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alexyay

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Everything posted by alexyay

  1. I don't believe so, sorry. We don't get many interesting snails (pond, ramshorns, mystery, apple, MTS are almost all of the snails available here).
  2. Gourami eat them? I have some defect gourami it seems My puffer won't touch the MTSs - he can't bite them and doesn't seem to be interested in slurping them out like other snails. So now they just uproot my DHG and are breeding in the tank like crazy :facepalm: What kind of snails are they? I've found my fish will eat pond snail eggs so the pond snails won't get a chance to reproduce. I hate MTSs so I try avoiding those, so only my ramshorn snails survive. The ramshorns are so light and small I imagine many predatory fish would eat them given the chance.
  3. Most of his plants are emersed so you wouldn't expect many/any aquatic diseases anyway. I've never QT'd plants - if you're worried (I've never seen anyone bother QT plants) you can dip them in a bleach dip (1:19 bleach to water ratio) which will kill anything on them. Snails would be the only concern and the bleach dip will get rid of them (copper dips will work too for snails) - only other worry is algae but if your tank is healthy you shouldn't have an issue as algae exists on just about everything and isn't really something you QT against - again most of his are emersed so no algae issues there.
  4. alexyay

    BB or not?

    As someone with 0 marine knowledge, I prefer the look of marine tanks with sand substrate. Although I imagine that as with most kinds of tanks BB is easier to maintain.
  5. Just as a "next time" (there's always a next time, you can never have one tank ) do the hardscape before you put any water in it - it's waaaay easier and much more room for change. You would often put plants in first too and mist them for a few days while you get the perfect scape (I've never done this as I've never had any of the tools and always received plants after I need to set up the tank!)
  6. It should survive the concentrated excel - I've never had any issues with it. Or I spend a really long time just picking off every piece I can get (or on faster growing/larger plants I remove the leaves if I can afford to)
  7. Oh yeah - SAEs are way to boisterous for bettas. Killies are usually very shy and probably wouldn't work with the fish in there. Be prepared to have to move the male fighter - it *can* work but it typically doesn't - and in sororities you would probably want at least 5-7 female bettas. Burrowing fish love sand - my daltons actually got mixed up with the sand when we filled the tank so it does get a bit cloudy but it doesn't seem to mess up too much. I'd say at least 1.5" of sand above the daltons just to be safe Unless I had a very low bioload, I'd never use an HOB on a tank bigger than 90L. They simply don't get enough water movement (especially in deeper tanks) and aren't nearly as efficient as canisters. On a tank your size I'd probably have two small canisters as the fighters won't appreciate much flow and a strong canister will probably create too much flow. Or a canister and an HOB (I'm planning on doing this on my 140L so I can grow plants out of the HOB too). Filtration is just as important - the only benefit of a heavily planted tank is that the plants eat up the nitrates which is the last of the filtration process anyway. They don't help with the nitrites/ammonia. I personally cycle fishless - I just chuck a raw prawn in there (in some pantyhose so that it doesn't create a mess) and let it rot until the tank's cycled. That or I just use filter media from another already cycled tank (people are usually willing to give you some if you want).
  8. Hmm - unless it's nice and long I'd be concerned about both the cats (perhaps 6 cats rather than 4?) and congos - the catfish can get to a pretty good size so it might be busy with them /and/ the congos. I found our Pantodon way too shy and got really stressed with any other busy fish so the congos might be too busy for one (ours disappeared one day - couldn't find his body outside of the tank so we assume stress was the cause of death and dead fish don't last long in our tank).
  9. We did a 4 day blackout and our cyano problem disappeared (not long after that we moved the tank inside and haven't had an algae issue since). Water movement also helps to get rid of the cyano. Dosed excel and got 5 SAEs (they ate all the tufts that I scraped off - they had a feast whenever I cleaned!) and got rid of most of our BBA. Having black card around the sides didn't really do much to get rid of the green algae though - not even in the dark spots :dunno: I'm afraid sun just causes it to all get out of control
  10. I might as well double check here - I think it's most likely due to the nitrates but the symptoms are a bit off. Something must be spiking in my tank - I know that I lost a threadfin rainbow (body not found) but that was 2-3 weeks ago - all other fish are doing great. The only fish that *could* be dead are the kuhlis as it's hard to count them! But I definitely have 3/5 and don't know why one would have died. Anyway, whatever is causing my nitrates to spike (moving in exactly one week, tank will be redone and stocking will be reduced for now), they got up to 80ppm. All other fish are fine. But this is most likely what killed the otos. I did a 75% change 2.5 weeks ago, and have been doing the regular 25% weekly since (assumed it /was/ an irregular spike, as I've never had issues with this tank before). The spike is weird, because I've actually been reducing my feeding. > Important paragraph - However, each time they died, they developed this "bloated" looking stomach within 12 hours of their death. Each time I looked at them and went "woah, you've gotten big!" - the first one I thought was bearing eggs. It died a day after a water change. The second one died two days after that (got big as well). 2 weeks later my final one died - earlier today I noticed it was looking big too (stupidly, it didn't even occur to me that it was the symptom of just-about-to-die) and found it dead tonight. Nitrates are somewhere between 20ppm and 60ppm. Did a 25% change tonight, will do 50% tomorrow. 120L, Aquis 1000 2-3x hara cats 5x kuhli loaches 5x american flagfish 4x threadfin rainbowfish 1x honey gourami 1x thicklipped gourami 1x L129 1x banjo catfish (used to be 3x otos) But yeah - has anyone experienced the "bloated" look before death due to nitrates? Or is this possibly something else? If it's a disease I want to make sure as I want to eventually put otos in all my tanks - they're one of my favourite fish Uh, ignore the algae corner. The corners get algae 'cos there's hardscape and it's hard to get to the back!
  11. Yeah but cyano looks like an algae I thought the yellow was a growth as it's on the equipment at the back of the tank
  12. Looks more fungus-y than algae-y to me - especially the yellow stuff D:
  13. How much flow is there at the bottom of the tank? There could be dead spots building up (ammonia or similar) or too low of temperature. Definitely invest in a spare thermometer - they're only about $3 and worth it if something ever goes wrong. The bottom of the tank can have lower oxygen levels so it's important to keep those up for colder water fish (cories for example) - the warmer the water, the less oxygen there is in it. Very odd that only the bottom dwellers are passing. Not sure why the UV would have an effect on the flourish? Afraid I'm not much help on the toxic algae idea, sorry.
  14. Haha yup - it's probably the pleco. I found my BNs munched my plants - especially if they weren't fed properly. Flying fox (SAE?) and algae eater *might* be a possibility but I've personally never had them eat plants before - the SAEs can get a bit reckless when chewing up algae though, but a sword would be able to handle that
  15. I'm eventually wanting a dragon HMPK blue-yellow dragon girl (no red, can be either blue or yellow or both), would you happen to have anything similar?
  16. I was recommended the Hikari Carnivore food sticks for the fire eel - raw prawn and earthworms are a good treat too apparently (we don't have any earthworms and ours won't eat prawn lol)
  17. Our clowns have happily lived at 27-29 degrees (for some reason we have lost some, and only have two left, but there were no remains to find out why. I imagine we probably lost one or two during the tank move also) in a 450L. They've reduced their amount of activity but we will eventually be getting more. Make sure to try and convert the fire eel onto something like Hikari when he's young - ours refuses to eat it (even when starved), and is probably 3-5 years old, ish? Your fish combination is going to look awesome
  18. I honestly don't know anything about TetraVeggie - but the brands that I am often recommended are JBL and Hikari for all kinds of fish food including vege food I'd say hold off until Tuesday, just to give him some time to settle in. Then feed a portion of your food and see how long it takes for him to eat it, upping it from there if it's not enough for him.
  19. Prime only helps fish produce slime coat so I don't think he can be eating that. I find my BNs are fairly active. I also find that fish like plecos and loaches can be very active in the first few days looking for their ideal territory and hiding spot. I presume there is a spot that he can go to where he can't be seen? When young mine are pretty outgoing but as they get older they like to hide away. For food: some can be picky - what are you feeding him? He's probably just settling in still - I usually let fish settle in for 1-2 days before I feed them
  20. Yes - when you see the 0, 0, 5+ you will be safe to put the tetras in - just do a nice water change first. Another idea might be to put 2-4 in at a time and do them in batches once every 3+ days so that you don't shock the bio system too much.
  21. Ah OK - I only read that they could go up to 30 degrees but have only kept mine at 27 at most.
  22. Perhaps swap the BN for the cories? And use an air pump to add as much oxygen into the warm water as possible.
  23. Do you have a test kit? Tank will be cycled when the readings show: Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 5+ This can take between one and four weeks. I think my last cycle took 3 weeks. Learning the cycling process really is essential for any fishkeeper D: For the wafers, I mean one a day yes. Split it into maybe quarters - if you put in too much it'll foul the water even further. Feed him once and see how long it takes for him to eat it - I'd say if he doesn't eat it in under 8 hours it's too much, so split it further the next time you feed.
  24. Yeah my thoughts are maybe they're having trouble getting oxygen so they're going up to the top for air. Weird behaviour though. Perhaps lower the temperature? Cories usually aren't too great at high temperatures.
  25. Definitely don't add any more fish until the tank is cycled - otherwise the ammonia build up will probably just get to too much. While it's cycling I suggest you don't feed him too much to keep the ammonia levels low. I feed mine wafers daily. One should do him.
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