Aquarium Homies Thread

[thunderlounge 7812]

57 minutes ago, JoseMedinaDeJesus said:

DIY mame/reef glass airdrive skimmer for nano. I bought everything instead of using shit laying around the house so that I could put together a real cost of materials. 25 dollars to build one including the air pump.

 

Go on...

 

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

20 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

 

Go on...

 

1 1/4" OD x 12" from the local acrylic shop. $4

Hidom 550 air pump- Amazon $10

#5 1/2 two hole rubber stopper. $1 Amazon

12 inch 3/16 rigid aquarium airline $3 pack of 3 ebay

Air hose $3 Amazon

Check valve .50 lfs

Flow valve $2 lfs

Eldon James L0-6PP 90 degree 3/8" hose barbed elbow.

Box of 10 limewood airstones eBay 10$ / $1 each

[El Diablo 4232]

On 10/1/2018 at 12:22 AM, Sam Lin said:

If you aren't seeing babies, there are a few possibilities. Mollies crank out more babies than rabbits and should be filling a tank quickly. From your pic your plants should provide plenty of cover for them to hide, but... Gourami are fairly aggressive, and mollie parents also eat their children, so you need to make sure the babies have safe, secure habitat. Or, move a pregnant mom to a breeder tank and watch it frequently so you get her out of there after she has babies. There are also the floating in-tank breeder tanks that have a divider with grates so the babies can escape through but the mom remains trapped. Then raise the babies in a separate tank until they're at least half-sized.

One other possibility is too much current, are you finding baby bodies in your filter media? They could be getting sucked into the filter, or unable to hide in habitat because current is too strong in the habitat area.

I'm finding Molly fry now. There's plenty of hiding places with the plants and I found out that my driftwood which has a ton of wormholes is basically a nursery. The fry can get in the holes like little caves where they're safe from everyone. Only noticed it because I saw a herd of fish hanging around one of the pieces of wood so I got curious and closer inspection noticed the tiny fish living in it. They're starting to venture out and are already big enough that they're too big to fit into anyone's mouth. This one swam right up to the camera.

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

I think my reef is coming together.  This top down pic was taken under 18k lighting (approximately) with white balance adjusted in post processing.   My seasons greetings/ chili pepper coral is growing fast.  Very fast.  All of my montis have taken off.  Caps, digits, and undata's.  If i could just get my orange tail puffer to leave my acros alone they might grow also.

 

 

 

 

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

I think this nano is full.   Time to sit back and wait.

 

 

 

Gary Bonsai acro

Superman M. Digitata

Orange monti setosa

Tropic Thunder monti setosa

Jedi mind trick montipora update

A unknown long lime green polyped acro with purple skin, raspberry colored coralites and a lime green growth edge.

 

Green w/ purple tip frogspawn 

Purple with pink tip frogspawn

Candy cane 

Kenya tree in the shade 

Clown

Goby

Firefish

Edited November 4, 2018 by JoseMedinaDeJesus

[El Guapo 16]

The kids recently talked me into getting a betta. We bought a five gallon tank at Petsmart and set everything up before I knew what I was doing. Fortunately the betta survived and after a lot of googling, I think I'm getting the hang of this. Seriously thinking about setting up a planted tank now - you guys with the reefs have me jealous but I'm not ready to commit to that just yet.

Anyway, I bought one of those API test kits a couple of weeks ago and started monitoring the water. Everything has been fine except pH, which seems to hover between what looks like 7.6 and 8.0 (I think, maybe y'all can give me tips on how to distinguish between the color gradiants on the card). As I understand it, that's a little hard for a betta but it comes out of the faucet at 8+. Any tips on how to lower pH? I bought an almond leaf but that hasn't helped. The guy at Aquatek said to buy a reverse osmosis filter, which probably ain't happening. 

Edited November 8, 2018 by El Guapo

[thunderlounge 7812]

For a 5 gal tank, you can buy a couple 3 jugs of distilled water. You’ll use a jug a week. That’s the quick and temporary fix. 

In the long run, you’ll want a way to make your own r/o water. At the very least you want to get the hard minerals filtered out. If you don’t use r/o water and just filter, don’t forget water conditioner to neutralize the chlorine. 

For pH, look into a buffer if need be. 

[El Diablo 4232]

Just my opinion but for the vast majority of freshwater/tropical fish pH is in large measure irrelevant. With a Betta it's really not even necessary to monitor the water quality much. I have 2 Bettas, each in a 10 gallon tank. I have a chunk of Malaysian driftwood in each along with a double sponge filter. The bioload from a single fish in that volume of water is so small that I only do a water change every few weeks. 

Wisteria is a good, cheap, easy plant to grow in a low light tank. Really don't even need to fertilize them unless you want to be trimming the new growth. 

[El Guapo 16]

Thanks guys. I put a java fern and an anubias (?) in there about a month ago and they seem to be thriving. Thinking about getting something to float on the top but the betta seems pretty happy as is and I don't want to risk overcrowding. It also has a small piece of driftwood that I'm trying to get the java fern to attach to. The only other living thing is a nerite snail who's been pretty good at keeping the algae off the cheesy aquarium decorations the kid picked out.

Dumb question but if I add distilled water I don't have to condition it, right? 

This has turned out to be a much more interesting project than I thought. Fortunately, or unfortunately, our house isn't well suited for multiple aquariums otherwise it would be very easy for me to get carried away. 

[El Diablo 4232]

Water conditioner is cheap, why not use it? I have the API brand conditioner, a lot of folks recommend Seachem Prime but it has some added "features" that I'm not a fan of for day to day use, mostly its ability to bind with ammonia and neutralize it temporarily. If you want to use bottled water just buy drinking water in the 3 gallon or so dispenser jugs. A couple of drops of conditioner to fix the chlorine/chloramine/heavy metals and you're good to go.

For a floating plant I have Brazilian Pennywort. It will use nitrates from the water and unless you want it to grow it'll just kinda sit there. It makes a mat about 3-4 inches thick though so depending on the depth of your tank it may take up more space than you're willing to part with. I have it in my 55 gallon. Tried it in the 10's but it was a bit much.

Some people will grow Pothos in their tanks. They'll fashion a way for the plants roots to feed from the water and while still keeping the plant itself out of the water. Basket with clay balls for a planting medium, holes in the bottom of the planter sort of a deal, sitting just in the water.

I'll post a pic of my Bettas later, would love to see yours.

[El Diablo 4232]

As promised - This is Eddie

And this is Carlos

[52-80 19140]

I got this Fluval 306 external canister for my 150L turtle tank, and super happy with it.  Built solid.  Sounds so quiet.  Cant believe I compromised with these tiny shitass chinese in-tank filters in the past.

Anyway, I ran the tank completely bare - no rocks/gravel/decoration - just to observe how it would work. 

Water condition is clear which is awesome.  But there is a decent amount of organics/crap/trash that settles on the bottom.  I can crank the flow rate high to circulate water but the current is a bit disturbing to the turtles.  The inlet pipe just doesnt seem to take too much...but obviously it has to have equivalent flow rate with outlet pipe....

Do I just have to manually sweep/clean/siphon the bottom of the tank regularly?

[crash_davis 23094]

one of my madagascar rainbowfish jumped out of my tank and committed suicide.  my dog found him and brought the dried carcass to me.  what a good boy.

[El Diablo 4232]

3 hours ago, 52-80 said:

I got this Fluval 306 external canister for my 150L turtle tank, and super happy with it.  Built solid.  Sounds so quiet.  Cant believe I compromised with these tiny shitass chinese in-tank filters in the past.

Anyway, I ran the tank completely bare - no rocks/gravel/decoration - just to observe how it would work. 

Water condition is clear which is awesome.  But there is a decent amount of organics/crap/trash that settles on the bottom.  I can crank the flow rate high to circulate water but the current is a bit disturbing to the turtles.  The inlet pipe just doesnt seem to take too much...but obviously it has to have equivalent flow rate with outlet pipe....

Do I just have to manually sweep/clean/siphon the bottom of the tank regularly?

Yeah, you got to vacuum that shit up. Turtles are pretty cool but they're messy as hell.

[thunderlounge 7812]

4 hours ago, 52-80 said:

 

I got this Fluval 306 external canister for my 150L turtle tank, and super happy with it

 

 

Those are nice. Fluval makes some solid stuff. 

[Sam Lin 3550]

Is your pickup close enough to the tank bottom? Many of the inlet filters are designed to extend a decent ways off the end of the pipe, specifically to reduce suction (diffuse the suction over a much larger area) to protect fish from harm. If you get your inlet down half an inch or so from bottom, and protect it behind large rocks, you can run without the filter (assuming all you have is a turtle, no small animals or fish). Then you can set the return near the opposite corner and the crap on the bottom should gradually migrate toward the rocks and be sucked out. You can also sweep the shit toward the pickup when you clean, instead of siphoning the tank, and then just clean the filter.

[El Guapo 16]

As promised - This is Eddie

And this is Carlos

This is the best I could do. I call him Squee.

[El Diablo 4232]

That's nice, at some point I'd like to have a Dumbo. There's a shop in Houston, Space City Fish and Coral, that usually has a pretty good selection of male and female Bettas. They had one a few months back that I wanted but I just wasn't equipped to pull the trigger but at some point I WILL have one of their fish. The one I wanted was a lavender Dumbo with white lips. The most ludicrous looking thing I've seen. I figure any fish that can make me giggle just from looking at it would be a good addition to the family. 

[El Guapo 16]

I probably don't want to know the answer to this, but how many of the bettas you see in the little jars at Petsmart actually get sold?

I realize that a large percentage of them that are sold are probably not cared for properly and die miserable deaths soon after purchase, but they seem to have 40 or 50-ish bettas in stock at all times. Even assuming they get proper care while sitting in those jars (a big if), they can't possibly sell them all, right? Do they euthanize them after a certain point? Do they just die on the shelf and are considered a cost of doing business? Or do they really take the time to keep the water changed (would probably have to be almost daily, right?) until the fish is sold?

[El Diablo 4232]

I don't know. I've seen posters on a fish forum who work in fish stores talk about doing the water changes in the little cups but I have no idea what the mortality rate is for fish that don't sell quickly. I've bought fish from PSmart that had been in the store for a while, not Bettas but other tropicals. 

I bought another Betta just yesterday from PSmart. I'd seen the fish earlier this week and got the I wants. He's a Dumbo, red and white. Pretty cool little fish. He is still adjusting to life outside of the cup and is pretty much hiding right now. I didn't see him at all today and I thought maybe he'd died or gotten stuck in the piece of driftwood that I have in his tank but no, I picked up the driftwood to check on him and he's just in there hiding. 

[Brew 3049]

On 11/9/2018 at 6:08 AM, 52-80 said:

I got this Fluval 306 external canister for my 150L turtle tank, and super happy with it.  Built solid.  Sounds so quiet.  Cant believe I compromised with these tiny shitass chinese in-tank filters in the past.

Anyway, I ran the tank completely bare - no rocks/gravel/decoration - just to observe how it would work. 

Water condition is clear which is awesome.  But there is a decent amount of organics/crap/trash that settles on the bottom.  I can crank the flow rate high to circulate water but the current is a bit disturbing to the turtles.  The inlet pipe just doesnt seem to take too much...but obviously it has to have equivalent flow rate with outlet pipe....

Do I just have to manually sweep/clean/siphon the bottom of the tank regularly?

I ran the large Fluval canister on our turtle tank. The bastards are just nasty and require frequent cleanings and water changes no matter what canister you run. I stayed on a once a week schedule of cleaning the tank and changing the water and it kept it pretty clean without any issues. We also ran a bare bottom tank to keep it easier to clean and put in rock ledges and acrylic ledges for decoration and to give them places to get out of the water.

[El Diablo 4232]

I changed filters yesterday, went from an Eheim 350 to an Eheim 600. It's got about 3 times the flow rate and about half again as much media capacity. Plants and fish are blowing around like crazy, lol. Here's the tank as of this morning.

I'm pretty much done with it for now, it's fully stocked it'll just be a while before everything grows out. I've got a couple of empty 20 gallon longs sitting around that I'll start playing with as soon as I decide what I want to keep.

 

 

[52-80 19140]

That's a pretty setup

[El Diablo 4232]

Thanks, it's been fun messing with it. I'd be lying if I told you there had been no casualties but from what I've gathered that is just the nature of the hobby. Fish can be fairly fragile and are frequently not handled well before they arrive at/are sold to the hobbyist. That and beginner dumbassery.

Since Black Friday is just a few days away, if anyone is interested in getting into the hobby cheaply, Petco will most likely have some package deals on sale. Usually adequate for the neophyte.

[El Diablo 4232]

So apparently the fairly large water change I did this morning triggered my male Sailfin Molly into breeding mode. There's only one female Molly in the tank with him so he was hitting up on the Platies, lol, I guess he was feeling the need for some strange. Poor guy. It's been pretty comical to watch him do his dance and raising his fin all for naught.

[El Diablo 4232]

Finally snapped a picture of the new Betta. I think he may have been a fishing lure model at one time.

[El Diablo 4232]

The new guy is starting to color up a bit - his body is blue.

[El Diablo 4232]

This is one of the 2 Mollies I bought to replace the one that died unexpectedly. Her dying left the male alone to torment any female fish in the tank regardless of species. Pretty good variety of foliage in the pic as well. The fish goes by a number of names but from what I can find "Gold Doubloon Molly" is a pretty common description. This one has the lyre tail which is common among Mollies.

Edited December 18, 2018 by El Diablo

[El Diablo 4232]

These are a few of the Harlequin Rasboras that I have, there's maybe a dozen total. They semi-school and would probably show more schooling behavior if I had a larger group. 

[Baboontyme 2809]

I knew we had some fish experts up in here. First time caller. 

I have a goldfish. It was given to us/my kids by a neighbor when his daughter left for college. My kids named him Simba. The neighbor died a short time later so I would like to keep the fish alive for as long as possible in his memory. 

It was a simple 1 gallon glass fish bowl. Glass pebbles and a boot (not a real one). Had a one gallon milk jug that I would fill with sink water and let it sit for a couple of weeks and when the bowl would get dirty I'd change it out and put Simba in a styrofoam cup while I cleaned it. Last night during the cleaning the bowl broke. I went to the pet store today and decided Simba might want some more room to roam so I bought a 2.5g rectangular tank. After I got home I started wondering if that might not be so good for a fish to transition from a 1g to 2.5g. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I don't know a thing about fish. 

Would this be fine to do? In the meantime he is chilling in a large glass kitchen bowl and seems to be doing fine. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Baboontyme

[Longhornlax 58]

As long as the water is good it should be fine. You can put some extra structure or hiding spots in the bigger tank for him until he settles in and gets used to the bigger space.

[Sam Lin 3550]

No issue at all. And a goldfish will effectively live forever and grow to match the enclosure size, so be careful with your housing upgrades in the future.

[Baboontyme 2809]

Thanks guys. He's doing fine. This is going to be harder to clean, though. Didn't really think about that. Carrying a 1 gallon solid glass bowl up the steps and to the kitchen sink is going to be easier than carrying this poorly made rectangular piece of shit with 2+X as much water in it. 

[Sam Lin 3550]

Go to Home Depot and get about 5ft of flexible clear tubing, around 1/2" diameter. Use it to siphon the water from the tank into a bucket when you do water changes; you can move the tip of the hose around the bottom to "vacuum" up shit that's accumulated. Then refill with your water that you've let rest. No need to move the tank. You can also buy a siphon at an aquarium store, but will overpay and also overkill due to the small size of your tank.

 

Edit: Also, if you know nothing about fish, soap is incredibly toxic to them, make sure you don't wash any of their stuff with soap, or if you do, rinse more than you think you need to, and then rinse again.

Edited December 25, 2018 by Sam Lin

[El Diablo 4232]

Common goldfish are a variety of carp. They can reach 12"-18" when given enough space, they make good pond fish and like cooler temperatures - generally below 70F. Most recommend at least a 30 gallon tank. They're also poop machines and can quickly foul their own water, they need filtration. They are indeterminate growers, meaning they will continue to grow throughout their life. A small container will limit the growth of the outside of the fish, unfortunately as the fish ages its insides will continue to grow and begin to exert pressure and kill the fish prematurely. A fish that would live 10-15 years or more generally lasts 2-3 in a container. It's kin to keeping a Great Dane puppy in a cage its entire life. Yeah, you can keep it alive most likely but do you really want to?

You'll also want to become familiar with the nitrogen cycle. In the wild there is enough water volume that fish waste is diluted to a concentration that is harmless. Even a healthy aquarium requires regular water changes due to the accumulation of nitrates, they're the end product of the nitrogen cycle. Again using the example of the Great Dane puppy imagine that its waste were invisible. Much of a fishes waste is urine and ammonia excreted thru the gills as a byproduct of respiration. You don't see it like you do the poop but it's in there and will reach toxic levels if not removed. This happens much more quickly in a small container. API makes a Master Freshwater Test Kit that runs about $20. 

Here's my quick and dirty take on the nitrogen cycle. The ammonia that fish produce can be broken down into nitrites by bacteria that live on the fish. Unfortunately they're not in large enough numbers to completely accomplish this in the closed system that is the aquarium.

In the wild those bacteria neutralize the ammonia that comes into contact with the fishes skin and are adequate then but in the aquarium it will take time for them to establish a colony of sufficient size that all the ammonia produced can be converted to nitrites. Nitrites are the byproduct of the bacteria feeding on the ammonia. This is still toxic to fish but not nearly as much as the raw ammonia is. And the good news is that there are also bacteria present that will further break down the nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates are the least toxic of the 3 phases but still can reach levels that are not good for fish. This is why water changes have to be done. Most freshwater fish keepers do a 50% weekly water change. These bacteria, usually called beneficial bacteria, live on surfaces in the tank - not in the water itself. They form a slime called biofilm on everything and that's good! They require good oxygenation just like the fish does but a filter that keeps the water surface agitated will provide that. A filter, whether sponge filter, canister or whatever will also provide lots and lots of surface area for these bacteria to colonize. Here's a little video about the nitrogen cycle. In fishkeeping lingo a tank that has a fully functional and adequate colony of bacteria is called "cycled".

Here's a care sheet for a random $3 goldfish - 

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=900+1490+2743&pcatid=2743

Goldfish, being carp, will eat up just about any plant you put in the tank so I'd discourage that. A half inch or so of gravel or even a bare bottom tank is fine. You can find used tanks on Craigslist for cheap. Petco frequently has dollar-a-gallon sales so even a new tank can be fairly economical. For a single fish a sponge filter would likely be adequate. They run about $5 and an air pump to run the filter runs $10-15. 

For less than $50 you can set up a tank that is large enough and has all the necessary components to keep a goldfish healthy and thriving. Not just alive. The good news is that goldfish are extremely hardy and can take a lot of unintentional abuse. 

Once it's set up the biggest headache with an aquarium that I've found is doing the water changes. If you decide to go through all of this for the one fish I can give pointers on making water changes manageable.

Edited to add: If you want to go down the goldfish rabbit hole here's a forum with lots of diverse opinions.

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/forums/goldfish.71/

Edited December 25, 2018 by El Diablo

[El Diablo 4232]

So I yanked out the ginormous Amazon Sword that I had growing. Yep, just plucked it and chucked it. It gave me a baby plant that I let get to about 7" or so before I removed it and I've kept that one. I added several pieces of driftwood to the right side of the tank and am, I think, wanting that to get a healthy coating of algae/moss/whatever funk wants to set up shot there. I've got some Sag growing there on that side of the tank and I'd also like to see it sort of weave its way up through my logjam. I put that baby sword plant behind the piece of driftwood that is at the bottom center so that as it grows it will fill in between there and the bubble wall. Also added a dwarf water lily there, still too small to see but they grow fairly quickly so hopefully this thing will fill out within a month or more likely two. No new fish added, I think I'm done with the stocking in this tank. The Platies and the Mollies are providing enough fry that the population isn't going to go down anytime soon. 

Tank with driftwood feature -

[thrillhammer 683]

what size is that tank again, el diablo?  looks good.  have you thought about getting a plecostamus or algae eater?  what about any of the corydoras or loaches that are bottom feeders?

[El Diablo 4232]

Sorry about being slow to respond. It's a 55 gallon. I have 2 BN plecos and 9 cory cats, 6 false Julii and 3 Green corys. I've also got a half dozen Nerite snails as part of the cleanup crew.

I'm about to ditch the blue gravel and redo the substrate with something more natural looking. I pulled up a lot of plants and started taking some of the gravel out yesterday. The plants I put in a bucket of tank water while I was messing with the gravel and getting a section of tank down to bare bottom then I rubberbanded the plants in bunches to rocks and dropped them back in.

My biggest worry is the amount of shit I'm stirring up and any effect it might have on the fish. The gravel I'm taking out has been in there for 7 months and is pretty nasty. I don't vacuum it so there's a good bit of muck. Just getting started but this was the more heavily planted end of the tank so the other 2/3 or so should go a bit better but still a lot of shit is going to get stirred up. I normally do about a 50% water change once a week and ended up doing two 75% changes between yesterday and today.

Picture upload failed, I'll try again another time.

[thunderlounge 7812]

You may have one already, but with rock like that one of the siphon-style gravel vacuum cleaning tools may be of use. There's a check valve on top of a large clear pvc tube. Get it primed, it vacuums the gravel (and the "muck") while draining the tank for a water change. I've used these in the past with good success and found them to be quite helpful. Although the finer your substrate, the more you'll lose. When I had a fine sand bottom, I would lose a bit of sand as it wasn't quite heavy enough to avoid being sucked out. Crushed coral was much better for that, as would your current size of rock.

For me, substrate housekeeping is the biggest issue in overall filtration. Lots of theories out there, especially for reef tanks, on how to approach the issue. Bare bottom, average depth with cleaning, deep sand bed, etc. Either way you're still faced with dealing with waste and buildup, and potential buildup of toxic water/bacteria from stagnation.

 

[Sam Lin 3550]

9 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

Although the finer your substrate, the more you'll lose.

This is affected by water velocity, so if you pick a siphon vac with a larger diameter "vacuum" at the bottom, the velocity for a given flow will be lower, and it will have less lift to pull your substrate out. If you don't have a choice of different siphon diameters, then you can also achieve the same result by partially constricting the exit end of the hose to restrict the flow. You trade vacuuming "power" and speed of water change, but then you don't need to worry about losing substrate.

[El Diablo 4232]

I've got a vacuum but I've been using the electric submersible to drain the tank. And I'm lazy, lol. The gravel that I'm taking out was coarse enough that the detritus that there was would break down completely, plenty of circulation getting to it. The muck would accumulate but it was eventually just inert goop. Nasty when stirred up but I think harmless really. It still is scary though seeing it all suspended, not knowing for certain that it isn't toxic waste. Hey, nobody died!

The longer I do this the more comfortable I am with cleaning a little better. At first I didn't even like sticking my arms in there, afraid I was going to hurt a fish or something.

[El Diablo 4232]

Still plugging away at getting the blue gravel out and putting in the more natural stuff. A couple of the fish died last time I stirred it up, the blue eyed rainbowfish. I think they're probably the most sensitive to water quality. I took another small load of gravel out today and man, it stirs up some shit.

I checked my nitrates just to see where I was at and they're <20ppm which is fine being that it's been a week since the last water change. I've got a little more to do to have one half of the tank done and then I can start replanting and moving the hardscape to that end of the tank.

Having the tank semi-empty has given me time to think about what I want to do/want it to look like. Being that it's my first tank the initial build was comical and I've learned a bit in the last 7 months so hopefully this goes better. 

Lol, it's a fucking wreck right now. It won't take much to get it better, just have to make the time.

[El Diablo 4232]

I went ahead and said "fuck it" and got most of the gravel out today. I didn't really need to do a water change but after that, yeah, yeah I did. This is what the water looked like while I was draining the tank. Even after refilling with clean water it's still cloudy as hell but the filter will clear it up overnight.

[El Diablo 4232]

Project continues. Moved all of the plants to the left, got the rest of the blue gravel out. Put in the new stuff and then moved all of the plants back to the right. Dumped in most of the driftwood that I have. Sitting and staring at it now. I gotta admit, I was a bit shocked at how much shit had collected on top of the gravel where I had the plants sitting. It's impossible to keep it clean. Only way to do it would be to go sans plants or use plastic. It's like aquatic dust bunnies. 

I'll mess with stacking the wood about a million different ways and when I get something I think will work I'll take a picture/try to remember. Then take it all out, smooth out the gravel and clean it and then start to add the wood back in and insert plants around it as I go. I know it's not going to go like that but that's the plan. It'll be a shitshow. 

ETA: Ideally it will end up similar in form to this, maybe with a bit more clear space on the right side.

Edited February 16, 2019 by El Diablo

[El Diablo 4232]

@DougO do you know where I could find some Bois D'Arc tree wood? 

[DougO 5243]

3 hours ago, El Diablo said:

@DougO do you know where I could find some Bois D'Arc tree wood? 

I had to cut up a humongous one a couple of years ago, but it was so damn heavy I couldn't move much of it. I doubt whatever is still out there would fit in your aquarium.

[El Diablo 4232]

3 minutes ago, DougO said:

I had to cut up a humongous one a couple of years ago, but it was so damn heavy I couldn't move much of it. I doubt whatever is still out there would fit in your aquarium.

I'm looking for something fairly large so you might be wrong on that. It's pretty much like cedar in that it takes forever to rot so it's probably weathered but might just need some cleaning. Would you be willing to take a picture or 3 of the carcass and post 'em here? I've got access to a chainsaw and know how to sharpen a chain if I wear the hell out of it, lol.

[DougO 5243]

I

17 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

I'm looking for something fairly large so you might be wrong on that. It's pretty much like cedar in that it takes forever to rot so it's probably weathered but might just need some cleaning. Would you be willing to take a picture or 3 of the carcass and post 'em here? I've got access to a chainsaw and know how to sharpen a chain if I wear the hell out of it, lol.

I'll try and get to that part of the property this week. It has grown up a lot with the damn privets and hard to access, but I need to get out there and check on a big cedar tree that looks like it's about to fall on the fence. What size chunk are you looking for?

Edited February 17, 2019 by DougO

[El Diablo 4232]

41 minutes ago, DougO said:

I

I'll try and get to that part of the property this week. It has grown up a lot with the damn privets and hard to access, but I need to get out there and check on a big cedar tree that looks like it's about to fall on the fence. What size chunk are you looking for?

The aquarium is 4' long so probably 3' or less, something gnarly? It's one of those things... you know it when you see it type deals. Maybe even a few small pieces to create a pile.

Just a heads up, you may have some money laying on the ground out there if you are so inclined. If it is dense enough to sink on its own without needing to soak? That's money. Wood that takes a while to get waterlogged is still okay but stuff that will straight away sink is what errbody wants.

Edited February 17, 2019 by El Diablo

[DougO 5243]

3 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

The aquarium is 4' long so probably 3' or less, something gnarly? It's one of those things... you know it when you see it type deals. Maybe even a few small pieces to create a pile.

Just a heads up, you may have some money laying on the ground out there if you are so inclined. If it is dense enough to sink on its own without needing to soak? That's money. Wood that takes a while to get waterlogged is still okay but stuff that will straight away sink is what errbody wants.

I'm not even 100% sure it is bois d'arc, but I think it is. Very orangey wood, and really dense. I had a hard time cutting through it with my chainsaws. It's an outlier on the place, as there are no other big trees like it that I have found. If you had asked a few months ago I had the perfect limb that was laying out in the yard after I had brought it back from cutting, for some reason. But all that stuff got cleared recently. I'll take a look soon and see what's left.