What are you doing to your tank today?

[Joshaeus]

Just finished water changes on almost all my tanks. I have been feeling quite depressed today, so it feels like a bigger accomplishment than usual...

 

[tinylostwine]

kind of annoying but finally did a water change in my 500. Takes a long time to drain out 180 gallons but it was needed i guess. The tank has a drip system and has been setup for 2 years but it had been over a year since the last big change.

 

[AuroraDawn]

Absolutely nothing now but will be later today. I have to do some water testing, possible smaller water changes for 3 tanks if those tests are a tiny bit off. I also wanted to get the bio media prepared and put in place with filter for one 75 gallon, put in heater, fill it, dose it with bacteria and prime, and all that jazz. The gravel is washed already and in the tank. The driftwood has been washed up... Hubby was gone 24 hours so I held down the fort and now we just found out my kiddo has no school tomorrow, freakin' snow.... Dang I am tired.

 

[TClare]

Trying to sort out heater problems in my big tank- the temperature went down to 23C overnight. At the moment I have 2 x 200W and 2 x300W but ideally want to change at least one 200 for a 500W so they don’t have to work so hard as I have had a few problems lately. 500W are quite Hard to come by here though. Had to test each heater individually and one 200W not heating at all. I found a spare 200 one that appeared to be working but the temperature doesn’t seem to be increasing after several hours.

 

[tinylostwine]

Trying to sort out heater problems in my big tank- the temperature went down to 23C overnight. At the moment I have 2 x 200W and 2 x300W but ideally want to change at least one 200 for a 500W so they don’t have to work so hard as I have had a few problems lately. 500W are quite Hard to come by here though. Had to test each heater individually and one 200W not heating at all. I found a spare 200 one that appeared to be working but the temperature doesn’t seem to be increasing after several hours.

Are you using heaters with built in themorstat or a controller where you can put the teremostat a bit of distance from the heater ?

 

[TClare]

Are you using heaters with built in themorstat or a controller where you can put the teremostat a bit of distance from the heater ?

Built in thermostats. Today it had gone down to 22C but I managed to get a 500W heater and replaced it for one 300w that had seemed to work when I tested it quickly out of water before, but was completely cold when I took it out this morning (switch was up to the maximum temperature). The temperature has now increased to 24.5C.

 

[tinylostwine]

Built in thermostats. Today it had gone down to 22C but I managed to get a 500W heater and replaced it for one 300w that had seemed to work when I tested it quickly out of water before, but was completely cold when I took it out this morning (switch was up to the maximum temperature). The temperature has now increased to 24.5C.

I don't know how strong your current is over the heaters but i'm wondering if they are cancelling each outer out - causing them to go on/off fairly quickly. I always like the controllers where i can put the thermostat far away from the heater but of course that add cost.

 

[TClare]

I don't know how strong your current is over the heaters but i'm wondering if they are cancelling each outer out - causing them to go on/off fairly quickly. I always like the controllers where i can put the thermostat far away from the heater but of course that add cost.

Yes I know what you mean, I had thought of that and put the heaters as far away from each other as I could. I think,it’s more that I didn’t have enough wattage so the heaters were on virtually all the time, which maybe made them not last long. Anyway, the temperature is now back up to 26C, where it should be so fingers crossed…

 

[tinylostwine]

Did some water changes and took these:

Three different aquariums - 65, 29 and 120

 

[Lucy]

Got a handle on the algae situation, I hope!. I reset the timer, the lights were on far too long & it gets direct sunlight.
Tore everything apart, soaked the larger rocks in peroxide and scrubbed them. I think they're stained. I'm not really into trying to get them all that clean, they probably won't make it back into the tank.

Noticed heater looked like it maybe had a bit of corrosion on the inside, maybe some water.
Ran out, got a new one, an hour, round trip. It's warm, I'm sure the fish would have been fine overnight, but I wanted to get it done.
I hate not taking a shower right after I clean the tank. I feel like I smell like fish water & tank vegetation.
Hubby assures me he'd tell me if I stank like pond (gee, thanks, hun)

Got the heater situated, I seriously need a thermometer and ran to the shower as fast as I could
Tank looks pretty good, fish look happy.

 

[Lucy]

It's going to be a beautiful outside today.
What a great day to take the drive to my favorite fish store! (2 hour, round trip)

I want to pick up a few more sparkling gourami and a few otos.

 

[tinylostwine]

Did some water changes - this is from tuesday but these critters survived my brutal treatment of changing their water:


--
Just completed saturday water changes - was going to do the 500 again but decided to give it a skip week - also worried i will upset the crypt apongeton which has done very well in relatively soft water (it is a hard water plant); one of the few plants the geo haven't managed to displaced.
--
I started with one small plant in the back and you can see how they have pretty much grown in a line from back to front as it spreads:

This represents approx 2 of the 8 feet length of the aquarium.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Purchased 12 Blood Mary's, dip acclimatizing them now.

 

[Lucy]

Shrimp?

 

[cherylanne]

Weekly routine water changes on my two tanks (20g and 29g). I had a mystery snail hatche a few days ago, I counted about 40 on the glass... more on the substrate. Got several handfuls of new plants for each tank the other day. They are floating on top until they develop some roots...

 

[Gnop1950]

Today is water testing and cleaning day. Depending on the test results, I may do some small water changes. One of the larger Khuli Loaches is out and about this morning. Looks like he is hunting baby MTS, which is fine by me. I seem to have a few to spare

 

[Jaycoob]

Flowering Anubias today.

 

[Lucy]

Wow, that's pretty cool!

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Shrimp?

Definitely, I couldn't drink 1 Bloody Mary, let alone 12

 

[Lucy]

Definitely, I couldn't drink 1 Bloody Mary, let alone 12

I thought maybe it was a fish I hadn't heard of!

 

[A201]

Just took some pics of my juvenile male Electric Blue Acara and juvenile female Salvini.

They are the only Cichlids I currently keep.

Both are growing well & are starting to color up.

Salvini"s get a bad rap regarding aggression. They really aren't too bad as long as kept solo.

The EBA is actually more assertive than the Salvini, which is unusual.

 

[Lucy]

Such gorgeous fish! Those colors!!

Found a young cory today. Not sure it would be considered a fry any longer. Surprise!

 

[AuroraDawn]

It's going to be a beautiful outside today.
What a great day to take the drive to my favorite fish store! (2 hour, round trip)

I want to pick up a few more sparkling gourami and a few otos.

I did the exact same thing on saturday. It was beautiful here too.

 

[Jaycoob]

I'm watching this anubias flower development.

 

[bgarthe]

Found some real nice pieces of resin (fake) driftwood and mango roots. This enabled me to vary the 8 tanks a bit more….not using the same stuff for multiple tanks. Might do pics later depending on whether I make changes or not.

 

[tinylostwine]

Seems like i'm always doing water changes - at least i snap another picture:


Since they are in the discus aquarium which is a bit warmer that is a dicrossus maculatus behind it that i've had for a couple of years.

 

[bgarthe]

A few of my new looks with new resin wood pieces. There are a few more on the way.


Forgot this one….

 

[tinylostwine]

I was looking for something but couldn't find it in this mess:

 

[bgarthe]

Oh boy…..what a day. Discovered a slow leak in my 65g tank of nano fish. Called tons of places and all I could get was used 55g tanks. I’m not a fan of trusting someone’s used tank. Ended up driving 60 miles to buy a new 55g. The size difference is minimal and it has the same footprint. Oh….got it at PetSmart for 50% off. Instead of $199, it was only $99. All went well switching tanks and fish, substrate, decor, filters and heaters. Lost only one fish….a tiny dwarf golden Barb. I think it got caught in some spot and died. Now I can relax as water leaks are a pain. The old tank is being given to the LFS for use as a reptile tank.

 

[A201]

Was the leak at or near the rim or was it lower?

 

[bgarthe]

At the rim and I couldn’t tell if it was a hairline fracture, lip leak or what. It did continue to drip/seap after I lowered the water level almost 2”s. I won’t wait around for a disaster to happen no matter what.

 

[A201]

Sometimes a condensation leak, or drip will occur when a micro crack develops on the plastic rim.

If thr water level is a little high on the plastic rim, water condensation will make its way through the micro crack causing a slow but steady drip until the water level drops a bit.

Sounds like the drip you experienced was more serious.

 

[bgarthe]

Agreed. All is well atm and I can once again relax, enjoy, and not worry.

 

[tinylostwine]

Did water changes including the 2nd of 2 planned water changes on the 500 (nearly 200 gallons); will do the 600 when my reserves are replenished - spent more then an hour cleaning the 500 though in truth since it took that long to drain the tank it wasn't wasted time. In one of my larger blackwater aquarium as i did a water change i noticed my java fern leaves getting a bit annoyingly large - this is not the largest leaf but as you can see it exceeds 10 inches without the stem. I was never a big fan of java fern and now i have another reason to regret buying one years ago.

 

[Gnop1950]

Did water changes including the 2nd of 2 planned water changes on the 500 (nearly 200 gallons); will do the 600 when my reserves are replenished - spent more then an hour cleaning the 500 though in truth since it took that long to drain the tank it wasn't wasted time. In one of my larger blackwater aquarium as i did a water change i noticed my java fern leaves getting a bit annoyingly large - this is not the largest leaf but as you can see it exceeds 10 inches without the stem. I was never a big fan of java fern and now i have another reason to regret buying one years ago.

View attachment 928671

I trim mine back regularly, or they will take over the tank.

 

[ZebrasInMyKitchen]

Yes, if you post something on a thread you recently posted, they will merge. If someone interrupts the stream so that you end up not doing two in a row, then it will post separately.

Thanks, bgarthe! That is very helpful information.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

I'm going to snip some fronds from this emersed grown Christmas moss that I have and attach them to some driftwood.
I'm hoping that the moss will survive the transition, in the past it hasn't.

 

[bgarthe]

Just finished putting in new decor to my 55g nano fish tank. I wanted to have a different decor look compared to my other 7 tanks.

 

[Jaycoob]

Just set up a new rack. I got three free leaking 29 gallons from lfs and build everything with dumpster lumber. Set up auto topoff with r/o or well water and auto water change with an old r/o booster pump.

 

[Lucy]

Not even two weeks and I had to scrape the algae. Never in all the years this tank has been running has it been like this.

I did recently replace the hood. The old plexiglass was discolored and no longer clear. I assume the new plexiglass is allowing much more light in.

Time to reset the light timer again, I guess.

 

[tinylostwine]

Did a water change on my discus aquarium and snapped this picture for those who are interested:

 

[newjungletank]

My baby apistos are coming along. The ones still in the tank with their moms and dads are bigger than the ones I siphoned into the breeder box. I think the mothers have stopped takong care of them at this point. I'm surprised how well the two males, three females, and all the babies are getting along. If there has been predation, it has been minimal. Between the breeder box and the 10 gallon, I would estimate 50 babies. They are getting BBS twice per day.


You can see two adults and lots of fry in this picture.


I'm letting biofilm grow in the breeder box to supplement food. You can sse one of the dads in the aquarium behind it.

 

[HighestTurtle]

I am just hoping that my algae problem will get better I can't keep ruining chopsticks to remove algae like ramen.

Just set up a new rack. I got three free leaking 29 gallons from lfs and build everything with dumpster lumber. Set up auto topoff with r/o or well water and auto water change with an old r/o booster pump.

Impressive

 

[tinylostwine]

Did usual water changes nothing fun - but through in a 200 gallon water change for the 600 (a few weeks ago i did the 500); so the 600 will get another water change in approx 2 or 3 weeks. That will set the 500 and 600 for another year. Unforunately while filling the 100 i wrote a long email and well i kind of didn't keep track of the 100. It is on the other side of the 600 but i can see it from my computer via looking through the 600. Anyway it overfull by about 5 gallons which is a bit of too much water. On the bright side it has a tall rim and can absorb about 5.1 gallons without filling onto the floor - so it did manage to touch the lids which always make a bit of a mess but it is a lot better than the alternative Good think those lids sit deep into the frame not that it helped much but still... oh well maybe next time i'll wash the floors.

By the way this is waht happens when you do a larger water change with clown loaches (a video would be more interesting but not today):

 

[tinylostwine]

double post.

 

[WonderfulEarth136]

I'm going to try to do a water change on my 36 gallon, haven't done one for a bit ( a month or so) ; just have been letting the many pothos in the tank and the banana plant, and cleaing the filter substrate weekly do the work.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Been awhile with just one small tank now. No more vernal pond either, now I have a full time pond A lot of rain so it's pretty full. Put on the boots and went netting for live food today.



Not bad. A lot of daphnia, couple scuds, water louse and some nice floating water fern I think.

 

[WonderfulEarth136]

I'm going to snip some fronds from this emersed grown Christmas moss that I have and attach them to some driftwood.
I'm hoping that the moss will survive the transition, in the past it hasn't.

Have you watched Serpa Designs on Youtube? He uses a lot of moss in his designs.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Have you watched Serpa Designs on Youtube? He uses a lot of moss in his designs.

No, but I'll give it a look thanks.

 

[tinylostwine]

I am really upset. I want to catch this female fish in a 10 gallon aquarium - she has eluded me for months (3? 4? but i've promised her to someone.).

Today i drain the aquarium to 1/8 of an inch; removed all the plants and hardscape and spent over 2 hours trying to catch her. I caught every bloody fish in that aquarium (there are 15 or so) but one. I have no clue where she went but after 2 hours i gave up and refill the thing and put in some of the plants and then she came out and laughed at me. I could have picked the whole thing up and thrown it against a wall.

My guess is she buried herself somewhere but who knows - maybe next time i'll take out the substrate - but i need to catch her.

I did learn that my small plants have very large roots: