What did you get done today?

[Furbs]

Last weekend I moved everything out and into a new 29g tank. This weekend I’ve just swapped the 10g aco light onto the tank and I’m debating wat for ground plants or fish to add. Still no signs of baby shrimp yet, maybe the first girl will start hatching this week.  Half the chili rasbora are chill, half won’t stop surfing up and down the right side glass 

[jwcarlson]

Just resealed a 29.  I have never done one before.  I didn't strip it all the way down, the silicon on the outside (overflow the the original seam) is still very pliable.  So I stripped the inside, taped everything off, and sealed it up.  I think it went pretty well.  We'll see when I put water in it.  😄

Also water changes in discus tank (every day), CPD fry (every day), and two apistogramma tanks.

Edited March 26, 2023 by jwcarlson

[Ninjoma]

Finished setting up the terrestrial part of my paludarium and got my geranium planted.

I also finished up the aquatic portion. All plants are in place and so are the guppies, nerite snails and amano shrimp. I'll be starting to the conversion to brackish water tomorrow. Wish me luck! 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Found a lotus flower! 

[Birdsnstuff]

Did water changes on two of my tanks. Planted a few new plants. I’m having surgery on Friday and won’t be able to wrangle buckets, etc for a few weeks. Everything tests well so it should all be okay. 

[Twood]

Filled up a new 75 gallon, setup up my first Aquarium Coop light, and two more 29 gallons! Super excited to have the extra tank space to work with!

[anewbie]

Not much - working on my home made reactor which might interest @Mmiller2001 or maybe it won't:

 

[Mmiller2001]

On 3/27/2023 at 9:38 PM, anewbie said:

Not much - working on my home made reactor which might interest @Mmiller2001 or maybe it won't:

 

I dig it. The horizontal Reactor I tried just wasn't long enough. I built a dual 10 inch reactor on Monday to see if it does a better job on the 120.

[Mmiller2001]

On 3/27/2023 at 9:38 PM, anewbie said:

Not much - working on my home made reactor which might interest @Mmiller2001 or maybe it won't:

 

I've read, but who knows, brass may or may not add copper to the aquarium. Just FYI.

Here's what I built yesterday.

[anewbie]

On 3/28/2023 at 11:51 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

I've read, but who knows, brass may or may not add copper to the aquarium. Just FYI.

Here's what I built yesterday.

Hum. Not sure about brass leaching; i suppose i could look for a polyp nip to barb fitting. In the aquarium with this reactor a trace of copper won't harm anything it isn't blackwater or shrimp and any snails that happen to get into the aquarium will quickly be eaten by the loaches. My gut feeling is given the size of the aquarium (550 gallons) and the limited exposure to the brass fitting it is likely ok but i'll look for polyp fittings.

[Mmiller2001]

On 3/28/2023 at 11:01 AM, anewbie said:

Hum. Not sure about brass leaching; i suppose i could look for a polyp nip to barb fitting. In the aquarium with this reactor a trace of copper won't harm anything it isn't blackwater or shrimp and any snails that happen to get into the aquarium will quickly be eaten by the loaches. My gut feeling is given the size of the aquarium (550 gallons) and the limited exposure to the brass fitting it is likely ok but i'll look for polyp fittings.

Google it and see what you think.

[anewbie]

On 3/28/2023 at 12:13 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Google it and see what you think.

sounds like generally brass breaks down but it isn't over night - as to how fast it breaks down - depends on the quality of the component and i have no way to judge that. I have to use a pressure regulator and those seem to be lead free brass so i'm stuck there i think.

[Cmike15]

On 3/26/2023 at 4:30 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Found a lotus flower! 

neat. i think you can get points for raising a healthy plant that flowered in your aquarium if you are part of a breeding organization. I haven't looked fully into it but i've heard about it. 

 

Found a berried shrimp today while i did water changes. no pic but i'll keep my eye out for pictures next time. so far so good, i added them just 3 days ago.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 3/29/2023 at 1:51 AM, Cmike15 said:

neat. i think you can get points for raising a healthy plant that flowered in your aquarium if you are part of a breeding organization. I haven't looked fully into it but i've heard

I’m not part of anything - the fish clubs in Switzerland are a bit half-hearted. 

[anewbie]

Just feeding the frys bbs; the head in the foreground is daddy and mom is with the frys. If you look closely you see the orange belly of the frys cause they are stuffed with bbs. They are around 20 days old so i'll have to do this another 2 or 3 weeks - 3 times a day.... i doubt i'll post pictures every  time i feed them 😉

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by anewbie

[jwcarlson]

On 3/29/2023 at 12:35 PM, anewbie said:

Just feeding the frys bbs; the head in the foreground is daddy and mom is with the frys. If you look closely you see the orange belly of the frys cause they are stuffed with bbs. They are around 20 days old so i'll have to do this another 2 or 3 weeks - 3 times a day.... i doubt i'll post pictures everytime i feed them 😉

 

They look quite well fed indeed! 🙂

[nabokovfan87]

Literally, as I was trying to find the thread and scroll down.... I realized that I can take the empty tank / light and try to turn that into an indoor herb garden.  Might work, might not, but it sounds like a useful project in some aspects for a tank I am not planning on using for fish anymore.

I have been slowly working on cleaning everything up the past week, and the next 2-3 will be more of the same.  I just finished replacing the "nano" pumphead and spraybar setup with the bigger version.  I don't know how easy it is to do so, but taking a $20-30 spraybar kit off the shelf and I have used that to fully mod two pumps.  Both setups were primarily for the sake of distributing CO2 through the tank a lot better and the hope is that it actually works.  I likely need a bigger pump, but finding a good use for a pump that's never been able to be used before effectively.... I just don't understand why more of these kits aren't used (or offered) for specific pumpheads.

I have the chosen male in the tank with the female swordtails and just waiting for that "business" to be completed.  I am looking forward to raising the fry up and having the opportunity to add a few more to the 75G tank.  We will see what happens and what the fish look like.

I am basically just waiting for things to grow in, seeing how the tank feels, and trying to fix the mess.  The 29G stand has the rubber pad on the top surface (yep, definitely glad I have that on there now) as well as just observing all of the plant growth and tank(s) health day to day.  It's a lot of eye-on-glass monitoring and it's something I am happy to do when I can.  It's necessary for enjoyment in the hobby and it'll be great when I can get back to sitting in front of the tank in the chair and just watching the tank do it's thing again.

[anewbie]

Noticed one of my 'dwarf' lilies showing off its 'dwarf'ness (this is nearly a foot in diameter):

 

I waited till one of the adults serape swam into the image so you could get a feel for scale:

The species is Nymphaea stellata; so just remember that next time you order a dwarf lily for your 5 gallon aquarium 😉

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Waging war on the horrible DUCKWEED 

[jwcarlson]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:19 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Waging war on the horrible DUCKWEED 

Looks like it is still one layer thick mostly.  That's not even an infestation yet! 🤣

[Ninjoma]

My crabs are getting settled. I'm really enjoying them so far. I caught my first mating dance today! 

[Emily in Everett]

I watched my new school of clouded archerfish. A LOT. They are fascinating fish. Shy. Sneaky. Curious about me. Jumpy...they seem as bad as a sneaky cat waiting to bolt outside the second you open the door. And instantly on the hunt as soon as we put a moth in the tank's airspace below the lid. That moth didn't stand a chance.

They are currently in a temporary tank while I design, set up and cycle their ultimate paludarium home. I'm very intimidated but excited to set up my dream tank for them!!

In the meantime, feeding them will be interesting. They won't even touch food once it's floated more than a few inches from the surface. But I tried some "snufflers" (a large algae eater etc." to clean up the fallen food below and those normally active fish just hid all day...the archers must give off some serious predator vibes!!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 4/4/2023 at 5:25 PM, Emily in Everett said:

I watched my new school of clouded archerfish. A LOT. They are fascinating fish. Shy. Sneaky. Curious about me. Jumpy...they seem as bad as a sneaky cat waiting to bolt outside the second you open the door. And instantly on the hunt as soon as we put a moth in the tank's airspace below the lid. That moth didn't stand a chance.

They are currently in a temporary tank while I design, set up and cycle their ultimate paludarium home. I'm very intimidated but excited to set up my dream tank for them!!

In the meantime, feeding them will be interesting. They won't even touch food once it's floated more than a few inches from the surface. But I tried some "snufflers" (a large algae eater etc." to clean up the fallen food below and those normally active fish just hid all day...the archers must give off some serious predator vibes!!

Maybe try going into your attic (if you have one) and catching all the spiders  🕷️ you can find. Predatory instincts and an interesting show! 🙂

[Daydre]

Cut some of the plants in my "pest" snail tank and added fertilizer. There was a lot of hair algae but thankfully it mostly grows out of one spot lol

[A3M0N]

Big maintenance day, for me at least. Water change, cut out all the black/algae covered sections of the stems and replanted the tops, Reverse Respired (?) the java ferns and removed damaged leaves, cut out black s. repens leaves, good vacuum after the plant work, cleaned all sides of the glass, and replumbed CO2 lines because I added an inline style bubble counter a while back. 

Now for some yard work! 

Here's the old stuff I got rid of on the right, and the clean stuff that got replanted on the left. I'll add more pictures to my journal tomorrow.