Aquarium Homies Thread

[thunderlounge 7813]

Not aquarium, but had a similar issue with one of my Blue Lab Guardian monitors (temp, ph, ec/tds/ppm.) 

Thought the pH probe was bad. Got the backup probe, nope. Controller went out, and just about 4 months after the warranty was up. 
 

Thankfully had a spare on hand, so that worked. Only needed it for a few weeks to finish up that last hydro run. Back to dirt now, but beside the point. 
 

Point being that you’re right. Shit don’t work for nothin long term these days.

 

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:16 PM, El Diablo said:

Controller still hasn't made it but the probe did and that fixed it. Guess I'm the proud owner of a spare controller now. Can't imagine what the hell could malfunction on a freshwater probe. wtf? 

Have you thought about putting a inkbird ITC 308 WiFi aquarium controller on it?  I think they are 40$ has two channels. A cooling and heating side with a plastic tipped probe all controllable from your phone.  I run them in my reefs.  Runs no more than one degree + - from the set point, can adjust hysteresis, as well as calibrate I’m .1 degree increments.   Great device.  I use mine set at 78. I have a 120 mm cooler master case fan on the cooling side and a cobalt neotherm on the heating side. Heaters on at 77 and fans at 79. All said it’s about $140 set up.

[El Diablo 4232]

5 hours ago, JoseMedinaDeJesus said:

Have you thought about putting a inkbird ITC 308 WiFi aquarium controller on it?  I think they are 40$ has two channels. A cooling and heating side with a plastic tipped probe all controllable from your phone.  I run them in my reefs.  Runs no more than one degree + - from the set point, can adjust hysteresis, as well as calibrate I’m .1 degree increments.   Great device.  I use mine set at 78. I have a 120 mm cooler master case fan on the cooling side and a cobalt neotherm on the heating side. Heaters on at 77 and fans at 79. All said it’s about $140 set up.

No, I went with the same brand that I had. It doesn't have wifi but that's not really something I'd use. I just looked at the Inkbird now and they do seem pretty cool with good reviews. If it ever comes up again I'll keep that in mind. As it stands now though I've got a spare controller/probe that I'm familiar with PLUS the now functioning one in my tank. It could be a while, lol. Thanks though!

[JSB 677]

novice question here as we get into the holiday season. Are there any automatic fish feeders that are worth a shit with flake food? We have a 20 gallon tank with 6 freshwater fish (Tetra and Rasbora) that we feed flake food. Over Christmas we will be gone 10 days, and I've gotta figure something out to feed them. 

 

[thunderlounge 7813]

I haven’t used anything recently. 20 years ago I grabbed one from pet smart and it worked for the week I was gone. 
 

I’m sure the tech is better now, but quality…. Who fucking knows. 

[PhillyD 1257]

This will do what you want.

 

EHEIM Everyday Fish Feeder Programmable Automatic0;Food Dispenser https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001F2117I/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_GXGY9YFHA6C8HFAYMTVW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[PRONG HORN 3130]

 

[PRONG HORN 3130]

 

 

 

 

[BabaBooey 131]

Finally got my planted tank back up and going again. Decided to go with a jungle river bed theme with spider wood this time instead of the iwagumi layout I had before. Been running a few weeks now and probably going to drop in the CUC today after all my readings indicate the cycle is completed thanks to FritzZyme Turbo start. Planting wise, it's pretty much completed. Learned my lesson on the last and decided to plant heavy this go round. If anyone here is in the Houston area, I'd highly suggest ADG Houston if you're in/or looking to get into the aquarium hobby.  

Christmas Tree Moss

Anubias Nana Petite

Eleocharis Mini

Becephalandra Kedagang

Becephalandra Green Wavy

[hookem2010 2623]

I'm (hopefully temporarily) out of the aquarium game, but we just moved into a house with a stocked koi pond. Any advice on keeping it running properly? I've never kept outdoor fish. It looks like more of a personal handiwork job than professionally done, but has apparently been going strong for over a decade.

[Sam Lin 3550]

Is there any way you can reach and ask the previous owner? With something that established, you just keep doing whatever they did.

[thunderlounge 7813]

Sam’s right, for starters.

See if you can find their routine out, and start there. 
 

From there, lots of options available if you want to make improvements. 
 

It’s very similar to what you know, but larger scale. 

[PRONG HORN 3130]

13 hours ago, hookem2010 said:

I'm (hopefully temporarily) out of the aquarium game, but we just moved into a house with a stocked koi pond. Any advice on keeping it running properly? I've never kept outdoor fish. It looks like more of a personal handiwork job than professionally done, but has apparently been going strong for over a decade.

 

Either become a pond owner or get rid of it now.  Start with monthly budget to maintain and feed.  Replacement costs for mechanical stuff, pumps, fountains, etc.  You also need an anti mosquito strategy.  There's lots to know.  You may want to join a local Koi club to get help from, or to sell fish and equipment to.  Does it have Koi or just goldfish?  Call a pond maintenance company for a consultation and they'll help get you started in becoming a pond owner/hobbyist.  Or just get rid of it.  

 

 

[hookem2010 2623]

They're definitely koi, and there are probably about 20. 

[hookem2010 2623]

I was worried the dumbass doberman would try to go fishing when we moved here. I should have been more concerned with Donnie, our ancient guy who probably has pretty limited eyesight at this point. My wife let him out early, and a few minutes later we hear an alien noise coming from the backyard. I could just make out the poor pup trying unsuccessfully to pull himself out of the pond. A 530 am dip is one way to quickly wake up.

[PRONG HORN 3130]

On 2/24/2023 at 9:58 AM, hookem2010 said:

They're definitely koi, and there are probably about 20. 

 

 

Check your strainer.  Make sure it's intact an not full of leaves and dirt. 

Does the UV work?  It keeps the pond water clear and not green.  Also kills stuff that passes by the bulb

Replace the bulb in your Ultraviolet sterilizer if it needs it.  Follow instructions such as don't touch bulb etc.  

Your filter has a big piece broken off near the top.  

From the looks it's missing the filter media and lid.  Get a used replacement body.  That barrel looking thing

When it has a lid the pump shoots the water up to the top and it trickles down through media that's supposed to be there, and down the drain ramp back to the pond.  

The pond has circulation but no biological filtration.  

Buy used filter media from local aquarium or pond club, Ebay, facebook etc.  

 

 

 

[Rimbo 25908]

So, I have a turtle. Turtles are messy.

Gonna have to throw in a couple recs here in case nobody else has.

1. Seachem Purigen chemical filter media.

The cool thing about it is... not ony is it better than charcoal, you can recharge it and reuse it.

2. Bigass canister filters. At worst, once a week cleaning. At best, once a quarter. I got the mid-sized Aquatop Forza.

[Sam Lin 3550]

On 2/27/2023 at 2:31 PM, Rimbo said:

Bigass canister filters. At worst, once a week cleaning. At best, once a quarter.

I ran a massive Fluval canister on a 20-30gal tank for a turtle. Think it was a 4xx series, it was just about right.

[Bodacious Bevo 3583]

Getting into the hobby so thought I'd give this thread a bump. I'd love to see it get more active again. 

I'm almost a month in with my 10g. I'm pretty happy with the scaping for it- I got a sampler pack of plants and once the small portions propagate I think it'll look pretty good (for a first timer at least!). I put four mystery snails in and they're making good progress eating down the diatoms. I'm planning to turn it into a cherry shrimp colony in a couple weeks.

The second tank is kind of on standby for now. Keeping the cycle going while I decide what to do with it.  I want to do an iwagumi style tank, but that'd involve draining it to get the carpet going and I don't want to restart the cycle, so I might wait for another tank to do that (I have four 10g kits that I bought used for $100). 

Long term I think I'm going to roll with 4x 20g long tanks. I'll use dividers to section off smaller partitions as needed. Breeding really interests me and I think I'm going to try my hand with guppies. Lots of strains out there and I might get funky with it and try to select for stuff like behavior and brain size. There's a surprising amount of academic research on guppies. 

[hookem2010 2623]

I might be getting back into the game after a 3 year hiatus. My 15 month-old loves looking at fish (for now), and I'd love an excuse to get another tank now that I will finally not be moving every year or two. I've already convinced my wife we need to do more than a beta bowl. Now I just need to see if I can bump up from a proposed 10 gallon to 20+.

[fuggled 576]

I'm glad somebody got this thread going again.  A couple years ago I had posted about challenges I was having with our first planted tank here.  Thanks to some of the advice on this thread, I've really been able to get it dialed in.

Here's what it looked like at first just throwing some plants in there without knowing what we were doing.  The house sitter didn't help leaving the light on all the time.

 

Six months later we'd done a lot of experimenting and things were looking much better:

 

After another 12-18 months, we had a lush little ecosystem going that I felt confident I could sustain.

 

It was a long journey, but we learned a lot from.  After that experience, I decided to take a shot at building out a new aquascaped tank now that I knew a little about what I was doing.  I'm about 9 months into that process now.  Once I have a little time, I'll share some photos of that tank.

On 9/22/2023 at 8:43 PM, hookem2010 said:

I might be getting back into the game after a 3 year hiatus. My 15 month-old loves looking at fish (for now), and I'd love an excuse to get another tank now that I will finally not be moving every year or two. I've already convinced my wife we need to do more than a beta bowl. Now I just need to see if I can bump up from a proposed 10 gallon to 20+.

You gotta tell her that a 20 is going to be more stable and easier to maintain, plus it doesn't really take up much more room.

[Bodacious Bevo 3583]

19 hours ago, fuggled said:

I'm glad somebody got this thread going again.  A couple years ago I had posted about challenges I was having with our first planted tank here.  Thanks to some of the advice on this thread, I've really been able to get it dialed in.

Here's what it looked like at first just throwing some plants in there without knowing what we were doing.  The house sitter didn't help leaving the light on all the time.

 

Six months later we'd done a lot of experimenting and things were looking much better:

 

After another 12-18 months, we had a lush little ecosystem going that I felt confident I could sustain.

 

It was a long journey, but we learned a lot from.  After that experience, I decided to take a shot at building out a new aquascaped tank now that I knew a little about what I was doing.  I'm about 9 months into that process now.  Once I have a little time, I'll share some photos of that tank.

You gotta tell her that a 20 is going to be more stable and easier to maintain, plus it doesn't really take up much more room.

Tank's looking good! I love planted tanks. 

 

I got impulsive and got a half dozen cherry shrimp over the weekend. The best of the bunch is berried so that's pretty dope. I just hope there's enough biofilm for hte little guys to survive on once they get here. Also I've decided what I'm doing with the second tank. It's going to take awhile for me to grow out the plants for it but I'll post pictures once I'm there. 

Question for the group: Have y'all had shrimp that developed a lighter stripe down their backs? I googled and some places say it's genetic but they didn't have it when I got them so I'm wondering if it's a reaction to the new tank. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Bodacious Bevo

[fuggled 576]

23 minutes ago, Bodacious Bevo said:

Question for the group: Have y'all had shrimp that developed a lighter stripe down their backs? I googled and some places say it's genetic but they didn't have it when I got them so I'm wondering if it's a reaction to the new tank. 

Yeah, I've had some cherry shrimp that have done that.  I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it could be related to their mineral intake or maybe their molting cycle.  Can't really remember.  It was never widespread for me.

[SimonBolivar 10957]

I'm doing my research right now on a simple 10g with 8 or 9 Celestial Pearl Danio and a couple of mystery snails that is plant heavy. It has been a few years since I had a tank going so I wanted something that was relatively simple and straightforward, but I'm already thinking about how to get some small worms growing in a 2.5 for the Danio. It's just never finished.