Aquarium Homies Thread

[El Diablo 4232]

Looks like a nice project with plenty of room to drop some coins into.  

[Mother mopar 3349]

Looks like a nice project with plenty of room to drop some coins into.  

#Truth

[El Diablo 4232]

I'm thinking I got fucked on my fish order by the guy in Michigan. Package disappeared in transit, he's hard to get 'hold of, blah, blah, blah. So I ordered some Cobra Endlers from a reputable dealer, should be here tomorrow or maybe Friday at the latest. My 20 gallon tank has been cycled for weeks now and I just did a huge water change on it in anticipation of their arrival.

Then I get an email from the guy in MI and he's so sorry about what happened that he's sending another package with extra fish for my troubles. Okay, well, that presents a dilemma. I was going to do a species only tank and now I'm going to have TWO varieties that will breed with one another if kept together. So I can't decide what to do if this yahoo actually comes thru. Either throw them all in together and let nature take its course and see what develops over the next year or two or put one batch into my 55 gallon community tank where the only thing they can hook up with would be a Platy or a Molly. I think it's possible for them to breed with one or both of those since they're all livebearers but not totally sure. I'm leaning towards dropping them all into the one tank and just letting the mayhem happen. Will post pics once I have something to show for all this. I know you're counting on me.  

[Mother mopar 3349]

I've had the ol "mix up" thing a few months back on some snails I ordered. Long story short the Post office sent them from Florida to Pennsylvania, when in fact the order needed to go from Orlando Fl, to my house in Fort Walton beach,Fl. Most things lived the 5 day travel escapade with the exception of some nassisarius snails.

I'm with you that you throw them all in the tank and let the chips fall where they may. It will be kinda of cool to see the chaos

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

I've had the ol "mix up" thing a few months back on some snails I ordered. Long story short the Post office sent them from Florida to Pennsylvania, when in fact the order needed to go from Orlando Fl, to my house in Fort Walton beach,Fl. Most things lived the 5 day travel escapade with the exception of some nassisarius snails.

I'm with you that you throw them all in the tank and let the chips fall where they may. It will be kinda of cool to see the chaos

I'm figuring that if I throw them all together that it will be a good long while before anything odd shows up. Most likely the females will show up already knocked up with their own kind and they'll keep having those same babies for a good 6 months or so until they run out of the last donors juice. It could be next summer before I see any hybrids.

[El Diablo 4232]

I had to take the day off for an appointment and boy am I glad I did! Fish just showed up and by luck I had to push the time back on my appointment to later this afternoon so I just happened to be home when the mailman made a special delivery. He noticed they were live fish and asked his supervisor if he could go ahead and try to deliver this morning instead of waiting for the normal delivery this afternoon. 6 fish, each individually bagged and all alive! Floating in the tank now and will be getting set free soon. Fingers crossed! 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Nice, that's legit customer service right there. Our mail folks arround here wouldn't do that what so ever.

With all thos babies, it seems it's time for a bigger tank.

[El Diablo 4232]

Quick picture of the 3 boys and one of the girls.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

12 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

.With all those babies, it seems it's time for a bigger tank.

Ha, maybe not yet. Here's the whole tank. 5 of the new fish are pretty much right in the middle of the picture. I've got room for probably 5-10 times this many in here before I have to do something.  

 

[El Diablo 4232]

I guess one of the ladies showed up preggers 'cause I've already found fry. This is a close up of one of those "cones" on the bottom left of the tank in the photo above.

 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Bonus freebie

[El Diablo 4232]

Well, my ordeal with the shifty fish dealer came to a close today. The guy had said he was sorry about how the deal had gone, that my fish had gotten lost in the mail and that he'd ship me more fish. I told him to ship them today so that they would get on a truck and get gone. He said he would. When I emailed him today to ask for the tracking number his wife replied for him stating that they were both sick and couldn't do it today, that it would be tomorrow or Wednesday. I told her that that was not acceptable and that she could either find a way to ship them today or refund my money. Those were the only acceptable options. I got an email from Paypal within an hour or so and they shipped my money back to me. Woooo! I had already written it off so this is just a bonus at this point. Lot of aggravation for nothing but whatever, got dollars!

[Mother mopar 3349]

Sucks to deal with shady people but glad you got your money back.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Toys came in today. Picked up a 48" reef breeders photon V2+ light, a MP40QD as well as a MP60QD. Should have more then enough light and flow for a reef tank.

[El Diablo 4232]

Fry total in the new tank is up to 6 now. I ordered 6 fish and already have 12.

[El Diablo 4232]

My guy "Snoop" just disappeared this week, sometime between Wednesday and Saturday. The aquarium has a lot of plants, rocks and driftwood for the carcass to be hidden by but I've looked pretty thoroughly and just can't find him anywhere. I just happened to be messing with the camera on Wednesday and took this picture and he was looking good then, not showing any symptoms of anything being wrong. Just a weird deal. Sigh. I'd had him going on a year and a half and they, Pearl Gouramis, can live 4-7 years. So Saturday evening, after I'd convinced myself that he was indeed no longer a living resident, I made the trek to Petco and bought another one. New guy is about half the size, a juvenile really. RIP Snoop, you goofy bastage. Pic of new guy, as yet unnamed.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Funny timing you mention missing fish. Haven't seen my leopard goby and tiger lobster in a few days. So during Saturday's water change I noticed one of other shrimp molted... no biggie. After cleaning up sump I took a light and noticed both were under a rock with his (lobster) molt blocking the passage. So this evening I moved a bunch of rock around to get them out. But they stayed put. So I placed some small rubble under the rock ro allow them a passage.

Broke some corals along the way but15 mins ago they are were both out looking for food. So...maybe snoop is just resting from stress or such. Hope you find him though. If not RIP Snoop

Crazy how 2 different shrimp molted in the same day.

[El Diablo 4232]

Thing I hate about losing a fish that size is that if he didn't jump out then the body is in there and rotting. No bueno. I moved some stuff around last night and still didn't find him. I've had fish go into hiding before and they'd show up a few days later so maybe he's in there. I think though that with putting a new fish in there that he'd be all over the new guy. He never bothered anyone but I had 3 other Gouramis, different variety, and he'd follow them around. Seems like he'd be curious about the new Pearl. 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Do you have a clean up crew? I've seen freshwater snails at my LFS.

I ask as I lost a Kole Tang in my 90gallon in 2009 and by the next morning it was picked clean.

[El Diablo 4232]

4 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

Do you have a clean up crew? I've seen freshwater snails at my LFS.

I ask as I lost a Kole Tang in my 90gallon in 2009 and by the next morning it was picked clean.

Yeah, I've got several snails and some catfish that graze the bottom. I've had fish die before though and I've found their carcasses if they were decent sized. This was the biggest fish in the tank and just *poof* - gone. The snails are generally on the glass or driftwood but will sometimes be on the bottom doing cleanup duty and I looked at the couple that were and nope, no fish there. I will be keeping an eye on my parameters though just in case I get an ammonia or nitrate spike from his dead ass.

[Sam Lin 3567]

We lost a fish years ago that we didn't find until we were tearing down the tank for a move years later - he'd jumped and somehow stuck to the dry section of tank wall near the rim. Terrible way to die. Check the underside of your tank cover and under the rim of the tank. And of course, check the obvious jump-out locations, don't discount trapped between something and the wall or stuck to a wall, or hung up in water piping or power cords.

[El Diablo 4232]

Man, the angst that comes with having new fish, lol. Snoop liked his solitude and while he'd spend time out and about it wasn't unusual to not see him, he spent a lot of time behind and under things. So I kind of expected the same from the new Pearl and he hasn't disappointed. I was starting to think he didn't make the transition from the pet store to my aquarium because I haven't seen him for a few days now. I wasn't panicking just yet but I will admit I was getting a bit nervous. I know it can take some fish more time to adjust and I wanted to give him his space, but still! So I spent a few minutes searching the tank from various angles just before lights out tonight and finally I guess he got curious about me and showed up. Whew! I think he was occupying one of Snoops old spots under the floating plants and back in the corner. I'm onto his tricks now

[Mother mopar 3349]

Got all the plumbing down and figured away to bleed off water from my return pump to power my reactors. Filled it up with tap water and let her run. Killed power, started right back up, no priming needed.

The dual durso drains are louder than my current set up but I'll get used to it. Just need to move my current tank and get thus baby moved it.

[El Diablo 4232]

You salt guys have to be part plumber, lol. 

[Mother mopar 3349]

This is true, but I'm a firm believer of hard plumbing versus vinyal/plastic tubing. The flex plastic line in the picture I plumbed in as a water change convenience. It's hard plumbed in to a drain in the back of the tank. So when the time comes I open the valve and drain dirty water.

[thunderlounge 8053]

16 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

This is true, but I'm a firm believer of hard plumbing versus vinyal/plastic tubing.

 

Absofuckinlutely.

 

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Snapped a picture of the 20 gallon Cobra guppy tank. I added some stem plants, Brazilian Pennywort. Stuck a couple in the dirt on the left and let the rest float for the fry to have some cover.

 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Looking good!

[thunderlounge 8053]

Nice, clean, semi minimalist. Great job scaping it!

[Mother mopar 3349]

Today was the day we were going to move my 45G reef tank to make room for the 120G. Well not so much. Drained all water out of display tank and sump. Tried to slide it a across the floor. Just needed to move it roughly 10'...not so much. Couldn't get it to move with out fear of breaking something. So pumped all the water back in the tank. Gotta rethink my strategy.

 

However I did put in new tap lights in the sump area of my 120 so I dont have to bring a flashlight. Sealed the lights with silicone to prevent corrosion. Also, made a snail guard for the over flow as well, lesson learned earned from prevuos tanks and overflows. Used gutter guard and zip ties.

 

 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Well I was getting ready to move the tank to this in prep for the 120g standup. After fighting leaks for over 2 weeks I took it back. Contacted my local veteran owned reef store and we're going to try and make the move and switch before the end of the month.

In the meantime I splurged and got a skimmer rated for 250gallons on Ebay for a steal. She fits in the sump by a 1/2". Reef octopus 2000sss skimmer with a neck cleaner.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Today was the day for the move to the 120 with some help from my local fish store. But after looking at the forecast yesterday its 100% chance of rain all weekend. So plan is to make the switch next Saturday.

Here are a few pictures from today. Tank is growing, outgrowing to be honest. So last week I spend the weeknd getting ready fro the stitch and mounted a new Neptune apex system. Always wanted wanted, finally dropped the cash over black friday weekend. I made it to where everything auto controlled controlled thru the system and I can use the app to change and co trol anything in the tank. The system is hidden in my hallway closet as to keep it away from salt creep and moisture. Really wicked system, excited to see how she does on the 120g.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Upgrade goes full throttle tomrrow. Just finished programming my new lights and automatic fish feeder into my apex controller.

Been making RO/DI water for the past 6 hours in preparation. Have roughly 90 gallons of heated saltwater stiring in the garage. Combined with my 50 gallons in the tank and I'm hoping it's enough to fill the tank and sump.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Well started the transfer at 10 and was done by 1. Had 3 guys help me from my LFS help. Rock and corals were just placed in there with no real intent, I'll work aquascape in the coming days. May have a mini cycle, so we I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Gotta bunch stuff to list for sale on reef2reef.com tomrrow to help pay for the upgrade. Took back the 65 gallon reservoir I used to mix salt/water to tractor supply today, so was able to recoup a few bucks.

[El Diablo 4232]

Well, you know what you have to do now - fill it up with goodies! Though I am a bit surprised it holds water that way (talking about your pictures).   

My newest tank, the 20 gallon Cobra guppy one, has probably 25 fry in it now. These things are breeding like crazy and I expect by spring I'll be trying to figure out what to do with all of them. 

[Mother mopar 3349]

Rabbits under water...haha. Freshwater fish go buck wild it sems.

Speaking of holding water, I've got a leak on a union and I've been messing with it all day. I thinks it's a bad oring (too flat) or atleast that my guess. I'm about out of patience. What's crazy is the leak leaks down into my sump so it's not getting anything wet it's just know it leaks bother me. I'll swing by HD in the am and see if I can find one.

Finished aquascaping today and played around with power head placement. Also bought a baby chocolate mimic tang today. Should be here Tuesday.

[Mother mopar 3349]

Still fighting leaks. Woke up yesterday and had another leak from the drain. After a few hours fixed that one. Back to the original leak I changed o rings on the union, still leaking. Finally found a chevy distributor o ring that slowed down the leak. After 2 o rings I think the upper turn nut is cracked and seeping.

 

Ordered new cepex valves, will have to cut some PVC and replum. Luckily, the leak run down and drips into my sump so I dont have to clean anything up. Silver lining.

 

Today our newest arrival will be here. Bought a 3" chocolate tang.

 

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Is your reef built to be specific to a certain region or just a mixture from all over the planet?

[Mother mopar 3349]

Corals will be 70% SPS (sticks). Which are mostly Indonesian of sorts.

I'm waiting to add more fish to see if a mini cycle happens considering I have 80 gallons of new water. Once algae starts to accumulate I'll add a robust clean up crew as alot of my snails didnt make the move.

So far so good, clams, which I was worried about seem good. Tested water parameters and all are good.

[thunderlounge 8053]

11 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

So far so good, clams, which I was worried about seem good.

 

Good. I'd hate to have to kick your ass for fucking up my clam friends.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

Still fighting leaks. Woke up yesterday and had another leak from the drain. After a few hours fixed that one. Back to the original leak I changed o rings on the union, still leaking. Finally found a chevy distributor o ring that slowed down the leak. After 2 o rings I think the upper turn nut is cracked and seeping.

 

Ordered new cepex valves, will have to cut some PVC and replum. Luckily, the leak run down and drips into my sump so I dont have to clean anything up. Silver lining.

 

Today our newest arrival will be here. Bought a 3" chocolate tang.

 

 

 

Mmmm. Fucking love tangs. They're my weakness, and why I have yet to set up a tank. I keep ending up with tanks way, way too fucking big. I also don't really have a good spot for a big tank, or even a medium tank, where I could set it up and enjoy it for more than 5 minutes at a time. I could do a nano tank, but the restraint it would take for me on one of those just isn't going to work. So, I'm still living vicariously through y'all. It's getting tougher to do though, so who knows how it's going to end up.

 

This is going to sound fucked up, but I'll say it any way as I've had more than my share of fucking plumbing and leaks in the last couple months. Flex Seal. I don't care that it's "as seen on TV" or any of that bullshit. It. Fucking. Works. It's saved my ass a couple times recently.

 

 

[Mother mopar 3349]

The desire to upgrade is real no doubt, 29, 45 and now 120 all since March. This is as big as I can go due to room restraints plus the wife would kill me. I also know with every upgrade calls for some upfront cost in bigger/better equipment. I've sold all my smaller stuff on ebay and reef2reef. So a little offset ia good.

 

Fish came in alive and kicking. Drip acclimated and let him go. Few hours later he's flying around nipping at algae on rocks. Yesterday I was able to put in a few more rocks to better aquascape.

 

 

[thunderlounge 8053]

Damn he looks good. He's going to have a great place to graze.

The last time I was trying to put together a system I ended up looking at 300 gallons before I cut myself off from the search.

[thrillhammer 684]

On 12/31/2019 at 10:19 PM, Mother mopar said:

The desire to upgrade is real no doubt, 29, 45 and now 120 all since March. This is as big as I can go due to room restraints plus the wife would kill me. I also know with every upgrade calls for some upfront cost in bigger/better equipment. I've sold all my smaller stuff on ebay and reef2reef. So a little offset ia good.

 

Fish came in alive and kicking. Drip acclimated and let him go. Few hours later he's flying around nipping at algae on rocks. Yesterday I was able to put in a few more rocks to better aquascape.

 

 

looks fantastic!

[Mother mopar 3349]

Added 3 banggai cardinalfish today. Also saw the smallest clam I've ever seen at a LFS. So small I couldn't tell what he was. Little thing was blown over by the current, and it looks like a maxima clam. So we grabbed him and took him home. Placed him in a corner of the tank with nothing around him and low current. Hour later he opened right up and his mantle is really blue. Definitely a maxima clam For reference the clam is about 1" maybe 1" 1/4.

[El Diablo 4232]

That's pretty cool. How big can it get when grown?

[Mother mopar 3349]

They can get roughly a foot in captivity but bigger in the wild.

[El Diablo 4232]

Oh that sounds great. With hot sauce.  

[PRONG HORN 3167]

 

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/tenji-builds-amazon.com-a-jaw-dropping-planted-aquarium-system

 

 

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Nice. I've got some plants but I'm more of a rancher than a farmer. I'm about the livestock.

[Mother mopar 3349]

That's absolutely beautiful.