What did you get done today?

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/18/2022 at 8:47 PM, Juancho said:

ok ok ok..... I see the photo and I'm like.

OH SNAPS RTBS!  That's awesome.

Then I see a green phantom,  then a cory, then an albino cory.

That's awesome, nice setup!!!

[Juancho]

On 5/19/2022 at 1:59 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

ok ok ok..... I see the photo and I'm like.

OH SNAPS RTBS!  That's awesome.

Then I see a green phantom,  then a cory, then an albino cory.

That's awesome, nice setup!!!

Lol thanks man. I really like. Such a peaceful active tank. My first panted tank to. The phantom has always been a favorite of mine. Pro the fav 

[mouseturd13]

On 5/18/2022 at 1:39 PM, SpacedCadette said:

Ordered a hodgepodge of things online in hopes that I could MacGyver a way to mount my Fluval 3.0 light. 

And it worked out! Yay! So much cleaner looking now. 

This looks so great! 

[SpacedCadette]

On 5/19/2022 at 11:23 AM, mouseturd13 said:

This looks so great! 

Aw thanks! I’m pretty pleased with how it worked out. 😊

[anewbie]

And this is the old 5 gallon aquarium:

 

That has been converted into the new 10 gallon aquarium:

 

I'll probably tweak it over the next few days - like moving the heater probe from front to the right side. Current population is 3 embers tetra (the pucallpaensis killed the ember that that couldn't swim correctly and i moved the neon to the 29 with a bunch of cardinals); 3 small bn pleco; pair of A. pucallpaensis; 2 mystery snails and a really mean assassin snail. Next week I'll add 4 small L397. I need to do something with the bn pleco soon - maybe try to find someone local who wants them or donate them to charity or something - i don't have room for them. (Can you donate fishes to charity?). 

[Tiana Hastings]

Painting Hub caps for my Mother in law… if you can’t tell she loves her Seahawks 😂

[Juancho]

I only took a couple pics I was trying to get them individually but the others are a bunch of chickens. But here a couple of my babies. 

[nabokovfan87]

Two of my favorite things happened today. 

1. I cleaned off the glass of the tank and it's in place, level, waiting.
2. It has the background applies and it's literally just waiting for water.
 

On 5/20/2022 at 3:49 PM, Juancho said:

wow! 

I really am looking forward to my "retirement tank" just being amazing discuss to look at.  Insanely beautiful coloration right there.

On 5/20/2022 at 2:37 PM, Tiana Hastings said:

if you can’t tell she loves her Seahawks

EEEEeeshhh... been a rough offseason for her.  Hopefully she is going to "enjoy" Russel's first game back!  I can't believe they let bobby go and were talking about others leaving too!

[Juancho]

On 5/20/2022 at 8:13 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Two of my favorite things happened today. 

1. I cleaned off the glass of the tank and it's in place, level, waiting.
2. It has the background applies and it's literally just waiting for water.
 

wow! 

I really am looking forward to my "retirement tank" just being amazing discuss to look at.  Insanely beautiful coloration right there.

EEEEeeshhh... been a rough offseason for her.  Hopefully she is going to "enjoy" Russel's first game back!  I can't believe they let bobby go and were talking about others leaving too!

Sounds amazing can’t wait to see your tank set up. 

[PineSong]

I broke down two QT tanks and got back some kitchen counter real estate, thank goodness. One had the koi swordtails that I added to my pond and the other was green neons that went into my 29. That leaves me with one more to break down; this 5g that has 'excess' plants and a very happy mystery snail.

[Jenja]

I finally replaced the almost one year old pcl light on my flora with a new nicrew led light....then spent a half hour feeling foolish that I only did this now, not a week ago when it came...apparently I'm as dim as the old light 😆

[Torrey]

I watched the Members Only talk with Karl, on livebearers.

Then I sorted out guppies:

Proven females that breed true

🤞virgin females in a grow-out (potential for some late blooming males in there, so checking weekly)

Males I am keeping, I have the potential for 3 lines 

~red & white

~true spade tail, 3rd generation is breeding true so far

~lyre ribbon tail

Finished rescaping the 10 gallon on the rack

Pictures/video will be going in the 'Argument for Architects' journal...

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/20/2022 at 6:19 PM, Juancho said:

Sounds amazing can’t wait to see your tank set up. 

I spent the night getting yelled at for the tank, and the morning trying to actually finish setting it up. LOL

What a mess.

Long story short, the floor still sucks where the tank is at and despite it being flat, I really don't trust the location.  Plan B, means I have to have an outlet put in a location that should already have one, but doesn't. The tank will end up being delayed for probably several months. We'll see.

[Jawjagrrl]

the side by side stand is IN THE HOUSE! The shop looks so lonely now...

Edited May 23, 2022 by Jawjagrrl

[Juancho]

Feed the fry. I think I found there favorite. 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

First Platinum Medaka fry of my tubbing season here in IL.

 

[Cometz]

After having a major leak in my 75 gallon Bolivian ram community tank I used the opportunity to switch to sand substrate and rescape and add more plants hoping they grow in and fill the available space now. 

[PineSong]

I sold a bunch of fish and did my mid-week Easy Green. I was excited to see some new platy fry this morning and that they were orange rather than silver or blue--I had a 24 hour honeymoon for my red high fin platy male and one of my orange tux girls a few weeks ago to try to get more red/orange color in my 20g, and it seems to have worked!

[Streetwise]

On 5/18/2022 at 4:39 PM, SpacedCadette said:

Ordered a hodgepodge of things online in hopes that I could MacGyver a way to mount my Fluval 3.0 light. 

And it worked out! Yay! So much cleaner looking now. 

Please document this in the 3.0 thread!

[SpacedCadette]

On 5/25/2022 at 5:51 PM, Streetwise said:

Please document this in the 3.0 thread!

Will do!

[Torrey]

It's actually been 2 hours of work in my "fishroom" (bedroom), every day, for the past 3 weeks to combat my depression.

I'm starting to climb back out, and my tanks have appreciated my new form of  therapy.

1. Completely revamped my bedside tank at the beginning, they got baby brine shrimp today and were thrilled. Daily microdosing on ferts keeps snails much happier!

Above is what it looked like 3 weeks ago, and below is right now

I am loving Cyperus helferi as a ground cover. Planted plugs a couple of weeks ago, and already seeing growth.

2. Trimmed, reduced stock, sorted, culled the T4' tank as we have named Patient Spouse's™ tank. Today,  I emergency redid filtration when the pump failed. Old age happens to the best of us.... T4', as of today, is on UGF + Co-op sponge filter, and waterfall will be back in commission by this weekend (waiting on parts)

3. Mostly completed the redo on the Walstad (how I discovered pump went out on T4', when I went to scavenge plants). Water is still pretty cloudy (it's a dirt thing), but looks 1000% better now than it did this morning or last night.

• Caught fish yesterday and sorted 163 endlers
• Moved majority of dirt into plastic canvas mesh
• Capped with lava rock
• Capped front dirt with larger rocks
• Planted the tank with milfoil, Cyperus helferi, watersprite, pothos, and Alternanthera reineckii rosaefolia
• Discovered this morning I missed 3 females... this afternoon discovered one gave birth
• Wasn't going to destroy the tank again to catch 3 females, so added back the 3 breeding males I had selected and 6 breeding females
• Set up "breeder box" to keep virgin females in, until I am ready to redo tank again/figure out how & who I want breeding to whom
• Set up grow out area for fry to be sexed out in
• Talked with a couple local Club members to see about helping breed the endlers because I don't have enough space to keep the genetics diverse while keeping the phenotype to standard
• 24 females left to decide if they are staying in the breeding program
• 
• 18 males left that like to jump😁😁 w for the breeding program (6 bottom sword, 6 top sword, and 6 I may actually sell)
• 

I also followed up on some of the porch pond: scuds are replicating, plants are growing, and tree debris is blowing in to feed whatever fish I put in😆

(forgot to take pictures of pond)

So, I am debating what I want for dinner and procrastinating having to cook (spouse is out of town, hence my ability to do more than 2hours of fish stuff today), and posting pictures of all my work for the past 24 hours🤣 

 

Meanwhile, I have a question:

Taking pictures of the 3 females that avoided capture.... All 3 *LOOK* like females (blondish color, fan tail, plump body, and MUCH LARGER THAN MY MALES) but one of the 'females'  wiggled its gonopodium at me😲

[jwcarlson]

Technically it wasn't today, but was this past weekend.  I got my water aging/pre-heating station much more cleanly installed.  It's not quite done being refined, but this is a good step considering it was just sitting in the middle of the utility/laundry room before.  We don't use the room other than laundry, so it wasn't a big deal.  But it started becoming a big pain to get around it.  So I got it moved to the wall.  Installed a new outlet to power the station with a Kasa WiFi power strip.  And then two separate barrels and heating zones, the smaller barrel is for the community tank, I just fill and age as needed instead of doing it daily like I do for the discus.  Also has an air pump (the battery backed-up one from the Co-Op, which I love) to run an airstone in the barrel.  This is all semi permanently plumbed and comes out of the wall right next to my discus tank to make water changes easier.  The Kasa strip lets me program heat to always turn on every night in case I forget to turn it back on after draining the barrel.

The next iteration is to plumb the drain line and refill line separately.  Right now the drain line doubles as the fill.  That's not a problem, but I would like to be able to just turn a couple of valves to shut off the drain and line-up the refill pump without threading/unthreading hoses.  Nothing too fancy, but it sure does make water changes a breeze.

[Juancho]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:46 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I spent the night getting yelled at for the tank, and the morning trying to actually finish setting it up. LOL

What a mess.

Long story short, the floor still sucks where the tank is at and despite it being flat, I really don't trust the location.  Plan B, means I have to have an outlet put in a location that should already have one, but doesn't. The tank will end up being delayed for probably several months. We'll see.

In your previous location have you tried just shimming the low side of the stand.? My floor isn’t that level either and I bought some ceder shims to put under the stand and that made it good. Being off a 1/8 won’t kill ya either. But should be able to get it pretty close.  Good luck. Keep us posted. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:52 PM, jwcarlson said:

Installed a new outlet to power the station with a Kasa WiFi power strip

I am surprised the co-op doesn't have these!  Seems like a perfect replacement from what the saltwater guys have to something we needed on the fresh side.  How have you felt about the purchase using yours?

On 5/26/2022 at 6:55 PM, Juancho said:

In your previous location have you tried just shimming the low side of the stand.? My floor isn’t that level either and I bought some ceder shims to put under the stand and that made it good. Being off a 1/8 won’t kill ya either. But should be able to get it pretty close.  Good luck. Keep us posted. 

Oh.... it's worse now. 😕

The original location, if we are standing in front of the tank looking at it. the front left leg was 3/4 inch off level (left to right, and front to back which made it difficult to shim).  The back left and front right legs were off about 1/8-1/2".

On the new locations, I've placed the tank into it's spot, the floor itself slopes about.... 1/2-3/4" left to right on the tank. The shims work, it's "fine" but I was basically maxing out the adjustable legs on the stand.  The issue with the new location, apart from no power, is that it's directly next to 3 windows and if I mask off the side of the tank, you'd basically never be able to enjoy it.

Contemplating a new location, but at this point I'm going to end up with two tanks in my room and no desk to do any work.

Also, the composite shims I have, I haven't trimmed them, but the surface of the tile is very slick because of the "shiny" sealer they put on it.  Even with the tank full of water it was able to slide. Having the tank be in a location with minimal "accidental bumps" is now a priority.  I do have some wood shims, and I'm contemplating using those to add a bit more friction.  I also am contemplating running 2-3 of the ACO batter powered pumps during the summer just so I can have the tank set while we wait for the house to be painted and baseboards and all that to be finished. (still doesn't fix the floor issue)

Decisions decisions...

I think..... I can use an exercise machine mat to give the shims/tank a surface to sit on, that might be an option!

Edited May 27, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[jwcarlson]

On 5/26/2022 at 9:55 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I am surprised the co-op doesn't have these!  Seems like a perfect replacement from what the saltwater guys have to something we needed on the fresh side.  How have you felt about the purchase using yours?

I had been using just the single 'smart outlets' from Kasa (I think the Co-Op carries these).  They've worked well.  The power strip is nice because it's "one stop".  It was about $50.  The main reason I have it is for being able to shut off the refill pump from the tank so I'm not having to time things or have another person involved... or dead heading the pump while I'm going downstairs to shut it off.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd get like 90% of the functionality that I need with just one of the single plugs.  But before centralizing all this I had a extension cords and stuff because our utility room has only one outlet (for the dryer).  And four of them right on the other side of the wall.