What did you get done today?

[Odd Duck]

On 12/13/2023 at 8:50 PM, jwcarlson said:

I feel like the joke about the cabinets growing through the floor from the Easy Green didn't land.  I'll keep trying.  

What's hilarious is I whacked my head on that bucket three times a day until yesterday when I finally relocated it out of the walking area. 

I caught it!  That’s why I thought the whole story was about the fish getting into things and prowling around!  😆 

Placement for your bear bag is key!  🤣 

[anewbie]

So i now and then put zuc into the aquarium; and in most of them it will last a few days with a peck taken out of here and there but in the clown loach tank; the loaches and festum will gobble down a double size piece in a few hours; the poor little bn latched on to it for dear life to get a few nibbles, the L206 gave up after 10 minutes.

 

Pardon the quality of this picture as it was taken from my desk and zoomed in after all i don't want to disturb the hungry eaters. This taken 20 or 30 minutes after i put it into the aquarium; there are about 8 loaches and 2 festum hovering over that poor little bn:

 

(One of these days i'll get a better camera)

Edited December 14, 2023 by anewbie

[Guppysnail]

@anewbie that is one determined little bn!

[jwcarlson]

Found this inside my apisto tank last night.

Also resealed a 125 that should eventually house my discus as long as it doesn't leak.

[Guppysnail]

Take caution.  Many aquatic insects can bite or sting humans. 
 

Do you know what type of spider it is? 

[jwcarlson]

On 12/21/2023 at 8:05 AM, Guppysnail said:

Take caution.  Many aquatic insects can bite or sting humans. 
 

Do you know what type of spider it is? 

Something terrestrial.  It drowned pretty quick.  

[Guppysnail]

On 12/21/2023 at 10:51 AM, jwcarlson said:

Something terrestrial.  It drowned pretty quick.  

Oh.  I thought it was an aquatic spider when you said in the tank. 🤷‍♀️ guess it won’t bite then 🤣

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/21/2023 at 4:58 AM, jwcarlson said:

Found this inside my apisto tank last night.

Also resealed a 125 that should eventually house my discus as long as it doesn't leak.

Miss you Steve.

*****

I spent the night talking with a newbie hobbyist, and another.  First one is someone I've been helping with their shrimp and planted tanks. They were trying to decide what light was the right fit and so on for a small tank they setup.

The second hobbyist is someone seemingly very new to the hobby and the exciting part was when we started talking about planted tanks.  It was exciting because everything is new. It's fun to be able to approach something in the hobby with blind eyes and to be able to try and dive into a new challenge. 

They had tried plants before, but not sure on what to try or how to care for them at all.  Of course, the assumption that was made was that they had the wrong kind of light or substrate.  We talked about YouTube content creators and just generally discussed cool things about the hobby.

Time will tell if they try plants again. Hopefully they check out some of the channels and ignite that passion for the hobby going forward.

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[jwcarlson]

I learned that newer silicone is SO much harder to remove than old stuff.  I resealed an old 125, it had a small leak, so I stripped all of the silicone again and resealed it again.

What a pain.  I am sure this will leak again if for no other reason than that's my luck.  Not sure what I will do at that point.

[anewbie]

On 12/26/2023 at 4:38 PM, jwcarlson said:

I learned that newer silicone is SO much harder to remove than old stuff.  I resealed an old 125, it had a small leak, so I stripped all of the silicone again and resealed it again.

What a pain.  I am sure this will leak again if for no other reason than that's my luck.  Not sure what I will do at that point.

Well different brand of silicone are well different. I think the GE stuff is what folks recommend for aquarium as being fish safe. Customaquarium told me they will only use black silicon since the clear stuff doesn't last (not sure why but i suspect they are different formulae. Certainly the stuff that aqueon use on their smaller tanks doesn't last. I had a 29 fall apart on me after 4 years - i mean the silicon simply stop sticking to the glass.

[jwcarlson]

On 12/27/2023 at 8:33 AM, anewbie said:

Well different brand of silicone are well different. I think the GE stuff is what folks recommend for aquarium as being fish safe. Customaquarium told me they will only use black silicon since the clear stuff doesn't last (not sure why but i suspect they are different formulae. Certainly the stuff that aqueon use on their smaller tanks doesn't last. I had a 29 fall apart on me after 4 years - i mean the silicon simply stop sticking to the glass.

I used Apel first, which was recommended by someone on another forum.  I have used it in the past on a 29 successfully, but it only held water for a couple weeks before I replaced it with a 20L.  

I used GE Silicone 1 on this second attempt.  Unfortunately my tape got snagged on a couple of the corner beads and I needed to do a little repair work while it was all still wet.  I don't thinkbit comprised the seam.

I am going to let it cure at least one week.  Maybe two.  I put thick beads on the bottom seams.

[Tanked]

I haven't gotten anything done today.

Yesterday:

• I added two more SAEs to the large community tank.  The Silver Dollars have been goofing off lately.  I'm not 100% on the SAE identification.  They look right, but are considerably paler than any of the others.
• The 3 year old Amazon sword in the planted community tank has been replaced by a Dwarf Chain Sword.  The new plant had enough runners to put one in all of the tanks.  The Amazon Sword has never done well. 
• Added a Crypt Lucens to the small planted community.  The other Crypts seem happy so why not?
• Water changes for all.
• Thinned out some of the accumulated aquarium junk.
• Played chemist for about an hour.  API test kits from 1995 are still good  right?
• Plant growth in the project tank has stalled, so I added an air stone in the hopes of adding some CO2 to the water

[Matt B]

Finally got the filtration system removed from the 6.8 gal Imagitarium!  And cut a couple of old glass lids down to size..( 3 days ago  )  But today was the fun part! Added substrate, plants and two original nano Nermy sponge filters!! 

 

[jwcarlson]

Wish me luck!  This is the 125 I re-resealed 10 days ago.  I actually do not think I had a leak after the first reseal.  There's some discoloration from the spray paint on the bottom.  Oh well, it's better sealed this time, I think.

 

[anewbie]

On 1/3/2024 at 6:44 PM, jwcarlson said:

Wish me luck!  This is the 125 I re-resealed 10 days ago.  I actually do not think I had a leak after the first reseal.  There's some discoloration from the spray paint on the bottom.  Oh well, it's better sealed this time, I think.

 

I wish you luck !

 

[jwcarlson]

On 1/4/2024 at 11:28 AM, anewbie said:

I wish you luck !

 

It's the biggest aquarium I've ever had, I know you've got a bunch of massive ones, but this feels almost insane to me. 😄

Thankfully there's a floor drain, though a lot of stuff is going to be wet if she goes.

[anewbie]

Yea floor drain rocks. Have them in my basement room.

 

[jwcarlson]

My sterbai surprised me with about 25 eggs today.  No complaints here. 🙂

Got my 55 cleaned out and ready for the next inhabitants which should be here tomorrow if this massive snow storm doesn't delay them!

[GoofyGarra]

On 1/8/2024 at 8:04 PM, jwcarlson said:

Got my 55 cleaned out and ready for the next inhabitants which should be here tomorrow if this massive snow storm doesn't delay them!

turtles?

[jwcarlson]

On 1/9/2024 at 5:19 AM, GoofyGarra said:

turtles?

No, it's just not full yet.  Ran out of water!

[jwcarlson]

Got it filled.  Not the permanent setup, but will see what pairs up hopefully.  Shipping was rough on them, winter storm delayed them and they showed up at about 64 degrees.  They were all pecking at a bit of brine shrimp tonight, though.  And they seemed to perk up with a little salt.  I've never kept rams before so we'll see how this goes.  

One gold and five pitch blacks.

[Schuyler]

Today a coworker randomly tagged me on a Facebook picture. Turns out they took my advice and got their betta a heater. Now he's acting happier.

[nabokovfan87]

Stared at the tanks and trying to just check on things.  So far everyone is doing well and seems happy.  They want substrate in the QT tank, but fish are good.

I checked the Garden-in-progress and the new rotala species is growing!  I have the ludwigia that got frozen in the shipping and it looks like it might be growing as well.  Exciting to see the new growth (I think) and it's going to be amazing to watch it the next few days/weeks.

[Flipper]

Yesterday, I removed my Spider Wood and glued another rock to help it stay put in my tank.  It still wants to fall over. I boiled it originally and I've had this wood in water for over a year, and it just wants to float and fall over.  It's like this stuff is Styrofoam and impossible to keep it steady.  Huge nuisance to me!  It's so beautiful but I can't even do a water change without it bouncing around. 

So, in truth, I guess I didn't get anything productive done.  😕

 

[Odd Duck]

On 1/16/2024 at 12:02 PM, Flipper said:

Yesterday, I removed my Spider Wood and glued another rock to help it stay put in my tank.  It still wants to fall over. I boiled it originally and I've had this wood in water for over a year, and it just wants to float and fall over.  It's like this stuff is Styrofoam and impossible to keep it steady.  Huge nuisance to me!  It's so beautiful but I can't even do a water change without it bouncing around. 

So, in truth, I guess I didn't get anything productive done.  😕

 

Wood can be very frustrating.  I’ve had wood float after having it in water over a year.  I have this story documented in my 100 G nanofish tank link.  If wood doesn’t sink within a month now, I just screw it down to slate.  I’m over that whole “destroy my plantings and need to redo it” nonsense.