What did you get done today?

[Galabar]

I set up the 55 with a UGF:

I added some shrimp.  Unfortunately, they bit each other's heads off (it was gruesome):

Luckily, it did bring the ammonia level up to about 0.5 ppm - 1.0 ppm (reference solution on the left).  With that, I was able to add 16oz of Fritz Zyme 7 (I also sprinkled some substrate from another, cycled tank into the substrate):

So, I'm hoping that within a week or so, we'll get that ammonia back down to 0 ppm (even with the headless shrimp still in the tank).

Edited June 4, 2023 by Galabar

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I made the cutest filter for the specimen container where I’m quarantining a few shrimp! Gravel-floss-coarse. Tube is a filter intake, notched at bottom. Hole in pot sealed with superglue gel.

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

Back is stiff!

OK so....  Let me try to remember everything I did.

I started work in the fish tanks by trimming the S.Repens in the big tank and planting all of the new stems.  A little bit of work, but rewarding and interesting.

I took all the stuff below the window, threw all that on the bed. I moved the sidetable out of the way and that made room for me to move the desk I have over into the corner.  Right now it's in front of the window, with shutters, and so I cannot open the window.  That got moved which means a lot of my fish stuff had to move to above the fridge that was formerly where the chair would be going on the desk.  The desk is only there for the sake of having a table for things in the room.

I moved all of that which let me move my old 55G tank stand (which is just now shelving) to below the window and move a bunch of boxes from the closet to that shelf.  This looks terrible, but the bed is there to block that stuff.

This meant I could then get to work on moving the dresser which had a fish tank on it. 

I drained the tank into two buckets, removed the hardscape and then removed the fish.  I moved the filter to the bucket with the fish and then went ahead and set that aside with a lid.

I removed the tank off the dresser and then placed the dresser in the "closet".  The goal is to move my coffee stuff to the dresser and then go ahead and attempt to setup the desk for the use of work, livestreams, ambient noise, music, etc.  I moved my table of fish tools into the back corner and hopefully that isn't too difficult for me to use day to day.   The hope is also that it's off to the side without the concern of being knocked over easily.

I setup my 29G from the hallway in lieu of the 10G tank.  I can setup the 10G tank on the bottom of the stand if need be.  My hope is that I can store it there after I clean it out.  The tank that is setup is designed to be a plants only tank.  For the sake of argument it can be a cull tank for shrimp and it can be a grow out for corydoras fry.  Either use is fine and planned.  I do want to replace it with a 20L instead of a 29G tank, but that's for another day.  I can also use the 55G stand, with a 30L tank as a place to grow plants for profit.  One day...

Tomorrow I have to move the bed over, if possible, and move some electrical.  I need to get the back of the tank covered with the window tint and go from there.  I have to find a place for my fish tote of many things as it no longer has a place to be.  I also need to find a place for a few other things, but for the most part the room is back to being a room.

Ultimately, it will be a lot easier to care for this tank just because I can do so without spilling a bunch of water.  The houseplants have a home now and I'm happy about that.  I can't get them to grow, but I'm happy they have a place to be that is their own.  More to work on tomorrow.  We will see how it all goes.

Edited June 10, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[anewbie]

Did usual water change - here is an updated picture of the white 29:

 

Here is a picture from way back nov 2020:

Look at that driftwood in the center; nice piece - right - here is what it looks like today:

 

No it isn't buried - nor did it rot; my L208 has been eating it over the past 3 years and that is all that is left of it. It really was a nice piece when i first got it - and fairly hard but that didn't stop him. Also that soft Cholla Wood next to it - well that is the 2nd one because the L208 ate the entire first one till nothing was left.

So those of you who are wondering if wood eating pleco eat wood; they do !!! you might not notice it day after day as it slowly disappears but over time..... expect it to well be eaten.

--

And here is a picture of the young L208 on that very piece of driftwood:

--

As for the history of this aquarium it was setup Aug of 2019 so it has been running a while - during that period i had major issues - first the substrate was too fine  causing large ana. pockets to form and causing real issues so i replaced it with something slightly coarser - you can see the original substrate in the first picture above. Second the aquarium sprung a leak in the bottom seal - so i put the fishes in a pail; ran over to petco and picked up another; removed the braces for the matten filter; and glued them in the new aquarium - waited 2 days for the silicon to set - or maybe it was 3 - and set it up - all the fishes survived and everyone went about as if nothing had changed.

The break occur around oct 2020 so before i took the above picture.

-

If you look at the first picture on the the matten filter (right side) you can see the adult L208 - he spends a lot of time there...  or in his  Cholla slowly gnawing away.... really lovely fish when he shows himself off...

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by anewbie

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Relocated my wild caught Krobia xinguensis grow out colony from a 40 breeder to this 60 breeder to see what happens. The group appears to be  a bit male heavy but I think there might be a female or two in the colony. They are around 3" currently and eating anything I put in the tank. The smaller fish are some limia vittata fry I had in there to clean up prior to the krobia moving in

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[AceMcCannon]

Nothing too wild, as my tank is still in the figuring out stage. I did get a sweet piece of spider wood for the tank though. 

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/12/2023 at 7:54 PM, AceMcCannon said:

Nothing too wild, as my tank is still in the figuring out stage. I did get a sweet piece of spider wood for the tank though. 

Looks great!  Welcome to the forums 🙂 .

[anewbie]

Did usual water change which always stresses my L208 even after years of bi-weekly water changes - so naturally he has to hide:

 

Not necessarily the best place to hide right in front of the aquarium but who knows.... maybe i just don't get it.

Edited June 17, 2023 by anewbie

[Emily in Everett]

I finally got water in the new (used) 90 gallon. Got the filter started using some yukky sponges from my other 90 gallon cube’s sump. Go go bacteria! Setting this tank up for my clouded archerfish currently growing up in a smaller tank. I had the manzanita branches in a perfect configuration until they started to float. Lol! 
next up Is pondering how to install some sort of “fern wall” hanging on the back wall’s above-water section. I was looking into getting a 3D rock background but am currently thinking I like the clean look of fish and wood against the black background, it adds more visual depth I think…

can’t wait to get it cycled and planted so  we can start seeing the archers do what they do best! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Tidying up.

This is ONE of the places where I store fish room stuff.

But the inside of the drawers looked like this.

So I got some plastic shoeboxes and categorized things.

Air stuff and suction cups. Plant stuff. I was surprised at home many plant weights I found. All new! I love plant weights for multiple things. Weighing down green beans for snails or weighing down new cholla, for example. Also tacking down grass runners from microsword or dwarf sag.

Medicine

Testing

Fish bags and plant bags, bubble wrap. I reuse these when my friend and I give each other snails, fish, shrimp, or plants. The bubble wrap makes a good water diversion aid, and the ziplocks are good for bagging sponge filters before removal from tank. The mesh/cloth plant bags can be reused as filter media. It’s important to keep bags and bubble wrap separate so they don’t get used for other purposes and become unsafe for fish.

I have more to accomplish with this cabinet and a few others, but it’s a start. Here’s what it looks like now.

Need to buy more shoeboxes. Especially for all the little bits of media leftover from when I cut it. Those can be placed into a media bag and reused, or placed into DIY jar filters or flower pot filters.

Happy Father’s Day @Fish Folk, @JettsPapa, @TeeJay, and to all the other human daddies and fish daddies. 💙

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[TheMosster]

i setup my 2gallon pretzelarium project to cycle:

[nabokovfan87]

I got to measure my Amano, Gojira.

She's doing good being the new nanny in the tank.

The kids are behaving themselves. 😂

 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I decided to attempt rotifer culturing. In hopes to have more options of foods for fry. Today started me on my focused rotifer culture path for baby puffer foods. Test 1 is a 5 gallon bucket with chlorella in the water column. I guess ill see un 5 days or so if it works. 

Took a break from veggies and fed some pellets to the Kamp Krobia. Im curious to see my male to female split ends up. If I cant get a pair from this size group (which arrived as  wild caught 1" fry) its not meant to be. We have a ways to go bit a really fun species so far. Mostly puffers here not completely puffers though :)

Edited June 28, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[SoundHunter]

Topped off my tank and sat for a while to consider doing some trimming… then sat some more and some more… 

[RedPots]

embracing the wisdom that decaying plant matter is an excellent producer of O2 for the water column. ☕️💦🪴☕️

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 6/30/2023 at 6:47 PM, RedPots said:

embracing the wisdom that decaying plant matter is an excellent producer of O2 for the water column. ☕️💦🪴☕️

No need to say that twice 😂

[RedPots]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:32 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

No need to say that twice 😂

Diana sees the beauty here - I’m certain. 02 for every one. ! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Lil bit of an air upgrade. I wanted battery backup. 🙂  

Check out this ol’ guy! Still kickin!  It will be my backup. I have appreciated how I can dial the flow up or down.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I decided to try and capture the 20H miscellaneous micro food cuture in a photo and gif. 

Seeded from a sponge filter and plants with whatever copepods and potentially rotifers i have in my tanks. Added moina weeks later (which i think failed at leas partially). I keep it about this green by feeding freshwater algae if it gets closer to clear. Light base of crushed coral to buffer. 

I can see seed shrimp/ostracods, and the copepod cyclopoida. There is all kinds of stuff in the photo. Im not sure what else is in there but seems like puffer fry food to me. 

 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/1/2023 at 12:47 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Lil bit of an air upgrade. I wanted battery backup. 🙂  

Check out this ol’ guy! Still kickin!

 

It’s funny. Later I was cleaning up wiring. And there was one plug I couldn’t figure out where it went. I usually label all plugs with bread tags and sharpie. So I was unplugging it and there was no effect. Well, it was the new air pump! And the battery was taking over when I unplugged it. I only know because I looked at the pump and saw a subtle change in the lights when I unplugged it. LOL. It tricked me! But also impressed me. 🙂 

By the way, how does everyone elevate their air pumps off the floor? I know they shouldn’t be there in case of spills but of course they vibrate off of stuff and make noise when touching things. Piece of styrofoam with a handtowel on top or something?

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/2/2023 at 12:29 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

By the way, how does everyone elevate their air pumps off the floor?

I use a "hallway table" as a side table to the side of the tank for tools or plants (or jars) and it has a little elevated base. Some of the stands have a shelf. You can also use a box or something. If the floor gets wet though, the box will hold that moisture unfortunately.

 

On 7/2/2023 at 12:29 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Piece of styrofoam with a handtowel on top or something?

Towel with cardboard on it. Or a piece of rubber mat.

[anewbie]

Sigh. My clown loach died again. I swear he must have died at least 20 times this month:

 

Context - my 120 is next to my desk and i have 10 clown loaches and one particular fellow likes to come near my side promptly roll over and die so when i look over i see a bunch of happy loaches and one dead one - nearly every day.....

 

Sigh.

 

[Odd Duck]

Some clown loaches just love to flop over and sleep on their sides.  They’re goofy that way.  Just like some plecos will sleep upside down, just laying on the substrate.  Usually they’re under something and it’s like they were hanging onto whatever was above them and they got so tired / sleepy they just let go and flop down on the substrate.  One of my blue-eyed lemons will do that in my 100 G nanofish - just forget he was hanging on to his favorite wood piece and just flop down.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve stared at him to make sure his gills were moving!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 7/1/2023 at 1:27 AM, RedPots said:

Diana sees the beauty here - I’m certain. 02 for every one. ! 

I’ve bought some trilineatus corydoras to help with the mulm, but they’re only arriving after I get home from Sicily. 

[anewbie]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:17 AM, Odd Duck said:

Some clown loaches just love to flop over and sleep on their sides.  They’re goofy that way.  Just like some plecos will sleep upside down, just laying on the substrate.  Usually they’re under something and it’s like they were hanging onto whatever was above them and they got so tired / sleepy they just let go and flop down on the substrate.  One of my blue-eyed lemons will do that in my 100 G nanofish - just forget he was hanging on to his favorite wood piece and just flop down.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve stared at him to make sure his gills were moving!

Yea my pleco does it all the time; but the thing about this loach is he doesn't sleep out there - they come out from their caves to play and eat and he immediately comes out and plop. Guess he isn't sleeping well at night 😉