What did you get done today?

[lmhicks101]

I'm currently cycling my first tank. Messed around with the who Fritz ammonia and fritz zyme 7 and after 11 days I not a bit of Nitrites. I even had food and stuff in there but started over yesterday with a water change and put some cardinals and Sea Chem Stability. Already have a little Nitrite action.

[Torrey]

On 10/10/2021 at 10:01 AM, Chris said:

Doing water changes on all the tanks today because I got lazy yesterday. Ugh.

Just noticed the 5.5 I set up gets some natural sunlight in the morning. This guy doesn't seem to mind.

Niiiice!

[FortFish]

Accepted delivery of some cinder blocks and 2x8x12s yesterday morning. Spent the day moving the materials down into the basement and setting up my rack. All went well other than one fairly warped board. Threw it on the first level and it’s looking fine with the weight of the blocks on it.

Changed the outlet closest to the rack to a GFCI this morning. I had extras laying around so no big deal. I’ve heard conflicting things about using GFCI’s in the fish room but I figured better safe than sorry. Now to wait on another coop order so I can get this 20 gallon long going!

[Torrey]

First thing I did, was move Watson to the 4' with Houdini. 

I realized Watson was slowly losing weight, and this tank has the fastest growing snails, so I am hoping Watson will get back on track. Otherwise, I will have to come to terms with the fact that Watson may be getting old and senile, and start getting ready for another rainbow bridge crossing. (Will keep everyone posted)

Tested water, because leaves are yellowing again 🙄 Apparently I need to return to overfeeding fish, or dosing aquarium with more ferts: nitrates were at zero again. 😅 Pond snails are popping up with really pretty colorations!

Had a pretty rough week, and my nerves are misfiring which resulted in more water on the floor than in the tank as I topped off tanks today. Water parameters said no need to water change (0s across the board, with pH ranging from 7.4 to 8.2, depending on how much wood & soil is in the tank) any of the fish  tanks... just a few gallons topping each off (4' tank has a crack at the top, so only gets half filled).

Z. Danios & female blue guppies are halfway through QT!

This 10 gallon had almost 3 full gallons evaporate this week 😳

Dwarf zebra danios are thriving, and are hysterical to watch play tag in the floating pearlweed and water sprite🤣 They only needed 2 gallons added.

Walstad tank needs a trim.... which will have to wait until I can safely use the scissors among ramsshorns, amphopods and endlers. Only needed 1 gallon top off, floating plants are doing their job.... possibly too well, because 0s across the board for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

Karma asked why I was bothering her home, and vocalized her disappointment in my not planning on a sufficient number of plants for her this fall.

Any concerns that I had not adequately shaken the nitrate bottles or vials were eliminated in the turtle pond. With no more plants ready to remove nitrates (can't use pothos due to oxalates being **really** bad for turtles, and Karma doesn't care), pond jumped from ~30 ppm nitrates last weekend, to 80 ppm today. 

So... water change by using the battery powered "fuel mover" out of the tank (only 4" off the floor), tooth brush clean the airstones, and top off with bottled water because tap had 40 ppm nitrates today. 

Plants in the tanks I topped off will probably have a growth spurt🤣

 

[Chris]

Got all my water changes done! Now, for some pizza 🙂

[Griznatch]

Gave all my tanks green beans today, great way to see all the shrimp in one place 🙂

Was adding water to my little terrarium and noticed one of my inch plants (Tradescantia zebrina) bloomed!

Edited October 10, 2021 by Griznatch
typos

[Andy's Fish Den]

My son and I went to our first fish auction since the pandemic started on Saturday, it was held by a local club that is a little over an hour away from us. There was quite a few nice fish, and not many people there to bid and buy so it was a buyers market for sure. We picked up a few species of killifish, some endlers, three 2.5 gal tanks and some neolamprologus multifasciatus. The killies we got are Aphyiosemion rachovii and A. bitaeniatum. Then, on the way home, we stopped at the LFS closest to me besides a big box store and picked up a bumch of frozen foods as well as some live blackworms. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

On 10/11/2021 at 5:54 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

My son and I went to our first fish auction since the pandemic started on Saturday, it was held by a local club that is a little over an hour away from us. There was quite a few nice fish, and not many people there to bid and buy so it was a buyers market for sure. We picked up a few species of killifish, some endlers, three 2.5 gal tanks and some neolamprologus multifasciatus. The killies we got are Aphyiosemion rachovii and A. bitaeniatum. Then, on the way home, we stopped at the LFS closest to me besides a big box store and picked up a bumch of frozen foods as well as some live blackworms. 

The rachovii are actually Nothobranchius species. I wasn't completely awake this morning typing that out.

[Del]

Today was fish moving day for me! 
 

I’m emptying my 30 gallon to make room for my pare of angels to breed. They are now breeding in a community tank with a total of 10 angels, pleco’s and tetras, so it’s a bit crowded there. 
 

Mooved my 3 dwarf blue gouramis and my 2 chocolate gouramis to the big tank. Always stressy to catch and rehome fish. But keeping duckweed out of the big tank was maybe the most stressful thing 😅

 

Managed to get the gouramis out quite quickly. One chocolate was really stressed out but recovered well and quick once in the new tank. All the angels went greeting the gouramis, but no agression involved. The breeding pair of angels don’t bother the smaller fish and only go after the other angels. 
 

Very curious how the gouramis will act in the new tank. Especially the chocolates, they have always been skittish. They defenetly have enough space to hide with my big vall. 
 

Some pictures of the moove:

[Fish Folk]

Shipped 65+ Endangered Goodeids (Xenotoca doadrioi) to a good seller today whose experienced native fish keeping customers will make excellent buyers. I still have a dozen left that will eventually replenish my population. It was just too insane for me to keep 75 fish in a 20 gal long. Plus, I think it’s cool to help out good businesses that sell specialized fish to experienced customers. I suppose if I had a great business sense, I’d try to turn a dime selling more online. But this arrangement made sense. They sent me a bunch or Darters. I sent them a haul of Goodeids. 

[Maggie]

I went to one of the LFS stores in the Boston area and probably won't go back to that one - it was not exclusively an aquarium shop and not worth the drive. There's another, larger LFS in the opposite direction and farther away that I'll hit next time. 

On the way back I decided to stop at Pet Supplies Plus and grab a new 20L and Aqueon stand. The stands aren't super high quality, but they're sturdy, not too heavy, and come already assembled (the best part). And you can take pics of the bottom of your tank! I have never seen these stands at any other big box store. I need some motivation to continue and hope this new tank will help. Looking for stocking ideas! I think I'll put it in the "dining room" a few feet from where Cosmo's tank was set up, and move that tank to my bedroom or maybe the kitchen. 

I'm getting really good plant/root growth in the 5 gallon shrimp tank. Another couple weeks or so and it'll be cycled and maybe ready for some shrimp.

[PineSong]

On 10/11/2021 at 5:54 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

My son and I went to our first fish auction since the pandemic started on Saturday, it was held by a local club that is a little over an hour away from us. There was quite a few nice fish, and not many people there to bid and buy so it was a buyers market for sure. We picked up a few species of killifish, some endlers, three 2.5 gal tanks and some neolamprologus multifasciatus. The killies we got are Aphyiosemion rachovii and A. bitaeniatum. Then, on the way home, we stopped at the LFS closest to me besides a big box store and picked up a bumch of frozen foods as well as some live blackworms. 

What a great way to spend time with your son!

[lindabee53]

I just ordered some plants and equipment for my aquarium.  They'll be delivered to where I'll be on-calling (temping) next week, so I'll have a great treat to carry home.

[Dark River Aquatics]

Rehabbed a 10g breeding tank a bit

Also moved some fish around 😊

[Torrey]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:12 PM, Del said:

Today was fish moving day for me! 
 

I’m emptying my 30 gallon to make room for my pare of angels to breed. They are now breeding in a community tank with a total of 10 angels, pleco’s and tetras, so it’s a bit crowded there. 
 

Mooved my 3 dwarf blue gouramis and my 2 chocolate gouramis to the big tank. Always stressy to catch and rehome fish. But keeping duckweed out of the big tank was maybe the most stressful thing 😅

 

Managed to get the gouramis out quite quickly. One chocolate was really stressed out but recovered well and quick once in the new tank. All the angels went greeting the gouramis, but no agression involved. The breeding pair of angels don’t bother the smaller fish and only go after the other angels. 
 

Very curious how the gouramis will act in the new tank. Especially the chocolates, they have always been skittish. They defenetly have enough space to hide with my big vall. 
 

Some pictures of the moove:

I'm out of reacts, your tanks are gorgeous!

On 10/13/2021 at 4:31 PM, Maggie said:

I went to one of the LFS stores in the Boston area and probably won't go back to that one - it was not exclusively an aquarium shop and not worth the drive. There's another, larger LFS in the opposite direction and farther away that I'll hit next time. 

On the way back I decided to stop at Pet Supplies Plus and grab a new 20L and Aqueon stand. The stands aren't super high quality, but they're sturdy, not too heavy, and come already assembled (the best part). And you can take pics of the bottom of your tank! I have never seen these stands at any other big box store. I need some motivation to continue and hope this new tank will help. Looking for stocking ideas! I think I'll put it in the "dining room" a few feet from where Cosmo's tank was set up, and move that tank to my bedroom or maybe the kitchen. 

I'm getting really good plant/root growth in the 5 gallon shrimp tank. Another couple weeks or so and it'll be cycled and maybe ready for some shrimp.

What is the green and white plant, 6th picture down?

[lindabee53]

@Dark River Aquatics At the risk of sounding stupid, what is the shelf the fish are on in your second photo?

[Dark River Aquatics]

On 10/16/2021 at 12:45 AM, lindabee53 said:

@Dark River Aquatics At the risk of sounding stupid, what is the shelf the fish are on in your second photo?

They’re in a specimen box hanging outside the tank before getting added 🙂

[Maggie]

@Torreyit is new growth of water wisteria from the Coop. Pretty cool looking, isn't it? My first time with this plant. 

[Chris]

This fella keeps on stealing the Pleco's food overnight... gonna have to stop feeding him so much of his own food! He's getting THICC.

[Blaha]

Today, not much but observation. A few days ago I planted an Anubias Nangi, and a Tiger Lotus Bulb.

Today's observation showed the first signs of new growth on both!

[anewbie]

Spent the morning doing waters changes on 120,29,29,5. I had moved a pair of borelli out of the 5 into the 29. There is an old cranky female cockatoo in the 29 that wasn't too happy to see them; but she's too old to spend much time chasing them. This is the current state of my white 29 (you can see one of the L204 hiding in the middle); also if you look at the coconut shell you can see the L333 giving you the tail. He's done worse in the past so please forgive him:

 

 

and the black 29 (which has the borelli and cockatoo):

 

 

 

I suppose these pictures are getting old so i'll try to post them less often. Oh and in the black 29 the italia val has gotten higher in the back but sadly it also sent out runners everywhere so there are 10 or so new planetets. I pulled a couple but it is sending out so many i can't be expected to get them all. Talk about a weed.

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by anewbie

[Guppysnail]

On 10/15/2021 at 11:33 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:

Rehabbed a 10g breeding tank a bit

Also moved some fish around 😊

Is all that wood just perfectly balanced in there or is there a support of some sort I cannot see that keeps the bulk suspended?  I absolutely love the look. 

[lindabee53]

@Dark River Aquatics Thank you!  I didn't realize it was sitting outside.

[Fonske]

Went on a cleaning spree.  Decided to dismantle and scrub one light...then the tank lid... then another light...woke up 6 hours later to 8 squeaky clean tanks and a huge hot water bill.  😄

[Dark River Aquatics]

On 10/16/2021 at 8:59 PM, Guppysnail said:

Is all that wood just perfectly balanced in there or is there a support of some sort I cannot see that keeps the bulk suspended?  I absolutely love the look. 

I’m glad you like it, it’s just three manzanita sticks chucked in! They’re resting on their own branches at the bottom, and the bases of the sticks are propped against the back glass 🙂