What did you get done today?

[drewzero1]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:31 AM, Odd Duck said:

Yes.  Seems like a flea comb for pets would work, too.

I was thinking about trying a plastic litter box scoop or a mesh flyswatter... anything to drain out the water and wipe the leaves off easily. I'll have to try one of these ideas next time it starts to get overgrown. Though I do admit there was a bit of zen in the repetition of scooping it out over and over with an old mcflurry spoon. 😆

[ange]

Woke up this morning and checked on everybody. It looks like today is going to be a medication day 😒

I recently rescaped my cube and I think I stressed out my poor GBRs in the process. My girl has some red dust behind her gills/on her belly so I'll be treating for velvet. Wish me luck. She's tough and her behavior hasn't changed yet so I'm hoping that I'm just being a hypochondriac

[Brandon p]

I used my huge co-op net and just skim the top

[nabokovfan87]

I cleaned out the tanks yesterday. It was a slightly biggish water change, but the fish are used to that. I pulled therms, cleaned them off, and got very annoyed at how well I can grow some algae.

I woke up today and the silly tidal filter already had the indicator telling me it was bypassing badly this time. I kept hearing prime time aquatic's voice on his review "maintain your filter, no seriously..... maintain your filter".

I would love to "fix" the filter, I just need to order a part from seachem so I have a copy to use and swap it out easily.  Needless to say, it's too early, no coffee yet, I poured some homemade cider tea (teavana), and just fed the fish and added some filter floss to protect the media from the bypass on the media bag.

It's literally an issue with basket design and the allowable "height" of the media basket. I'll end up making a massive guide/post with my 4-6 years of this thing and figuring out every single quirk.  BUT FIRST. Some coffee and hopefully some cory eggs land today.  They've been swimming around looking for spots to lay or they are just being corys.

[Juancho]

Did a few water changes. Cleaned out a few fry grow outs that my super reds are in. Btw I have two successful clutches finally. They might be easy for most but I’m just learning, so it’s nice to have some success. And I had a 125 sitting for awhile put the background on cleaned the glass which the pic doesn’t show the años being clean that is.  And put some gravel in it. That was my sat. Relaxing for me. 

[eatyourpeas]

Filed taxes...

Did WC in all the tanks, which took a while because my tap water was disgusting. Had to use two Poly Filter pads to clean it! Yuk! 😝

[ange]

Got good news and bad news. The course of ParaCleanse seems to be working as I'm seeing a lot less flashing from my female (developed on day 2 of treatment), but I also seem to have crashed my cycle in the process. I don't want to deoxygenate the water further so I've done a squirt of Fritz Complete and put in a second airstone. I also added a supplementary dose of FritzZyme for good measure. The tank is on day 4 of treatment so I'll be able to do a partial water change soon. I'm probably going to have to do a second course of meds but I want to try letting my cycle  recover before I do so. If it weren't for the possible disease, I'd wring out a sponge from another tank to try and get things back on track. It was so pretty before I crashed my cycle and was one of my favorite setups after the recent rescape.reshape.

Maybe I've just been lucky with my bacterial bloom sizes but this is the cloudiest I've ever seen my water and it's honestly kinda fascinating. I'd normally be worried but everybody seems happy (especially when you consider the flashing that my female was previously doing) and they've been eating frozen daphnia like there's no tomorrow.

Edited April 5, 2022 by ange
typo

[Tanked]

On 3/22/2022 at 10:03 PM, Katie B. said:

I appreciate this so much! My only issue with the hardware store is the thickness of the slate. We have one fish store in town that focuses on saltwater tanks but I will give it a shot! I'll definitely be checking out the reef putty.

Check your area for roofers that specialize in slate roofing.  They may have some broken pieces lying around.  I recently discovered that my LFS actually sells them.

[PineSong]

This morning I moved a gang of six male guppies from my community tank who were really harshly harassing one of my male mollies. I am so tired of male guppy aggression! Luckily I have the 29 to move them to. 

Interestingly, although I have males from two different mutt strains born in my tanks as well as a storebought Moscow and a bunch of Endlers, all of the "thugs" are from the same one of my mutt strains. None of the males from my "whale guppies" or the Endlers or Moscow were part of the aggressive harassment.

The 'thug' strain is the same one that produced multiple fry with bent spines in every brood so I discontinued them. Now I am wondering if whatever genetic weakness they have also makes them jerks.

[drewzero1]

(Yesterday) I got the foam for the matten filter into the desktop 10 gallon and found out it was too big, so I cut off a little and it seems about right now. It's staying in place and I can see things getting sucked into the foam, so all is well so far. I'm going to let it seed bacteria from the old filter foam while I figure out what to put in there. It's been a while since I've considered stocking options for a 10, so this could take some extra pondering. 🤔

[Zaffis]

Today I made the trek out to replace a broken thermometer.  I will finally know what the temperature is in my aquarium now that I had made the decision to get it in working order after a few years of not having any fish in it.  Turns out my heater doesn't even work!  I wonder how long that has been the case.  I also picked up some bio balls to add more places for beneficial bacteria in my HOB filter. 

I ended up doing a 50% water change while gravel vacuuming, despite using the crimp trick to minimize excess water siphoning. I'll have to do at least another round of it at some point.  I had not done anything with the water except for top offs in about a year.

Next up will be to see how many different water parameter readings I can achieve with the grab bag of old (potentially expired/ineffective) test kits I realized I had from past supply hand-me-downs.  It might be quite an adventure!

[Torrey]

I finally was able to sit down at the computer, review a few hundred pictures/videos taken between Feb and now (and one from last year when I put the nerites in to clean up algae), edited them into a video, and submitted my "St Nermy Day Scapes from Scraps" entry.

I also did partial water changes on 2 tanks, and found a deceased fish when I went to trim plants in my spouse's tank...☹️

Made an Unboxing video for the Co-op of my first official order that I made by myself! I am a recovering Luddite, and Candi is a major tech assist... I had never linked my email, and all my Co-op stuff so far has either been joint ordered with NMAS friends, or my sister sent me stuff for my birthday/Christmas. I feel official now: 

My accounts are properly linked (thank you @Candi), I have a wish list, and I finally have "official" Co-op reviews instead of "anonymous".

I'm moving up in the world, lol!!!

PS: Fish are in LOVE with the Xtreme Nano foods, had a huge feeding frenzy that normally only happens when they get frozen brine. I'll try to film later this week.

[Brandon p]

I’m still going for 32 1/2hours. After fish stuff I was grading sports cards. So I’m sure I’ll fall asleep in the middle of something 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Brandon p

[anewbie]

I gave my borelli a snack. I really shouldn't but they are such beggars; very adorable beggars hard to resist them.

[drewzero1]

Tested the water in the office tank, it's not ready yet. 😤 Was kind of hoping I could avoid a cycle by using established substrate and filter media, but it was already having water quality issues before the move (5g -> 10g). I guess I'll have to keep waiting and checking...it's been a long time since I've had to stare at an empty, cycling tank.

[Juancho]

On 4/7/2022 at 4:41 PM, drewzero1 said:

Tested the water in the office tank, it's not ready yet. 😤 Was kind of hoping I could avoid a cycle by using established substrate and filter media, but it was already having water quality issues before the move (5g -> 10g). I guess I'll have to keep waiting and checking...it's been a long time since I've had to stare at an empty, cycling tank.

I feel your pain. I started up a tank the other day hoping I had enough older sponges and and filters to insta cycle ammonia still read 25pp. I’ll give some more time I guess. All other numbers good though. 

[PineSong]

Today I thought I'd take a break from sorting guppy fry and do something completely different. I sorted platy fry, womp womp.

Even though there are a hundred of them, I am happy because I got my wish and most of them are blue. And it's kind of neat that some of the ones who are not blue are oddballs who don't look like anybody. I like when that happens, too.

[Brandon p]

On 4/5/2022 at 10:16 PM, PineSong said:

This morning I moved a gang of six male guppies from my community tank who were really harshly harassing one of my male mollies. I am so tired of male guppy aggression! Luckily I have the 29 to move them to. 

Interestingly, although I have males from two different mutt strains born in my tanks as well as a storebought Moscow and a bunch of Endlers, all of the "thugs" are from the same one of my mutt strains. None of the males from my "whale guppies" or the Endlers or Moscow were part of the aggressive harassment.

The 'thug' strain is the same one that produced multiple fry with bent spines in every brood so I discontinued them. Now I am wondering if whatever genetic weakness they have also makes them jerks.

If they didn’t have the genetic issues the LFS here I said they’re the hottest trend at their stores I got  trios from two stores to provide them to there stores a keep the 6 best females and 2 males and breed the and keep them in the muck bucket ponds the males and females in different pond. Is I’ll hvd to get four more muck bucket ponds. I took 60 40 miles and 20 females. On Tuesday and the are gone. I told him to can get him bunch of females and may be 15-20 males. I’m not sure if if it’s like that all over or just in this  area. 

[PineSong]

On 4/8/2022 at 9:48 PM, Brandon p said:

If they didn’t have the genetic issues the LFS here I said they’re the hottest trend at their stores I got  trios from two stores to provide them to there stores a keep the 6 best females and 2 males and breed the and keep them in the muck bucket ponds the males and females in different pond. Is I’ll hvd to get four more muck bucket ponds. I took 60 40 miles and 20 females. On Tuesday and the are gone. I told him to can get him bunch of females and may be 15-20 males. I’m not sure if if it’s like that all over or just in this  area. 

Brandon, do you mean guppies? That's great!

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by PineSong

[Juancho]

Finally was able to fill up the 125. Can’t wait to put some fish in it.  Cleaned the discus tank today as well. Went to the LFS and bought 6 Columbia red tail tetras to go with my other 10 I have in a 40 breeder. Would like to get them breeding. Any tips on that? 
oh bought a hill stream loach to. Excited to have him. Probably go back tomorrow but a couple more. Super cool fish. Super Red dad sitting on eggs again hoping he doesn’t abandon the cave again. Everyone have a great weekend 

[anewbie]

Did water changes and add this plant to my 120. When I purchased it i had presume it was small - it certainly looked small in the picture and was going to put it in the 29 but it turned out to be quite large (not tall). Oh well it was only $20; which is ok for those who recognize the species.

[Juancho]

On 4/9/2022 at 10:24 AM, anewbie said:

Did water changes and add this plant to my 120. When I purchased it i had presume it was small - it certainly looked small in the picture and was going to put it in the 29 but it turned out to be quite large (not tall). Oh well it was only $20; which is ok for those who recognize the species.

I’m just getting into live plants. Sure does take the hobby to a different level. Them leaf’s  look beautiful.  A lot going on in them. 

[HH Morant]

I changed the water in the upstairs tank and re-arranged the wood a little. There are 2 pieces of wood and they can fit together in a lot of different ways, so every time I move them they are in a little different position. There are about 50 adolescent angels in the tank.

 

[Juancho]

On 4/9/2022 at 2:15 PM, HH Morant said:

I changed the water in the upstairs tank and re-arranged the wood a little. There are 2 pieces of wood and they can fit together in a lot of different ways, so every time I move them they are in a little different position. There are about 50 adolescent angels in the tank.

 

Love angel tanks. Very nice!  

[anewbie]

On 4/9/2022 at 2:15 PM, HH Morant said:

I changed the water in the upstairs tank and re-arranged the wood a little. There are 2 pieces of wood and they can fit together in a lot of different ways, so every time I move them they are in a little different position. There are about 50 adolescent angels in the tank.

 

Angels are angels when they are young; pity they grow up and become devils. Kind of like people i guess.

Edited April 9, 2022 by anewbie