What are you doing to your tank today?

Wow, y'all. That was a mess.

It started snowing around 10 this morning - we had an inch or two on the pavement by noon. They let us out of work at 1:15. I just got home 10 minutes ago. My 45 minute commute turned into a 6 hour 15 minute nightmare.

The interstate was closed due to several dozen cars piling up earlier today, and there was a wreck on the old road that connects the town I live in to the town I work in. So I had to go to a town that's about 25 miles west of where I work, then south about 20 miles, and then back east about 25 miles to get home.

My little Sentra got a workout today, lol!
 

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Holy , y'all. That was a mess.

It started snowing around 10 this morning - we had an inch or two on the pavement by noon. They let us out of work at 1:15. I just got home 10 minutes ago. My 45 minute commute turned into a 6 hour 15 minute nightmare.

The interstate was closed due to several dozen cars piling up earlier today, and there was a wreck on the old road that connects the town I live in to the town I work in. So I had to go to a town that's about 25 miles west of where I work, then south about 20 miles, and then back east about 25 miles to get home.

My little Sentra got a workout today, lol!
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We got over a foot here right now. More possibly overnight. There were several pile ups on three different highways around town yesterday. The "lake effect" snow is no joke. At least it is fluffy snow. The plow got our street while we were at work. :)

I got a ride to work today because our road wasnt plowed and it was easier to unbury one car....lol Hubs got the big snow blower out tonight which helped a bunch.
 

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We got over a foot here right now. More possibly overnight. There were several pile ups on three different highways around town yesterday. The "lake effect" snow is no joke. At least it is fluffy snow. The plow got our street while we were at work. :)

I got a ride to work today because our road wasnt plowed and it was easier to unbury one car....lol Hubs got the big snow blower out tonight which helped a bunch.
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It's not done here yet - but we sure didn't get anywhere near a foot! Lol. More like 5-6" so far, with a couple more to come. It's pretty fluffy here, too.

Just got a call from my boss - no work tomorrow. All that salt they threw on the snow will freeze tonight (it's gonna get down to 8 - colder than usual here), and it's gonna be a mess at 5 in the morning during my commute.
 
It's not done here yet - but we sure didn't get anywhere near a foot! Lol. More like 5-6" so far, with a couple more to come. It's pretty fluffy here, too.

Just got a call from my boss - no work tomorrow. All that salt they threw on the snow will freeze tonight (it's gonna get down to 8 - colder than usual here), and it's gonna be a mess at 5 in the morning during my commute.
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This thread is becoming about other stuff! It's supposed to be about what you did to your tank today, not about snow. ;)
 
Show that snow who’s boss and turn it into tank water.
12BDFF65-C6D8-40D5-A9DA-42BE4FD95765.jpeg

Nerites and limpets arrived today :)

Like, an hour ago, cold
 
My Red Tiger Lotus in the 55g shot a leaf all the way up to the top in like 2 days. :eek: Never had one before. Normal?

Probably justa feed and watch day again. :)
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Very normal; and it will only get worse once it discovers where the top is ;)
Show that snow who’s boss and turn it into tank water.
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Nerites and limpets arrived today :)

Like, an hour ago, cold
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When it comes to aquariums; i wonder if yellow snow is better or worse than white snow....
 

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My 45 minute commute turned into a 6 hour 15 minute nightmare.
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The worse thing about winter weather.
A 40 minutes drive to the fish shop could turn into hours to get back home. Or worse, stranded on a highway.
Gee, did I really need to go to the LFS today? I know I was thinking about it, but I might rethink it now.
 
I've got my package of Aquarium stuff to pick up today. It came in yesterday, but I wasn't able to make it to pick it up until today. Hopefully the plants I got didn't freeze!
 
I killed another small snail in my Rio Negro tank :(
I really do NOT want snails in this tank. I imagine I did not soak that tangled mess of Amazon Frogbit in the bleach mixture long enough :mad:

I'm going to try catching them on a piece of blanched lettuce like I read about. But that green pepper in another thread was sure loaded with snails. Maybe I'll put one in one end of the tank and one in the other.
 
Fed the betta and plecos, watched the amano's snack on the pleco's food.

Found a orangey yellow round thing floating in the tank this morning. Fished that out before Seiryuu tried eating it.
 
I killed another small snail in my Rio Negro tank :(
I really do NOT want snails in this tank. I imagine I did not soak that tangled mess of Amazon Frogbit in the bleach mixture long enough :mad:

I'm going to try catching them on a piece of blanched lettuce like I read about. But that green pepper in another thread was sure loaded with snails. Maybe I'll put one in one end of the tank and one in the other.
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Not sure what else you have in the tank, but if you're pretty sure you only have a few snails in there, a handful of assassins might work. You'd have to look at those for a while, but once they get rid of the "pests", they're fairly easy to remove unless you had a ton to begin with, IME.
 

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I really do NOT want snails in this tank. I imagine I did not soak that tangled mess of Amazon Frogbit in the bleach mixture long enough
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Keep your cool. a. the water is so soft the snails won't get old anyway. b. there is NO better way to get rid of them, than collecting them by hand. c. frogbit roots don't take such soaks well anyway. be glad it survived.

I'm going to try catching them on a piece of blanched lettuce like I read about. But that green pepper in another thread was sure loaded with snails. Maybe I'll put one in one end of the tank and one in the other.
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Snailtraps are MADE for cases like you. ;)
 
Keep my cool? It's not like I was going to go "postal" ;)

I've read conflicting threads on soft water and snails. And my water is still barely acidic at 6.8 when I tested yesterday.

This tank is not easily accessed by hand anymore. Not with the way I have the partial glass lid and light and palm fronds arranged. And I know how the snail population never goes away from another tank that IS easily accessed by hand and I kill 3-6 small snails a day in it for the past several months.

I'm going to try to take care of this before it becomes a problem.

The assassins might work, but the LFS told me they breed like... well, like snails. And with the tank being dark I'm not sure I'd be able to get the eggs and snails out when they've done their job.
But I have no first hand experience with them. Maybe I should do a trial run in the tank where I already have a decent population. Thanks for the suggestion ChrissFishes01
 
The assassins might work, but the LFS told me they breed like... well, like snails. And with the tank being dark I'm not sure I'd be able to get the eggs and snails out when they've done their job.
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I was thinking that you could get 4-5 for your tank, and since there's probably only a few tiny pest snails in the Rio Negro tank anyway, they wouldn't have sufficient food to breed like crazy. Unless you're feeding a bunch, anyway - in which case, I guess they could definitely become their own problem.

I think either mattgirl or StarGirl ended up with an Assassin snail population that became just as bad as their pest snail population, if not worse. Could be wrong - but they might be able to offer more first-hand information on whether or not the risk is worth it. I've only had assassins a couple times.
 
Won't be much tank stuff today. My order won't be here til probably monday and have to work a concert tonight, so won't even be home to do anything other than a feeding. Tomorrow and/or sunday should be good for water changes!
 
I think either @mattgirl or @StarGirl ended up with an Assassin snail population that became just as bad as their pest snail population,
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I did end up with a lot of them but never considered them a problem. They spent almost all of their time buried in the sand. On top of that it is easier to share assassin snails than some of the other kinds of snails so not a pest for me. :)
 
Very normal; and it will only get worse once it discovers where the top is ;)

When it comes to aquariums; i wonder if yellow snow is better or worse than white snow....
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Yellow river biotope?
 
pest snails in the Rio Negro tank anyway, they wouldn't have sufficient food to breed like crazy.
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They eat their way through botanicals and leaf litter. Biofilms and Mulm give them as much food as overfeeding.
 
Well, I didn't see any more snails while I was feeding a little while ago, but I'm still going to bait them tonight. Maybe I can tie some fishing line to the veggies so I can easily retrieve them.

I just finished installing the kydex intake guard and it seems to be working.
filter intake guard.jpg

And the LFS called and said no Diptails in this order, but they did get in some Serpae Tetras. I might give them a go in my new, unnamed as of yet, blackwater. They also got in some Cacatuoides and he said it looked like they had three females.

And... they got in Spotted Headstanders. I've never seen those at a shop.
Sadly, the only tank I have they could go in, the 38g, would probably not suit them and it would be pushing stocking beyond what I want for it. It will be nice to check them out though.

I'll be doing three WC's today, the 10, the 5 and the 2.5.
 
Fishin' for snails :D
snail traps.jpg

See the little vermin's tracks on the sidewall?

And I see my Pothos is trying to get at the light from the window, to the point it is laying down in the water. I'll get a light straight over it so it grows upright again. There's a shelf I can put a gooseneck on.
pothos.jpg
 
Feed and watch night again. My lily pad is all the way resting on the top of the water now. I almost dont want to wreck it....lol But I want a bushy plant not more tall ones.

PAcanis My ludwegia in the 9g are always pointed to the slider when I get home. My Lotus in there always looks so good in the morning and then they all point upwards by lights out.
 

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Water change and had to clean the sides of the tank and replace some IAL. My IAL seem to grow mulm over night! Still trying to maintain a constant temp in the tank. With the huge weather changes lately, and the temp inside of the house, it is bit of a challenge. But I'll get it straight!
 
Feeding and watching, and super happy I am! One of my loaches I had presumed a goner to skinny disease is alive and fat. Just a good hider I guess! Good way to end the week.

28DF1615-F1F2-48BF-B475-3CB436095F07.jpeg
 
Got my Aquarium Co-Op package home and opened up.

The Monte Carlo held up great - it was a good-sized portion, so I split it into two and put half into my betta tank and half into my RCS and Mystery tank. Never had it before, so I'm hoping divide and conquer is the right idea - the betta tank is medium-ish light, inert substrate, and a root tab here and there. The RCS tank is high light, crushed coral substrate, and whatever poop the colony makes.

The S. Repens had a tougher time during shipping. I think it's still definitely salvageable, but there are some yellowed leaves and the whole pot of plants looked a little bit off-color. I split it into three tanks - three stems into my betta tank, a couple stems into my RCS tank, and a couple stems into my pea puffer tank.

I also received three sponge filters, another USB air pump (I have 6 or 7 already!), five never-clog airstones, 60 root tabs, and a 48" Finnex Stingray that I'm planning on lighting my currently-cycling 55 gallon FOWLR tank with.

I'll probably post pics either tomorrow or Sunday - I gotta clear duckweed out of my betta tank and put some root tabs in all the tanks. I've been out for a while.
 
This is interesting.
There were no snails on the two veggies I put in my tank last night, but when I removed the prefilter pad from on top of the sump's first sponge to clean, there was a dead cardinal tetra (one in a few weeks is good for this tank) and a bunch of dead ramshorn snails. They were all trapped between the pad and the sponge.

I rinse that pad every day or two depending on how dirty it looks, so everything must have found its way there within the past 48 hours. And died.

All the snails were tiny like the ones I found in the tank, not even the size of a pea, so hopefully no eggs were laid. And hopefully my snail problem is gone. But I'm leaving the veggies in until tomorrow.

Really nice today. The roads were clear in my little farm town, so I think a drive to the LFS is in order :) The highway should be good to go.
 
Got some stuff in today.
Lights for the new tank and driftwood. Usually I wouldn't order the latter in, but my usual sources are literally flooded right now.

But I'm happy, I got bigger pieces delivered than I ordered. I'm the last one to complain.
 
Got an unexpected surprise when I did a quick water change on the 33g - a java fern plantlet right in the mouth. Must have got wedged in the siphon which I have to start the old fashioned way (I know, I really need to get a new one).

Could have been worse I suppose - the tank has bladder snails in there so could have easily been one of those instead!
 
reorg the phantom tank.
Before (ignore the java moss it died as it does at pleco temps. which was for the best as the emps were out of control by that point and I was tired of breeding them)
before856.jpg
after
IMG_20220108_122245.jpg

IMG_20220108_122253.jpg
Now all the plecos get to discuss territory in their new world.
 
Did water change; and cleaned the 2017 filter; it is very time consuming and annoying to clean but it is now clean; next week i'll clean the fx6; it is easier to clean i guess but still annoying. Really need a self cleaning filter.
 
Keep my cool? It's not like I was going to go "postal" ;)
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Exactly, I'm not sure why some people online say "calm down" when you're simply explaining what happened. I find it comes across as slightly condescending. :oops:
 

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Exactly, I'm not sure why some people online say "calm down" when you're simply explaining what happened. I find it comes across as slightly condescending. :oops:
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PAcanis and I are pokeing at each other from time to time, that's normal. Plus that rage-smilie came across like he's really agitated.
 
which I have to start the old fashioned way
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My new and improved old fashioned way is to fill the hose at the sink and walk it over. Put a finger over the end that is going to point at the bucket and put the other end in the tank. Then let her rip :)
I want no part of Sushi Escargot ;)

PAcanis and I are pokeing at each other from time to time, that's normal. Plus that rage-smilie came across like he's really agitated.
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Yeah, this forum is emoji challenged. They didn't have a smiley for medium agitated ;)

What kind of driftwood do you get anyway?


I just added 16 fish to my new blackwater tank.
I headed to the better South American LFS first, but did not like the looks of their A Cacatuoides. Nor the price. So to make the trip worthwhile I bought 8 Serpae Tetras (I know, I've researched than and asked around).

Then I headed back across town and stopped at the closer LFS and they had what I wanted in the first place, Glass Bloodfin Tetras. It was a tossup between the two for this tank, but I ended up with both. So we'll see.

It might still qualify for a forest stream or small Rio Negro tributary.
 
Yeah, this forum is emoji challenged. They didn't have a smiley for medium agitated
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Agree.
What kind of driftwood do you get anyway?
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Just some standard rootwood. Haven't taken any pics before putting it in a bucket and it's already 9 pm. Not gonna take any further pictures tonight.
 
I made a few discoveries today.

For one, I learned that my betta tank has been giving me a false temperature reading. Or, rather, the flow is so slow through the filter chamber (it's an AIO) that the heater is able to heat the water in the filter chamber faster than the water can be pumped out to the tank - so a thermometer placed in the filter chamber will read 78, while the tank reads 74. Yikes. I pulled the heater and thermometer out to the display portion of the tank to keep an accurate eye on it. It was awful cold this morning (9 degrees outside - about 62 in my apartment), so I doubt the difference is usually so stark. Still, though - I'm glad I happened to stick my finger into the tank water and noticed it was cold!

I removed a ton of duckweed from the betta tank while I was at it, and added some root tabs under my root feeders. I also trimmed the Ludwigia and placed the trimmings on the other back corner of the tank.

IMG_5941.JPG

I did the same thing on my pea puffer tank - removed some duckweed and added root tabs.

I was watching my river tank this morning and got a decent picture of one of the tiger barbs in the tank - not super easy to do. The tank is low-light, high-flow, and the fish are fast - makes for unfavorable lighting conditions and unpredictable fish movement.

https://flic.kr/p/2mW9TQD

I'm moving the Gold Nugget Pleco into the River tank today - I'm gonna give him a try in here to see how he does.
 
Interesting about the thermometer reading.
I don't use tank thermometers, but I do check with a digital probe. I ordered one a few days ago to doublecheck my other one. Something just doesn't seem right with my readings and the outside temp. Even though my tanks are in climate controlled rooms. I have one tank fluctuating and the others close enough. Might have a bad heater.
 
Interesting about the thermometer reading.
I don't use tank thermometers, but I do check with a digital probe. I ordered one a few days ago to doublecheck my other one. Something just doesn't seem right with my readings and the outside temp. Even though my tanks are in climate controlled rooms. I have one tank fluctuating and the others close enough. Might have a bad heater.
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I tried a few digital temp probes - I even got a nice one made by Hannah Instruments. I always found myself just using the dozen or so glass thermometers I've collected over the years anyway. I usually keep them hidden away inside filters, so I always know exactly where they're at when I need them.

How's the flow in the tank that's fluctuating? I found that in my low-flow (nearly stagnant) tanks, my temp probes would fluctuate by 2-3 degrees as warm masses of water moved past the probe. My best guess is that without good flow, there wasn't enough mixing of the water going on, so you ended up with almost a lava lamp effect - "orbs" of warm water floating throughout the tank, slowly mixing in with the colder water around them, causing the temp probes (which are usually ultra-sensitive) to fluctuate. Something like a glass thermometer will essentially take an average temp, since it takes time to heat the materials around the fluid they're using - a small amount of warmer water won't immediately trigger a higher temp reading as it passes by the glass thermometer, if that makes sense.

Maybe I think about these things too much.
 
The flow is what it is. It's in a sump tank, so I am constantly playing with water in vs water out vs trying to maintain low flow and a constant tank volume (surface water below the lip).
But the probe (I use an instant read food thermometer) lets me take the temp here and there quickly. And there might be just 1degree difference between where the heater is in the sump and the middle of the tank.

But there was a period it suddenly differentiated 5 degrees from day to day. And then turning the thermometer up and down and barely caused a change.

But the fish didn't seem to mind, so it was something I monitored but wasn't very worried about.
I figured after 15 years it was time for a new thermometer. Just to doublecheck.
And I also find myself wanting certain things available where the different tanks are located.
 
One of the female amano released her brood so Seiryuu had a nice little food hunt and feast today. It was kind of fun watching him swim around eating things I could barely see.

I also put a zucchini piece in the tank for the shrimp and plecos. So far only the snails are enjoying it.
 

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Did a WC on most tanks. A little frustrated as I'm developing bba in multiple tanks. Haven't changed anything at all recently so I'm not sure what's the cause. Going away for work this week and may have to turn lights off on tanks while I'm gone.
 
Was going to do water changes earlier then fell asleep sitting straight up on the couch. So tonight is just a watch and feed kind of night.
 

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Was going to do water changes earlier then fell asleep sitting straight up on the couch. So tonight is just a watch and feed kind of night.
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Sounds about right... ;)
 
I just finished a 7-8g WC in the Tributary tank. I wanted to drop the water level a little bit, keep feeding it RO and pull some of the tannins out. I accomplished all three :)

The fish are all out and about and didn't seem bothered by the WC at all.

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I'm really liking the Glass Bloodfin Tetras. Especially in a 23g tank. They do not seem to need the swimming room Rummynose do. And it's also a nice silvery fish with a splash of red.
 
I just finished a 7-8g WC in the Tributary tank. I wanted to drop the water level a little bit, keep feeding it RO and pull some of the tannins out. I accomplished all three :)

The fish are all out and about and didn't seem bothered by the WC at all.

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I'm really liking the Glass Bloodfin Tetras. Especially in a 23g tank. They do not seem to need the swimming room Rummynose do. And it's also a nice silvery fish with a splash of red.
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I do like this tank a lot. Loving the little Apisto on the right!

The betta tank is back up to 78 - I'm thinking part of the issue was how cold the apartment was. Good to know it's fixed, though.

I moved a single Yellow Button Polyp into the 55 gallon yesterday to act as nature's ammonia badge, basically - I'm pretty sure the tank is about ready to go, but I'll use the coral as a quick and easy test. If it stays open basically all week, I'll know I can start slowly adding fish in, starting with my marine betta.
 
I do like this tank a lot. Loving the little Apisto on the right!
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Thanks.
I'm debating on whether or not to try to fix him up with a female, but I don't want to end up with another male. I might have to try one of those places that sells them when they are a little older.
 
I went out to my RO unit and switched buckets and such around, then fed the fish out there. While I was at it I decided to rinse off the prefilter in the one tank's sump. And sure enough, there was one of the missing pencilfish I did not see earlier, under the filter pad. Good thing I got there when I did or he might have ended up like that cardinal tetra, but he seems fine.

I wish I could figure out how they are getting in there...
I completely took off the screen over the intake and re-did it. And double-checked that the lower intake slots were no longer open. Baffling.
 
Well, I've done water changes of 25 tanks. With my current health situation, 15 at the time would be good enough. But in some way I've pushed myself. But I also have to admit that I'm really exhausted by now. Fortunately, I don not have to do water changes so often.
 
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