 long. Gonna keep cranking ‘em and see what happens. 
 

Cheers, everyone. Thanks for coming along on the ride!

[nabokovfan87]

Heal up! Definitely give the hand time to close up and clean it as need be.  Wishing for a speedy recovery, hopefully not to deep of a cut.

 

Good to hear about the filter cleaning and the easy flow. I'm running some dense foam on mine and it's quite different when I go to clean it. I'll have to keep an eye out for easy flow vs. air stone and see which one feels more "full".

But yeah, running "a ton of air" is great when you see that result of really dirty sponges. 🙂

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 1/3/2024 at 8:39 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

hopefully not to deep of a cut.

Nah, it’s not terrible. Pretty small cut. Just more annoying than anything else in the middle of maintenance lol. 
 

On 1/3/2024 at 8:39 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

But yeah, running "a ton of air" is great when you see that result of really dirty sponges. 🙂

For sure. Did a little more testing on the ACO dual outlet pump and I’m pretty sure the pump is just all of a sudden weaker than it was. Next and final test will be to hook up an all new airline. Pretty bummed that the pump diaphragm already seems to be pretty weak. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Yo yo!

Here we are on a Thursday this time. My schedule FINALLY got back to normal last week, just to have it disrupted this week. Gotta love it, but when the owner of the company says “I scheduled this inspection on Wednesday and I want you to come with me” you say yes and just take a different day off, lol. 
 

We have a meeting tomorrow where the owner is to lay out his 10 year plan to us and what he wants to accomplish each quarter over the next 3 years. I’m stoked. I’ve wanted this for so long. I thrive on structure, and I want to ensure that what I’m doing today serves the goals for this quarter, this year, next year, the next 3 years, the next 5 years, etc. I’m pumped. 
 

Enough about all of that, though. We’re here for fish and tanks. 
 

Knocked out all the maintenance today. Water changed everything, and man does it continue to feel good to not have to mess with air stones every single week! These air collars and flow kits are so legit. 
 

After everything was maintained and cleaned up I fertilized everything. I then boiled some botanicals for the blackwater tanks and got those in the tanks once they cooled down. I cleaned everything up so well that my girl didn’t even think I worked on the tanks today, lmaoooo. I’ll take it. 
 

I feel like I’m finally rounding the corner on the algae on the Pea Puffer tank. It’s been a struggle, but I feel like I’m getting somewhere. I trimmed up the algae covered plants and I’m hoping that helps. The Crinum is now just one single sprig and I’m hoping it comes back. We’ll see. I feel like we’re getting somewhere, though. 
 

Im starting to turn the tide on the green water in the cube as well. I did water changes 3 days in a row on that tank, and then left it until today. Still green, but not as green as it was. I’ll do another water change on Saturday when I’m off next and then monitor from there. Again, it feels good to be turning the corner. I can’t wait to see that tank clear again with no floating plants!

I removed a bunch of plants from the 55 Angel tank. The top right side was COMPLETELY covered in Water lettuce so I got rid of most of that. Trimmed back the Jungle Val that was dying and removed the algae covered sections. I removed some Amazon Sword leaves to give the fish some space. I also found a dead Cardinal Tetra when removing the Water Lettuce, so that’s a bummer, but a bit expected at this point.

I have 2 diy c02 canisters that I make c02 with citric acid and baking soda. A few weeks ago, one of the solenoids broke and I thought I might have to replace the whole thing. Doing some Amazon shopping I found a replacement solenoid and bubble counter that was a different brand from the original. I decided to take the chance and I’m glad that I did. When it first arrived I thought that it didn’t fit and I was pretty bummed, but, I was able to remove a nut and it all came together. Mixed up some c02, plugged the bad boy in, and I’m glad to report that it works! $20 repair vs. ~$120 for a new unit, so that’s rad. 

I didn’t take any pics today during maintenance, but I snapped a few before I started typing this out:

Pea Puffer tank. Getting somewhere with the algae. Bacopa I bought a couple weeks back is starting to grow so I’m excited about that.

6 gallon cube. Still a little hazy, but we’re getting there.

20 long Blackwater. Still loving this tank. 

29 Blackwater tank. Bacopa in here is starting to take hold, too.

Angel tank thinned out. Still pretty dark in the middle but that’s fine. 
 

I’ve been contemplating a couple of changes, but I’m not sold on them yet. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about:

-Still waiting on the Black Neons. As soon as the LFS gets them we’ll be set. 
-I’ve removed 1 ACO dual outlet pump and I’m about to remove the second. The pump just doesn’t put out the air I want it to in conjunction with the air collar and easy flow kit. It’s fine right now, but it’s hard knowing it could be better. Contemplating this one hard, and I’m leaning towards replacing the second one. At that point I just won’t have the battery back up, but I’ll obviously hang on to the pumps and use them if there is ever a power outage. 
-I have a wavemaker that a random old dude I met from Craigslist gave me. He hooked me up with some Water Lettuce and I’m pretty sure I hooked him up with some Platies. It was a couple of years ago. I’m thinking about adding that to the 55 Angel tank to better distribute the c02. I’m not sold yet, though. We’ll see. 
-I’ve thought about removing the sand in the middle of the Pea Puffer tank to replace with gravel. Plants just simply do not do well for me in sand, and I could have more plants in the center with gravel. Maybe one day, but for now I wanna continue getting this algae under control. It’s hard not to think that more plants could help with the algae problems, though. 
-I wouldn’t mind adding some fish to the 20 high, I just don’t know what to add. Right now it’s just Julii Cories and 2 Bolivian Rams, so the top is completely bare. I’ve thought about Cherry Barbs many, many times. Idk yet. We’ll see. 
 

Update: I was checking out the Pea Puffer tank I noticed that the drop checker has actually changed color for once!

 

This is the first time I have seen a drop checker legitimately green. I’ve looked at it and went “I think that’s probably a different color blue”, but today it’s definitely a green color I’m not sure what changed. Bubble count is the same. Filtration is the same. The ONLY thing that changed is I trimmed back some of the plants. Perhaps that has changed the flow a little bit and is allowing more c02 to reach that side of the tank.

I think that wraps it up for this week. Cheers, my friends!

Edited January 12 by AllFishNoBrakes

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Went by the new restaurant for a meeting with the GM today. The new restaurant is the one next to the LFS, and I needed some algae wafers so I popped in there. 
 

Snatched em off the shelf and headed to the counter. Said what’s up to my boy Tyler. He rang me up and I told him I’d like to use my store credit. 
 

He asks for my last name and goes, “Dang, dude. You’ve really racked up the credit!”  I responded with, “Panda Angels, man. It’s all those Panda Angels”. 
 

Tyler goes, “Those are lucrative for you. Nice! By the way, we just sold the last of those Pandas and could use some more”. 
 

I shot off an email to the manager and I’m hoping to take them the next batch on Thursday. Could be just about perfect as that should leave me with about 10, and then I have the whole next spawn ready to move out of the 10 gallon grow out here shortly. The last 10 should be a good stop gap while I grow out this next spawn. 
 

I should really try to get these guys in the RPP program, or at least see if they’ll bring in some Xtreme food for me. That credit wouldn’t be stacked so high if they sold the foods I use. Maybe I just need to branch out and try some other things from their selection, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 
 

Or maybe I’ll need some new hardscape. They did have some nice new piles of rocks that I saw today… Who knows. Only time will tell. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Man, what a maintenance day. Don't you just love when you’re like “that’s gonna take me like, 10 minutes” and then it ends up taking an hour? Lol. That’s how today started off. 
 

I remembered last night that like 3 years ago I gave away some Platy’s to this older gentleman. He brought me some Water Lettuce and a powerhead/wavemaker. I never had a use for it, and then I started thinking about how to better distribute the c02 in the 55 Angel tank. I remembered I had that wavemaker, and thought I’d give it a try. I scrubbed it down last night knowing that I wanted to try it in the tank today. 
 

I got it installed and plugged it in. Idk what size tank that wavemaker came out of, but it was WAY more powerful than I was expecting. So much so that I think I/it might’ve killed one of my Rainbowfish. I plugged it in, stepped back, and noticed it was WAY more flow than I was anticipating or what I wanted. I then noticed one of my Rainbow females was on the substrate lifeless. I turned the wavemaker off and gave the fish a few minutes to recover but she was lifeless. My only thought is either 1. She passed overnight or 2. Was right in front of that wavemaker when I plugged it in and it just sent her straight to the substrate. Either way I was bummed. I don’t get upset when it naturally happens, but knowing that I may have played a hand in her untimely demise is a bummer. 
 

Whats even more of a bummer is that AFTER this happened I remembered that I bought a small wavemaker in the very beginning of my hobby. Originally I wanted that 55 to be a saltwater tank, so I bought that little wavemaker in anticipation of building a salt tank. I never even opened it. It was still in the box. I had an appropriately sized little wavemaker this whole time. Had I remembered I had it I wouldn’t have even messed with the big one. And such is life. 
 

I also took all the little Bristlenose out of their tank and into the 55 grow out. I knew that was going to be quite the project so I have been putting it off. 
 

I started off by taking out the giant, and I mean GIANT mass of Java Moss out of the tank. That tank was literally FILLED with 10 gallons of Java Moss, lol. Once the dust had settled, there was like a solid 1/2” of mulm across the entire bottom of the tank. I went to siphon that out, and the water was too low to get a siphon going as that tank is just a couple of inches off the ground. So, I had to refill it. I did that, and then started to siphon. I got most of it out. Refilled it a second time, and then siphoned out the rest. Refilled it one final time, and finally got to move on. I obviously moved the Pleco’s out of there, too. I have 20-25 of them that I’m just stuck with right now. LFS told me they usually get them on donation, so they rejected the $1 per that I asked for. Last time I asked if I could just donate them, they told me they were full. 
 

I then got to move on and do all the other tanks. All of those were smooth sailing. Trimmed some algae covered plants in the Pea Puffer tank, cleaned some sponges, got everything cleaned up and fertilized, and now we’re finally done. It was an all day thing today!

I snapped some pictures throughout today:

Rad little shrimp I saw in the Pea Puffer tank today. I know this was a cull from my girlfriend’s shrimp tank, but where the orange on the shrimp came from I have no idea. Super cool, though. 

Amazon Sword runner growing emersed! This is coming out of the 20 high. I’m gonna leave it and see what happens. 

Finally getting somewhere with the green water on the 6 gallon cube. It’s been like 5 extra water changes over the last 2 weeks to get here. I’m gonna keep on it and we will win this battle! My luck, I’m gonna finally get rid of it, just to have to trim the Pearlweed for it to come right back lol. 

Pea Puffer tank. I feel like we’re getting somewhere with the algae. Gonna keep on it. 

Bristlenose eggs. Dad must’ve kicked em out of the cave during maintenance today. Fine by me. As mentioned above I already have like 20-25 I’m stuck with right now. 

Little wavemaker installed in the 55. C02 rises from then diffuser, then gets pushed down and across the tank. Disregard the BBA. Just pretend like it’s not there. 

10 gallons of Java Moss in a 55 gallon tank. Just a crazy amount, lol. 
 

Tomorrow we’re going to take 15 Panda Angels to the LFS. I’m gonna look at their food selection and see if I can find something comparative to Xtreme so I can actually start using this credit. I have a bunch, and if I could get free food my expenses for the tanks would drastically drop. Not that they’re really crazy or anything, but most of my money goes to ACO for food at this point. I also need a new pack of Maracyn or General Cure as my Maracyn is expired, and we hope to come home with 6 Daisy’s Blue Ricefish. My girl has decided she wants those in her shrimp tank. Anticipating bringing them home tomorrow is the entire reason I moved the Pleco’s and cleaned out that tank today. Should be a good day tomorrow. 
 

Thanks for reading all the way through this if you did! Long post today. I’m ready for a nap. 

Edited January 18 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/17/2024 at 5:32 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I’m gonna look at their food selection and see if I can find something comparative to Xtreme so I can actually start using this credit. I have a bunch, and if I could get free food my expenses for the tanks would drastically drop. Not that they’re really crazy or anything, but most of my money goes to ACO for food at this point. I also need a new pack of Maracyn or General Cure as my Maracyn is expired, and we hope to come home with 6 Daisy’s Blue Ricefish. My girl has decided she wants those in her shrimp tank. Anticipating bringing them home tomorrow is the entire reason I moved the Pleco’s and cleaned out that tank today. Should be a good day tomorrow. 
 

Thanks for reading all the way through this if you did! Long post today. I’m ready for a nap. 

My condolences about the fish that went through the pump issue.  That's very tragic. 😞

You should take some photos or something if you feel like it, when you go to the LFS.  Give us an idea of the foods they have in stock! I would at least expect you can walk out of there with some frozen foods.

The BNPs, it's unfortunate that they are so tough to sell.  Maybe post some on the forums and go that route?

Edited January 18 by nabokovfan87

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 1/17/2024 at 10:24 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You should take some photos or something if you feel like it.  Give us an idea of the foods they have in stock! 🙂

Their selection leaves something to be desired, in my opinion. Either that or they only have the best and I just don’t know it yet lol 

 

On 1/17/2024 at 10:24 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I would at least expect you can walk out of there with some frozen foods.

Lately they’ve had the smaller Hikari Bloodworms, so I always stock up on those when they have em. 
 

On 1/17/2024 at 10:24 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Maybe post some on the forums and go that route?

I’ve thought about it, but shipping seems like a nightmare. Maybe some people locally could want some. Who knows

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/17/2024 at 10:19 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Lately they’ve had the smaller Hikari Bloodworms, so I always stock up on those when they have em. 

That's corydoras gold right there.... Awesome!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Adventures from today:

Woke up and bagged up the Panda Angels. Another 15 off to new homes!

Looks like they had 1 Panda Angel left from the previous batch. You can see it outside the bag on the left saying what’s up to their brothers and sisters they haven’t seen in a while. 

@nabokovfan87 Foods they have available. A decent selection, but not the things I use all the time. Sounds like they might be able to bring in some Xtreme for me though, so that’d be cool. 

Rainbow Shiners looking rad. Maybe one day. 

Congo Spotted Puffers. Most looking pretty good. A couple with super sunken bellies. 
 

Cane home with this plus 6 Daisy’s Blue Ricefish. I am not concerned with gh/kh, but figured it could be fun to play with and just expand my knowledge. Gonna try the New Life Spectrum pellets and see what the fish think. Shrimp food I’m excited about as it seems to be all natural ingredients. 
 

Gonna buy a new Tetra Whisper 150 to run the (4) 10 gallon tanks on the bottom of my rack. This would allow me to move the current pump running those 4 tanks into my room to run the Pea Puffer tank and the 10 gallon tank next to it. Was hoping the LFS would have that model or something comparable, but they didn’t, unfortunately. Also stopped by PetSmart on the way home and they didn’t either. Amazon it is!

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:47 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@nabokovfan87 Foods they have available. A decent selection, but not the things I use all the time. Sounds like they might be able to bring in some Xtreme for me though, so that’d be cool. 

They are on that Sera supply sheet and it can be pretty daunting.  Min buys per item and then you have to have a minimum total cost.  There's not a lot of the Sera stuff I like these days. 😞

Maybe they can bring in some hikari discus food for you.  This one:

One of their better recipes, might work with a lot of your fish.  I am yet to find it local for whatever reason.

Discus Bio-Gold
Krill meal, whole crushed silkworm pupae, fish meal, cuttlefish meal, dried seaweed meal, brewers dried yeast, potato starch, spirulina, carotene, lecithin, DL-methionine, astaxanthin, garlic, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), inositol, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, vitamin A supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, niacin, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, silicon dioxide, ferrous sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, red 3 (artificial color).* 07-49K

On 1/18/2024 at 12:47 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Gonna try the New Life Spectrum pellets and see what the fish think.

let us know.  This is one of those that a lot of people mention (good and bad).  I am really intrigued by the algaemaxx stuff.

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 1/18/2024 at 2:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

let us know.

Will do. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people on here talk about it, and considering I’m using credit I figured it was worth a shot. 
 

gh and kh test results:

Tap: gh 2 drops kh 2 drops 

Aquaponics: gh 3 drops kh 2 drops

Betta: gh 3 drops kh 2 drops

20 high: gh 2 drops kh 1 drop

20 long Blackwater: gh 5 drops kh 6 drops

29 Blackwater: gh 7 drops kh 6 drops

55 Angel: gh 2 drops kh 2 drops

Shrimp: gh 3 drops kh 2 drops

6 gallon cube: gh 3 drops kh 3 drops 

Pea Puffers: gh 5 drops kh 4 drops

10 gallon bedroom: gh 3 drops kh 2 drops

55 grow out: gh 4 drops kh 2 drops
 

Pretty much what I already knew. Soft water with little kH. The surprise to me was the blackwater tanks. No wonder the pH hasn’t crashed in those. 
 

Whats even more interesting to me is that most tanks get the exact same treatment, same foods, same water change schedules, same woods and rocks, etc yet a couple of them are slightly different. Mainly the Blackwater tanks but also the 20 high has the lowest KH. Pea Puffer tank stands out a bit, too. Interesting stuff, but I’m not chasing numbers. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/18/2024 at 1:54 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Whats even more interesting to me is that most tanks get the exact same treatment, same foods, same water change schedules, same woods and rocks, etc yet a couple of them are slightly different. Mainly the Blackwater tanks but also the 20 high has the lowest KH. Pea Puffer tank stands out a bit, too. Interesting stuff, but I’m not chasing numbers. 

It's a recommendation for planted stuff, maybe it matters for some fish.  GH = 2x KH. 

Might be indicating some of that store credit towards having just a little bit of GH booster on hand if you need it occasionally!