Goosedub Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Hey all, Staring this thread. I am just getting back in to the hobby. I have kept saltwater in the past, but decided freshwater, and freshwater folks are more my speed! I am going to start with a 20 Gallon long. Well..... 2 20 gallon longs to be specific (more on that in the future). My first one however is going to be set up like this: 20 gallon long tank planted tank. (I just picked up an embarrassing amount of tanks at a recent half off sale) hygger Amazon programmable light (I debated getting the flu all 3.0, but ultimately decided that if this amazon light can give me 70% of the fluval I’ll save the $100 for now) HOB filter I have from before, hot rodded aquarium Co-Op style. Also planing on adding a sponge filter for quick cycling any other tanks. eheim Jager 50 watt heater Stocking List: Plants! Probably go to LFS and decided at that point which ones. 8 Harlequin rasboras 6 Kuhli Loaches 6-8 of another school (Endlers?) 1 betta Malaysian trumpet snails possibly a wood shrimp or bamboo shrimp. I was going to wait a little bit, but the half off tank sale got me hooked. I’m planning on cycling with plants. I have attached a picture of the empty glass box, a lot of supplies are still in storage/on the way. Im excited to bring you all along with me. Derek 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Sounds like a good plan you’ve hatched. Good luck with everything. Have fun with the setup! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 (edited) I set up the tank dry today. Backing put on, hardscape and decorations (all picked out by my children) placed. Ready for plants and water! The light and other equipment should be coming in this weekend or early next week. Excited to get this going Edited March 6, 2021 by Goosedub 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Dang, they have a Death Star for aquariums?! So awesome! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 16 hours ago, OceanTruth said: Dang, they have a Death Star for aquariums?! So awesome! Oh heck ya they do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 On another note, my 3 year old has painted rocks that he insists need to be put in the aquarium. The have ordered epoxy resin in order to accomplish this. More to follow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 Update. Went to LFS. Bought some plants: Bacopa, Anubias, Cryptocorns, Java Fern, and Pogostemon. He also has pink flamingo Crypts but they haven’t started propagating... hoping to get some when they are for sale! Also, the light never came so I bought a stingray 2 at my LFS, which I’m actually really happy with. Anyway.... I made the mistake of taking my wife with me to the store to pick out plants... and she fell in love. She looked at me in a way that I can’t refuse and we came home with this gorgeous Koi Plakat Betta. His name is King and he is a bit Cantankerous. I have watched a lot of videos on sexing bettas and I am 87% sure he is a male. If anyone would like to comment on this I would be much appreciated. So now I have to do a fish in cycle with a $40 collectors betta. Luckily the owner of my LFS has sent me home with some used filter media. I am also dosing Seachem stability. I’ll be monitoring parameters judiciously. I really don’t foresee too many issues as I have the filter media and he is a small fish in a 20 gal tank. We are so taken with him we are thinking of getting a female to breed them. Which means my whole plan for a planted community tank may be put on hold. For now and for a while it’s just one fish in a big tank. thanks for looking 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Beautiful Betta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Your wife picked out a beauty of a betta! Breeding some betta sounds like a fun project. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 It’s been a couple weeks set up and running. No major catastrophes. the Betta has some red marks behind his gills. I just went on vacation and had 0.5 ppm ammonia before leaving. I did a big water change. He fasted for 4 days and when I got back he had a few red marks on him and I got brown algae bloom. Checked ammonia and 0.25ppm. I’m thinking he got a little stressed by the big water change followed by a fast. I’m going to have to keep an eye on him closely. also, I have not been fertilizing my plants due to concern of nutrient spikes and I think In not fertilizing, I actually have inhibited the work they can do. 2 pumps of easy green today and I’ll see where it gets me. Also dialed the light cycle back to about 7.5 hours. I set up a quarantine tank. It’s been running for a good week now. I have been feeding it. I transferred some water and filter material, added a sponge filter and fake plants. It has about 0.5 Pom ammonia right now also. I’m patiently waiting on this little tank to cycle so I can start quarantining some Kuhli loaches. pictures attached 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 The Betta is amazing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 24, 2021 Author Share Posted March 24, 2021 Tested the water again today. Ammonia is at 0ppm with no nitrites and no water change! This is a glorious day! I really think I errored in not fertilizing the plants sooner. Nitrates were still a little low at 10ppm, so I gave another pump of easy green to keep those puppies working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Battling Diatoms. I came back from vacation and had a bloom. I cleaned it up a bit and turned down my photo period from 8.5-7 hours. Well... today a whole bunch more diatoms. Gonna go the other direction now. Upping the light to 9 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChemBob Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 I'd give it a few days after an adjustment before I'd make another one. In my experience, my tanksneed a few days before they reach an equilibrium after a change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 10 hours ago, ChemBob said: I'd give it a few days after an adjustment before I'd make another one. In my experience, my tanksneed a few days before they reach an equilibrium after a change. Good thought. I can back 4-5 days ago. Cleaned things up a bit and it was steady for a couple days, then bloomed again so I thought I should change it. I’ll leave it at this light cycle for a good week before I make up my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted March 29, 2021 Author Share Posted March 29, 2021 Went to the LFS yesterday intending to buy Kuhli Loaches. As most things happen in this world, my plans didn’t work out the way I planned. I took the whole family to the LFS with me. We came home with 5 Sterbai Corys and 2 super red Bristlenose Plecos. I’m retrospect, I think it was the right decision. They are in quarantine and doing very well. Love watching those little ding dongs waddle through the bottom of the tank. Also added 6 Malaysian Trumpet Snail to the main tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 5 corys, 2 super red Bristlenose Plecos completed QT. Took the meds fine. Everyone is settling in to the display tank. I was concerned about the Betta accepting roommate, but he is indifferent to them. He isnt even possessive over food. More often I find him moping around laying in the Death Star or at the bottom of the tank. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 It’s been a while since I updated this thread. MTS hitting hard. I have now set up another 20 Long and another 10. The 20 long is breeding endlers at the moment and housing 2 BN Plecos. The 10 is housing some new fish I got on aquabid. I am super excited about these platies. I have included a picture of what they are supposed to look like, and what they look like currently. They are a Variatus platy that is blue with spots and yellow fins. I have never seen a fish like this so I am super stoked to play with them and hopefully further develop the strain. I hope they look close to the picture when mature or I may have been duped :p. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 Also, We have another member of the family. His (or her) name is Biscuit the murder fish, as their job will be murdering snails for me. Currently in QT. Super adorable! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) Those look like a wild type variatus I saw recently in video from a river in Mexico Edited May 29, 2021 by Colu Ment to put river not lake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 7 minutes ago, Colu said: Those look like a wild type variatus I saw recently in video from a lake in Mexico I think they are the same! Where did you see the video? I have just never seen a Variatus with this coloration. The ones on your pictures look awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) It was on YouTube vid called xiphophorus variatus skhc 2010 Edited May 28, 2021 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 18 minutes ago, Colu said: It was on YouTube vid called xiphophorus variatus skhc 2010 Thanks I’m going to check it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosedub Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 Alright. So I did a thing… I decided to try am experiment. My 20 L display tank is well established. It had hundreds of snails in it. So I decided to move Biscuit the pea puffer in to see how things go. So far things have been going really well. Biscuit and King (My Betta) had a square off when Infirst put the pea puffer in the tank. I think King was just checking him out, and Biscuit backed down. Ever since, they have mostly avoided each other and Inhave seen zero aggression from either of them. I have been watching very closely for the past few days since going in. I love these 2 fish and hope they continue to get along. They both just kind of roam around and stay out of the other’s way. No chasing at all. Let’s hope it stays that way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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