What did you do with your tank(s) today?

[DMD123]

Saturday morning water changes in the garage. While I was in the tanks, decided to move my large male bn pleco out of the 90 into a 65B with the red wolf fish. Im curious to see how this plays out long term. The pleco is extremely territorial and the wolfs are known to the a bit aggressive with tankmates and sometimes attack is there are conflicts. Hopefully it works out, but the pleco is not defenseless to say the least, he showed his little spurs when I went to catch him.

The 46g bowfront had a death, lost my red flame female gourami. No signs of any distress or issues, just dead. Im not sure of lifespan on these fish but if typical of these types of fish, would not be surprised if it were 3 or 4 years old already and it just aged out. Otherwise the tank is well and at last count saw 3 baby albino bn pleco that are getting some size on them.

 

[fishguy1978]

Trying a new live fry food.
Vinegar eels.

 

[DMD123]

Hoplo came out to play

 

[fishguy1978]

Made 6 coconut caves and drilled some 9/16in holes in the ends of some sunken logs for micro cat hides. Moved the clown pleco in with the coconuts so it can clean them.

 

[DMD123]

At last count, just see one baby pleco left in the tank...

Surprised no one ate him as he was out

Papa peeking out from under the log

 

[DMD123]

Lost my pearsei to columnaris tonight. Been battling it for a few weeks and he just didn’t make it. Sad since he should have had at least 8 years left in him and was not fully grown at only 12.5”. Not sure what I want to do now. I could move my Oscar into the 300 but bad combo. The bichirs get raw tilapia and shrimp and the oscar will likely overeat and do bad health wise. Had this problem with other cichlids before. The pearsei was the absolute best with them since he would not touch the raw meats and only ate pellets. Love the bala sharks and bichirs but need just one big noticeable fish.

 

[DMD123]

So I have moved my puffer over to my Fluval Flex and this opens up a 65B for something... Likely will need to break this tank down and clean it since it was used as a hospital tank for a bit. My thinking is to move my hoplo cats (x2 and want a couple more) and my green phantom pleco into the 65B and then use this as a grow out for a couple baby pearsei (x3), with the goal to pick one to keep solo, eventually to go into the 300.

Was going to say, while the Fluval looked big, with the interior containing the filtration, there is not that much room. In fact the small piece of Mopani from the 65B looks huge in there and the larger piece will in no way fit. The larger piece may become a project to enlarge the cave and give it to the red wolf. Busy work to keep me busy for a little bit

 

[clownie]

Well.... I upgraded my air pump from a Dapmh 30 to a 40( sold the 30 to @fishguy1978) . I installed air stones on all the sponge filters for a MUCH quieter sound! After that I thought....my manifold sucks! So I am working at cleaning it up a bit. Some before and after shots.

 

[clownie]

Trying a new live fry food. View attachment 11447
Vinegar eels.

I need some of that fry food for myself!!!

 

[fishguy1978]

I need some of that fry food for myself!!!

Staggering results

 

[John58Ford]

99 problems and water chemistry is all of them.

I have a significantly understocked (Tanganyika) system using way more nutrient with less nitrogen production than a significantly overstocked system on the same buffer package.

Additionally:

I have a pair of systems on a soft water package that usually run similair consumption:nitrogen and one of them has basically crashed in a week.



Left > Right
Pent nitrate, high and low pH. > Multi colony nitrate, high pH. >Networked sump tanks nitrate, low pH.> jungle/lily tank nitrate, low pH.

There was a touch more nitrogen leftover in the networked tanks but not enough to account for the pH usage.

I do have a theory on the pent, that anubias is growing like a rocket and since potassium bicarbonate is 50% of my added kH package in the Tanganyika mix it's possible that it's using it as fertilizer before the bio filtration gets a crack at it. The pent has a ludicrous amount of lighting still since I haven't had time to build it a permanent solution.


Similair line of thought in the networked tanks, my dwarf chain sword carpet is about 80% right now and I have actually added more red/crimson spectrum to the lights on those tanks so maybe it's a potassium issue there too, potassium bicarbonate is 100% of the added kh buffer package in my soft water systems.


Could these really use up so much potassium and nitrogen? And why haven't I seen anything like this before.
This is the 5th time I've grown a full carpet of dwarf chain sword in this tank, the stocking and planting throughout the rest of the system is only average.

And this thing, well honestly I've never had a nana petite grow like this. I purchased one years back, cut it in half, and this is half of one of those half's. It's grown 6+" in every direction in just under 2 months since starting this tank. It's about 15" diameter and 12" tall now, I think it may outgrow a 45 pent within the next 6 months.



And now, water changes.

 

[DMD123]

Decided to do a hard core cleaning of my 65B after work tonight. Not a full disinfection by any means but a good scrub down of everything with hot tap water and basically having to now cycle the tank and start from scratch. Im going to pull out the remaining gravel, and clean one more time for good measure. I was planning on changes to this tank anyway with a different substrate so its moving along for a potential growout.

 

[DMD123]

Water change morning as usual for my Saturday, with a bit of extra cleaning. Also cleaned 4 out of the 7 Aquaclear 110’s on the garage tanks. Pretty much a spring clean and doing the extra cleanings so I can focus on some upcoming outdoor projects.

Still on the hunt for a pearsei but am thinking of a bocourti as an option. Basically another large vegetarian that can get upwards of 14” and a beautiful gold with some stripe and orange on it. Ive owned them in the past. A bit more feisty compared to the pearsei, but not quite as personable. Still a beautiful fish.

 

[fishguy1978]

Swapped the 5/16 gravel for sand in the 260g. Still pretty cloudy.

 

[DMD123]

Went to Bridges this afternoon and decide to get a couple things...

and these

 

[DMD123]

New fish all alive. The pleco had some issue last night with a small spit in tail and top fin. Seeing the L001 hiding towards the top of the tank behind filter tube so I think these two may have had a little scuffle last night. The larger green phantom obviously won since he got the choice spot by the large driftwood.

The Bocourti are all swimming around in a little school for the time being. Last night they all came up to the front of the glass so I thought to try and feed them and they ate the Omega One mini color pellets and seemed to adapt very quickly. I want to get them on a floating pellet but even the ‘small’ size I have is a bit too big for them. Maybe if they put on about 3/8” then they could take on the other pellets that I happen to have quite a bit of.

 

[lloyd378]

New fish all alive. The pleco had some issue last night with a small spit in tail and top fin. Seeing the L001 hiding towards the top of the tank behind filter tube so I think these two may have had a little scuffle last night. The larger green phantom obviously won since he got the choice spot by the large driftwood.

The Bocourti are all swimming around in a little school for the time being. Last night they all came up to the front of the glass so I thought to try and feed them and they ate the Omega One mini color pellets and seemed to adapt very quickly. I want to get them on a floating pellet but even the ‘small’ size I have is a bit too big for them. Maybe if they put on about 3/8” then they could take on the other pellets that I happen to have quite a bit of.

Glad they are eating well. I will check later today but I may have some dr basslers pellets that may work for them ( though all of Dr basslers sink from my experience). I’ll let you know.

 

[fishguy1978]

New fish all alive. The pleco had some issue last night with a small spit in tail and top fin. Seeing the L001 hiding towards the top of the tank behind filter tube so I think these two may have had a little scuffle last night. The larger green phantom obviously won since he got the choice spot by the large driftwood.

The Bocourti are all swimming around in a little school for the time being. Last night they all came up to the front of the glass so I thought to try and feed them and they ate the Omega One mini color pellets and seemed to adapt very quickly. I want to get them on a floating pellet but even the ‘small’ size I have is a bit too big for them. Maybe if they put on about 3/8” then they could take on the other pellets that I happen to have quite a bit of.

The adult Bocourti are sure good looking. Are you trying for a single stunner or a pair? 300g inhabitants?

 

[DMD123]

The adult Bocourti are sure good looking. Are you trying for a single stunner or a pair? 300g inhabitants?

They really look good. I’ve kept them in the past, but never past about 6” because they were not as personable as the pearsei but will see with these. But then again I had acquired them at larger sizes as opposed to me starting with babies like I am now. Likely I am shooting for single male.

 

[DMD123]

Glad they are eating well. I will check later today but I may have some dr basslers pellets that may work for them ( though all of Dr basslers sink from my experience). I’ll let you know.

Cool, let me know. The mini Omega One works that they call a 1mm but the small floating is 3mm which is too big. They will grow quickly but at this moment they are at a in-between size.