What did you get done today?

[Fish Folk]

On 8/5/2021 at 7:46 AM, Odd Duck said:

Wait!  Are you in Dallas area?  Did you buy 2 cultures off Band?

Nope. I’m in Western MD. Bought cultures here. I’ve basically paused brine shrimp hatching with the success of Grindal Worms for small fish and fry.

[Odd Duck]

On 8/5/2021 at 7:53 AM, Fish Folk said:

Nope. I’m in Western MD. Bought cultures here. I’ve basically paused brine shrimp hatching with the success of Grindal Worms for small fish and fry.

I was thinking you had mentioned you were near the east coast.  It’s just funny because I sold 2 cultures to a guy Tuesday.

[anewbie]

Added a few new fishes to the tanks:

To  one tank i added 8 of these (after removing two pleco yesterday); these fellows are a bit pricey but since i was paying for overnight shipping why not.... they are suppose to have a bit more colour but perhaps they are a bit young...



In tank #2 i added 5 of these to go with the 5 i already have:


In tank #3 I added 8 of these; to join the ones already in the tank. They are a bit pale but hopefully they will colour up tonight or tomorrow...


Also tank #3 I added a pair of these. I think this will be a  female (they are very young); but the other one which is almost certainly a male has quite a bit of colour unfortunately he told me very sternly no pictures. I'll check with him later and see if he is more agreeable. I do hope the laetacara araguaiae leave them alone. By reputation they are suppose to be pretty passive torwards other species though among themselves they are real bullies:

 

Alas the other tanks saw no new fishes. Hope they don't feel deprived.

Quote Reply

[FrozenFins]

Went to the LFS and found this in the clearence section! $25!!!

I bought it almost imediatley! Thinking about doing some pumpkin shrimp. The plan is to get some driftwood on monday, or tuesday (the LFS didn't have any peices that I liked that much, so going to try either petsmart, or petland.) and then add plants, and fill it up! Also got an anubias for this tank at the LFS. Super excited to try some shrimp.

Also thought about it being a no-tech tank. No lights, heater, or filter! I'm going to try natural sunlight, and have it be heavily planted with a deep sand bed for the filtration. 

I believe its about 4 - 5 Gallons. The LFS worker couldn't confirm but thought it was about the same.

 

[Crabby]

Just escaped lockdown today to go grab a little group of CPDs from the LFS that I hope to breed. So cute. Also algae cleaned and water changed the tank that they’re going into. And I didn’t make my bristlenose insane today by poking a flashlight and my big nose into his cave, so that’s progress I guess 😂

[Torrey]

I did my water tests today instead of waiting for the weekend, as we may have out of town guests coming. 

Plants are using the nitrates in the Walstad, faster than the bacteria is converting the ammonia 😅

Ammonia is slowly coming down, however, so obviously something is happening. 

 

Plants are getting a trim next week, and the tops will be replanted. 

So today was water test, 11 top offs and 2 water changes. 

Everyone have a great weekend!

[anewbie]

As you all know today is saturday; and what you might not know is on saturday I do water changes to the three tanks in my office - 2 29  and a 120. These are some pictures after the water change with some comments. First the black and white 29:

These are low tech tanks. The 29 black had a set back a few months ago when I used furan-2 and it wiped out most of the plant leaves. The hornworth is actually growing very very fast in that tank but what you can't see is i threw 3/4 of it away last week. The major problem with the black tank is that the Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus hasn't gotten re-established and I will try to get some larger cuttings from the 120 or 40 if the small pieces don't pick up. The white tank is growing quite well (esp for a low tech tank) and I haven't done much on it. For some reason the hornworth grows at a much slower pace (which is not a bad thing) but the val goes pretty fast; i had trimmed it quite a bit 3 weeks ago and it really could use another trimming. The biggest issue is that food gets trapped in it so i try to trim it to make open areas in the front where the food can reach the bottom. Today i did the usual 50-60% water change and on the black 29 i cleaned the top which was quite messy.

 

white 29:

black 29:

 

Now for the 120. Today and most saturdays I will do a 50% water change (normally i do a 30% water change but the water is warm and it had a few issues):

This is the current picture after the water change:

 

If you look straight back next to the blue-green water intake for the eheim canister filter you will see a sword leaf coated with slime algae (it isn't too bad since the bn pleco has been cleaning it up); all the sword leaves were like that a couple of weeks ago - what happened is around late may early june i shut off the co2 in hope to reduce growth. Well things really went south (at the end of this text you will see the before picture from march); and a yucky slime algae started coating all the sword leaves as well as clogging the filter prefilter (had to clean it 3 times a week); as well as the anubia getting a large amount of bba. I caved in about 2 weeks ago and refill the co2 canister so now it has co2 again. Since then I've been cutting off the old slime coated leaves the last 3 weeks and the ruffle (for example) has responded well putting out no fewer than 13 new leaves (if you zoom in really close you can see some of them). The biggest issue remaining is the anubia. In the past i've tried various treatments like excel and preoxide dips but none of them really work well. It is hard to see but they have a lot of new leaves (the afzelii near the front black angels) has 2 brand new leaves and the large batari below the gold angels has 3 or 4 new leaves. After they grow out i'll probably just cut off the worse offending leaves. 

-

This is the before picture - we shall see how fast the above tank recover - so expect another picture in 3 or 4 weeks with an update.

 

[Marshall]

On 7/31/2021 at 1:53 PM, Marshall said:

It's transport day to our new house , if only I had the easy bucket I wouldn't have to use this hardware store one , hope this goes well 

A week later and fish are doing great even the fry made the trip excuse the mess haven't found a permanent spot for the tank yet 

[ArchwayAquatics]

Today has been productive! In addition to water changes for the Endler grow out and white skirt breeding tanks, I plumbed the returns for the 40 gallon rack and... bought another tank? I'm really going to have to reign this in at some point. But doesn't it look nifty in my daughters' room? 

Not yet sure how we are going to set it up but my oldest (7) is very sure it needs a waterfall after we watched some paludarium builds on SerpaDesign's channel this evening. At $25 for what is in the picture plus a little marineland cannister filter (never used cannisters before?) I'm feeling better about all that endless craigslist searching 😂 just need to decide on a light solution. 

[PineSong]

Today I removed the scarlet temple plant from my community tank because I was tired of having a heart attack every time a loose red leaf was floating up in the HOB current making me think an endler had died. It looked meh anyway, and the tank will look better without it, so I tossed it in the QT tank for the mollies to enjoy the algae it wore.

Also trimmed other plants and removed half of the houseplant cuttings (pothos, phildodendron Brasil, spider plant babies) I had stuck in there when the tank hadn't cycled yet, and potted them up. Debating sticking a monstera leaf in there. We are kind of drowning in monstera babies in this family as is, but it's so tempting to make more...

I finally captured the one pond snail (is there ever really only ONE?) that snuck into the community tank on a plant and put him in my now empty betta tank to take care of whatever he can in there. Excited that if my betta stays chill in my community tank, his former tank will be empty and ready for.... some kind of little fish!

 

[Odd Duck]

I got up.  I ate breakfast.

Believe me, just that is an accomplishment after the week I’ve had.

Fed fish, WC 6 tanks with a good scrub on a couple of them.  Moved a couple blue-eyed lemon BN out of QT to the 100 gallon.  Topped off 7 tanks with RODI.

Replanted the smaller Crinum and a Val that the Fearsome Foursome (the Jacks and their buddy plecos) had uprooted in the 75 G.  Trimmed a handful of unhappy leaves from the big swords in the same tank.  The Vals are taking a beating.  😞😕  I’m very undecided if the Vals are going to work (and maybe if the swords are going to work).  It’s feeling like the Foursome are going to beat them up too much.

I’m contemplating making my 46 G bow front (currently a plant holding tank) into an angel tank.  If they are looking too rough by the time I get around to that, the Vals and big swords will go in there.  I need to do a full reset on the 46 G tank to do a nice angel tank.  It’s got nasty Flourite gravel which I hate.  

That’s enough for today.

Now I’m just kicked back in the easy chair and will probably take a nap later.

[PineSong]

On 8/8/2021 at 6:06 PM, Odd Duck said:

Believe me, just that is an accomplishment after the week I’ve had.

I’m contemplating making my 46 G bow front (currently a plant holding tank) into an angel tank. 

After a hard week, contemplating an angel tank is surely a happy diversion. So peaceful looking!

[Odd Duck]

On 8/8/2021 at 7:36 PM, PineSong said:

After a hard week, contemplating an angel tank is surely a happy diversion. So peaceful looking!

Yes.  Sitting here in my living room and that 46 G bow front is looking back at me with an assortment of Java fern varieties, some large and small Anubias, a single big Crypt. striolata ‘Tiger’ that looks like it’s finally done melting, and a couple groups of other oddball type plants and some unusual mosses.

All of them staring at me and waiting patiently for me to do something creative with them and make them happy.  The big Anubias’ are big enough they’ll need to go in a tallish tank, but they’re on rocks or wood, so they are movable.  They’re crying out to go in my 29 G when it becomes the new pea puffer tank.

The catch is that the 29 G is also a plant holding tank and is full of smaller plants that I’m waiting for algae to clear now that it no longer has cory fry in it and I’ve stopped feeding the tank.  Not feeding works wonders for clearing algae, but will take some time (already improving dramatically).  Maybe I’ll move some of these plants to shrimp tanks, they’ll clean up the algae.

So it will be a cascade effect - first completely reset the 29 G which will get all these big Anubias, maybe the smaller ones, and likely the Java ferns, too, at least temporarily.  Find “homes” for the oddballs (they’re in plastic containers of substrate while I decide where to put them), then collect as many red ramshorn snails out of the 46 as possible, THEN finally remove gravel from the 46 and start over planting as an angel tank.

And so I keep sitting, at least for now.  😆 

[Elmojon]

I did a full rescape of my 20 gallon.  I was having a serious cyanobacteria problem that I could not seem to get rid of.  I tried blacking out the tank, and using fritz maracyn, but it always seemed to come back.  I scraped the driftwood I was using, the substrate, and the few plants I had left. 

I've been planning this rescape for a while and started collecting the pieces of dragon stones I wanted to use. I'm using Seachem aquavitro substrate soil. I currently have some hair grass, reineckii, hygrophila, and one more I can't remember the name of. 

I'll be keeping a close eye on things since I removed all of my previous substrate.  In case I get another bacteria issue I'll try treating it before it gets out of hand. 

[TankofFish]

Done a little drift wood hunting this past weekend 

 

 

[Mike Faulkner]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:40 PM, Cory said:

Got two new fridges installed in the fish room.

Got that same Galanz fridge a few weeks ago sodas and frozen fish foods! 🐟 

[Jimfish98]

Prepping the tank for CO2. I like a clean set up with everything in the stand so took a cabinet full of wires, power blocks, etc and redid it all so the power blocks are mounted and cords controlled and up at the top of the cabinet. Plenty of room for the CO2 tank now. Waiting to fill the tank this weekend but in the mean time added some freshwater goby and amino shrimp to the tank. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

At lunch today, I managed to get my 75 gallon that will become the Algae Ecosystem, drained from the extensive 3 week leak test, drilled for the AWC system drain, cleaned, and the braces glued in for the corner matten filter.  I also was able to get the last pieces glued for my new central air system to run air in...  Well, any tank I think I can get a line to at this point.  I also started my irrigation lines for my AWC system.  But that's where I ran out of time.  Automation is going to be so, so sweet! 

[anewbie]

I planted the following:

2 flamingo crypts

2 pinto anubia

2 Anubias Frazeri

 

The frazeri were really big - almost 16 inches high. The flamingo were in emersed form. The pinto anubia were really large and one had a flower (the one i picked up 7 months ago flowers every other month; not a pretty flower but still a flower).

[ChefConfit]

My 3 year old has been begging for a Betta since I watched the Betta Breeding presentation. Last night she won one at the fireman's fair! 

Meet Angelino! 

He's in quarantine now, so I've got to figure out a tank for my daughter's room

I've got to figure out it kind for my daughter's room. 

[eatyourpeas]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:47 PM, ChefConfit said:

Meet Angelino!

He is a beauty and looks ready for  plate of pasta! 😍

[eatyourpeas]

Too hot and too much bad air to go out.

Fussed over the tanks to make sure critters do not boil. Decided not to feed them today and made sure there is enough aeration in all tanks. Not an issue with the SW tank since it is connected to a chiller (lucky them!).

I finally retreated to my studio to make some progress since I have a looming deadline:

[Jimfish98]

Today was installing CO2. Had the diffuser, air line, valve, etc here just needed the tank. Ran up to Airgas to get 2 5lb Aluminum tanks. Figure with their hours ending before my workday ends and not open on weekends, best to get a back up tank so I have time to fill one when the other is running. Fairly easy to get in and running and set it up on a smart wifi plug to set on and off times on it. Will likely need to turn it up a little as tester after 7 hours is still blueish.  Will turn it up slightly in the morning so I can watch it. Hoping to feed the plants and cut back on algae a little. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 8/13/2021 at 5:25 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I finally retreated to my studio to make some progress since I have a looming deadline

Is that a studio or an apothecary?!  😉

[Patrick_G]

On 8/13/2021 at 3:25 PM, eatyourpeas said:

Too hot and too much bad air to go out.

Fussed over the tanks to make sure critters do not boil. Decided not to feed them today and made sure there is enough aeration in all tanks. Not an issue with the SW tank since it is connected to a chiller (lucky them!).

I finally retreated to my studio to make some progress since I have a looming deadline:

Ok I’ll bite, what are you working on?