Basil’s Tanks

Sadly there is no such store within 150 miles of myself. The one 'good' store does not qt fishes; will rarely take special orders and almost never carry more interesting stock. The lack of qt'ing really bothers me as i've been bit a few times. I contrast this to places like wetspot and aquarium-cop which have a policy of qt'ing new fishes. To add insult to injury the local shop charges a premium price on the live stock. It is almost certain that I will buy nearly all of my future fishes via mail-order - i just have to make sure there is enough fishes involved to offset the high cost of shipping.

I also buy locally. No online. My LFS actually special ordered my Filament Barbs. No shipping cost & they acclimate the new arrivals to area water.
I think most quality fish stores will special order.

 

Can't wait until you start it up!

I think somewhere back in this thread, I’ve posted pictures of it when I got it. Vintage 1990s with wood trim and a heavy, distressed wood stand. Not unlike the 40 breeder that it will replace. It held water when I got it but that was over a year ago. Silicone looks good but I’ll definitely fill it again (in the garage) to make sure.

 

Awww, Eddie Betta made his first bubble nest!

 

So my stocking for the upgraded 40 b to 75 I think will be the 7 dwarf chain loaches plus 5 or 6 more for a total of 12 or 13; the 12 brilliant rasboras that I currently have; the SAE they I currently have and add a school of 12 or so harlequin rasboras. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find some purple or blue ones to go along with the normal ones.
I just put in for some time off work near the end of June so that’s my time frame to do the upgrade. Of course, I could always change my mind on stocking by then
So today, Gudgie and I met at House of Tropicals for a plant swap. I gave her some Italian vals and she gave me some gorgeous salvinia minima. It looks great in the tank. Here’s hoping it will be able to deal with the flow in the 40 b tan. I did rig up some airline to try and corral it to the calmer front of the tank but it’s not working perfectly.
And of course I went shopping and found sparkling gourami back in stock. So I added 4 to the 29 g for a total of 9. Photo is the 40 b tan with the added salvinia minima

 

So my stocking for the upgraded 40 b to 75 I think will be the 7 dwarf chain loaches plus 5 or 6 more for a total of 12 or 13; the 12 brilliant rasboras that I currently have; the SAE they I currently have and add a school of 12 or so harlequin rasboras. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find some purple or blue ones to go along with the normal ones.
I just put in for some time off work near the end of June so that’s my time frame to do the upgrade. Of course, I could always change my mind on stocking by then
So today, Gudgie and I met at House of Tropicals for a plant swap. I gave her some Italian vals and she gave me some gorgeous salvinia minima. It looks great in the tank. Here’s hoping it will be able to deal with the flow in the 40 b tan. I did rig up some airline to try and corral it to the calmer front of the tank but it’s not working perfectly.
And of course I went shopping and found sparkling gourami back in stock. So I added 4 to the 29 g for a total of 9. Photo is the 40 b tan with the added salvinia minima View attachment 764577

They had so many sparkling gourami today! I hadn’t been there in so long, nice to see all the stock they had. I’m still not sure how I managed to only walk out with Amano shrimp (oh, plus Tom’s baby ferret hah).

Thanks again for the vals! Your tank looks great!

 

They had so many sparkling gourami today! I hadn’t been there in so long, nice to see all the stock they had. I’m still not sure how I managed to only walk out with Amano shrimp (oh, plus Tom’s baby ferret hah).

Thanks again for the vals! Your tank looks great!

As does yours!
Did you see the tank of gorgeous, large pictus cats? Wow! I kinda want a tank just for a group of them.

 

As does yours!
Did you see the tank of gorgeous, large pictus cats? Wow! I kinda want a tank just for a group of them.

No! Just stop! lol Pictus cats are super cool!~

 

As does yours!
Did you see the tank of gorgeous, large pictus cats? Wow! I kinda want a tank just for a group of them.

Yep! I was sad to see no peacock gudgeons today though - might have grabbed a couple females otherwise to add some genetic diversity to my group. Though maybe that bodes well if I try to trade my female offspring to them for credit.

 

Some photos of “Surfer dude” the flying fox and the sparklers.

 

I love that this hobby allows for a bit of experimentation.
All my tanks are low tech since I really don’t have the time to properly monitor a CO2 set up. Well maybe if I didn’t have MTS, I would lol! Although setting up a small tank with a yeast-sugar reactor is definitely on my future aquarium project list. But more like far future lol!
So I’m constantly working to balance everything to have healthy plants and fish but not too much healthy algae!
I’ve done a couple things over the past few weeks that I think are moving me in the right direction.
First, I’ve started keeping track of nitrate levels in my tanks again. I definitely see a low nitrate=plants starting to do poorly correlation.
But instead of reducing the amount of my water changes which are about 50% each week, I’ve increased the amount of fertilizer I dose. And I dose more often. So instead of doing a full dose once a week, I’ll divide it and do 3-4 days of dosing.
I’m seeing a nice growth spurt in most of the tanks so I’ll keep monitoring.
The second thing I’ve done is raise the lights on most of the the tanks.
I have a small but very annoying amount of cyano in most of the tanks. I’ve reduced light, reduced ferts, cleaned the filters more often but I just ended up with unhappy plants. So I decided to raise the lights to spread out the light intensity. Huh, I really do think there has been less cyano to deal with the last two weeks. But again, I’ll keep monitoring.
Long update lol!
Lastly, I may have bought myself an aquarium related birthday gift. If it is as pictured than I’ll pick it up next week. If not, I’ll leave it. And StarGirl you shush lol!!

 

I love that this hobby allows for a bit of experimentation.
All my tanks are low tech since I really don’t have the time to properly monitor a CO2 set up. Well maybe if I didn’t have MTS, I would lol! Although setting up a small tank with a yeast-sugar reactor is definitely on my future aquarium project list. But more like far future lol!
So I’m constantly working to balance everything to have healthy plants and fish but not too much healthy algae!
I’ve done a couple things over the past few weeks that I think are moving me in the right direction.
First, I’ve started keeping track of nitrate levels in my tanks again. I definitely see a low nitrate=plants starting to do poorly correlation.
But instead of reducing the amount of my water changes which are about 50% each week, I’ve increased the amount of fertilizer I dose. And I dose more often. So instead of doing a full dose once a week, I’ll divide it and do 3-4 days of dosing.
I’m seeing a nice growth spurt in most of the tanks so I’ll keep monitoring.
The second thing I’ve done is raise the lights on most of the the tanks.
I have a small but very annoying amount of cyano in most of the tanks. I’ve reduced light, reduced ferts, cleaned the filters more often but I just ended up with unhappy plants. So I decided to raise the lights to spread out the light intensity. Huh, I really do think there has been less cyano to deal with the last two weeks. But again, I’ll keep monitoring.
Long update lol!
Lastly, I may have bought myself an aquarium related birthday gift. If it is as pictured than I’ll pick it up next week. If not, I’ll leave it. And StarGirl you shush lol!!

Lol you crazy girl. I think I'm the only person on FL without MTS. Dunk2 is always telling me to quit being so stubborn and start my 20g back up. I may go down to 1 tank when I get home....lol

 

So I bought myself a planted and stocked 5 g nano tank for my birthday. : )
Stocking is a pea puffer who I’ve named Shamrock since I picked it up on St. Patrick’s day and a few shrimp. I think they are cherries. I had no idea there were shrimp.
It also came with a cyano bloom. Sigh. And I probably would have walked but the seller already had the tank broken down. It survived the trip home on my front car seat. And I carried it into the house and placed it on the kitchen island to start cleaning it up a bit and this little puffer face came right up to the glass and said “Hi”. I was in love lol!
The cyano cleaned up fairly well although there is a little more but I’ll just keep after it. No other algae though probably because of the shrimp. The shrimp have colored up nicely now.
I still need to replant a few things that came dislodged during transportation but I like it! Just a bit difficult to get a good picture of it without glare.
Little shamrock is eating well and greeted me this morning when I woke up lol!

 

Shamrock is adorable! I got some more shrimps yesterday! A couple really cool blue ones.

 

He also had a 3.5 g with blue neocardinia. But I wasn’t going to jump into shrimp yet. Doh lol!

 

He also had a 3.5 g with blue neocardinia. But I wasn’t going to jump into shrimp yet. Doh lol!

Neos are easy....You have lower pH water so you would be fine with Neos. Mine Do Good I just have to acclimate them forever.

 

I’ve done some water testing over the last few days and I’m jealous of his source water which I’m guessing is Baltimore city water.
Ph 7.6/7.4, dGH 5, dKH 3-4. It’s very similar to how I make my RO but I can’t get my KH above 1-2 without increasing the ph. But even with a low KH, the tanks can go about 2 weeks before ph starts dropping so that is good for vacations!
Anyway, had a little ammonia spike of 0.5 probably due to everything being stirred up. Ammonia alert said <0.2 so I just let it be and it was 0 the next day. Nitrites were always at 0 and nitrates about 7 ish.

 

Looks like I was late to your posts about your fish tanks, Basil. I just want to tell you that you have gorgeous tanks there with some great fish!

 

Looks like I was late to your posts about your fish tanks, Basil. I just want to tell you that you have gorgeous tanks there with some great fish!

Not late at all since it’s an ongoing thread! : )
And thank you so much! I’m really enjoying my second foray into the hobby.

 

Not late at all since it’s an ongoing thread! : )
And thank you so much! I’m really enjoying my second foray into the hobby.

Yeah, I am enjoying my first delve into the aquarium hobby myself. Other boys my age would talk about getting the latest Xbox or PlayStation, and here I am wanting to get my second aquarium after the first proved to be very successful! This hobby is just too addicting for me to handle...

 

So I bought myself a planted and stocked 5 g nano tank for my birthday. : )
Stocking is a pea puffer

Nice pick-up. A nano tank with a pea puffer is on my bucket list.

Good Luck!

 

Such a cute little puffer! And yay bonus shrimp!

 

Some photos from today. It’s rainy and dark out so reduced window glare! Tanks are the 10 g betta, 40 g tan, and 75.
A couple of the Queen loaches and tiger barb gang in the 75.

 

Beautiful loaches! How well do they do in a community setup?

 

They do fine in my semi-aggressive 75. No issues with the tiger barbs or flying fox.
But I had to take the Golden Diamond barbs out as the loaches were nipping their tails. At first I blamed the tiger barbs until I saw one of the loaches casually take a little bite.....twice! So I’m not sure how they would be with more peaceful fish. Although the Golden Diamond barbs hung mid to bottom of the tank which is the loaches domain. They might be fine with something like rasboras that stay closer to the top.
I actually wanted Botia Histrionica. Saw them at HOT but was there on Labor Day and they were really busy. When I called about them that week, they had been sold. So I called every week to see if they came in.
I usually spoke with Kevin and on one call, he said they had dwarf chain loaches and Botia dario in.
I’d read that the dwarf chain loaches were great so got them for my older 40 g and since the Botia dario looked good, got them for the 75.
I still love the Histrionicas so some day I’ll have some.

 

I’ve unfortunately never had a place in my tanks for loaches since I have peaceful communities, so I’ll just have to live vicariously through your tanks!

 

I’ve unfortunately never had a place in my tanks for loaches since I have peaceful communities, so I’ll just have to live vicariously through your tanks!

You can do that! Wanna come do some water changes? lol!

 

Finished the three day blackout in the 5 g and it looks much better. Some of the plants are definitely growing. Hopefully, I can keep the cyano at bay.
And because I’m going to also try it without a light, it is placed in between two windows for nice natural light which is how the previous owner had it. But I’m placing a houseplant on each side of the tank to try to block the little bit of direct sun it does get.
And when I uncovered the tank, there was a snail sighting! It was fairly small and spiral with a black shell with tan spiral lines. Maybe a MTS?
I’ll keep an eye out for it and probably its friends lol!

 

Finished the three day blackout in the 5 g and it looks much better. Some of the plants are definitely growing. Hopefully, I can keep the cyano at bay.
And because I’m going to also try it without a light, it is placed in between two windows for nice natural light which is how the previous owner had it. But I’m placing a houseplant on each side of the tank to try to block the little bit of direct sun it does get.
And when I uncovered the tank, there was a snail sighting! It was fairly small and spiral with a black shell with tan spiral lines. Maybe a MTS?
I’ll keep an eye out for it and probably its friends lol!

View attachment 778233View attachment 778234

If the snail is cone shaped its more than likely a MTS of some sort. It could be a Rabbit snail too I guess!

 

If the snail is cone shaped its more than likely a MTS of some sort. It could be a Rabbit snail too I guess!

This tank is so full of surprises lol!
By the time I remembered to take my phone upstairs, it was gone.

 

Water changes on 75, 10, and 5.
The cyano is pretty much gone in the 75, only to be replaced by an increase in BBA. So I spent a good amount of time trimming plant leaves that had BBA on them. Ah, the joys of balancing a low tech tank!
And now I’m watering all my house plants with fish water which they love!

 

It’s been a while since I’ve updated.
I’m having a perplexing issue in the 75. All the platinum green tiger barbs have looked great from day one. They were quarantined and de-wormed with levamisole (all the fish in that tank were plus I’ve done at least one round of Prazipro about a year ago).
A few months ago, two of the platinums started losing weight and subsequently looking like victims of tail nipping. Have never noticed any aggression other than the half hearted chase here and there.
I lost one and then the next day had to euthanize largest and oldest female. Put that down to old age.
Next week lost another platinum green that had lost weight.
Now this morning I found I had lost one of the normal greens that had seemed healthy. I still have one platinum that is thin.
I’m at a loss. Of course, the loaches make short work of a dead fish but I hope they are not killing them.
So I’m trying to figure this out.
I think after today’s WC, I’ll do a couple rounds of levamisole flakes and see what happens.

Meanwhile, all other tanks doing good. I’ve switched back to using Seachem alkaline buffer tor KH in the RO. I noticed some java fern in two tanks start to get uniform brown spots all over the leaves which eventually disintegrate so I got a little worried about too much potassium with using equilibrium and potassium bicarbonate.
I’m also thinking about doing the 40 breeder upgrade to 75 as a dirted tank. So I cleaned two 10 gallons and can hopefully set up one with Dustins dirt and one with miracle grow. Both topped with PFS. And I’ll plant them the same.
I just need a stand built. Hubby will do the stand but he did ask the question “where are these going?” Ummmmm, not sure lol!

 

Wishing you luck on finding the issue causing your problems.

 

It's been my experience that the Tiger Barb color morphs, in particular the Platinum & Albinos, aren't quite as hardy as the standards & have noticeably shorter life spans.
Maybe the problem is more genetic related rather than a malady.
Hope things get better soon.

 

It's been my experience that the Tiger Barb color morphs, in particular the Platinum & Albinos, aren't quite as hardy as the standards & have noticeably shorter life spans.
Maybe the problem is more genetic related rather than a malady.
Hope things get better soon.

That was my thinking so thanks for the affirmation. It’s s shame as I really love the platinums. They were decent sized juvies when I got them in the summer of 2019 so I’m thinking they are about 2 yrs now.
OTOH, the flying fox in that tank is growing like a weed!
And *this* is redunculous! It’s how he greets me whenever I start watching the tank.
https://youtube.com/shorts/LG0ja9ZE6oc?feature=share

 

So I’ve lost 6 tiger barbs in total but none for over a week. Although except tor 1 one green guy, the rest were definitely weaker looking fish.
I did discover that my filter wasn’t working properly and was not pumping at full capacity. It was sucking air so I ended up replacing the gasket seal, impeller, impeller cover, and aqua stop valve and then realized that the flow was so much better. Oops. But all water parameters stayed the same as usual. Anyway, the 12 remaining all look great so I’m hoping I don’t lose anymore. The loaches and flying fox still look great.
Some random pictures from today. The 40 breeder tan is looking good except for one anubias lanceolata that has a brown leaf and is not growing as nicely as the barteri.
A few weeks ago, I threw in some blue ramshorns and they are growing and have this far escaped the rath of curious barbs lol! Although my two nerites have gotten really inactive lately. Might have to move them to the snail jars I hope to get set up this week.

 

A couple random pictures of Eddie Betta posing and a top picture of the crypt pink flamingo as it was impossible to get s photo during the day without window glare.

 

My remaining members of the tiger barb gang all look good. All fingers crossed and lots of wood knocking!
I decided not to treat the tank for anything since I don’t actually know what I’m treating for.
Given the common theme of weight loss, I’m going to look into having testing for mycobacterium for fish TB if I should lose anymore. I’ll ask my vet if he knows a testing site but does anyone know of any?

 

IMO, I doubt if the problem is fish TB. You maintain your tank too well for that.
I noticed a "white film" coating on one of the Platinum Tigers & clamped fins on a few others. The film might be present on other Barbs as well, just not enough contrast to readily see. Research "Chilodonella". It's a tiny parasitic bug that in later stages causes fish to secrete a mucus film, which eventually coats the body. I believe it's a slow killer.
I've never dealt with this malady, only read about it.
I think Chilodonella can be treated with Copper Sulfate, Formalin, maybe even salt.

 

IMO, I doubt if the problem is fish TB. You maintain your tank too well for that.
I noticed a "white film" coating on one of the Platinum Tigers & clamped fins on a few others. The film might be present on other Barbs as well, just not enough contrast to readily see. Research "Chilodonella". It's a tiny parasitic bug that in later stages causes fish to secrete a mucus film, which eventually coats the body. I believe it's a slow killer.
I've never dealt with this malady, only read about it.
I think Chilodonella can be treated with Copper Sulfate, Formalin, maybe even salt.

Thanks for your eagle eye! And for the vote of confidence in my maintenance! I do agree that the platinums are not as bright as previously.
I googled chilodenella and it also seems to occur in the presence of poor water quality.
And at least one treatment, aklaflavin?, will kill my plants and possibly bb. So I’d need to treat in another tank. The other inhabitants of this tank are 6 Botia dario and a flying fox. So I definitely need a treatment safe for the loaches.
Hmmm, off to google some more about how to definitively diagnose.
Thanks!

 

I just provided a guess, so don't take any drastic action. If the Loaches are healthy, the problem likely isn't a parasite. Loaches are a very good indicator to the overall health of the tank.