Still zeros across the board. It seems that the product worked?

Speaking of snails...we have a pair of Apple Snails that have laid eggs twice but neither batch has hatched. They lay their eggs above the water level and we have made sure that when doing water changes/adding water (this time of year we get a lot of evaporation) that they remain above the water level but no babies. Is there something we're doing wrong?

We have a yoyo loach in our 49g tall tank and even though he does pig out on the flakes that we feed the other fish in the tank he still loves to dig around in the gravel and eat the ramshorn snails too.

An easy way to trap unwanted snails is to use a plastic soda/water bottle with an algae wafer in it, the snails will crawl into it (maybe some fish too) and you just take it out and let them dry out, or crush them and feed them back to the fishies.

That's great advice w/ the container/algae wafer. I have 100's of pond snails in my 5g Red Cherry Shrimp tank. When they start to get out of hand, I do the container/algae wafer trick. I then float the container in my 55g and release a few each day for my Clown Loaches, (I now have 3-picked up 2 little ones last weekend).

I actually like the pond snails, (they're fun to watch), but can reproduce very quickly. In the Spring, I place a bunch of them in my pond and they keep the algae down quite a bit.

Fish?

Here are a couple of Blood Pythons... :p

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...t/DSCF8808.jpg

I would think yes. If it wasn't working, you'd see at least some ammonia.

I'd say it's likely that your fish aren't producing enough waste and the plants are completely depleting your tank.

Some apple/mystery snails are sterile, meaning they'll lay eggs but they'll never hatch.

My daughter's yoyo loach isn't interested at snails at all anymore. She added 2 more loaches (not specifically for snail control, thankfully) but they are Kuhli's and they don't touch snails.

The problem is with the plastic bottle method is that it simply won't work in a small tank - there's nowhere to put one in my daughter's 14G tank.

My salt shaker trap I made is much, much smaller. The most snails I've captured at once with it is about 30.

I didn't realize snails could be sterile. hmm
Your salt shaker trap is a good innovation for a smaller tank. You seem to be pretty good at home-made equipment that actually works! :thumb:

I've made my own light fixtures, filters, and other things. It's kind of fun. I wish it was something I could make some money doing. :)

So I dropped almost $600 today on a pretty major upgrade...

I bought two 30W TMC GroBeam 1000 LED tiles. This isn't my tank but here's what 2 of them look like together.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2H6l5L_yzC...ant-lowres.jpg

Sweet!

Also, I keep meaning to ask:

Some of my plants' leaves are browning. Is that due to a lack of light or a lack of fertilizers? I do root tabs once a month, and Fluorish twice a week. Do I need to increase something?

Yeah, when it comes to total light output and proper plant-growing spectra, these are as good as it gets. SHO (super high output) CFL bulbs are the only thing really better but they're basically spiral CFL bulbs that are 10" long and 4" wide - not real space friendly. Studies have also shown that these LEDs inhibit algae and cyanobacteria growth because of the very precise wavelengths of light they produce. I'm really excited.

Can you post a picture? It could be any number of things but more than likely it's a nutrient deficiency. Having a picture of the exact damage might be able to tell us what nutrient it is.

Lost a betta and an albino corey today. Polk (the betta) had been doing poorly since he got his tail chewed down so that wasn't a surprise but the corey showed no symptoms or anything. Water parameters are within acceptable limits and the other fish are doing fine. Did a 25% water change and hoping it was just a fluke they died at the same time.

Getting started on my project to re-build the case for my stand. Don't like the black, trying to build a red mahogany 'shell' for it; kinda excited about it.

I'll get some before/after pictures up here sooner or later, but I've been thinking about making this thing for a couple of months and I'm just now to the 'raw lumber' stage, so it may never actually get done.

That sucks. Sorry for your loss, Smitty. :( I just had a similar situation... lost a Silver Tip Tetra and Bamboo Shrimp today. Parameters fine, no sign of disease.

Flushed my first fish yesterday. A pink Neon had a large hump on it's back, was laying around on the bottom and had an eye bugging out.

Any ideas?


I figure it's pretty good to have it take this long to kill the first one off.

Bacterial infection most likely. Keep an eye on your other fish and make sure they don't get it.

Or you could use Melafix as a preventative. It's not as strong as real antibiotics but is far less destructive to your overall tank health.

We've had REAL bad luck with Shrimp, bamboo and ghost. They don't show any symptoms, they just die suddenly.

I don't have any Ghost, but the lifespan of my Bamboo Shrimp seems awfully short to me. That was the 3rd one that I've lost and I just got it about 3 months ago. The other 2 lasted about 6 months. I have 1 left in my tank, but it's MIA. That one likes to hide a lot though, so it's probably still alive. I'm doing a thorough search for it tonight.

I also have a colony of Red Cherry Shrimp. They're in my 5 gal and doing really well and breeding like crazy! There have been no casualties yet w/ the RCS, eh, aside from the 6 I shipped to a friend... DOH! Never doing that again.

Couple months difference..

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/733/1005838g.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2341/1005857n.jpg

DAMN! The coloring is really vivid now! Especially the blue on the face. Very nice!

Thanks. He's getting there. Should get about 4" long eventually. (that's what she said)....

LMAO What other fish do you have housed w/ him?

I hate you people. Out of sheer boredom I opened this thread around midnight last night. I haven't had an aquarium since I was about 14 and bred fancy tail guppies and lyretail mollies to sell back to my local pet store. This is all your fault.

http://i44.tinypic.com/120qed2.jpg

Now my dumb ass has to figure out how to get a better lighting system as I'm sure these plants will die under this single included 17w bulb. Never did plants as a kid (beyond the occasional floater to stick in the corner for the babies).

Any recommendations for fixtures/bulbs? 36G 30" front bowed.

Right now in my tank, I have 2 peacock cichlids (He's a sunshine peacock), a yellow lab 3.5", a Jack Dempsey 6", 2 angel fish 3", a Pleco 6", a 2 cory cats.

Happy tank...

Here's mine, although the kids seem to have lost interest as they get older. I just listed it on Craigslist :huh: It used to be my and my son's "thing" but he's 15 now and doesn't have time for this particular hobby anymore.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0087.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0078.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0077.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0074.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0065.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0064.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0057.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0055.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0051.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0050.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0049.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0048.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0047.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0046.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0045.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...h_IMG_0044.jpg

Are you in Iowa? I'm looking for a tank that size.

It is a 75 gallon. What sucks is I bought it less than two years ago and had tons of work done to it. Just two years ago the fish were "cool", LOL.
We live just inside Iowa, right on I-35, about an hour and a half from Arrowhead.

So, I decided that since I couldn't sell my 30g tank, I would start something cool in it. Not sure where it's going exactly -- maybe a Cichlid tank, but most likely another planted tank. Both of those will require much better lighting.

Enter the ahsupply.com 55w CFL retrofit kit. $45. Sweet. That takes me from a 20w fluorescent tube to a high-power, 10,000K 55-watt CFL. Great for fish lighting, but also great for plant lighting.

Tools required:
Screwdriver
Wire cutter/wire crimper
Drill with 3/8" and 1/8" bits

First step was to take the old ballast (which is what runs the lights, for you newbies) out. That was easy. Take out the bulb, remove four screws, and the whole thing popped out.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/32e1dd9d.jpg

I decided to keep the original switch, which you can see near the bottom of the pic there. Next step was to drill a hole for the new power wire (that's the three colored wires there), and some mounting holes for the new ballast on the back. I threaded the new power wire through and secured it with the snap connector.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/83ab1f78.jpg

The new ballast was so big, it couldn't fit inside, so it had to be mounted on the back. It's beefy enough to run two 55w bulbs if I want to, hence the two red wires. Also, my wife's purse is really red.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/dc0c5b35.jpg

Old power cord vs. new power cord. Big difference.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/082a5d03.jpg

New ballast mounted, and the wires run through back into the housing.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/53faea83.jpg

Next step was to merge the two red wires down into one, since I'm going to be using only one bulb for now. I can split them back up later if I want to add another.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/d509d214.jpg

Wires laid in, ready for the reflector.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/385d8824.jpg

Reflector laid in, and the wires for the new socket.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/0f46bd3c.jpg

Almost done. Just have to lay in the bulb.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/eac8266d.jpg

In!

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/7dd8691b.jpg

And shiiiiiiiiiiiny!

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/77eda430.jpg

So, these kits are great for anyone looking to cheaply upgrade their lighting. Will work great for either fresh or saltwater.

That's one hell of a deal for a retrofit kit! Nice work! :thumb:

I thought about getting a few of those to put in my old fixtures, but the plastic housing is so damn flimsy on those things. Speaking of which, I recently sold one of my Coralife fixtures, and transferred the majority of my plants into my 10 gal. I ended up placing an Actinic bulb in the remaining fixture and it really makes the tank look awesome. I do miss having it heavily planted, but I also got tired of them being uprooted by the Pleco.

Props to IA Chiefs Fan, too! That is a beautiful tank! It's a shame your kids lost interest. :( My 3 y/o is infatuated w/ "Nemo", so naturally, he has his nose pressed against the glass a lot. LMAO Hopefully he'll stay interested in fish, but I doubt he will after we get our puppy this summer.

Starting to get the 30g on the right track.

Put the dirt in a couple of days ago. Used:

Miracle Gro Organic Choice for the dirt
Got some dry red clay powder from KC Clay
Also got some dolomite from there
And some potash from Suburban Lawn and Garden
Capping it off with some black blasting sand I got from Tractor Supply Co.
Total for all this was MAYBE $60, and I have enough to last a lifetime.

Put the potash and dolomite in the bottom, covered it with the dirt. It's ready for the cap and water now, but I'm waiting on some driftwood to come in so I can put that in there and plant without having to go back in and disturb the soil.

Also picked up some clown loaches to take care of my snail problem in the 10g. Will transfer them to the 30g when it's ready. The girl at Petco screwed up and gave me 5 clown loaches for $8. Score.

5 clown loaches are gonna need more than 30G. :evil:

This is true, but he has some time before they outgrow the tank. I now have 3 in my 55 gal, (I was bad and got 2 more a few months back). My oldest has been in the tank for almost 2 years and he's only 4-5 inches long. He was hiding a lot up until I added the other 2. It's great to see him swimming around again!

A few nights ago, I dumped about 50 pond snails in the tank and they enjoyed the feast! It sounds morbid, I know, but it's beneficial to the CL's health for them to consume a variety of foods.

Speaking of which, if anyone needs any free pond snails, shoot me a PM.

Be careful with the snails. Many loaches will get lazy over time and you'll end up with an overpopulation problem.

There for a while I was removing 200-300 PER DAY from my daughter's 14G.

:eek: Damn.

My CL's devour 50 or so within an hour or 2 and luckily very few strays are found afterwards. I'm breeding the snails purposely for food, (in my 5 gallon along w/ a growing colony of RCS). The snails are reproducing pretty well, but not to the point of having a few hundred per day. Again... :eek:

Did you get an Assassin Snail to take care of the problem? I heard those guys are ruthless on the little buggers!

I can't do anything to deliberately kill the pond snails (medication, Assasins, botias, etc.) because she also has Melanoides (Malaysian trumpet) snails and they're not only not a pest, they're beneficial to plants and their roots.

How do you like the RCS? My daughter and I are going to get some tomorrow. If we want them to breed and keep down the algae in the 14G, how many do we need?

Good idea by going w/ manual removal of the snails. Trumpet snails are pretty cool and, from what I hear, not very cheap.

I love the RCS!! They are entertaining as hell to watch, especially when the females are caring eggs. IIRC, I started out w/ 3 males and 1 female. That's all it took to get the colony started. I would guess that my colony is in the hundreds now and I just got them about 9 months ago.

Honestly, if you're wanting to expedite the breeding process, 2 males and 2 females would be a good mix. I would be careful housing them w/ certain types of fish though. The babies will hide until they get big enough to venture out on their own. However, if they're small enough to fit in a mouth, they could get gobbled up. I just added a Crowntail Betta to that tank and he hasn't eaten any, (that I know of anyway). He does tend to chase them, but the RCS quickly dash away.

Another thing to consider too is the filter intake. If the holes/slits are large, the RCS will get sucked up in no time. I just cut pantyhose to size and tied it up around the intake. It looks like crap, but if you just place a plant in front of it... problem solved! :thumb:

The tank they will go in has 2 Kuhli loaches, 1 Yo Yo loach, 2 corydoras catfish, 3 white clouds, 5 glo-fish danios, and 3 killifish. Other than the Yo Yo, they're all tiny (1 inch or less).

I'd really only be worried about the Yo Yo but since he no longer eats snails, I can't imagine he'd eat RCS. The killifish might eat them if they're out in the open but they're not going to go hunting for them.

Yeah, I had read about them getting caught in the filter intake.

I'm using a Zoo Med 511 Nano canister filter on that tank and the intake holes are already pretty small. I have some sponges I could use but I like your method better! :)

Thanks for the info.

You can try your luck. The guy that I got my RCS from had them in a 120 gallon Discuss tank, so anything is possible. I'm just being overly cautious w/ mine because that's just how I am w/ my critters. That and I have them in a small tank, (not too many hiding spots). A 14 gallon should give them plenty of space to hide.

Good luck w/ your RCS! Your daughter is going to love them!

No problem! :) Feel free to shoot me a PM or post on here if you have any further questions.

They will have plenty of places to hide. ;)

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/q...h_DSC01099.jpg

We only see the Kuhli's about once a week. :)

If anybody cares, here's a recent shot of my 55G. I'm pretty much done messing with it - I really like the way it looks now.

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/q...h_DSC01070.jpg

Yeah I know. I will get rid of them before that happens.

Sweet

I thought id get in on this and post my 55 Gal Cichlid tank.

Unfortunetley im to much of a newb for the site to let me post pics :p

how many post are required to post pics?

Why do that when you can just get a bigger tank? :evil:

I believe it's a few hundred posts. However, I think you can post the link if you have them uploaded to a photo-sharing site like photobucket. I could be wrong though.

So, there was a mixup at a local store on a used 135 gallon tank, so they offered me a 125 with a stand for $450, brand new. Should I do it, or hold out for a Craiglist special?

Take the new 125. $450 for a tank AND stand is pretty good.

BTW, we bought 6 RCS tonight, they're already hard at work eating algae!

Oh, you took my comment seriously? LMAO $450 for brand new is a pretty good deal.

Very cool! :thumb: ? females/? males How much did you pay for them?

I wanted a show tank for our theater room as it is, so I was always planning on getting a big tank. Still not sold on it, considering I can get a 75g for 1/4 of the price.

The idea of having a little eco-system to watch grow is really awesome. But I could only do it if the system was self-cleaning. I'm pretty lazy.

No theater room is complete w/o a fish tank, (no matter the size)! :thumb: The same goes for a man cave. It's a shame that Gonzo won't let me get a 4th tank to put in "his" room. :harumph:

My planted tank is self-cleaning. I haven't done a water change since it cycled. Water parameters are perfect. I just have to rip out some plant growth now and then. Doesn't smell, either. Recommended!

Hehe. I convinced my wife to let me put the new 30g upstairs so I can use the 10 for a quarantine, and have a huge one in the theater room. She's coming around!

Just use the phrase, "if you don't like it, blame CP", if she starts to back down or give you any lip. :evil:

There's a guy on my fish forum that set-up a movie themed tank, ("Avatar"). It was pretty bad-ass! He used a lot of glow-in-the-dark plants and pebbles. He also had a black light and weighed down some plastic "Avatar" characters w/ flat pieces of plastic. I would think that all the plastic would leech toxins in the water, but he has a healthy tank of Glofish. Go figure.

I would love to do a large movie themed tank! Maybe one of these days.

Edit: Here's a pic of the guy's tank...

Crazy!

At least one female (she already has eggs, can't see the eyes yet though).

They were $4 each. :(

THIS. Other than cleaning the canister filter once a month or so, I don't do a lot of maintenance. Plants rule.

The plastic won't but I'd bet the paint will...

Forgot to ask... any particular reason for going new? Just because it might last longer or because I know it won't have any leaks?

Precisely. Also prepping it is easier - only have to rinse it/wash it once instead of bleaching it and then rinsing it thoroughly...

I'm pretty anal about introduction of potential sources of fish death. :)

Well, it appears that the killifish WILL attempt to eat the shrimp because I saw one doing it this morning.

Luckily the adult shrimp are SUPER quick in short bursts (you can't follow them with your eyes, they're that fast) and we have more cover than they could ever need.

Well that is awesome. I will bookmark this thread. I am interested.

Just remember that STARTING a fish tank takes a bit of work and some patience. Once it gets settled and cycled, though, it can be a very "lazy" hobby even if you take very good care of your fish.

The ONLY thing I do each and every day is feed the fish.

I cannot wait to get my aquarium back up and running. I have a really cool 65 gallon that is an awesome shape. Really tall and deep but not too long (3ft instead of the 4ft usual for 55 gallons). But apartment living is not too condusive to an aquarium of that size.

A 36" long 65G? How freaking deep is it?

Sounds like a perfect reef tank...

For sure. I was having a helluva time getting the tank to stay cycled at first, as evidenced by this thread.

Bought those active filters from angelsplus and solved the problems immediately. Going to go the same route for the 30g. Too easy not to do it.

I've never used activated filters before but I have used sponge filters and/or Turbo Start and they are wonderful things...

I love aquariums shaped like that! Very versatile. You can create different "levels" to coincide with the type of fish you have and how deep they like to swim. And like you say, it doesn't take up as much room. Only problem is that you almost have to get in it to reach the stuff on the bottom...

All the more reason to throw in some low-light slow growers like Anubias and forget about the stuff on the bottom. :)

The varieties of fish I keep have never allowed me to have living plants in the tank for more than a few days. Which makes me sad..

I want to say its about 30" tall, 36" wide, and 20" deep. Somewhere in there. I would have to check it later. The only dimension I am positive about is the 3 ft width.

You are right about reaching the bottom. It was a pain when I had it set up for fish to clean down there. I have never had a live planting tank but I will try to do it next time I finally get it set up.

If you have Cichlids, plants don't last unfortunately. However, they might be hard-pressed to destroy an anchored Anubias on a lava rock.

Really? I'm gonna give that a try then. Thanks.

I'm finding fish to be a pain in the ass and I'm about ready to use them as bait.

ROFL

You just started. Trust me, it gets better!

$4 really isn't that bad considering that they're not usually available at fish stores and places like liveaquaria.com has them listed for around $5 plus S&H. I'm getting ready to rehome some of mine, (which is why I asked what you paid).

I hope they do ok in your tank! If everything goes well, you will have a nice colony in no time.

The painted plastic on the figurines. Yeah, that was what I was meaning. :) I haven't checked the guy's tank log lately, so I don't know for a fact that everything is going well. I hope it is though. He put a lot of work and creativity into it.