What did you get done today?

[FLFishChik]

Current state of my living room as we build the 75g stand

[jtb5150]

Today I redesigned the waterfall on my pond. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by jtb5150

[Guppysnail]

On 9/12/2023 at 3:47 PM, jtb5150 said:

Today I redesigned the waterfall on my pond. 

That is absolutely gorgeous!

[JChristophersAdventures]

Cut out 4 dozen wooden rounds from some well cured hardwood using a chopsaw (for my custom aquarium bonsai build) and began soaking them in water and hydrogen peroxide to kill pathogens and leach out tannins (they are about 2 1/4" across). I doubt I will need that many, but better to have extras than run out.

The driftwood pieces should be here in a week or so. I had been looking at Manzanita, but finally settled on some ghost wood. I really like the look of it. I will post some on the project as it happens.

I will be doing something similar to this, only scaled up to fit the 75G:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8AW72vIw1U

 

[jtb5150]

On 9/12/2023 at 1:49 PM, Guppysnail said:

That is absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you!

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/9/2023 at 4:24 PM, anewbie said:

I moved the first aquarium to the new home (a 29); naturally just to spit in my face after i got 80% of the water out it decided to leak; i.e, the seam broke at the bottom.

😞 😞 😞 😞

I hope everything is ok.  I hope you're doing better! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/9/2023 at 7:24 PM, anewbie said:

What a pia day. I moved the first aquarium to the new home (a 29); naturally just to spit in my face after i got 80% of the water out it decided to leak; i.e, the seam broke at the bottom. I suspect what happened is the change in weight as i removed the substrate caused the bottom to sep from the side - after all it was a dirt cheap aqueon aquarium that had been sitting there for 4 years with 70lb of substrate. Not really sure but it makes me dread moving the next aquarium monday (another 29; though this one is a little newer since a couple of years ago the original also had a seal broke at the bottom). Yea aqueon tank built to last a few years and then spread water across your floor. Oh well will see how the fishes are doing when i go back to the house tomorrow. I had to pick up 2 new 29s - one to bring back to my condo so i can put the braces in for the matten filter (so tomorrow i will remove the braces from the old 29; put them in the new 29 and take a hammer to it so i can stuff it down the garbage thingy). the 2nd 29 was so my poor fishes didn't have to spend overnight in the pail. I also moved two of the angels from the 120 and put them in the 8x4; man was he ever pissed at me - wouldn't let me near him at all - i'll see if he is doing better tomorrow morning - hopefully he won't take his furor out on the poor rummy in the 8x4. I'll also see if i can take the 2 angels that are going in the 10x4 over - not sure they feel like being caught. 

-

Monday i'll move the 29

Tuesday the 10 (hopefully i won't have to take all the substrate out of this one); if i die doing the 29 on monday i suppose i can move this one next saturday.

wednesday the 120

thursday the 40

friday my furniture

---

Sigh. Gonna be a short week.

 

Oh man, so sorry. I’ve had the bottom fall out of a 29gal before. Not the best of times, 0/5, would not recommend.

[TheSwissAquarist]

Harvested my biggest spawn of Salt’n’Pepper Corys yet! 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@TheSwissAquarist By Salt’n’Pepper Corys do you mean Habrosus, Paleatus, or another? Thanks.

[anewbie]

On 9/13/2023 at 2:57 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Oh man, so sorry. I’ve had the bottom fall out of a 29gal before. Not the best of times, 0/5, would not recommend.

yea; i think removing the substrate cause the weight to shift enough the seal broke. At least the 2nd 29 moved without issues. Today i spent working on the 120 and after about 8 hours realize it wasnt' going to get finished today - the issue is i had some larger fishes in it and didn't feel comfortable having them in pails for hours on end (even with sponge filter) so i drove them over to their new home; drove back got some more fishes; drove them over; and now i have to finish the rest tomorrow. Got most of the large fishes out  (6 inch clown loaches and adult festum); now i just have smaller clown loaches and some yoyo to move - i discovered at least 3 of my pangio were still alive after all these years - so tomorrow i'll finish the 120 but this means i have to move the 40 on monday instead of tommorrow. I think i'll move the fishes sunday and saturday i'll move the 10 - whole thing has been a pia and i have to be packing my stuff in boxes for them movers on friday.

[FLFishChik]

This! Finally got it together and in place. Now it’ll be a bazillion years before I’ve purchased all the equipment, substrate, hardscape and eventually… FISH!

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by FLFishChik

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:14 PM, FLFishChik said:

This! Finally got it together and in place. Now it’ll be a bazillion years before I’ve purchased all the equipment, substrate, hardscape and eventually… FISH!

 

Hmm. The room seems unbalanced.  Another cube tank on the right table should resolve the issue. 😉 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[FLFishChik]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:53 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Hmm. The room seems unbalanced. Asymmetrical. Another cube tank on the right table should resolve the issue. 😉 

Well, the 29g is just off the left side of the screen. so to make it truly balanced, I should probably get another one of those too!

[JChristophersAdventures]

Yes, I was thinking more of the wall space needed fleshing out as well! lol

[FLFishChik]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:57 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

Yes, I was thinking more of the wall space needed fleshing out as well! lol

Soooo... 55g on either side? My husband is going to have a heart attack, lol! If you only knew how much convincing it took to get him to agree to the 75g... THAT was a lot of hard work, I tell ya.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 9/13/2023 at 4:04 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

@TheSwissAquarist By Salt’n’Pepper Corys do you mean Habrosus, Paleatus, or another? Thanks.

Palaeatus. I know it’s not impressive, but I’ve been struggling to get eggs from these guys. They’re about 2 years old. 

[anewbie]

On 9/13/2023 at 7:55 PM, FLFishChik said:

Well, the 29g is just off the left side of the screen. so to make it truly balanced, I should probably get another one of those too!

I'd be careful there as i've had more than one aqueon 29 spring a leak over time. Sure the warranty cover the $40 cost of the aquarium but not the $$$$$$$ cost of water damage.

[FLFishChik]

On 9/14/2023 at 5:38 AM, anewbie said:

I'd be careful there as i've had more than one aqueon 29 spring a leak over time. Sure the warranty cover the $40 cost of the aquarium but not the $$$$$$$ cost of water damage.

Well, the 29g is a Top Fin. So far, so good 🤞

[Odd Duck]

On 9/12/2023 at 5:31 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

Cut out 4 dozen wooden rounds from some well cured hardwood using a chopsaw (for my custom aquarium bonsai build) and began soaking them in water and hydrogen peroxide to kill pathogens and leach out tannins (they are about 2 1/4" across). I doubt I will need that many, but better to have extras than run out.

The driftwood pieces should be here in a week or so. I had been looking at Manzanita, but finally settled on some ghost wood. I really like the look of it. I will post some on the project as it happens.

I will be doing something similar to this, only scaled up to fit the 75G:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8AW72vIw1U

 

Are you going to use moss on the discs?  That would look awesome scaled up to a 75 G!

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Odd Duck Yes, partially... I am thinking about doing it a little differently. The disc/rounds are large enough that I think I will place a small anubias or buce in the middle (because it will be taller), then surround it with a bed of moss... I know it might look a bit "landscaped", but I think it would look pretty cool! Thanks.

[Odd Duck]

On 9/15/2023 at 10:35 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

@Odd Duck Yes, partially... I am thinking about doing it a little differently. The disc/rounds are large enough that I think I will place a small anubias or buce in the middle (because it will be taller), then surround it with a bed of moss... I know it might look a bit "landscaped", but I think it would look pretty cool! Thanks.

I almost asked about using Buce or Anubias but the cost on that would be pretty steep.  If you do use them, you’ll for sure want to use a moss that doesn’t go crazy and overrun them.  Fissidens would be my favorite for using to cover the base of the discs while Buce or Anubias are growing in but you’d want to do a dry start to get your moss to spread as far as possible.  It can get pretty long but won’t grow so fast that you hate it within a month.

If you can get larger chunks of Buce or Anubias, then you can cut them into smaller sections and overlap them so they’ll have multiple growing points and won’t just grow straight off the side of each disc.  You can theoretically just nick the rhizome to help trigger new growing points but I haven’t played with that.  Most will branch some for you anyway.

I would try to place them so they are growing from the outside inward because eventually they’ll grow off the other side.  You’ll want the main growth toward the center so it develops some density as soon as possible or it might look weird.  You’ll get the best effect aiming a couple pieces growing towards each other kind of laid side by side.  If they really do well for you, then trim and fill as needed.

Sounds like a cool project no matter what you use.  I wonder if Cameroon moss or giant willow would “weep” enough to look like an actual weeping willow?

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/13/2023 at 5:53 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Hmm. The room seems unbalanced.  Another cube tank on the right table should resolve the issue. 😉 

I'm sure another 75 would fit right there.... Heck. 60G so it looks all fancy and tiered heights. 

The tank looks AWESOME @FLFishChik.  I'm excited to see what you do with it.

On 9/13/2023 at 5:59 PM, FLFishChik said:

Soooo... 55g on either side? My husband is going to have a heart attack, lol! If you only knew how much convincing it took to get him to agree to the 75g... THAT was a lot of hard work, I tell ya.

It'll be so much of a different experience with this tank.  I'm excited for you.  The 75G versatop lids are pretty awesome, but get whatever brand to match the tank. One of the "best things" about those size tanks is the affordable lids are actually nice.

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Odd Duck Sounds like sound advice. No doubt there would be some trimming to do at some point, but at least it won't look like I gave my tank a "haircut" like as if I was using vallisineria! lol

My understanding is that Christmas moss is slower growing or I might even do some of the pads in Riccia Fluitans, too... they wouldn't all have to be the same, as long as they are mixed evenly throughout. Or I could do only buce on some, only anubias on some and only moss on others... just have to wait and see how I am feeling about it when I actually order the plants.

The weeping willow idea is a good one... perhaps there are a number of options that would give that look... I will look into it. Thanks.

[Odd Duck]

I’ve not found Christmas moss to be notably slower growing than Java moss.  I do like it’s form better than Java moss since it tends to be tidier overall and not as ragged as h]java moss can grow.  Riccia fluitans is quite brittle and you may end up hating it since it becomes insidious once in the tank.  I’ve not tried to grow it in a tank, only in a vase several years back. It doesn’t hold on to things, either.  I think @Guppysnail tried it and couldn’t get it to stay put at all despite several determined tries.

I think mixing Buce and Anubias might be quite beautiful when done very carefully and thoughtfully.  If it’s too mixed it will just look jumbled but with careful placement bearing in mind expected end colors (especially since Buces change when converted to submerse growth), it could be truly spectacular!  For instance, A. nana ‘Golden’ where the light would be gleaming through the “leaves” of the “tree”, regular nana and nana ‘Petite’ where the light hits the top of the “leaves” then dark Buces to convey the denser, more shadowed parts of the “tree”.  The layers wouldn’t even have to match the actual light pattern as long as they fooled the eye into thinking that’s what the light is doing.  Essentially painting on leaves with colored Anubias and Buces.

Another plant to think about would be susswassertang.  It does tend to be a bit brittle but not as bad as the Riccia.  It would give a much more more leaf-like texture and is very easily trimmed by just pulling away sections.  It does have the possibility of over running Anubias and Buces.  “Leaf” size would be somewhere between most Buces and small Anubias but definitely much bigger than the Riccia which is extremely fine.

There are a few great and lots of nice to mediocre examples online of Buce or Anubias as bonsai trees in tanks.  I think one big enough for a 75 G would be spectacular for sure.  This one is pretty great with Anubias (looks like nana?).  There’s a watermark top right but I don’t recognize it and can’t figure it out from the link.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F07%2F46%2F58%2F0746584b4455988660b1059539848458--anubias-aquarium-planted-aquarium.jpg&tbnid=EKPzfRg_oWNbgM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F196680708710820228%2F&docid=qEFR_0s-p0QUxM&w=736&h=763&hl=en&shem=canimge&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F1

 And here’s a small Buce one that looks well done and I think that’s even Christmas moss at the base.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F1200x%2F35%2F4c%2F78%2F354c788989fb00f3ac3850cf523d78d2

Hope some of this inspires you, it inspires me!  I need to quit jibber jabbering and get moving on some tanks.  😆 

 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/15/2023 at 5:20 PM, Odd Duck said:

couldn’t get it to stay put at all despite several determined tries.

Many bottles of super glue and balls of string over a year of trying. EPIC fail. Not even 1 tiny piece stayed. I ended up with balls of it floating. What didn’t get sucked into my filters that is.