Tee Jays CPD and Aspidoras adventure

[TeeJay]

This is going to be a few months premature but I figured I mite as well get the new journal started. Since the mystery snail clutch was a success it's time to get the next adventure started 

If you follow along with me least killifish journal you will know I have a pair of lemon bristlenose plecos in there tank. Mr Lemony snicket's and miss Luna. Lemony is not to far off from breeding age I believe. Miss Luna is a bit younger. So I don't believe we will be "activity" breeding for a couple of more months. My pair came from my P.I.C @Guppysnail. She would know the ages maybe a little better than me. I'm just to lazy to go back thru the killifish journal to see when I actually got them. Both at different times.

Ever since I got lemony I have wanted to try my hand at breeding them. So I'm thinking they will stay in the 29 lay there eggs here hatch out then they can be moved to there grow out tank shortly after. 

I was going to go with a 20 long for this tank but when my last few snails went to there forever homes I acquired a 20 tall for free. So when it's free you can't say no .

the plan is to have one large sponge filter in one corner and I have one of those corner style air driven filters with sponges and media in it for the other back corner. I always like to run two types of filtration on all of my tanks if possible. So I will add a hob as well. I prefer in tank pumps. I have a tidal 55 on the 29 killi tank but I want to try somerhing new. So I think for this tank I will go with the penguin pro 125.

the tank is just sitting on the floor for now until I leak rest it for a few weeks and make sure it's good. In the mean time I'll either get a stand or a rack so I can have that tank the shrimp sanctuary 10gal and the Cory 10 gal all on the same unit. Still debating on what I want to do. 

it will stay bare bottom and I'll get some Terri cotta pots and cut them in half for hides. And while I leak test the tank I'll throw any extra guppy grass an hornwort from the other tanks to have a nice amount for when the time comes. I still have 2 of the submersible hygger tank lights from the snail tote tank I will use for this project. I'll just suction cup them to the inside top of the glass lid. I may add an easy planter or two for a couple of potted plants. But if not the guppy grass and hornwort will do a good job. So here is to the next adventure! 🍻

Edited April 1 by TeeJay

[Theplatymaster]

sounds fun! I think i have a similar box filter to that. I wish i could breed those plecos, but my tank is too small.

[TeeJay]

On 1/19/2023 at 6:55 PM, Theplatymaster said:

sounds fun! I think i have a similar box filter to that. I wish i could breed those plecos, but my tank is too small.

Yes it's been in the works for awhile now but ready to begin lol

[TeeJay]

So I found a solid wood side table at my local restore. Kinda like a good will but mostly for furniture. Only 15 bucks so it will work fine until I decide if I want to do a rack or not. Yeah the corner is a bit cluttered but I'll get over it. I sat on it and it didn't budge. I weigh 365lbs so I know it can handle a 20 gal tank. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

Very excited! and everything’s looking great!! I’ll enjoy seeing where this goes! Good luck!

[TeeJay]

On 1/21/2023 at 12:07 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

Very excited! and everything’s looking great!! I’ll enjoy seeing where this goes! Good luck!

Yes it's still a few months off. I still have to wait for my plecos to reach breeding maturity. But the tank was free and I just didn't want it sitting on the floor to get knocked into and cracked.. just filled it up to test for leaks. If it does good I figure I can just throw extra floating plants into it as they overgrow iny other tanks. Can be plant storage until the time comes for babies.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Don’t forget to make sure it’s level! 🙂 

[TeeJay]

Good morning fellow nerms. Why don't we have the first edition of coffee with TeeJay in the new Pleco journal.

I was going back and forth for a few days on filtration for the grow out tank. Looking over all different types and styles.  But I think I have figured out the combo that I'm going to go with 

The main filtration will be the fluval 207 canister. This will be my first ever canister so I'm pretty excited about that. Tons of room for media and such. Yes a bit pricey but I figure better to go with the solid choice for my first time.

The secondary filtration I decided to go with the marineland penguin pro 125.  I'm excited to give this filter a try. I have tidals on the killi and Cory tanks but wanted to give something else a shot to see if I may like it better. I went with this because it does have the pump in the tank and plenty of modding capabilities.

And third round goes to sponge filter(s) I have not decided if I will use one or two large co op sponge filters. If I go with two I plan to double stack them.

I know some may be thinking over filtration much! But this is going to be a bare bottom tank most likely with lots of fine tiny foods at all times to keep enough for all of those tiny mouths that need it 24/7. So I'm going to need all of the help i can get 

So my thought is I'll put the canister uptake and sponge filter in the back left corner. The penguin and heater in the back center. Then the canister outfow in the back right corner. That should keep a nice tank flow and heat evenly distributed. Well it's about time for work so keep it fishy my friends!

 

[TeeJay]

So the grow out tank seems to be good with no leaks. So I drained it. Gave it a good clean out and refilled it. I have the double stacked large sponge filters in the corner. I just stuck whatever bits of wood I had around in there for more surface area for bb. 

I thinned out the guppy grass hornwort and floating pogos I had and ran them thru rr for 60 mins to get rid of any tag alongs from other tanks before I added them in. Put in 3ml of easy green and got the light going. 

I have a friend that will have a nice mixed bag of plants ready for me in a couple of weeks. They can go in here as a plant tank for now until it's baby time 

I may add a couple of the mystery snail runts to it just to help it get seasoned. I know I'll have at least a solid 3 months before I would be close to having babies. As well plenty of time to make sure I didn't have any tag a long ramshorns.i don't want them to get into here since they babies will need all the food they can get once it's time. I can move they mysteries once that time arises.  

[TeeJay]

Morning fellow nerms. How about a little later morning coffee with TeeJay.

This morning I spent some time cleaning out my tidal filters in the Cory and killi tanks. It was pretty easy considering I just took them over to the grow out tank and cleaned them in there. Yep out all that yucky goodness to use 

I took the time to swap out to all sponges in the tidals. With a bit of cc in media bags. I can't go without that since I have 0 kh in my tap. Shout-out to @nabokovfan87 for the sponges. It sent them to me awhile ago to finish the hot rodding of the tidals. Well the mods may never be totally finished as we learn more 

I took the media bags of bio rings and stuck them by the double stacked large sponge filters to help the seeding process.

yes this tank will not have fish for many months but I want this tank to be well seasoned with bio film and very stable for when the time for fish happens. Going to let it go for another month then I will add a couple of mystery snails to help keep the system going until it's fish time. Then they can come out and go back to other tanks. Hopefully in that time I'll see if any ramshorns made it thru the plant rr so I can address that if it happened. Here is a pic. You may see a gross tank to start. But I see seasoning starting to happen.

[TeeJay]

Morning all. So I did a thing this morning. I ordered the new penguin pro 125 and the fluval 207 for the tank. They will be in tomorrow. So the main pieces of equipment needed to do the new adventure are already in hand

or will be here tomorrow. I did a small water change on the tank to suck out the gunk from the sponge filters I squeezed out into it. 

I know it's still going to be several months until it will be needed but I like to be prepared. I was also thinking I may move over Mr. Platy to this tank just to help keep it going well. My only concern is I don't want him to get to lonely being in a tank all by himself. He has always been in a tank with other fish so I havey reservations.

Edited February 1 by TeeJay

[Guppysnail]

You could always move Mr. platy over, and if he seems stressed out at all, and move him back.

[TeeJay]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:06 AM, Guppysnail said:

You could always move Mr. platy over, and if he seems stressed out at all, and move him back.

That's true. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for me to notice if he starts to get stressed. The tank is at the same temp as the one he is in. It should be a smooth move if I do.

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/1/2023 at 8:47 AM, TeeJay said:

I was also thinking I may move over Mr. Platy to this tank just to help keep it going well. My only concern is I don't want him to get to lonely being in a tank all by himself.

i dont reccomend this. Platies are very social fish. They can clearly get lonely alone. Ive seen this, and had to fix it. If you are adding a pair or trio it would be fine, but dont do just 1

[Guppysnail]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:11 AM, Theplatymaster said:

i dont reccomend this. Platies are very social fish. They can clearly get lonely alone. Ive seen this, and had to fix it. If you are adding a pair or trio it would be fine, but dont do just 1

Mr platy has only had a guppy who was rehomed bn pleco and I think some cories. Do you think it would be that much of a change for him since he already is the only one of his species?

Edited February 1 by Guppysnail

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:13 AM, Guppysnail said:

Mr platy has only had a guppy who was rehomed bn pleco and I think some cories. Do you think it would be that much of a change for him since he already is the only one of his species?

thanks for educating me on this fish in particular. I'll redefine what i said. You can keep 1platy. Plenty of people do it, it doesn't kill the fish. However, they are happier in even small groups, and you can see their fun behaviors better if they have friends.

[TeeJay]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:18 AM, Theplatymaster said:

thanks for educating me on this fish in particular. I'll redefine what i said. You can keep 1platy. Plenty of people do it, it doesn't kill the fish. However, they are happier in even small groups, and you can see their fun behaviors better if they have friends.

Yes he is the only one I have. Variatus to be exact. He is only with Cory's plecos and least killis

[Guppysnail]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:20 AM, TeeJay said:

Yes he is the only one I have. Variatus to be exact. He is only with Cory's plecos and least killis

Maybe get Mr platy 1-2 MALE friends to hang out with for awhile in the 20 based on @Theplatymaster information. No females or you’ll get over run. 

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:22 AM, Guppysnail said:

Maybe get Mr platy 1-2 MALE friends to hang out with for awhile in the 20 based on @Theplatymaster information. No females or you’ll get over run. 

Hmmm... this gets hard, ive heard variatus males can be very agressive, but IDK, i just have standard mutt platies, where the extent of the agression is males chasing each other around. Might be best just to have 1 platy than have a few males killing each other. But @TeeJay dont do just 1more male platy, that makes agression real bad, if you are getting  more, get 2+ more so if there is agression, it will be better spread out.

Edited February 1 by Theplatymaster

[TeeJay]

There here there here!  It's like Christmas for TeeJay. Not going to set them up tonight but I did look at them and all the fun parts to play with lol. I have some more sponges coming to put the the trays of the 207 and in the compartment on the penguin. So when those come in I'll actually start running them. And on the way home from work I picked up a new piece of mopani to put in the tank as well. Lost of surface are on it to grow all the yummys that the babies will love. And it's always fun to talk to the friends at my local reptile shop where I like to get my wood from.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Mopani is pretty.

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/2/2023 at 8:10 PM, TeeJay said:

There here there here!  It's like Christmas for TeeJay. Not going to set them up tonight but I did look at them and all the fun parts to play with lol. I have some more sponges coming to put the the trays of the 207 and in the compartment on the penguin. So when those come in I'll actually start running them. And on the way home from work I picked up a new piece of mopani to put in the tank as well. Lost of surface are on it to grow all the yummys that the babies will love. And it's always fun to talk to the friends at my local reptile shop where I like to get my wood from.

Is there some sort of discount getting mopani from a reptile source as appose to a fish source?

[TeeJay]

On 2/3/2023 at 8:10 AM, Theplatymaster said:

Is there some sort of discount getting mopani from a reptile source as appose to a fish source?

No not really. I still payed 20 bucks for a medium size piece. Sure you can go on Amazon and get the same stuff in a 2 pack but you don't know what shapes and sizes your going to get. I like being able to go in store and pick out what I like and will work for my person use. And to talk to the family that runs the store and see what new snakes and such they have in. Imo you still can't beat going into the local store and just spending some time. I don't have a lfs anymore so my local reptile store I can still at least go in and pick out nice wood pieces. As well they told me they can order in alot of the filters gravels or anything else "fish" relate for me and get it for there price so that's a bonus.

Edited February 4 by TeeJay

[TeeJay]

Morning fellow nerms. How about some coffee with TeeJay shall we. 

So like I said before I got the new fluval 207 and the new penguin pro 125 in a couple of days ago. I'm still waiting on the green sponge I ordered to cut and put into both filters. As well I got the marineland pre sponge filter they make for that line of filters. It's a square style and it fits perfectly into the right side of the filter and in intake tube plugs into it. Instead of just having a basket on that side with bio media. The other side of the compartment will be filled with green sponge. 

The trident silicone grease will be delivered today and the rest of the sponges are suppost to be here by Wednesday so I can finish the setups. I got the new piece of mopani boiled and ready to go in the tank as well. Will probably put it in tonight after work.

[TeeJay]

Good morning fellow nerms. Hope everyone is well. Time for coffee with TeeJay.

Last night I got the penguin pro setup on the tank. In the last post you saw I got the square sponge for the right side of the filter. Last night I got the other sponges for the main compartment of the filter. So I cut two of them down to fit. But I noticed they moved a bit and would hit the bio wheel. So I had some extra plastic mesh that I used for filtering the light on the Cory tank. I believe it's used for like latchook yarn work. So I cut a piece to size and slid it into the slots that are ment for the replaceable cartridges. It worked great. And the holes it it are plenty big enough to let plenty of flow through. Only time will tell how optimal it will be. I still have the green sponge coming in a couple of days for the 207. I may swap out one of the black sponge to run one green and one black in here since they have different densitys.