What did you get done today?

[Katie B.]

On 3/22/2022 at 8:45 PM, ange said:

Oh my days I'm so sorry! Is there a chance that there's an air pocket in the wood that's making it more buoyant? You're more patient than I am; I probably would have tied that thing to a rock already or done some exploration with a drill bit.

I would prefer to drill it to a piece of slate, but it would need to be a long piece because there are only two points where it would touch it and I do not know where I could find such a piece. Oh, well. I may wind up tying it down, to my dismay 

[ange]

On 3/22/2022 at 8:50 PM, Katie B. said:

I would prefer to drill it to a piece of slate, but it would need to be a long piece because there are only two points where it would touch it and I do not know where I could find such a piece. Oh, well. I may wind up tying it down, to my dismay 

Try your local hardware store for slate pavers or tile! That's where I get most of my slate hardscape. A good wash + chiseling away at it can get you some quality pieces for décor or you can leave it as-is. Alternatively, some fish stores sell slate tiles intended for breeding fish like angelfish and discus. I've purchased a few previously and it only set me back about $2 a few years ago.

I haven't had good luck with drilling slate (hole saw) because it tends to be brittle but I can highly recommend using reef putty to attach it to just about anything. You could also try cigarette filters/polyester filling with super glue.

[Katie B.]

On 3/22/2022 at 9:00 PM, ange said:

Try your local hardware store for slate pavers or tile! That's where I get most of my slate hardscape. A good wash + chiseling away at it can get you some quality pieces for décor or you can leave it as-is. Alternatively, some fish stores sell slate tiles intended for breeding fish like angelfish and discus. I've purchased a few previously and it only set me back about $2 a few years ago.

I haven't had good luck with drilling slate (hole saw) because it tends to be brittle but I can highly recommend using reef putty to attach it to just about anything. You could also try cigarette filters/polyester filling with super glue.

I appreciate this so much! My only issue with the hardware store is the thickness of the slate. We have one fish store in town that focuses on saltwater tanks but I will give it a shot! I'll definitely be checking out the reef putty.

[PineSong]

1) Had the daylights scared out of me when I found my blue sword guppy male lining up at feeding time after two whole days of thinking he had passed away and mentally holding his funeral because I couldn’t find him anywhere.

2) Moved my ginga sulphureus females and fry from the 5g to a 10g to alleviate my guilt and see if I can get the fry to grow a bit!

3) Found some fish I had wanted that had been sold out online in stock on a different website and ordered them for my summer tub, just in time (I hope) to get them through a full QT before I set it up.

So,  a great day!

[Georgiapeach88]

On 3/22/2022 at 6:26 PM, Katie B. said:

How long did it take for your driftwood not to float? I have a piece submerged in a bucket right now, it's been there a week. I am DYING to put it in my tank but I don't know if I should secure it to a rock or continue waiting...

Mine was quite big, I weighed it down with rocks right off the bat and left it in my tank for about 2 wks before I started to remove some rocks. My wood was manzanita and seemed to soak up water pretty fast, smaller pieces are spider wood and they took about as long 

[Odd Duck]

On 3/22/2022 at 5:26 PM, Katie B. said:

How long did it take for your driftwood not to float? I have a piece submerged in a bucket right now, it's been there a week. I am DYING to put it in my tank but I don't know if I should secure it to a rock or continue waiting...

It took mine about 1 year and 3 months because that’s the point at which I gave up and attached it to some slate.  I soaked the right hand piece for almost 6 months, then zip tied it to rocks for 9 months.  Thought to myself, “That’s surely saturated by now.” and removed the zip ties.  

You see the consequences here.  I had only thin pieces of slate and didn’t want to have a wide piece that would disturb my plantings further.  So I did 2 layers that were close to the size of the base of this piece.  The long piece in the middle got a more cosmetic piece of slate screwed to its underside and it matches the wood color close enough that it’s not noticeable.  It’s easy to drill slate just going slow with a masonry bit.  Then drill a small pilot hole into the wood and stainless screws to attach them. 

[ange]

Trying out a new plant separator that's low profile. This is my invert/microfauna tank and doesn't have any floaters but it's easier to test on than my other setups. The goal is to have a self leveling system that is near invisible. I've seen 3d printed versions but all had flaws that I wasn't quite a fan of. I also want more customization options.

[Ken Burke]

Welp, I broke down and restarted my wife’s betta tank.  I sent  the betta, harlequins, panda Corys to anther tank; drained all the water, rinsed the gravel, and set it back up.  Gonna wait a week before bringing the betta back.  Just to make sure.

[anewbie]

Added some lovely blue shrimps to keep the red ones company last week. Also added some Hygrophila Serpyllum seen behind the shrimps.

[dangerflower]

Technically cheating because I did this a couple days ago, but I finally moved my tanks from the main room of my apartment into my bedroom! I only have two 10 gallons but even moving small tanks is so stressful so I've been putting this off for weeks! I wanted to move them because there was too much direct sunlight in the other room and it caused some gnarly algae blooms. My bedroom also has an air conditioner so I won't have to float frozen water bottles in my tanks all summer for temperature control 😅 

The best part is that I switched the positions of the tanks on the stand, so my betta's tank is on top now, putting him at eye level. He absolutely loves it.

[castiel]

I ordered some more ramshorn snails of various colors for my tank, and set up an air pump with a leak valve to add a small amount of air to my Walstad inspired jar to get some water circulation while it settles. Also glued a bunch of mini Christmas moss to a rock I bought at my LFS. (ignore my jar of random plants next to it) 

[Odd Duck]

Some of this is what I got done and some is what I plan to get done today.  So I’ve been planning to finally fill my new 100 G for a week, but it turns out I’m still kind of chicken about my moss.  I’m ready, but it’s going to be a lot of work, life has gotten in the way a bit, and a touch of laziness, too.  I have a 10 gallon tank I need to reset (explained below), but then I’m getting going on the 100 G, because I now have the first of the angels that will go in the tank along with some gold laser cories and the super red bristlenoses.  Plus I have the hatchetfish arriving later today (also explained below).  These will all go into this 100 G once the plants have time to root and settle. Once they go in the tank I’ll have QT tanks available again to get more angels.  I know a local guy that has full red koi angels, so it’s only a matter of timing now.

We had a fish auction with the local aquarium association and I spent way too much on fish, about double what I planned, but I also got more than double the number of fish I planned to get, sooo, . . . . . 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s fish I wanted to get anyway, I got decent to very good prices, . . . . . But now I need to do a tank reset tomorrow, first thing, because I have fish I ordered a couple weeks ago arriving today (slight delay to get arrival date right).  I HAD a tank ready for them, but now there are 3 subadult Bulgarian seal point angels with a touch of pearlscale and 5 gold laser cories in that tank.

Plus I have a lot more blue eyed lemon bristlenose plecos (BELBN) and now also super red bristlenoses (SRBN) in the 20 high which has now morphed into a juvie BN grow out plus a QT tank.  All the ones I just bought are closer to an age where they can be reliably sexed than the ones I already had in QT, so it works out.  I’m fairly certain all the LF BELBN I just bought are females as opposed to the other 3 that were supposed to be females and I’m pretty sure are males.  Best laid plans turned on their ears.  But I’m quite certain I can sell any of the BELBN that are male, especially since 2 are long finned.

The male of the pair of SRBN is already checking out, and appears to have picked, one of the caves I just added to the tank.  He seemed very irritated with the mystery snail that was in the cave with him last night.  I’m hoping the single unsexed SRBN is also female (best guess right now she is).  All 3 are SF, but I will probably look for another pair in LF to also go in the tank.

I had planned to do the tank reset on the 10 G anyway.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 🤦🏻‍♀️ This just got me motivated to get it done quicker.  I need the reset to make a better space for 11 spotfin hatchetfish (Thoracocharax stellatus) that should be arriving today, that will go in the angelfish tank once they’re out of QT in (hopefully) about 30 days.

I’ll attach pics later today since I haven’t had a chance to get pics (auction Saturday, 10 hour shift Sunday, recovering from 10 hour shift Monday 😝).  Once lights are on I’ll get pics and post them.  That’s what I’ve been doing over the last few days plus my plans for today.  We’ll see how much I get done.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Odd Duck
Typos

[anewbie]

Did tuesday water change on the 40 - the focus has been on clearing the top  so here is a before picture:

 

And an after picture:

 

There are a few more things i need to do before i start focusing on making it look nicer. Part of the problem is i'm out of space for new plants. There is one spot in the very back where I'm going to plant a new crypt - the spot is currently occupied by a ceramic cave - and removing the stuff at the top will provide more light. There is the clump of java fern in the middle. Not sure what to do about it - removing it won't give me more space since it covers a large piece of drift wood (I don't glue my plants to the drift wood but java fern is very good at attaching itself firmly to such). I also have an ugly clump on the right corner but i've been reluctant to touch since a couple of the borelli love hiding in it. I guess one of these days i should take a sylus and actually circle the plants you can't see. I have a nice nurii rosen in there and a decent silver queen as well as several tiger and red spiralis. I think at the end of the day I just need a larger aquarium and i need to redo this stuff so all the tall stuff is in the back and the shorter stuff is in front. I also need to get rid of the pair of lemon pleco as they keep damaging my Siamensis Rosanervig which is another interesting crypt. Wouldn't hurt to dig out the clown pleco and make sure he is doing well. His home used to be in a notch under the driftwood that the java fern covers. The last picture shows this tank when i first set it up some eon ago:

 

 

Here you can see that piece of driftwood i mentioned. Also that large crypt behind it (a wenditti) is still there you just can't see it in the newer pictures. If you look in the center of the large driftwood near the bottom you see a small java fern that i had wedge there (I don't use glue). That is the java fern that now covers the wood. The one hanging on the left of the driftwood i removed and put it back in the corner by the matten filter - It completely filled the corner but i needed that corner 2 months ago to put in the Siamensis Rosanervig; so i removed it. The postive thing about removing it is now all the pygmy cory collect in that corner and i can actually see them !

Edited March 29, 2022 by anewbie

[Odd Duck]

I got Spotfin Hatchetfish in today (Thoracocharax stellatus) that arrived earlier than I expected, so I quickly sped up my plan to reset the tank they were going into.  I used a 1” layer of matten foam over the UGF but it doesn’t want to lay flat so I have some nice river rocks in there along with plants in pots to weight the filter down until it behaves better.  If it doesn’t learn to behave I’ll eventually replace it with 2” foam which is stiffer and holds itself in place better if cut to fit snug.  Unfortunately, 2 were DOA or so close that I knew they wouldn’t survive, but I tried.  The hatchets that came in looking OK made it very clear they wanted fed when I fed the tank next to them.  They ate well almost right out of the bag for the survivors.

I also picked up my Betta persephones today, finally.  I hope they’re OK, but they went straight into a planted tank where they immediately hid.  They have already been dewormed, per the seller, but I will be dosing again since they arrived to me in less than ideal water/container.  I’m convinced the seller meant well, but when she had trouble catching the fish she ended up putting sand/dirt, leaves, duckweed, and all into a deli cup with nowhere near enough air.  But I did get 9 fish instead of the 8 (4 pairs) I was promised.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

They went into a 20 G long that will be species only.  I read conflicting info on whether I should separate them for optimal breeding.  Since they were breeding for the seller, I’ll see what they do in the QT tank, but I may eventually separate them into pairs.  I’ll need to baffle the flow from the HOB in that tank.

They were alive when they went in the tank, looked good in the specimen container I used to separate them from the sludge and duckweed before release.  I’ll see how things go over the next few days, but I’ll give them a little time before I try to deworm. They were captive bred, so I’m hoping they have minimal parasite load.

I have floating homemade breeder “nets” ready for tiny fry that will be hooked to sponge filters with 20-40 G capacity and I can fit as many as 4 in a 10 G tank with adjustable water flow while also adding aeration/filtration. I obviously won’t be running them at their max capacity flow for any fry I get.  I’ll get pics of one tomorrow since I set one up for the 2 hatchets that didn’t survive.

I also grabbed some fish from the fish store we used as a meet up to hand over the persephones.  I found some golden WCMM that are now in my small outdoor pond (about 50 G ceramic bowl).  We’ll see how they do.  I’ve got water lilies and now frogbit in there and will be adding some red root floaters to see how red they get outdoors.

I also grabbed a trio of scarlet badis (Dario dario).  I think I may have been incredibly lucky and gotten a couple females and a male.  I’m fully prepared and expecting the “females” to turn out to be males, but until they show color or nobody pairs up, I’m going to pretend they might be females.  😝 The “females” are completely grey, no markings to speak of, so I have a faint hope they might actually be truly female.  The male had a decent amount of color in the lfs.  I haven’t seen them since release into a planted 6 G cube, so hopefully I’ll see them tomorrow sometime?  It’s planned to be a species only tank and I’m out of QT tanks, so in they went.

Since I had to shift plans to see to fish, I’ll be working on finally planting the 100 G tomorrow as long as nothing else comes up to interfere.  I’ll definitely post pics of that process.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Odd Duck
Add more info.

[Katie B.]

My albino corydoras and mystery snails come in today from AquaHuna! 

They were supposed to come in tomorrow but I am THRILLED they are coming a day earlier. I am also SO nervous because I've only had a betta up to this point 😬

I have a quarantine tank set up that I was going to put them in and let them rest for a 24 hours before starting the med trio.

[ange]

Not something that I got done today, but something I learned.

In my time with DIY brine shrimp hatching I've favored rigid tubing for my hatchery and I always struggled with cleaning it properly. I was talking to another hobbyist and they mentioned using the brushes made for reusable straws. This is such an obvious solution and I felt the need to pass it on.

[drewzero1]

Did a massive rage clean on my 40B over the weekend after losing pretty much all of my favorite fish in there over the past month. Trimmed a lot of dead/dying Aponogeton and pulled out most of the duckweed and moss (and a lot of hair algae). Removed three apparently dead snails to a small container, returned one to the tank when it started scooting around.

Today I was in the next town over and stopped in at their LFS, where they recently (finally!) got a bunch of pagoda snails in. I've been looking for some of those for months so I picked up a pair, it's basically impossible to tell but I'm hoping male and female. 🤞

Replaced the 5 gallon on my desk at work with the 10 gallon I cleaned out a few weeks ago. Matten filter foam should get here Friday and after that's all set up I can start to think about stocking. (Who am I kidding... I'm already thinking about stocking!)

[Odd Duck]

On 3/30/2022 at 8:24 PM, drewzero1 said:

Did a massive rage clean on my 40B over the weekend after losing pretty much all of my favorite fish in there over the past month. Trimmed a lot of dead/dying Aponogeton and pulled out most of the duckweed and moss (and a lot of hair algae). Removed three apparently dead snails to a small container, returned one to the tank when it started scooting around.

Today I was in the next town over and stopped in at their LFS, where they recently (finally!) got a bunch of pagoda snails in. I've been looking for some of those for months so I picked up a pair, it's basically impossible to tell but I'm hoping male and female. 🤞

Replaced the 5 gallon on my desk at work with the 10 gallon I cleaned out a few weeks ago. Matten filter foam should get here Friday and after that's all set up I can start to think about stocking. (Who am I kidding... I'm already thinking about stocking!)

Sorry for your losses but sometimes starting over with a clean slate is just what you need.  Pagodas are very cool looking!

[drewzero1]

On 3/30/2022 at 8:39 PM, Odd Duck said:

Sorry for your losses but sometimes starting over with a clean slate is just what you need.  Pagodas are very cool looking!

Agreed! I hope the slate is clean enough. I was also trying to make sure my skittish corys still had hiding places. I had grown out most of the plants for the pearl gourami, and since she's gone I've realized they don't need to be as much of a mess.

[Daviscoast]

i completely destroyed the duckweed population in my 15 gal it literally took hours but it was worth it. also exiting news i got a job at foodworks, I'm 14 and i have had a job since i was 9 and i am basically a qualified baker so i am exited as i am saving for a much more organised and useful fishroom.

[anewbie]

On 3/30/2022 at 11:46 PM, Daviscoast said:

i completely destroyed the duckweed population in my 15 gal it literally took hours but it was worth it. also exiting news i got a job at foodworks, I'm 14 and i have had a job since i was 9 and i am basically a qualified baker so i am exited as i am saving for a much more organised and useful fishroom.

If you live where i live - in about 3 weeks you will notice someone has added more duckweed.... 

[drewzero1]

On 3/31/2022 at 6:52 AM, anewbie said:

If you live where i live - in about 3 weeks you will notice someone has added more duckweed.... 

I had a massive duckweed die-off about a year and a half ago, and thought it was all but gone. In the past few months I went from the 10 or so duckweed leaves that were still hanging on, to full cover in my 40B. (And now I'm back to scooping out spoonful by spoonful for half an hour 😂)

[Odd Duck]

On 3/31/2022 at 7:20 AM, drewzero1 said:

I had a massive duckweed die-off about a year and a half ago, and thought it was all but gone. In the past few months I went from the 10 or so duckweed leaves that were still hanging on, to full cover in my 40B. (And now I'm back to scooping out spoonful by spoonful for half an hour 😂)

I’ve seen people use hair picks to scoop out duckweed.  Something like this, but I think with the tines closer together would be better.

 

[Katherine]

On 3/31/2022 at 7:37 AM, Odd Duck said:

I’ve seen people use hair picks to scoop out duckweed.  Something like this, but I think with the tines closer together would be better.

 

The one I use is a nit comb for lice. Works great.

[Odd Duck]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:27 AM, Katherine said:

The one I use is a nit comb for lice. Works great.

Yes.  Seems like a flea comb for pets would work, too.