What did you get done today?

[Shawnmrose1983911]

Love the tanks 

[anewbie]

So when i had some counter tops put in i had left over slabs and i got the slab store to cut me some long pieces - 130 inch long and 18 inch wide so i could make ad-hoc aquarium stands for 20 long/29/30 long and similar:

 

We got the first one setup today and tomorrow i'll move the 29 on-to it so i can move the 120 to where the 29 is in the room then i'll setup the 2nd one. This is what the stone look like - sorry about the glare it looks nicer in person

 

 

 

Here is a close up but for some reason the phone seem to be unable to capture the contrast of the original stone (this is a natural granite stone with lots of quartz elements - it is called titan if you want to look up a nicer picture). The deposits have lots of red and gold flecks and other goodies in it but the base portion is blackish.

You'd have to see it in person to capture the full scope of the rock. Pity i don't have an aquarium large enough to hold it.

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update:

Did a google search and found this image:

https://titangranitestl.com/gallery/kitchens/titanium-granite-kitchen/

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Just be aware that as a natural stone each slab can look radically different. This particular slab had a lot of red/gold specs mixed in but others were mostly just white and black. Everyone should visit their slab store now and then and look at the natural stones - some are really quite lovely. The other piece i have is volga blue. One of my favorite used for the fish room counter is Jadore.

Edited November 15, 2023 by anewbie

[Guest]

Sadly nothing... 

[jwcarlson]

Technically this was last night, but it's been less than 24 hours.  Four water changes!

[Kit Craft]

I got the tiny filter on the right installed in my 1.25 gallon shrimp and snail jar. The filter on the left is an Aquatop CAF-10, for reference. The change is a US quarter and a 2 Euro coin. It is a very tiny filter, lol. 

As an aside, I spy some snail eggs.

[jwcarlson]

I got the first decent pencilfish picture so far.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/11/2023 at 8:39 PM, Odd Duck said:

It’s not about what I did today but about what these 2 did today.  I didn’t think they were going to manage it with the way things were going when I left the house late this morning.  He insisted on the smallest cave despite me offering 3 different sizes he wants only the watering spike.  I put them back in since he stopped trying to breed when they were gone.  It took a few days of pouting, but he decided on the spike again for breeding.  She has been going in and out of a bigger cave trying to entice either of the boys into action.  This guy finally took the hint.

Can you see how she gives up in disgust at the end of this video I took this morning?  That look like, “He’s pretty but he isn’t too bright!”  Well, he must have finally figured it out because they got the deed done.  There are eggs in the cave tonight after we got home from paintball.  I can’t get a picture because I can barely get a glimpse past his big “shoulders”!  But I should have some long-finned babies this time around since the short-finned female is in a different tank now.

 

And look!  The old lady figured out how to post her own video!

And now here’s what he’s NOT doing!  This boy is about to be removed from the local gene pool.  😠 

 

[jwcarlson]

@Odd Duck I hadn't seen your video, but I love how the corys come crashing in like "oh, did she put food over here?" 😄

[anewbie]

The lady has new eggs; each time she gets more creative where she puts them:

[jwcarlson]

Got something like 25 sterbai eggs.  I don't know if they're fertile.  I think I only have maybe one male.  

[Odd Duck]

On 11/18/2023 at 12:15 PM, jwcarlson said:

I don't know if they're fertile. 

 They look fertile so far!  You’ll know in the next couple days.

[jwcarlson]

On 11/18/2023 at 9:43 PM, Odd Duck said:

 They look fertile so far!  You’ll know in the next couple days.

Females have kind of been going crazy, the male was actually swimming with them a bit tonight.  

Maybe he's worn out. 🤣 

[Schuyler]

Today was the plant auction for the local club here (GSAS). I was able to pick up a bunch of plants for really cheap:

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

Gave a long overdue gravel vac's to my snail / least killi nano tank and 3D printed and added some apartments.

Someone has already moved in 🙂

[GoofyGarra]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:36 AM, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

Gave a long overdue gravel vac's to my snail / least killi nano tank and 3D printed and added some apartments.

what plastic do you use? I have a friend that wants to 3D print me a decoration for a tank but i want to make sure its safe.

[Guest]

I got a sketch down of how I want the breeder project I want to do will look and a long list (which I'll post) of materials and the stocking.

[TheDukeAnumber1]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:41 AM, GoofyGarra said:

what plastic do you use? I have a friend that wants to 3D print me a decoration for a tank but i want to make sure its safe.

In general just about any PLA will be safe, I have used various PLA's in my aquariums for many years and it's never caused any issued for me. My favorite high quality filament for a while now has been Fusion Filaments HTPLA+.

https://fusionfilaments.com/high-performance-pla-refillable-spools

[Guppysnail]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:36 AM, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

Gave a long overdue gravel vac's to my snail / least killi nano tank and 3D printed and added some apartments.

Someone has already moved in 🙂

I love the apartments!  Such a unique idea. 

[Tanked]

On 11/9/2023 at 7:19 PM, Odd Duck said:

@anewbie, I have soooo many bad pics for every half decent pic I’ve taken.  I really need to go through my phone and remove a few hundred bad fish pics.  😝 

I move all of my fish pics to the desktop. If I can find one that is worth keeping, I'll put it back on the phone.  Ultimately it's faster. 

I've been trying to get a clean picture of the Barbs parading across the tank or some other schooling behavior.  If I enter the room, they gather up expecting to be fed.  if I shoot from a distance, my autofocus is too slow, or won't focus on the fish.

[jwcarlson]

On 11/18/2023 at 9:43 PM, Odd Duck said:

 They look fertile so far!  You’ll know in the next couple days.

I think these look fertile.  They had decent spawns for two days and I harvested about 40 or 45 eggs.  Have taken out a couple eggs that got white, but the majority seem to be developing.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/19/2023 at 12:39 PM, Tanked said:

I move all of my fish pics to the desktop. If I can find one that is worth keeping, I'll put it back on the phone.  Ultimately it's faster. 

I've been trying to get a clean picture of the Barbs parading across the tank or some other schooling behavior.  If I enter the room, they gather up expecting to be fed.  if I shoot from a distance, my autofocus is too slow, or won't focus on the fish.

I have been known to leave the room, wait a bit, then crawl back into the room (with room lights out, of course) below the level of the bottom of the tank. Then have phone camera ready and slowly lift it up to where the fish can be seen and click away until I have a half decent pic.  I often forget to delete the bad pics so it’s no wonder I have so many bad fish pics on my phone!  Plus sometimes I keep bad pics of specific events like seeing a male pleco on eggs so I have the date for laying and can predict the best date reasonably well for pulling babies.  Then I forget to delete those bad pics.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[anewbie]

So this was a yesterday thing. I moved the 29 onto the stone i posted above; i moved the 120 to where the 29 was in the room and we installed the 2nd stone (approx 135 inches long and 20 inches wide - just wide enough for a 40B 😉

So this is what we now have (you can see the 29 at the very end on the stand:

 

The 2nd stone is very different from the first but sadly the picture came out badly so i'll take another and edit this post next time i go down-stairs 😉

It takes a lot of pails to move a 120 - 2 for fishes; 4 for substrate and 1 for plants - and this time around i only have plants on the sides (mostly vals); last time i moved the 120 it was packed with plants and needed 3 pails just for plants. I put one lone angel-fish in the back 240 you see on the right side to get some biological activity in there - going to put wc discus and rams in there sooner or later so it has ro water but the angle didn't seem to mind he was just happy to get fed. I'll have to start testing the water for ammonia in a day or so - pretty large aquarium for a single fish and i'll add a pair of live sponge filters in an hour or so. Maybe. naw not maybe that is a must do.

Hum. My arms hurt.

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Picture of the stone - it looks a little nicer in person as there are blue spotches and the camera increases the contrast too much; the name of the stone is volga blue if you want to look it up - unlike the other stone this one is pretty consistent across samples (the titanium one slab can be radically different from another - some are darker some have more gold specs; red veins and white quartz - some are kind of grey - really is grey veins in black but sometime those vein dominate so each slab is totally different; stones are wonderful - everyone should visit a slab store once a week to see the wonders of nature - ignore the man-made stuff in the back corner. Some of the marbles are also pretty wicked but don't use marble where there will be lots of water drops you will regret it ...).

Hum. Guess the light angle was wrong to show off the blue - i have this other stone for a desk that is called jadore - it is a wicked green and like titanium every slab is different - some are rich deep green others are more translucent green with red veins. You never know what nature will provide. 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by anewbie

[jwcarlson]

Looking excellent, @anewbie!

[Tanked]

On 11/20/2023 at 10:09 PM, Odd Duck said:

I have been known to leave the room, wait a bit, then crawl back into the room (with room lights out, of course) below the level of the bottom of the tank. Then have phone camera ready and slowly lift it up to where the fish can be seen and click away until I have a half decent pic.  I often forget to delete the bad pics so it’s no wonder I have so many bad fish pics on my phone!  Plus sometimes I keep bad pics of specific events like seeing a male pleco on eggs so I have the date for laying and can predict the best date reasonably well for pulling babies.  Then I forget to delete those bad pics.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

My crawling days ended this year but I have tried to hide in a darkend doorway.    I'm toying with the idea of sending in the drone!👽        

[jwcarlson]

The first sterbai fry has hatched.  And more coming.  Looks to be about 30 coming along.  You'll have to trust that the one in the corner has a tail,though you can kind of see it.