/aq/ - Aquarium General

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My clownfish wanted to say hi!

>>2074344
Dang, that is one rad looking clownfish.

>>2074346
She's pretty cute, I've been trying to figure out how to make .webm's so I can upload an adorable video I have of her snuggling up to my fluffy mushrooms, but all the converters I've tried have been shit :( anyone know a good one?

And one of my favorite animals, Jacques (after the finding nemo character), giving my fingers a good once over after a long day at the greenhouse. He's freakin adorable, he gets sooooo excited when I put my hand in the tank, even if it's not to let him clean my fingers.

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>>2074349
Forgot pic..

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Who here /basicasfuck/?
My gf has a 90 gallon South American tank with ~30 blood fin tetras, 8 corys, 5 Bolivians and 6 Germans.
I've got 12 longfin leopard danios of various colors (yellow, blue, and pink in addition to the normal ones) and maybe 30 ghost shrimp. She makes fun of me so bad for being basic but I like what I like!

Also, does anybody know if ghost shrimp eat eggs? I see the danios breeding but there are never any fry

>>2074414
Your lucky anon, don't let her go :). I've never had a gf very interested in my tanks. Most of them downright don't like them because of the time and money I spend on them. Lookin for that one girl that would rather have me buy her a fish than go out to dinner. Luckily, since I've built my reef everyone who see's it loves it, been pretty dry lately in the female department though. Except for my fish/shrimp. Those guys are breeding like crazy.

repostan question from last thread:

>Removed all the leaves of the dead amazon sword in the back. The root bulb thing still has healthy looking white/green roots coming off it. I left the bulb in the substrate, thinking it may be able to summon enough energy for a new leaf? is it possible for a sword to recover from this point? The tiny one in the front I was sure was 100% dead is sprouting new leaves. The new melon sword in the back has sprouted about 5 as well, doing nicely. Root tabs and flourish excel definitely help.

>>2074428
Yeah it should start producing new leaves as long as you keep up with the excel dosing and there's a steady supply of ferts.

>>2074428
Never count out plants that look 'dead'. I don't know how many times someone has told me a plant is dead (not just in aquariums), and after some loving care they come back. Many would argue that a cheap plant simply isn't worth the effort though...

Dwarf pufferfish are the only fish I like
can a beginner to tanks fair well with them?
Also I hear live snails are recommended, is that so the puffers eat the poor fucks alive?

>>2074434
well i mean a leaf plant having 0 leaves is pretty close to dead. i dunno how much of itself it will have to consume in order to spawn a leaf.

>>2074440
I'm probably the person your refering to with the live snails and such... I've kept dwarf puffers for 2 years now, and I wouldn't consider them an easy fish if you don't know how to work with them. If your a begginer doing it, instead of putting all your snails and puffer in the same tank, I would have two tanks, one with the puffer, and one with the snails. Setup the snail tank a few months in advance of getting your puffer so that they can populate (feed them algae wafers to get faster growth), and then just add 5-10 snails in a day. On top of that I would highly recommend feeding frozen bloodworms once every two days or so, until the puffer has a nice fat belly. They are high maintenance fish for their size. I do 75% water changes weekly on my puffer tanks, because they do have quite a bioload for such a teeny tiny fish.

Don't let me discourage you though. They are by far one of the most rewarding things I've ever kept in a tank besides corals. There's few fish that will actually interact with their owner like a puffer will, and that goes for all puffers. If it's your first tank, my recommended setup would be-
1 20 gallon tank, with lots of plants (can be anything, they just need cover, and having plants for nute export is never a bad idea)
1 10 gallon tank for snail breeding (get ramshorns, pond snails, or trumpet snails (people will tell you no trumpet snails because the shells are too hard, I've never seen injury from them though, and DP's rarely eat the shells)) and a bunch of frozen bloodworms.

Finally, please be careful with your Dwarf puffer. They are on the list of threatened species due to indians over fishing, and it would be a shame if us hobbyist were their demise (which we are), but that shouldn't discourage you from trying to keep them, just make sure you put as much effort into keeping them thriving as possible. Personally, I'm going to attempt to breed them. It's rarely been done, but I think I finally have the skills do it.

>>2074446
roots are a powerful thing, anon.

>>2074414
Ghost shrimp will fucking eat anything with protein that can't get away from it. If you even had one I would say he's prolly eating the eggs, but 30? That shits gone before the settles.

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triggered

>>2074479
......I don't even......

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Don't know if you guys can hardly see this in the pic, but I just modified my DIY Co2 system, and all the sudden my water looks like it's fucking sprite or something. Everything is pearling like crazy! I didn't think I'd ever get enough Co2 into the water to get it to pearl under my halides, but I finally figured it out. All the little particles you see are air bubbles. The water is crystal clear

>>2074417
this is the most honest post ive seen on 4chan staygolden!

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>>2074342
I raised these from fry, starting to look real nice.

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>>2074503

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>>2074503
>>2074505
Last time i counted I have 35 in there
getting rid of most of them soon keeping 6 of the females.

>>2074505
Good work anon! They look great. What's your plan with all of them?

>>2074348
I use http://video.online-convert.com/convert-to-webm
It's a bit hit and miss.

>>2074521
Thanks
I would sell some if i could but there's not really a high demand for convict cichlids, so I'll hand pick the females i want and probably give the rest away to my local lfs.

>>2074530
I actually tried using that site :/ I fiddled with it for a good 30 minutes, and I could never get the filesize small enough that 4chan would take it, without being totally fuckin blurred. Thanks for the thought tho

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Just set up this 29 gallon freshwater. Got a school of 6 zebra danios. Fake plants with no plans to do live ever. I am wondering about my filtration system. I have an aquatop ph-16 rated at 264 gph attached to a sponge filter. Its in the back right. Do you think this is adequate water movement and filtration? I'm thinking I might buy either another powerhead to put on the other end of the tank towards the bottom in order to eliminate any dead spots in the front right of the tank. Either that or put a submersible filter on the other side of the tank to get down movement and extra filtration in which I could put some bioballs or something.

Thoughts? Opinions?

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>>2074574
Close up of the powerhead and sponge filter

>>2074536
Could you upload it on a board with a bigger size limit or maybe even imgur and link us to it?

>>2074574
get another powerhead for the left with the air flow pointed towards the center of the tank, more bubble from your air stone would be good too.

Is this the /dirted tank/ general?

>>2074585
so do you think the sponge is adequate filter? i should also mention i plan on getting more fish eventually, the danios i just got earlier to help with my cycle.

and as far as more bubbles go, i think i am going to buy one of those splitters and run a tube to the currently installed powerhead that way the air stone and the powerhead are making bubbles

>>2074531
I've heard they're edible.

>>2074589
yeah that and the aquatop hang on back filter will be plenty.

>>2074598
I dont have a hang on back filter. what you see in those pics is it

>>2074598
never mind i thought the aquatop was a hob but you were talking about the power head durrr
But yeah Definitely get a hang on back filter though.

>>2074603
i'd rather a submersible, hang on back wont work because the back is against a wall and i absolutely hate shit hanging out of the tank and being highly visible. this tank is in my apartment living room so it needs to look sleek and nice.

its either a submersible or a canister which i can hide underneath the tank in the stand, but that seems like absolute overkill on such a small tank

>>2074605
>this tank is in my apartment living room so it needs to look sleek and nice.
Bro, you really need to come to the brown side and get some live plants, you got some really cool rocks and wood that a few anons would really love to play around with, Even if its just some Anubias, Java Fern, Subwassertang, Red Root floaters, Java moss, etc etc etc, your tank would look 100% better.

>>2074609
I know it would look killer but there are a couple problems. Namely that my substrate is a black diamond sand-blasting sand that I don't think would be very healthy for plants. Also, it's barely over an inch deep.

So if I did do live plants I would have to basically empty the tank and start over with a different substrate, unless there are easy plants that an live in an inch of course sand substrate

>>2074616
Mix the sand with plant substrate and have about 3-4 inches of substrate total.

>>2074619
can you get black plant substrate?

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>>2074620
Yes, pic related is the bomb.

>>2074622
so if I decide to go this route, how long before i should start plants? fish?

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>Be gone for a little over a week.
>Come home to my tank completely covered in brown detritus algae
>My largest ghost shrimp dead and rotting on the side of the tank.
>A good amount of my plants are probably going to die because the algae is covering a lot of their leaves/hairs.

Help me anon. I think I overdosed on plant nutrients. I've done a water change, and tried wiping off the algae of the plant leaves the best I could. I went out and bought some snails and a pleco.

Is there anything else I can do? I don't want to lose all the plant growth I've gotten.

Would trimming the plants down by the base help them survive?

>>2074616
You are in the same boat as I was when I first started. What I did was start out with those plants I listed when replying to you first, those plants don't need to be planted, and after I had success with those, I wanted rooted plants in sand, so what I did is buy some Osmacote plant fertilizer balls from Walmart/Home Depot and push them into the sand and than poured a small bag of gravel on top of the sand. Ive only had luck with Amazon Swords, but they have fuckin gone apeshit with this formula. I think the sandy "soil" and the root tabs(you could also buy Seachem Flourish brand root tabs if you have extra money) and you will not need to rescape anything really. Think about it, check your store(s) to see what you have around and get back to us, you have a really cool hardscape and I hate to see you waste it on those gaudy plastic plants.

>>2074626
GET RID OF THE PLECO! Its one of the worst "aquarium" myths that they eat algae off leaves or tank walls. They shit to much and grow much too big to do anything. Fwiw, get a few otto's and cherry shrimp to do a cleaning, or if not available, dial down the light, spot dose with hydro peroxide, and hope for the best. Hell, for the price, a nerite, or a smaller horned nerite is much better than any pleco.

>>2074630

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll keep the bristle-nose pleco though, just because they are kinda neat. My local stores don't sell cherry shrimp, but I'll look around for some ottos, otherwise I'll get more snails and add more fast growing plants to compete with the algae.

Anyone know any good plants to compete directly with detritus algae?

>>2074630
I don't want to flush the little guy, it would feel mean.

>>2074624
>>2074620

Another route you can go that is very cheap and (in my opinion) just as good, is to simply get get organic soil and layer your existing black sand atop it.

I say organic, because you don't want any added chemicals or fertilizers to your soil that would come with normal potting soils.

>>2074479
>>2074486
It would be a cool idea for a kid if it were many, many times bigger and could have a filter and heater. Also if the stuffed animal were cuter. Not gonna lie, I'd have a kawaii tank if there were a way to do it that was good for the fish.

>>2074628
say I just want to do some anubias and java fern. do I need co2? or will occasional ferts be sufficient?

Could 2 or 3 red tail sharks live together in a 55 gal if you provide plenty of hiding space or will there always be a dominate one.

>>2074670
you don't need shit, well, actually you do need some shit, some light and if you are feeling frisky, some Excel. But really, you can just plop either of those down in your tank and they will do just fine.

>>2074675
I think it's possible, but I don't think it's a good idea. It would stress the sharks unnecessarily if they were constantly fighting or hiding from one another.

>>2074428
Don't they drop leaves when they change from emersed to submersed growth? What plants that can are grown at the nursery with only the roots submerged because of quicker growth without water hindering gass exchange and lighting.

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>>2074451
As another puffer owner, I'll disagree that they are difficult. You can easily keep one in as small as a five gallon, but I'd recommend having it cycled first.

I feed mine mostly blood worms and mosquito larvae. Once a week I'll go out to Petsmart and just take all their bladdersnails for them to eat.

>>2074712
You need to remember this guy is a beginner. Possibly his first tank even. Taking care of a dwarf puffer requires a lot more care and attention then keeping a betta or something. Between the daily frozen/love food instead of flakes, and the massive weekly water changes necessary to keep these guys healthy, they are certainly more difficult then your typical 'begginer' freshwater fish

>>2074605
SunSun makes some small, inexpensive canister filters, and I've never read a bad review for them.

>>2074616
Mosses and rhizome plants like anubias, java fern, and buces will do perfectly fine in any substrate. In fact they actually seem to do better if you don't plant them at all, but tie them to décor.

I need to move literally everything into a new apartment. Good news is it's just a couple of doors down in the same building.

What is the best way to transport a dozen fish (cory cats, danios, tetras) a distance of about dozen yards?

My local fish store suggested buying a cheap garbage can, putting the fish into it with the aquarium water, draining the aquarium, then complete the journey on a dolly or 4 wheel pull behind. That way I can still have the water.

thoughts?

>>2074630
Come up with a source that says bristlenose plecos are bad at eating algae or get over 7 inches.

>>2074735
Honestly, don't worry about the fish. Just throw them in a bucket with tank water and theyll be fine for that short. The major concerns are lack of oxygen and the water getting to cold, but neither of those will happen in such a short time. Remove everything from your tank except the substrate (yes, all the water), because the worst thing that can happen in any move is the tank breaks. If the tank breaks, then your really fucked because
1. You'll have to go out and drop $200 on a tank from petco, since it needs to be immediate
2. You'll have no option but to start a fresh cycle with a full bioload of fish, which will be basically impossible to do without lots of casualties.

Keeping the tank safe is your #1 priority. The fish will be fine, I promise.

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>>2074479

>>2074742
Thanks for that. It has been two years and I haven't lost a fish yet so I really didn't want to start. The funny thing is I'm moving because the guy above me went all YOLO moving his fish tanks (4 of them) and it flooded his floor / my ceiling. At least the mangers are paying 1 months rent for inconveniences and the apartment I'm moving into has new carpet.

>>2074726
That's fair to say they are more difficult than a betta, but all it takes is knowledge on how to run a tank in the first place. I wouldn't count frozen food or throwing some snails in occasionally as any form of difficulty.

>>2074747
Unfortunately there will always be a slight risk of hurting your fish in the move, but I've moved my reef and 55g fw tank three times with no casualties, traveling over 2 hours to my new apartment. Just take your time when you do a move, and plan out an 'itinerary' of sorts, to make sure nothing gets forgotten or misplaced. But like I said, the worst thing that can happen is your tank breaking. That will cause many of your fish to die. Just be sure to have someone help you pick it up nice an evenly(make sure you don't torque it one way or another, silicone joints are flexible, but glass is not, which can cause a bottom pane to break easily if the tank is picked up haphazardly.
>>2074751
Agreed. Doing the proper research before getting ANY fish is necessary. I've known people who's first tank was a reef, and it worked out well because they spent months researching and reading beforehand. At the same time, I've seen people kill bettas in weeks because they just assumed it's a fish, all it needs is water and food and itll be fine.

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>>2074417
I got my GF because she saw my reef but the majority of girls I've met were basic as fuck and could care less about it, some only because they saw it as a status icon but quickly get disgusted when they find the amount of effort and money I put onto it. Even guys are like, >dude why are you spending all this cash on fish and not on getting pussy and getting wasted?

Fuck that noise, I feel lucky because I get to work on massive pool sized reef aquariums as a job.

>>2074762
That's awesome man. Yea most people that see my reef only go so far as to comment on the colors or something like that, never taking much actual interest in it. And when they figure out how much I spend they basically have the same reaction. You do have a dream job man, I imagine it's a lot of pressure taking care of someone's reef worth tens of thousands.
I really see my reef keeping as a conservation thing, something I've been passionate about my whole life. I'm pretty confident we won't have natural reefs in 20 years, at least not as we know them now. Their likely going to be more sponge reefs, as those seem to be exploding out of what was assumed a mass extinction of sponges. The corals you and I take care of are going to be the only ones left of their species soon enough, due to human's destroying the ocean, and I've taken it upon myself to try and grow as much coral as I can, and frag it as often as possible, and give out frags to fellow reefers. Even If my tank crashes, I've already fragged out over half of my coral species and given them away (and I always tell the reefer I give them to to pay it forward, and hand out frags to others as well), hopefully ensuring that the species will live on in other hobbyist tanks, if not my own.

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>>2074770
I didn't think this level of self aggrandizement really existed outside of Greenpeace and PETA. Thank you for proving me wrong. Have a vegan hotdog.

>>2074773
>aggrandizement
Not even the proper use of the word. Good try though. Fuck peta, and fuck greenpeace. They don't do shit but jack each other off. Explain to me again how trying to preserve a species is a bad thing? Are you one of those silly fucks who thinks zoo's are terrible too? I'm about to go eat a burger though, so have fun fucking off.

>>2074775
And here you are, posting about how great you are, hoping we'll jerk you off.
Aggrandizement is the right word, buddy. Enjoy your burger.

>>2074742
>Remove everything from your tank except the substrate
I left all my plants in the tank when I moved and just sealed the tank with a versa top/cellophane to keep humidity up.

>>2074775
>Not even the proper use of the word. Good try though.

not him, but it was a perfectly appropriate use of the word.

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Finally got two more Corie's for a school of 5! (5th not shown). The two new guys have faded colors, should I be worried?

Is there a plant wiki for aquariums? Sick of plastic.

>>2074802

verb (used with object), aggrandized, aggrandizing.
1.
to widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend.
2.
to make great or greater in power, wealth, rank, or honor.
3.
to make (something) appear greater.


Yea, pretty sure none of those apply. I'm a conservationist, that is all.

>>2074798
Plants are fine. They don't add any significant weight, and if you have heavy root feeders you wouldn't want to disturb them anyways.

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Updated picture of my new betta who I have finally named Liberace. He's too fabulous not to have a fabulous name.

I shined a flashlight on him for this picture. I noticed that on my aquarium hood, there's a white scale buildup that I cannot get off by physically scrubbing it. This is blocking some of the light. Anyone know how to get that stuff off?

>>2074820
Vinegar works well to get rid of buildup

>>2074811
He's referring to the third one. You're exaggerating your feats to make yourself appear "greater." His use of the word was spot on.

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>>2074805
Here's the other little guy

>>2074822
I'm not exaggerating shit. That's actually what I do. Reef tanks are notoriously finiicky, and everything can die at the drop of a hat. Naturally, not a great place to try and preserve a species. So you spread it out.
If you think that's such a terrible thing, then you shouldn't be in this hobby, because you obviously don't actually care about your species, and probably see them as an object to decorate your house with. Everyone, freshwater or saltwater, should strive to have as little impact on the natural environments as possible, and try to promote tank raised specimens.

>>2074414
>>2074417
>tfw boyfriend isn't an aquarist

At least he pretends to be supportive. He'll humor me and tell me my tank looks nice. I can tell he gives no shits, though.

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>>2074789
>>2074773
Not him but I propagate corals because it's easy money to sell.

Here's a spotted blenny for you.

>>2074789
I don't think I'm that great. Every reefer participates in this in some form or another. Example A. >>2074836

Maybe that's why most reefers tend to think their better then freshwater hobbyists. You guys evidently don't seem to care about the impact you guys have on these animals natural enviroments.
Both the red line barb and the red tailed black shark are critically endangered and possibly extinct (red tail) in the wild. No one seems to care. Although some good aquarist decided to start breeding red tailed sharks, so now, thankfully, when they are truly extinct in the wild, we we still have them around, only existing in your fish tank. That is the reason I, and many others, are in this hobby.
If you think that is me trying to make myself look great, then you need to step up your game in the hobby, otherwise your only hurting these species.

>>2074827
He's just bugging you about it because you wrote an actual speech about how you sharing corals with other hobbyists is a great conservationist effort to fend off the effects of those vile humans who aren't knowledgeable hobbyists, when in reality you're just sharing corals with other hobbyists. It fits the definition of aggrandizement to the letter, unfortunately enough. Maybe we should just drop this argument and agree that sharing corals with people is basically a good thing.

>>2074839
>You guys evidently don't seem to care about the impact you guys have on these animals natural enviroments.

yeah no holier-than-thou, self-aggrandizing cocksucker syndrome here.

please fuck off this board back to "the planted tank" or whatever cocksucker forum you came from.

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>>2074839
Having ecological and sustainability savyness is paramount to understanding SW aquaria and sourcing your live stock.

I go though great pains to find out where exactly my wholesalers get their livestock and they aren't dynamiting entire reefs or getting cyanide gassed tangs from some stupid Pinoy source.

>>2074840
If I were just sharing corals with hobbyists, why wouldn't I charge them money for it? I'm not out for my own profit. And is it wrong of me to encourage other hobbyists to try to preserve these species we claim to love so much?

Agreed though, this literally is going no where.

>>2074843
I'm just dropping this. Maybe one day, in fifty years when all the oceans are empty, and the streams no longer have fish in them, maybe you'll know what I mean. I hope

>>2074849
maybe one day in fifty years when it's that way you will realize nothing you could have done as a single person could have ever made any difference. that is the truth. when you're not a teen anymore you will drop your blind optimism/thinking anything matters. it doesn't.

>>2074852
You missed the entire point he was trying to make, anon.

>>2074852
Nice strawman.

>agrees to drop it
>comes back for more

>>2074853
the point is that some people aggrandize themselves by pretending that their actions have any positive gravity in the world

they don't; human society is deterministic, your will means nothing compared to the will of the masses and the will of the elite

>>2074846
All fish are wrangled with cyanide in reefs. Your wholesalers are lying big time.

>>2074849
Yeah, the aquarium hobby is whats killing the oceans.
Definitely not the agricultural runoff killing entire reefs and the commercial fishing.
The aquarium trade is what will empty the ocean.

>>2074835
Leave him for me.

>>2074862
Still missing the point

>>2074762
It's s high on its own getting fish, doing maintenance, rescaping your tank, diagnosing problems, etc..

>>2074738
They poop a lot. And starve and start hunting when they get bigger.

>>2074905
all plecos do is eat and leave long stringy shits everywhere, that's why i always laugh when people say plecos will give you a cleaner tank.

>>2074630
> one of the worst "aquarium" myths that they eat algae off leaves or tank walls

I'm not entirely certain this is a myth, considering I'm pretty sure I've watched my bristlenose pleco eat algae off of both plant leaves and aquarium walls. Just about twenty minutes ago he was attacking the algae near the light. Do you have evidence to support your claim?

>>2074905
Supplement with wafers and blanched veggies. Plecos usually only eat fish that are already dead, but regardless, don't starve your pleco. Often the algae in the tank won't be enough.

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>>2074863
If you actually belive this then please never buy salt water reef fish. Ever

>>2074342
holy shit, that tank's gorgeous

>>2074342
what can you put in a 10G tank for fish?

>>2074924
it has 3 neon dwarf rainbows and 1 chines agile eater

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>>2074827
Is this kind of rock safe for an aquarium, and what's it called?

>>2074929
we can't tell from a picture. You have to do the two tests:

1. Drop some vinegar on the rock. If the vinegar bubbles it's not good for an aquarium.

2. Show the rock to a geologist. If he's doesn't immediately yawn and walk away it's no good.

>>2074932
Also make sure its not limestone.
Or radioactive

>>2074938
that's what the two tests are for.
if it doesn't bubble under vinegar it's not limestone.

if it bores a geologist it's not radioactive or full of heavy metals.

>>2074905
>doesn't source
>provides info more relevant to common plecos than bristlenose plecos

>>2074924
>what can you put in a 10G tank for fish?

>>2074927
>it has 3 neon dwarf rainbows and 1 chines agile eater

Nine of those things.

>>2074943
>Nine of those things.
*none of those things

>>2074616
Get some marimo moss balls from online. You toss them in, then rotate them once a week when you do water changes so the parts underneath don't turn brown and yucky. They are so slow growing that you don't need to dose ferts or anything. They are literally the lowest maintenance live plant you can put in an aquarium.

>>2074805
Nah, that's normal, it's probably due to the stress of being shipped over thousands of miles then crammed into a shitty pet shop tank.

Once they recover and get used to their new home they will perk right up.

Try feeding them shelled peas. Fish fucking love shelled peas.

>>2074820
Either vinegar, like >>2074821 said, or barkeepers friend. It's non abrasive and works miracles. Just remember to rinse very thoroughly.

For German blue rams will they kill CPO crayfish or swordtails? What about snails or shrimp?

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I got them all in one big picture for you guys!

Do you think they'd go well with some kuhliis?

>>2074976
yes dunno yes yes

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Hey /aq/. Is my betta cute? Friends think so.

>>2074922
You're just mad because you're lied to. Saltwater hobbyist support these monsters making you the bottom tier of the hobby. Now take off your trip bugguy wannabe. You're on anonymous image board using somethings OP should be using.

>>2074991
My 15 inch Oscar would call that a snack ^.^

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All I have in my 6 gallon tank is about a million shrimp, I've been thinking about getting a fish but I'm afraid for the babies

>>2074996
Out of jealousy, maybe.

>>2074979
Fuck

What are some pretty and peaceful fish with great personality's for a 20 long?

Does anyone else here like to name their fish? I have two angels, Pitchfork and Trident, and a pleco named Boss, but I'm stuck on names for my guppy (f, yellow) and my albino rainbow shark (probably also f).

Schoaling fish that look identical are named as a group. My neons are The Collective.

I know naming fish isn't super common practice, but I have a lot of fun doing it.

>>2074991
I wouldn't say cute. Beautiful colors, looks very healthy, but I think he's too bulky for me to call him cute. Very good-looking fish, though.

>>2074996
Oh look, it's this faggot again.

>>2075001
Is naming fish not normal? I thought everyone did

>>2075003
Most people I know treat fish more like plants than pets. They'll take care of them, but don't form attachments. I prefer to get attached.

>>2075004
Yeah man, I always get emotionally invested in my fish

>>2075003
I tried, but it's like my cat. If the thing doesn't respond I find myself calling it by its animal type instead of a name
>"hey, cat"
>"Whats up, fish"

>>2075007
I accidentally hurt one of my original cory cats when moving her and i cried for about an hour, but everything in my life is falling apart so I can't really blame it on the fish.,

>>2075013
I hope she's okay. Accidents happen, don't beat yourself up.

Is it true that if you breed to variants of Cherry Shrimp together the color will cancel out? Guy at the pet shop said if I kept orange and red cherry shrimp together, I'd wind up with brown babies.

>>2074997

Where are you? I'd love to buy some shrimp.

>>2074991
hey your betta looks a lot like my betta >>2074820

pretty betta.

what a shitty night. My juvenile delhezi bichir was slaughtered. He was growing great and getting nice colors until my friend needed me to hold his red tail shark for an emergency. Only had it for 3 days and noticed my bichir floating around the tank with a hole eaten in his neck and breathing still till the other fish finished him off. Also one of my golden wonder killies got beat up real bad. I don't know if it was for sure the shark because my bichir always hung around the killies on his floating plant. But the killies don't seem the could do that destruction. I was really attached to him. Told my friend I'm getting rid of the shark asap and he agreed.

>>2075027
Thanks betta-bro.

>>2075015
I think you get a few duds no matter what, with just my reds I ended up with a few greyish ones. And unless you live in Iowa, I doubt we're near each other

>>2075035

Kansas isn't that far away :^)

>>2075029
>hey hold my shark for me bro
>sure thing let me get my ice cream bucket

>>2074976
I doubt German rams would hurt any of those except for small shrimp. Bolivian rams are known for being more predatory and I have four of them with snails and Amano shrimp. The swordtails might be a bit boisterous to keep with GBR.

>>2075015
You'll get a mix, in different grades. My red rili shrimp colony has low to high grade cherries show up occasionally and some low grade blue pearl, due to recessive genes (the red rilis aren't blue at all).

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>>2074993
I'm gonna take the bait here on this one. Right now in the reefing world a huge supply of corals and inverts are comming from captive propagation. Why because corals believe it or not are easy as fuck to propogate since all you have to is break/cut a branch or polyp off and graft it onto whatever you want to grow it on (either a rock or a ceramic disk). Not to mention they do far better in tanks then wild caught ones. Hell at the last MACNA con I went to in DC. People were trading them like Pokemon cards. Just recently in last few weeks the first successful captive breeding of yellow fin tangs was accomplished.

Speaking of MACNA there were several panels about captive breeding and mariculture of marine ornamentals. The impact of sustainable ornamental collection is something like .0008% when put side by side with other far more destructive threats to the reef (like over fishing, nutrient polution and the sheer minuscule volume of actual organisms taken. Most of it is actually very sustainable and has been a positive economic boost to island nations like Figi and Tonga with tribal fisheries.

On a related not check out this new bio recator I snagged for under $200 because it didn't come with the manufacture pump.

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>>2075046
My full a poorly cable managed sump. Speaking of let's post the /aq/ version of "guts" that shows the dark underbelly of our tanks that keep our finned friends alive.

>>2075046
The discussion was on whether or not any wild caught animals are caught ethically. Captive bred animals weren't being discussed.

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>day 42
>still waiting for that new 35 gallon tank to cycle
>niece and nephew still giving me shit about growing water in a tank
>brother still asking when we can eat my lobster
>sister still joking about me having 'crabs'
>dad still not understanding coral is a alive
>mom still asking if she can clean my tanks

Why even stop by at this point?

>>2075042
You happen to be retarded?

>>2075053
Your sister is flirting with you.

>>2074805
Did you just bury the plant pot with the roots still in the rockwoll? I mean..I guess it would work, but it looks kinda....funky. Did you at least plop a root tab down in there some where?

>>2074978
Yes, but kuhlis absolutely require something to hide in, and they love hiding in groups. So you need a structure large enough to hold your entire colony, like >>2074503 >>2074505 But kuhlis are pretty tiny, so I doubt you need something that large.

Once they do feel secure in their regular hiding spot then they tend to roam about in adorable cuddle clusters.

>>2075053
That seems excessively long time what are you measuring at? Flow and live rock placed and what not?

>>2075052
I answered both questions. Unless you feel that the very fact of having an aquarium is unethical then there can't be any argument.

>>2075058
Is that bad?

>>2075059
Will do mate

>>2075052
it's not really a discussion.

cyanide fishing kills the fish, usually either in the dealer's tank or in the first week or two after you buy them. This is an economic problem for dealers, particularly when the cost of one saltwater fish may very well be more than the profit he'll make off of a thousand freshwater fish.

So cyanide fishing stopped sometime before the anon talking about it learned to walk.

The 90's called, they want their unethical fishing practices back.

>>2074978
I'm going to say no for one simple reason. The max temperature that cory cats like is the lowest temperature that kuhlii loaches like

>>2074999
>bluespotted sunfish
>Celestial Pearl Danios
>Cherry Barbs
>gold barbs
>Boraras brigittae
>white/gold cloud mountain minnows

>>2075064
So? All anon has to do is some thorough research on how high you can crank the temperature up and keep it at without hurting cory cats, then see if that is high enough for the kuhli loaches to safely live in.

People find middle grounds like that all the time for their tanks with mixed species.

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>>2075064
That's baloney, my betta lives in a tank well below the suggested temperature range and he's happy

>>2075064
So kuhlis liken 82+ degrees? What the fuck are you talking about?

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>>2075064
You hitting the heroin again?

>>2075076
I fucking love heroin dawg

>>2075060
>"All wild caught fish are caught using cyanide fishing."
>"That's not true."

>"Captive bred stuff is really popular!"

You should see why that didn't answer the question. You just changed the subject.

>>2074835
That anon here - I really don't give a shit, but the gesture is what counts, isn't it? I got a 20 gallon and pretended to care.

I read up a lot on the subject and I'd love to have several 150 Gallon tanks for discuses and lake tanginiquas and apistos and a reef tank with Wisconsin snow clownfish but i just can't get that serious about it.

>>2075090
he didn't need to answer the question, it was already answered.

>"that's not true."
and we're done.

>>2075053
That seems way to long, anon. If you had a full load of live rock, and not dry rock with a live rock to seed, you should be done by now. Took my 30g two weeks to cycle. Even if you did dry rock with seed live rock you should be good by now. Something ain't right

>>2075095
>"I had some concerns about an issue that's important to me."
>"Nuh-uh."
>"Oh, okay then."

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Babby shrimp. I counted seven earlier. Woohoo.

How do people calculate the bio-load of snails? I have a 10 gallon beta tank that has become home to 100+ juvenile mystery snails that accidentally hatched and 4 assassin snails working overtime. Sorry if this is a stupid question but can snails alone cause a tank to be over stocked?

>>2075114
>>"I had some concerns about an issue that's important to me."
the concerns were answered.

the issue no longer exists. It hasn't existed for longer than you've been alive.

>>2075150
Generally not, snails generally have a low bio load. The only issue is some can quickly spawn in an over fed tank and then die when food runs out causing decay.

Anyone know a good easy to follow guide for making a 55 gallon barrel filter? I'm wanting to use one as a filter for a water monitor, so I need something that can handle shitloads of waste. Never built anything like this before so I'm not really sure where to start

>>2075159
Hello unless you're OP you're going to have to remove your trip.

>>2074991
Yea.

That said, most bettas are cute. I don't think there's a betta where I was like "that nigga ugly". They're all on a spectrum of cute.

>>2075150
>How do people calculate the bio-load of snails?
I don't, it's pretty much negligible unless you have some enormous species of snail. I've been told apple/mystery snails shit a lot, but cannot corroborate. Considering their diet is detritus and dying leaves, I really just look at them as trash disposals and substrate fertilizers.

>>2075212
Hey, fuck off anon. He can use a trip if he damn well pleases. This is not your board

My dwarf gourami trio haven't started attacking each other yet. I have a M/F/F trio instead of a M/M/M trio like I was wrongly advised to try. Although with the latter, it was about a week before they started beating the shit out of each other.

One of the females is smaller than the other, and follows the larger one around. Totes adorbs.

>>2075236
Maybe they're lesbians

>>2075237
I was thinking sisters, but lesbians are fine too

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>>2075229
>spectrum
My boy's on a spectrum alright.

>>2075236
I caught my 2 female Honeys slowly circling around each other last night, it was adorable.

Too bad they're all terrified of me and start hiding the moment they notice me. I haven't seen any of their natural behavior besides foraging for food, and the male chasing his girls out of his private crib

>>2075070
>he's happy
How do you know? Does it talk to you?

>>2075292
Don't be a retard. It's not like it's hard to tell if a fish is happy or not

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>>2074479
I'm going to go pick up a pair of Bolivian Rams today.
Would it be better to get a male and female, or two males in a 30 gallon?

>>2075312
male and female. They can be extremely hard to sex when they're immature though

>>2074997
Get a scarlet badis, to small to eat nothing but the smallest fry. Very cool micropredator

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>>2075320
Bitch, I watched a 6 minute youtube video on sexing rams.
I'm an expert now.

>>2075352
Hah, okay fgt, have fun sexing the little babies that they sell at the fish store.

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>>2075359
I was being facetious.
I'm just gonna try my best.

>>2075212
>unless you're OP
This isn't the kind of thread where OP is allowed to trip either.

>>2075365
He's (>>2075359) just a troll.. Fur reals though, it's pretty dang tough. Unless your planning on breeding, two males isn't bad. When they are adults they'll just stay seperate in their own little corner. Males are much much more beautiful though. In my experience, feed them high quality pellets and lots of frozen mysis/bloodworms, and they develop absolutely stunning colors and streamers. My little buddy (before he died at 4 years old) had streamers coming off of every fin but his pectorals, streamers were all atleast one inch long and the most vibrant red ever. He was such a beautiful fish

>>2075292
>>2075293
He eats, he's colorful, and swims around. Is that enough?

I will probably buy a heater and light so I can make sure he's even happier

>>2075373
If he's really happy he should be building bubble nests.

>>2074852
So your saying the guy who created a breeding program for red tailed black sharks, saving them from extinction due to agricultural runoff, didn't do anything for the world? One man, a hobbyist like your and I, dedicated so much energy into figuring out how to get these things to breed in captivity, and is the only reason we have them in our tanks still, which is the only place they will be found from now on until their natural habitat becomes livable again (which it probably won't). He truly saved the species.

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Reminder to do your weekly water changes /aq/! Get off your lazy ass and do it

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Adopted a pleco from a friend moving out of state with no prior fish knowledge/experience, got told it was pretty easy to just leave it and as long as it's fed and the tank is cleaned every few months everything would be fine.
So naturally, two weeks later and the water is cloudy as fuck. Not sure what I need to do, my friend just said to throw in another dose of water conditioner.
Test strips say pH is about 7.9, 200ish hardness, <20 ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 200ish alkalinity, no chlorine
Roughly 28 gallon tank
Only thing in there is the pleco, had it since mid-late February.

>>2075417
Two things. 1. What are you feeding him? And 2. Do a massive water change, like 50%. Just make sure the water is as close in temperature as possible to the water you take out of the tank. Use a thermometer for this, when doing massive water changes like this being off by just a few degrees could be stressful/fatal.
Oh, and also, I would go to your LFS and buy some type of floating plant like water lettuce of something, which will help to naturally filter the water, and lessening the bioload of the tank

>>2075418
Feeding algae wafers.
Was going to do a water change but wanted to be sure that it was necessary etc. and got a noncommittal response when i asked.

>>2075192
I don't think you're going to see a lot of guides for that, it's uncommon and if you can't figure it out on your own you shouldn't be trying to build it.

but anyways it's just a plastic drum with an inlet on the bottom and an outlet on the top. On the bottom above the inlet is a home-made diffuser plate, usually just some round plastic punched with holes. On top of the diffuser plate is a screen to keep sand from clogging it. On the screen is a couple inches of gravel. On the gravel is the silica sand. The silica sand goes almost to the top of the barrel.

the plumbing is done so the inlet/outlet can be reversed via valves, and the outlet then plumbed to the sewer. This allows you to clean the filter periodically by reversing the flow, a process called backwashing.

>>2075421
also, most people will include a screen over the outlet to keep the sand in.

you'll probably have a layer of activated carbon in there on top.

make sure your lid isn't just waterproof, but that it can also survive significant internal pressures.

you need a fuckhuge pump to run this. I've run them before with fractional horsepower spa pumps. You can't go cheap on the pump, or the filter doesn't work. You need high flow to push oxygenated water through all that sand and to keep the sand from just settling into channels.

>>2075420
When in doubt, do a water change. It will never hurt, so long as you do it properly (I.e. Matching temperature, decent tap water, and of course water conditioner.

>>2075406
We get that you do 75% water changes for your puffer

>>2075233
Oh fuck off faggot. Maybe go back to /soc/ where people get banned for hurting others feelings

>>2075417
1. Tanks to small
2. Where's his hiding place?

>>2075437
Did you get butthurt? I'll try to be more gentle next time

>>2075436
Not really the point. But you get bonus faggot points for the day for noticing!

>>2075440
Apparently I hurt your feelings from my original post which is why I'm directing you to the board that bans people who hurt others feelings. Nice try though.

>>2075450
Not even close to what I was saying. You're reaching for something that isn't there. My point proven.

>>2075454
I love trolls

>>2075458
Nice try though. You get a B- for effort

>>2075439
That's the tank i got from the former owner, kept him in it for 13 years without incident. Definitely can't afford the significant upgrade that google seems to think is needed, either monetarily or spatially.
Was considering getting things to put in the tank but i'd rather not fuck with things until the water is running clear etc.

>>2075476
Go ahead and get some plants for the tank. They will surely help with the overall health of the tank.

>>2075494
Any plant suggestions? Only place i know of around here is petco and i have no idea what they would have available.

>>2075551
Anything super hardy, also a chunk of wood, heard once that they need wood in their diet. Dunno if that's true or not but driftwood kicks ass so who cares.

>>2075551
Any floating plant will do. You really just want floating plants for nutrient export, you could get others just for ornamentation though if you want (they will also absorb nutrients, but the export part is harder)
>>2075567
Agreed on the super hardy, I wouldn't get wood though. It's recommended for plecos, but not all. Rubber nose plecos do kinda need it though, but they'll get by rasping their teeth on rocks. All adding wood will do is put tannins in your tank, making it cloudier.

>>2075417
Looks like new tank syndrome. Literally do nothing and it will go away. But seriously, tank is too small and the pleco is going to be stressed as fuck without a hiding spot

OK this is the second time I've found my betta's fins fucked up for no discernible reason. Here I am, patiently awaiting his tail to heal back, and then I find his dorsal fin torn and frayed.

First thing I did was measure ammonia. Nothing. So it's not rot. It doesn't quite look like rot.

Tank is a 7.5 gallon cube, planted but not dense yet, the filter is an tiny internal filter, heater is a cobalt neo-therm, I can't think of any object he could tear his fins on.

So maybe he's nipping his own fins. The only reason I find this difficult to believe is because he was in perfect shape when I bought him, and his cup was dated October 2015 so he was in there for a long fucking time and didn't seem to be eating himself then.

Kind of frustrating

>>2075585

M E L A F I X
E
L
A
F
I
X

>>2075587
But Melafix treats fin rot, and fin rot is caused by shitty water, but my water is clean, so I don't think it's fin rot. Should I still use Melafix?

>>2075582
That's how i got him, previous owner said he at one point had a fake plant but that's it. Don't really have the money or space for a 75gal tank or whatever would be required, and he seems to have done fine so far. Not that it's really the most correct thing to do but it's not really able to change right now.
As far as a hiding spot goes, i just got back from petsmart and holy fuck they didn't even really have plants. Going to hunt harder for a real aquarium store in the morning to look for plants and a hiding spot.

Are axolotl related to /aq/?
If so does anyone here own one? Are they easy to care for aside from temperature?

>>2075602
just go buy a pot for a plant and put it sideways in the tank. Make sure it doesnt have paint or other crap the fish can rasp off. Obviously plants and stuff are the way to go but youre really opening a can of worms here. You have inert substrate, so you'll have to fertilize the crap out of the tank so the plants don't die. But you can't do too much or you'll kill the fish.
Really taking this fish from your friend without any knowledge was kind of a poor decision.

>>2075603
Pretty easy. Pretty boring. They generally just sit around and don't do anything. They look neat though. Can be really picky eaters.

>>2075588
Still use melafix. Fin rot can be caused by more than just shitty water, that's just the most common reason.
I've never heard of betta's biting themselves, but i'm not an expert in that area by any means.

>>2075588

Melafix is used to treat all kinds of wounds on fish. It does a fish good

>>2075115
How is the marimo moss not being crushed under the weight of that snail?

>>2075602
You can use stone tiles like slate from a home improvement store to make a cave. Terra cotta pots from the gardening section are also good.
Driftwood might stain the water a light yellow/tan, but it won't make it cloudy, and it'd be good for him. PetSmart and I believe Petco sell mopani wood, which is safe for aquariums. If you have a craft store near you you might also be able to find sandblasted manzanita branches.
The pleco is pretty big, so he might knock over plants. PetSmart and PetCo sell java fern and anubias, which you can tie to rocks using thread or fishing line to make them more sturdy.

>>2075588
Be careful using Melafix with labrynth fish. Dilute it in a cup of water separately and be sure not to overdose. It can coat the top of the water and make it difficult for the fish to breathe from the surface.

It sounds silly but ever since I started running the Zeolite reactor/filter things have been reacting great. The colony that was damaged by the redbud infestation is already healong in the last 24hrs!

The green stylo colony was barely the size of my thumb 3 months ago

>>2075192
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL271pKi_qY

Is this what you're looking for?

>>2075585
#1 question I always ask when this type of stuff comes up, what do you feed the fish specifically?

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>>2075636
Forgot pic

>>2075636
I just don't really buy into the whole ultra low nutrient thing..

>>2075603
Really easy, but really dirty, similar to a goldfish. Kind of boring, but if you have a biggish tank (20 long and up) and good decor they'll move around and look at stuff. Mine is too dopey to even catch the red cherry shrimp I put in there. She doesn't have as much trouble with the ghost shrimp, weirdly. I wouldn't suggest putting feeder fish in with them. I had some with her when she was young and they kept trying to bite off her gills.

>>2075606
>Can be really picky eaters.
I've never heard this, and mine eats literally anything I put in her face. Crickets, earthworms, pellets, ghost shrimp, my finger, plant leaves....

>>2075639
Sometimes pellets, sometimes flakes, sometimes freeze dried brine shrimp. How does that matter?

>>2075647
A varied diet is important, and I've found some fish to be more sensitive to it then others. That's pretty varied, but freeze dried brine shrimp don't have much nutritional value, and depending on the type of flakes you use they might not either.

If everything else seems right in a tank, I usually start to think it's possibly some due to some type of deficiency/diversity problem

>>2075638
That looks like it's more trouble then it's worth desu.

I would recomend any Enhime canister filters. I used them exclusively on all my commercial slider tanks and terrariums. They don't have a huge flow rate but they do have a large volume.

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>>2075602
Go to your local Lowes, or any store selling plants. Buy pic related. Either get a couple small ones, or the largest one with the most vines on it.

Once home, get a pair of scissors. Carefully look along the base of each vine, find where there are dark little nubs. These nubs can become roots when submerged in water. Cut off just below these nubs, so the nubs are at the base of the newly severed vine and will be fully submerged. Only cut the longest of vines. And make sure to leave at least one third of the vines still attached to the roots in the pot. In case you need/want more in the future. But make sure to get as many long ones as you can.

Once you have all the vines, hang them over the edge of the tank, so a good solid couple of inches of the base of each severed vine is fully submerged at all times. If necessary, get some twisty ties, those thin little metal wires coated in plastic/paper used to hold plastic bags over loaves of bread closed. Gently wrap these around the vines then tape the twisty tie to the outside of the tank.

Soon, the dark little nubs will sprout roots. These roots will help purify and clean the water. Essentially, all that bad fish poop that is gunking up the water is excellent plant fertilizer, and you just dropped a shitload of plants that need all the fertilizer they can get to grow new roots and continue surviving.

>>2075645
It makes sense, humans (and all animals pretty much) can die due to all sorts of health issues from eating 24/7. Even if it's all super healthy food with lots of vitamins and fiber and fruits/vegetables. Even plants can die if given too many nutrients/fertilizer.

So moderation really is a good thing.

Although I don't own a saltwater tank, sooooooo... But if his tank is doing really well then he is obviously doing something right.

>>2075646
>Picky eaters
Each has their own temperament. I've heard of some starving to death because they only would eat whatever the pet store had been feeding them.

>>2075417
You need to try to sell it to an enthusiast. Tank is too small and I doubt you want to upgrade to like a 55gal for your gifted plecostamus that you felt obligated to take.

try craigslist.

>>2075662
Oh I have no doubt that it works. The issue is that what it does is eliminate all ammonia before it even has a chance to turn into nitrites. Which is great, as long as the filter is running, and the media is still doing it's job. IF that filter fails though, the tank will essentially be thrown into a cycle, because much of the denitrifying bacteria could/would be dead.
I just see it as another thing to put on a reef that has benefits, but the cost of it failing could be devastating. That's why you should always have redundant heaters if you have a reef.

>>2075666
oh, and went i said sell, i really meant give.

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This .webm conversion worked out terribly, but this is the only file that works, so here it is. Just a quick timelapse of my halloween crab grazing amongst some coral :)

How long for cherry shrimp to breed?

I have what I believe to be 2 males and a female

I have a 10 gallon aquarium and I'm thinking of putting some dwarf cories in it once it's established.
What kind of hardware do I need for this and how many would comfortably live in there?

>>2075671
40-60 days after she is berried you will have shrimplets. First though you have to provide a nice stable environment that's conducive to them breeding. Making sure they get plenty of food (algae wafers) too. Eventually, she will be berried.

>>2075673

mine wont even touch the algae wafers, they love picking at the plants though.

>>2075675
eventually they'll need wafers, once they start breeding, and theres shrimplets in the tank

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>>2075668
Ultra low nutrient is really a buzz word. What your really doing is feeding the bacteria that denitrate a source of carbon and subsequently feeding the corals.

You can get the same effect by dosing vodka and or vinagar but the real effect is with the filter which provides surface area for said bacteria.

>>2075682
interesting.. So how often do you have to change the media to feed the bacteria? or it's solely based on surface area alone? If it's surface area, couldn't the same effect be achieved through lots of live rock?
I just feed heavily and often, protein skimmer only runs two hours a day. I have never had readable nitrates since the first month of the tank running, and only do water changes when calcium levels require it. I also rely heavily on sponges. I have quite a few sponges that I bought, and my liverock was litered with sponges when i bought it. Also have lots of chaeto growing

>>2075670
Actually, I think it turned out really cool. That little sucker is adorable.

>>2075689
I just lost a lot of quality :( In the 6mb version you can still make out the striping on his legs and all the fine details

>>2075670
Which converter did you use?

>>2075694
>http://video.online-convert.com/convert-to-webm

>>2075682
By the way, just noticed your tombstone at the bottom of your reef. Was that like for halloween or something? Or for a fish that died? And if so, what fish deserved such a tribute?

>>2075675
>>2075676
Fresh or frozen vegetables work as an alternative to wafers. Zucchini (courgette), shelled peas, and skinned broccoli stems are all good. Nori sheets are also good, since itst just algae without any fillers. You can stick a fork or something in it if you need to get it to sink.

>>2075703
I like to attach veggies to fishing weights and just drop them in.

>>2075722
Like split shot?

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>>2075723
Like these
tie the veggies to it with fishing line or string.
you could use split shot too.

>>2075722
>>2075724
I used to use plant weights with fishing line tied to them so I didn't have to reach into the tank to get them out. They'd tend to get tangled, though, so now I just reach into the tank if there are leftovers.

>>2075615
Is Melafix the Flintstones Vitamins of the fish world?

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>>2075656
COOOL, I was gonna try doing this with my little plant experiment tank, I just got pic related for my birthday and can focus this in the tank and use the 3w led desk lamp to grow this or Wandering Jew on the outside! Thanks yo!

>>2075748
Melafix is a produce originally marketed as part of the Melaleuca MLM product line. Basically one of those pyramid scams where some jackass charges you $100 to join their sales team and then tries to get you to charge your friends the same so you can make a couple bucks off them and they get suckered in.

Now that doesn't necessarily mean Melafix is useless. This is the same product as Simple Green, widely touted as a natural engine degreaser. It does in fact have mild antibacterial qualities.

so does tomato juice and grape juice and pretty much half of all plant juices though. For essentially the same reasons- most plants have a pH that bacteria don't like.

All that mumbo-jumbo aside, /aq/ swears by the stuff, but then nobody ever accused them of being very bright.

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>>2075686
It depends on your bio load usually 12 weeks. You have to agitate it like every day or so. The actually "Zeolite" is probably more or less a marketing term for what it does and I'm sure you can get away with using 3rd party media despite what KV (The german company that makes it) has to say. You do have to keep up with the dosing which is usually some kinda amino acid/bateria culture supplement. KV includes them in the kit (and I still swear it's just vinagar). You can probably get away with mb7 or other similar products. If you want to go the extreme and not so legal route you can dose HGH and have explosive coral growth.

The other non "KV-zeovit" way is to dose pure ethanol or 100 proof vodka till your nitrates and phosphates read 0.00. However you run the real risk of sucking out all the O2 with that in your tank and gassing everything.

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>>2075698
Both I took a dying giant gigad clam from a poisoned tank from a client and tired to save it and I failed the tomb stone is what I put after I took out the shell.

>>2075759
That brings up a point, I know there is that one anon with a fw clam, and a few anons with sw clams/bivalves/we. Im sure im not the only FW anon with MTS and they do kind of scare me with the burrowing aspect, how do I know if or when they die, without constant testing, or am I putting a ticking substratic time bomb in my tank when introducing them?

>>2075761
Usually, yes. Especially since clams don't do well in most aquariums because they need shitloads of stuff floating in the water column.

>>2075763
I once saw a clam in the Pittsburgh zoo that was allegedly 102 years old, no comment other than i did see it. Thats all,,, thanks for reading my blog

>>2075761
The MTS shouldn't cause an issue if they die over time. I find empty MTS shells in my tank from time to time. Now if they all start heading to the surface of the water trying to escape, then you have a water quality issue that has to be corrected.

>>2075765
cool, i hardly ever see them, but they are the only living thing in my tank, and i was wondering why they do not climb the walls. Thanks

>>2075774
You can spot them at night all over your tank once the lights go off.

>>2075777
oh cool, I put 3 in my 1.5 and I get excited when i can see a tip during the day or a whole snail late at night. What can i feed them, if there are only pond/mts snails in my tank? I sprinkle some fish flakes every other day and thats it.

>>2075781
You can feed them pretty much anything you feed fish plus fresh veggies. The ones in my shrimp tank swarm the zucchini and spinach and give my shrimp.

>>2075787
Ive done blanched veg for my ottos, but how do you get a cluster of spinach to sink and stay??

>>2075799
I keep a bunch of leaves in place with a bamboo skewer.

Close to bump, but Wc'd my 5 and 1.5 and all is well, To all the nano/small tank guys my Azoo Mignon is still running great for 2 years now.

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Rescaled my tank tonight (29 gal community), replaced my black gravel with white sand because the gravel was buffering my PH way too high and I got 5 Pygmy cories and I heard gravel fucks up their barbels. New additions also include 10 hengelli rasbora and a female betta.

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Quarantine is over for my Kuhlis and Honey Gouramis. Tonight is there first night in my main planted tank with a large RCS and Amano colony, and they are already exploring the back of the tank after cowering under the crypts for 5 minutes

Soon, my shrimpies will know the meaning of fear. If the Honeys are interested in them, that is

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Kuhlis have found a nice shallow pit under the driftwood in the tank, but some have been hiding elsewhere

Also, my 11 Kuhlis that started quarantine somehow mysteriously shrinked to 8 in number... I stripped the tank and filter bare, and I have no idea where the other 3 are. Checked around the tank for dried up corpses too, and nothing.

For all I know, they might've perished and then stripped to nothing by the remaining fish and single Amano inside quarantine. Or even worse, they probably squeezed themselves inside the hollow plastic driftwood and can't get out

>>2075751
Go easy on the light if you get a Pothos.
They do better in med-low light.

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Here is a horrible out of focus picture of the willow moss ball that was cleaned by the one Amano shrimp in quarantine. It went back inside the main tank, and it's already filled with dozens of shrimplets

Hopefully the adjustment to the new tank goes well. Kind of worried that my fishes will be outcompeted by the aggressive feeding Amanos, but maybe they'll be spooked by the new visitors and let them eat first

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Got my rams!
Now my swordtail is trying to rape them both...

>>2075312
Do these guys fuck up inverts?

>>2075845
Bolivians are usually pretty chill and leave stuff alone.
I've got Ghost shrimp, amanos, and 2 CPOs in with mine.

>>2075758
So how catastrophic would it be if the filter stopped working? Or you forgot to swap the media/dose supplements?

Any fellow reefers in /aq/? Going to my first frag show today and I'm pretty excited to see what they have. Hoping to pick up a few palys, zoas, or ricordeas. I currently have cat's eye zoas, radioactive dragon eye zoas, red magician palys, sunny d palys, duncans, and three different florida ricordeas.

>>2075754
So does that mean throwing an indian almond leaf in the tank would be just as effective?

>>2075903
There's a few of us on here! Nice, take pictures of some of the frags at the show and post em. You should try and get some montis going :)

>>2075906
Probably more effective. AFAIK Indian almond leaves have a lot more compounds that go to work than does melaleuca extract, and they don't coat the water's surface. Oak leaves work, too. Melafix doesn't strain your water, though, for better or worse.

>>2075942
Cool. That'll save me a trip to the pet store

>>2075824
They might have burrowed into the substrate.

>>2074342
Question, how do I fertilize my tank? Apparently I need to do that or ilk get algae.

>>2075829
The one on the left looks to be female. Can't see the right one well enough. Good looking fish though! Well.. actually right now they aren't, but wait til they mature, they are downright beautiful fish

Why do weaboos and avatar fags always ruin these threads?

>>2075984
Don't start an argument over this.. its just going to go off topic

>>2075825
I believe 3w of even the most efficient LEDs counts as medium light, at best. Probably more likely low

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I know it's lame but I like it

>>2075995
Needs some giant shrimp or fish terrorizing the place.

>>2075924
Didn't take any pics, but I left with a few zoas. Got some pink panthers, rastas, and mandarins (i think). The rastas were a really good deal. Got about 8 polyps for 40 bucks.

>>2076001
I was thinking some shrimp, snails, and some kind of puffer to murder the shrimp and snails

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>>2075995
Aww, I think it's cute.

>>2075995
Needs more Vietcong

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Where is the best place online to get meme shrimp from? All the local stores near me want obscene prices like $5 or more per shrimp.

>>2076027
Bob's Tropical Plants has memeshrimp for cheap if you don't mind low grade cherries

Only if you are West Coast USA though

>>2076003
Puffer anon here. Make sure you get a culture of trumpet snails. I've found pond snails don't reproduce quickly enough to out pace the puffers eating, after about 2 months. But trumpets bury themselves during the day, and come out at night, and reproduce faster then pond snails. They are much more viable for a long term solution. And you don't really want your puffer eating too many shrimp. Mine actually ate his first shrimp today. Only ate about half of it, the other shrimp are finishing up the remains.

>>2075971
There are tablets you can stick directly into the substrate, plus liquid fertilizers you can simply measure out to your specific water amount then pour in.

>>2075995
That's not lame, that's adorable as fuck. Is that your tank? Can you buy those decorations, or did you make them all yourself?

>>2076092
I made everything myself. I can get more pics soon.

>>2076101
how big is your tank can i ask?
i want to do something similar now...

>>2076101
How did you make all of that? Did you just superglue sticks together, like Lincoln logs, or did you use something else?

http://i.imgur.com/oy3WXH7.jpg

What is this slime and why is it forming crystals on my filter output? Can't upload it to 4chan because its much bigger than the max file size allows.

I have a situation. One of my dwarf gouramis' seems to be doing bad. He looks all "bent" and can't swim properly. This has been going on for about a week but now he just sits in an awkward position on the bottom of the tank in a bunch of plants. What should I do? I want him to live and be good but at the same time i don't want him to be suffering

>>2076130
Take a picture so we can look at it. You may want to get him into a comfy isolation tank to medicate and observe

A lot of Dwarf Gouramis these day come from overbred and unhealthy stock, and Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus was a huge thing a few years ago too. It's too bad, DGs are really cool fish

>>2076130
My honey gourami did the exact same thing for about a week before dying. I don't think it's something they come back from.

>>2076131
>>2076132
I'll post a pic when im home. I have a spare 10G tank right now that I could put him in. The only problem is I won't have the money to go out and purchase a new filter and heater for my 10G untill next week.

>>2076122

B I O F I L M
I
O
F
I
L
M

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>>2076133
Gf sent a pic, he pretty much is in this position at all times

>>2076137
That looks like a serious deformity in the spine. Google says it may be fish TB, which is really, really bad. Sorry, but you may not only have to euthanize your DG but remove everyone and sterilize the tank again. Monitor your other inhabitants intensely, and make sure you avoid cross contamination with the tank water as much as possible

Where did you buy your DG and how long have you had it for? When was the last time you tested your water parameters?

>>2076143
I've had him for about 8 months now. I got him from a very reputable place here in Dallas. And its been a good while since I've tested. Last time i did test though, my water was fairly acidic. Whats the best way to "take care of it"

>>2076145
If it looks like it's in pain you'll probably have to euthanise. Best way to do that is with clove oil, which will "put it to sleep", but you could do the traditional stomp too. Don't use the vodka or ice methods though, since they cause a slow and painful death. Either make it painless or quick, really.

>>2076148
Just read about clove oil. To me, that sounds a little twisted. "Hold the fish in the water, as they will try to escape" meaning they want to get the fuck out. Sadly, I will more than likley do the "stomp method". All of my fish are burried in my garden in the side of the house. They will be happy to see an old friend.

>>2076145
It could be just your typical weak DG stock, which is what I'm hoping. Even though I wanted one so bad, I've heard too many horror stories on the internet to ever think about buying one

quick someone tell me a good, solid, and quiet air pump for under 20 USD.

>>2076148
>>2076149
I've always just taken then out with a net, wrap them up in a piece of paper towel, then chop the head off with a scissors. Very quick, little to no pain, simple. Then into a flower pot they go

New thread
>>2076178
>>2076178
>>2076178
>>2076178

>>2076178
first for normie with gf who thinks i have a weird fish obsession

>>2076184
...huh?

>>2076027
>>2076047
I've gotten stuff from both aquabid and ebay.

>>2076164
Make sure to cut through the brain and that method works fine. Cut before or after the brain and the fish will be alive and suffering for minutes.

>>2074342
hey guys anybody know if could keep plecos or corey cats in water that usually ranges from 67-70 degrees thanks.

>>2074350
clean the glass bro

>>2075995
I like it.