Blackwater Bloody Mary Neo Setup

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/10/2023 at 4:46 PM, itsfoxtail said:

Well I can officially say I learned something new today! I had no idea the TDS for wild neos was that high! It's amazing they can adapt to all these different parameters shrimpkeepers keep them at. I just find the resilience of fish so inspiring. 

Me too! It's hard to know if this info is accurate because I can't say it's perfect or verified over and over again, but it's the best I could find.  I found the river data with conductivity, and there is some math you can do to go ahead and convert that (in some method) over to GH/KH, but it didn't seem foolproof to me when I dug into it.

I've had mine up to about 11-12 (close to 13) and they were "fine" but I don't know that they weren't showing some stress signs.  My amanos, heck, they've been much higher for most of their lives.
 

On 9/10/2023 at 4:46 PM, itsfoxtail said:

Also I aspire to ever do as much research as you do. You always do that extra deep dive and it's so super helpful.

A sort of "new years resolution" for myself to try to learn moreso.  I really appreciate the compliment!

[nabokovfan87]

Sometimes you finish up a long day and just think to yourself, "man, it's been a long week" and you realize it's only Monday.  It's been a big like that this week.  I am not sure I've posted in the other journal for my main tank, but as far as shrimp is concerned.... today is their day.

I wanted to make a concerted effort to better clean out the mulm and detritus.  I did a deep siphon the last 2 times and both times I was pretty shocked at the amount of debris in the tank.  I lifted up the wood and the clown pleco, little Luigi, she had a pile that was pretty massive under there.  In some respect, yes that is food for the shrimp to enjoy, but it's also just encouraging worms and other things I would like to limit.  I have plenty of food, plenty of algae in the tank, and it's all about getting things back to where they should've been and to get the tank just that bit nicer for me to sit and enjoy.

I also realized that I just dislike scraping algae on the glass in this tank.  It's very hard green spot algae that is forming and I need to find a holder so I can use a blade, a hard card, or get a mag float that works for me.  Right now, I'm using an old style blue cheap "algae scrubber" that I got for when I first got back into the hobby.  It's something that works, but it takes a lot of pressure for me to scrub this stuff off.  I want to look into getting one of those long handle "aquascaper" style holders and use that.  I think it just may make the job a bit easier.

Of note as well, last night the shrimp were going a bit nuts when I popped the light on to check on them.  Part of that surely is due to the light being a bit jarring, but I watched them under dim light conditions and they were acting like 30+ female shrimp were spawning and all the males were going a bit crazy.

I assume it was due to my messing with the hardscape and a shrimp getting stuck, but I did find a dead shrimp.  It was mostly just a tail and it looked "cooked".  The water isn't nearly warm enough for that to happen, so I assume it's just been in there since messing with the hardscape last week and was stuck under the wood. 😞

For the sake of it, I checked the GH, everything seems good! I will "feed some mineral food" tomorrow by adding just a scoop of the GH booster I have.  It won't do much, but I enjoy that process and giving them the calcium additive to graze on.

Honestly, this tank feels a bit like an experiment right now.  I have the two feeding dishes in there and I spend the mornings when I feed checking to see where they all go.  It's sort of like left hand vs. right handed people, I swear some of the shrimp just refuse to move all the way over to go eat out of the other dish.  I still find myself enjoying and learning new things with these shrimp.  They stopped breeding for about ~1.5 months It seems like.  I was expecting to see a massive boom in population when summer hit, but they actually slowed down.  Now that things are cooling off just a little, they definitely seem to be back to normal and they are going through food like champs.

We'll see...

Another deep clean, another good size water change, and they got a late meal, but they are eating their "breakfast" for dinner.

I'll keep an eye out and try to spend some time watching them tomorrow.  We do have a few baby shrimp growing up from a recent spawn, which is great to finally see them again.  I am really trying to look for adult shrimp, max size, max coloration, and trying to really understand what the "final quality" of these shrimp are.  I have one that I see all the time, a big female (she's right handed) and she's just very vibrant and deep red colored.  I am looking to see more get up to her size.  Hopefully by December I have a lot more adults!
 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I got this one and I’ll tell you why. It’s because it takes regular razor blades; the kind you can find anywhere - Walmart, the hardware store, etc. Cheap refills. It works very well too. Minimal effort. Also easy to make the handle half length to do the smaller tanks.

Faveetie Aquarium Algae Scraper... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGNJJXM6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Edited September 21, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/21/2023 at 3:24 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I got this one and I’ll tell you why. It’s because it takes regular razor blades; the kind you can find anywhere - Walmart, the hardware store, etc. Cheap refills. It works very well too. Minimal effort. Also easy to make the handle half length to do the smaller tanks.

I found the seachem one (no idea why it's SO HARD to find some products in big box stores....) and they have softer plastic inserts.  They also do the same thing and take blades.  I also have just a generic, "holder" from the hardware store I can utilize if need be. 

I am right there with you.... I want to find something where in a tall tank my hands can stay a little dry and avoid the risk of contamination with the shrimp.  I've seen it as almost a very different mindset in the US vs EU where they all use the above style "blade holders" for scraping glass.  Here in the US we use single use products or have the "fancy" mag scrapers and so on.

For the sake of showing what I *was looking at* here's the seachem one.




 Here's the "fancy" ones



I like the idea of using cards / softer materials than a sharp metal edge.  One thing I do like about the magfloat blades is that it's not sharp, it's just robust enough to handle any algae scraping needs.  If I get clumsy and poke some silicone, it'll be alright... generally speaking.
 

 

On 9/21/2023 at 3:24 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Faveetie Aquarium Algae Scraper... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGNJJXM6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I assume plastic handle.  Is it pretty robust? I have this idea in the back of my head to actually get a shelf, drip tray, metal bar, and hang up my tools so I don't have to use the cup and keep knocking it over as much.  The net I got for the shrimp... directly the exact wrong way for the little "loop" on the end to be to hang it.  What a waste. 😞

Edited September 22, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/21/2023 at 1:14 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'll keep an eye out and try to spend some time watching them tomorrow.  We do have a few baby shrimp growing up from a recent spawn, which is great to finally see them again. 

I owe this journal a video and a few photos, but I just wanted to say that I did take the time to check-in on the tank and I have a good handful of very deep red near adult shrimp as well as a plethora of them that just look phenomenal to my eye.  I was really uplifted when I checked into the tank.  I tossed moss in a seaweed clip about a week and a half ago and the shrimp were playing in that as well as the other things stuck on the tank all over the place. 

I can't say it enough, I really do enjoy watching them and learning about them.

Edit:  I checked on them again tonight for a little bit. The big adult female should be molting anytime soon.  One of the females that was "saddled" looked like she had fully formed eggs (I could see what seemed like an egg shape and distinct shapes) and she is either prepping to or was in the process of moving the eggs to her abdomen.  I counted 4 berried females as well.  I saw 2-3 generations of baby shrimp on the glass again.  Males were looking good, colored up.  Just a fun time when I sit and enjoy them.

Edited September 22, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/21/2023 at 8:01 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I found the seachem one (no idea why it's SO HARD to find some products in big box stores....) and they have softer plastic inserts.  They also do the same thing and take blades.  I also have just a generic, "holder" from the hardware store I can utilize if need be. 

I am right there with you.... I want to find something where in a tall tank my hands can stay a little dry and avoid the risk of contamination with the shrimp.  I've seen it as almost a very different mindset in the US vs EU where they all use the above style "blade holders" for scraping glass.  Here in the US we use single use products or have the "fancy" mag scrapers and so on.

For the sake of showing what I *was looking at* here's the seachem one.




 Here's the "fancy" ones



I like the idea of using cards / softer materials than a sharp metal edge.  One thing I do like about the magfloat blades is that it's not sharp, it's just robust enough to handle any algae scraping needs.  If I get clumsy and poke some silicone, it'll be alright... generally speaking.
 

 

I assume plastic handle.  Is it pretty robust? I have this idea in the back of my head to actually get a shelf, drip tray, metal bar, and hang up my tools so I don't have to use the cup and keep knocking it over as much.  The net I got for the shrimp... directly the exact wrong way for the little "loop" on the end to be to hang it.  What a waste. 😞

Plastic handle. It is thin, but I don’t see a need for a thick one honestly. You’re going to be gentle anyway so you don’t hurt your fish or scratch your glass. I added a twisty tie to the end of mine so I can hang it (also would work on a shrimp net. 😉) Also has a guard that snaps on over the razor to safely store it.

I was using a AAA card to scrape for awhile but a) wet arm, b) doesn’t work on green spot algae, c) turns a 2-minute job into a 7- or 8-minute job. I didn’t realize until I got the proper tool for the job.

I put clear command hooks on the side of my tank stands to hang stuff.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/22/2023 at 2:46 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I didn’t realize until I got the proper tool for the job.

Ain't this the truth!

Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know.

On 9/22/2023 at 2:46 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I put clear command hooks on the side of my tank stands to hang stuff.

I was at the store, standing in the aisle, trying to remember what I needed.... 😂 .  It was more of the stickies for all my hooks. I have them on the wall behind the tank hidden by the background and stuff.

[nabokovfan87]

Work for the tank done for the week.  I did another deep clean on the tank due to the detritus, worms, and botanicals being a bit messy.  They were "at that point" where they are turning to powder. 

This photo is from the day prior, and it was just some motivation to remove as much junk in the sand as possible. 


There's also the typical other worms I've been dealing with forever in my tanks that are much smaller, free swimming little buggers.  I will need to add some white clouds or something to the tank eventually, given that I can't add swordtails to this one.  It doesn't appear I'll have fry and I just need something I can keep in there long term and enjoy. 

I treated the mopani for BBA using the brush / peroxide technique, removed the shells of the leaves so that I could scrape the wall, cleaned the glass extremely thoroughly, tried to re-attach some of the anubias to the holes in the stones, culled out ~2 of the off-gene shrimp from the colony, and I went ahead and attached more moss to the side of the tank using the seaweed clips.

I was at the big box store looking for a 20L tank, apparently they don't sell those now, and I found 2 potentially interesting things there.  They had one piece of mopani that was a good 14" long or so, very narrow, but it was a nice flat long piece.  It would've been wonderful to add to the tall tank here and to see how it looked.  I may end up going back for it, but I was quickly distracted by the bag of stone at the store.  One of their bags of dragonstone was cut up and cracked, while the other was large size pieces and looked really good!  IDK, I just walked away a big frustrated and unsure of what to do.  I would rather go spend that $$$ on plants, buce, moss, and try to get more things on the side of the tank as opposed to just adding a chunk of hardscape.  It's the feeling that if I want to make the tank properly nice I would need to swap it out for a different tank entirely (that they didn't have) and I would need to go ahead and actually scape it. 

The plan for now is to keep an eye on nitrates (per @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's advice) due to losing 2 shrimp in the past 2 weeks.  So far they seem to be in the 10-20ppm range, but I will re-test here tonight.  If I keep experiencing issues, I may have to find a way to actually drip water back in, but it's not those sorts of deaths I am seeing.  Behavior looks fine, color is amazing, shell health probably could be better and I am working on adjusting up my feeding right now.  I want to get to a point of daily feeding and I think the colony size is such that it demands that right now.

Pictures incoming, when I can get them.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Pictures incoming, when I can get them.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

What beautiful little shrimps. They are like rubies.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/28/2023 at 4:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

What beautiful little shrimps. They are like rubies.

The older they get the more I am able to see that color develop.  I wish I had a proper camera and something to help zoom in a little.  Cleaning the glass and being able to take clear photos was such a mood booster for me!  🙂

Gather around everyone....  It's time to have an honest conversation about shrimp filters.  ( 😂 A slightly goofy bon appetit youtube challenge reference there.  I was trying to remember where I had heard that phrase from!)

About a week ago I was doing the big clean and I had noticed this shrimp was deep in the sponge filter.  MUCH deeper than I feel comfortable to see a shrimp of near adult size.  I was seriously concerned it would get stuck.  The photo below is outside of the tank, after I did all the work today.  There was another one that got it's shell stuck on the sponge and unfortunately the shrimp did pass.  I was able to pull out the tail and it was about 1/4" in size I believe.  The one that triggered my alarm was about double this size, a large female, and I was so concerned.



Well, because of that I knew I needed to just do what I've been putting off and change things around with finer sponge material.  How fine, not really sure.  Going based on my own experience with airline foams, I think the one we have is ~10-15 ppi and the one I have now is probably 90-200 ppi.  The marineland prefilter sponge or seachem tidal sponge is probably about 30-40 ppi range.  It's all a bit of a wash.  The main thing here is that in the big tank where I have the culls and in the colony itself I now have removed this very course sponge for the sake of not having shrimp get stuck like this.  Especially on a hob / high flow scenario I cannot stress this enough.  It's critical.  The shrimp love the highly flowing water and tend to congregate there in search of food that is breaking down and easy for them to grab.  My amanos do the exact same thing as the neos in this regard.  Fluval sells some very fine sponge prefilters for nano sized hobs that is designed for their spec tanks.

Today was the big day when the box arrived and a few things went right.  It arrived first thing in the morning and it arrived on shrimp tank cleaning day.  I rinsed off all the parts on the new filter just to be a bit thorough and then went ahead to remove the course sponge.



I hope this makes it a bit clear for everyone why the shrimp were going deep into the sponge.  This also means that potentially using this foam in this scenario is perfectly fine as long as it's not extremely thick (these are large size filters).  I also noticed the BBA on the top there starting to take hold.  I have always struggled to really clean out these sponges just because of that we have issues like worms in the tank going a bit nuts on me as well as the algae.  My hope is that any and all improvements will go ahead and allow me to clean the tank the way I want to as well as keep things visually a little more mechanically filtered.

As soon as I touched the sponges, as expected, a lot of the debris let loose and right into the tank.


I ended up spending a good 2 hours dunking sponge in a bucket, removing any shrimp that were left.  I found 2 as well as the one that was stuck.  One of them was a big berried female and the other was just a little juvenile shrimp having some fun. 

I got the new filters setup and I used all the original parts at first.  Worked fine!  I could easily modify the filter to accept an air stone, but I think it's just a bit better if I was able to use the Co-Op materials and the fine sponge.  Fingers crossed it's a good fit and all the parts work..... success! 

I actually tried the green co-op air piece on the "other guys" plastics and it worked great.  The piece snapped into place on the base and worked well.  Maybe there's room for the co-op to sell just the top piece of the sponge filters for a small cost and that allows anyone with the older style sponges to "upgrade" their filters.  I can imagine it's a bit of a marketing kerfuffle, but this is essentially just a retrofit job and you remove old piece, replace it with new piece.  Done.  These are the kits they send techs out with on any sort of recall in your home appliances.  It's a fun part of the engineering side of things I really miss and enjoyed working on.

Anyways, here's the newer sponge from the "classic" sponge filter that is now installed and is plug and play into the co-op sponge filter parts.  When I say "it works" I mean, I would guess the holes are the same size and I can take the parts off the classic style sponge filter and use them on the co-op filter.  I bet the base and all the other stuff works too.  I do like the design choices and changes that Cory made on his filters, so let's go with the green!



It's a little harder to focus, but I don't think any shrimp are getting stuck anymore. 🙂

Edited October 4, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

For clarity / full disclosure if it helps anyone at the co-op side of things (cc @Randy or @Zenzo ).  My apologies, I am not sure which is the appropriate person.

This is what I would deem the "classic sponge filter upgrade kit" if you have a customer who simply wants to swap out some parts and go ahead and be able to use the ziss air stone.  The kit would include 4-5 pieces.

1.  Uplift tube
2.  Air diffuser piece
3.  First segment of the internal "cage"
4.  (optional) a small section of co-op airline hose
5.  (optional) a ziss adjustable air stone

There is now the newer jetlifter upgrade kit.  I just wanted to mention it as an option for consideration.  Maybe it helps someone out there who dealt with a similar issue.
 

Edited October 4, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/4/2023 at 3:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

As soon as I touched the sponges, as expected, a lot of the debris let loose and right into the tank.

Yep, I experienced the same issue. Tried the bagging method, but in a deeper tank like my 29, I just didn't want to thrust both arms down into the tank to do it, and I found it a bit cumbersome. So I would always pull sponges prior to siphoning and water removal so I could vac the gunk.

On 10/4/2023 at 3:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I don't think any shrimp are getting stuck anymore

Yep, you're good.

Have you added some bottled bacteria, or are you running one established sponge and one new sponge?

Also a nice tip for you. If you should ever see algae on top of the fine sponge, when you do maintenance, just flip it over. The algae will no longer receive the light and will die.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/4/2023 at 3:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you added some bottled bacteria, or are you running one established sponge and one new sponge?

I'm was going to get some bacteria just for giggles, busy day with other things.  I'll get some tomorrow.  For now, filter stuff is all over the tank.  (I dunked it for a good 15 minutes trying to get fry off, so there's def. bacteria in the new filters).

 

On 10/4/2023 at 3:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Also a nice tip for you. If you should ever see algae on top of the fine sponge, when you do maintenance, just flip it over. The algae will no longer receive the light and will die.

I had this stuff grow on the dark / back side of the HoB.  It loves to defy logic.  BUT YES. awesome tip. 🙂

 

On 10/4/2023 at 3:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yep, I experienced the same issue. Tried the bagging method, but in a deeper tank like my 29, I just didn't want to thrust both arms down into the tank to do it, and I found it a bit cumbersome. So I would always pull sponges prior to siphoning and water removal so I could vac the gunk.

Well said.  I like using the big nets, I need to get another one.  It's like using the bag, but just a little easier having a rigid rectangle and getting it against the sides/glass.  My usual method in the big tank is to scoop the foams out quickly, no debris on prefilters.  With the actual sponge filters themselves, it's just "be quick" and try to get it into the bucket without much mess or hassle.  We'll have to see how methods change with the new filters. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/4/2023 at 10:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I had this stuff grow on the dark / back side of the HoB.  It loves to defy logic.  BUT YES. awesome tip. 🙂

You have the special kind. Lol

I have the green stuff.

On 10/4/2023 at 10:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

With the actual sponge filters themselves, it's just "be quick"

I feel there is less mess, the slower you move it through the water. But thankfully we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

[Odd Duck]

I slowly lift the sponge filter (or prefilter) to the surface, then quickly pop it out and into either a pitcher or one of the handled cups that hang on my rolling water mixing barrel.  They are only used for the tanks.  I always clean the sponges before siphoning or I’m lifting them out while trying to aim the siphon in their general direction by catching the gravel vac or siphon hose on something adjacent or pressing the hose to the glass with my body for the big tanks.  😆   I’m sure some of my fish tank cleaning or planting related contortions would be comical for anyone else to watch.  😂 🤣 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/5/2023 at 3:10 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’m sure some of my fish tank cleaning or planting related contortions would be comical for anyone else to watch.  😂 🤣 

Totally agreed.  Ya'll can laugh at me though it's fiiiiine. 

[nabokovfan87]

Baby shrimp on the back glass this morning. It feels like forever since I've seen that. The shrimplet is colored up a little bit so it's at least around a week or two old.  I was checking on them last night and tried to feed Riddick, but ended up with all the shrimp taking her food again. 😞

I did see 3 females all together, all berries, so we should have some new shrimp soon and we'll see how they do with these new filters!

[nabokovfan87]

For the sake of recording keeping....

Heater added to the tank today. I set it to 73 and I know all of my heaters I need to keep an eye on things getting too warm.  Some might be broken or aging out of use. Hard to say.

I looked at the tank today and everything was pretty good. I don't see a ton of milk or mess or issues. I added a half gallon of distilled water I had set aside and ferts and left it at that for this week's maintenance.

The females that have eggs should be laying and molting, so this just helps reduce stress.

As always, the only real struggle right now is trying to decide and how to best feed Riddick and to keep the shrimp happy.  They absolutely aren't afraid of her in any capacity. They do their own thing and I believe she's been focused on worms in the substrate more than anything. We'll see how things do as worms die off or small shrimp are born, fingers crossed and think positive.

I really would love for her to do well long term with the shrimp!

[Pokey]

I just did a search to find out about Riddick. She’s a very lucky fish to have you! I’m glad she’s happy in her own tank.😃
 

Does a corydora live quite a while? Are eye problems common with them?

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/19/2023 at 10:29 AM, Pokey said:

I just did a search to find out about Riddick. She’s a very lucky fish to have you! I’m glad she’s happy in her own tank.😃
 

Does a corydora live quite a while? Are eye problems common with them?

These ones may not have enough genetic variation due to very limited parents. That being said, yeah, they do definitely live long! 10+ years being expected lifespan I believe. Eye issues I don't think are common at all.  These could've been caused by an injury when she was young, genetics, or even CO2 being in the tank she was raised in. She was the only one that had the issue.  She seems perfectly healthy otherwise and there isn't many issues at all.  Very fun fish and I really do enjoy my corydoras herds!

[nabokovfan87]

Still adjusting, but it's in.

cc @AllFishNoBrakes

In the kit we have what amounts to a few things going on here.  For the sake of ease of clarity I'll use basic terms and poke fun at myself for the ability to overdescribe things in a box.

1.  3x big tube
2.  1x small tube (adjustable)
3.  1x bent tube (direction matters)
4.  1x Air collar/diffuser/Jetlifter
5.  1x small coupling with airline tubing holder hook
6.  1x large coupling with airline tubing holder hook
7.  1x small coupling without airline tubing holder hook
8.  1x large coupling without airline tubing holder hook

I tried to guesstimate what I would need to get the tube to the height of the tank, broke down everything on my sponge filter and then tried to plug it into place.  Tubing falls off because it's just hard/dried on the end.  Grabbed the scissors and cut that off, applied the tubing to the air diffuser and then tried to plug things in.  It's a small note, but what a joy to not have to go "ah crap" and realize you didn't route the tubing through the tube to get to the thing to diffuse the air.  It's nice to just have the diffuser outside of the tube.  This is the first time I've ever seen an air collar and it was pretty interesting to see where the air comes out of.  It wasn't what I'd expected and it's definitely a unique thing.  Interesting little bit of engineering.

I got all of that into place and then tried to decide exactly how to point things.  I don't really know what is "optimal" apart from making the water move around.  It's a whole new world!  I pointed it towards the front middle of the tank, there is a heater near the flow as well as a future moss wall about to be on that right side.  It's nice to have the surface movement from the filter.  I do run two on this tank, so I have one on an air stone and one off the new jetlifter piece.

Noise on the air collar is perfectly acceptable and it works. You can use 1, 2, or 3 tubes and you can even end up with the adjustment piece all the way inside of the big tube if you have a really long, but shallow tank.  It'll be interesting to see how the bacteria and algae acts towards the new setup.  As far as flow goes (intake) I do have a pretty unique situation where the baby shrimp will go en masse to whichever one is pulling more air.  I have found myself having to balance the flow if I wake up one day and notice that all the shrimp are on one side of the tank.  It'll be intriguing and fun to wake up during the week and see how the shrimp are behaving.

As far as construction, I do recommend that you take all the bits apart for cleaning.  There might be some plastic burrs on the end to remove, but it's not any sort of a major issue.  Plastic rubs and burrs happen, it's just the material doing what it does.

(literally just had it hit me)

I wonder if there was ever a "steampunk" type of filter that uses some 304 stainless steel for the tubing?  I imagine that a "pecktec" edition of a sponge filter like that might be pretty cool and unique looking.  Top heavy, needs a special base, but cool.

Anyways, the tubes are lengthened and we'll see what we see! 

Thank you again to Cory, Zenzo, Randy, Candi, and the rest of the co-op team for doing this and sending these out.  Much appreciated.

Edited November 1, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[AllFishNoBrakes]

You got one too?! Heck ya!!!!!!

Initial thoughts on mine are that they’re pretty rad, well worth the $6, well packaged, and I’m so stoked to have one less air stone to fiddle with each week. 
 

I’ll be adding these to all of my tanks, as well as getting 2 new nano filters to be able to use this kit. I’m stoked. 

[nabokovfan87]

Moss wall is in and done.  That tank looks so empty without the big ol tuft of moss in the middle, but it will be worth it if/when those plants decided to pop out of the mesh.  I have enough to cover the back wall as well, so we'll see what happens and how things go.  I really hate that I lost a good 90% of my moss for this project due to the summer heat, but it's winter-ey now.... so grow little moss buddies!

I do think it would be cool to have some moss ledges and that might be in the works one of these days.  I am thinking Pointed Spear moss among some others, but not quite sure.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/1/2023 at 5:50 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

if there was ever a "steampunk" type of filter that uses some 304 stainless steel for the tubing? 

I’d think hobbyists would want to always see inside the tubing just in case a critter gets stuck in there (ie: pleco etc)