The Amazing Aquarium Thread- Why is Fishy Sleeping Upside Down? - General

Yeah though an arduino camera and light doesn't cost $160usd :V As for removing the rocks, im likely going to do so this weekend and put them alone in a bucket, see if the water in it changes after a few days. I've already confirmed that water left alone in a bucket doesn't change PH due to any additives evaporating etc. Might take a look at getting a GH test kit as currently im kind of being reactive with the PH rather than checking anything else.

Camera has way more variables that can cause error though, but it would be a decent cowboy attempt at automatic readings, if all you're after is a ballpark figure and have the time and room to set that up. Yeah man that gh kit sounds like a solid plan, do you add equilibrium? If not then something simple like that may be your answer, but you may end up having to buy stuff regardless.

Grabbing a buffering solution is probably going to be the outcome here but still figured i'd check anyway. At this point im half tempted to bite the bullet and get a Co2 system for my 40g while im at it, maybe an x-mass gift for the plants

Go big or go home I find that a high tech might be easier for me hence going for co2, i just wanna have perfect balance and just dump co2 and heaps of light in with daily ei dose. Right now im awkwardly dosing 3x gluteraldhyde and balancing ferts. Just a pain that a buffer is required. I imagine I will need one if im keeping 30ppm co2.

What do you guys think I should do with this seemingly non-structural strip of rusty metal on the top of the 125 I'm repairing? https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/9d88b1f6-9402-45e1-b7f7-5215372bfcd9/IMG_20181205_215947.jpg The glass under it is full length, so it's not holding that together. It's not glued from the bottom, only the ends but under the rims. I can stick my pinky under it so it doesn't seem like it's for anything structural, and that two piece strip of glass goes over it to hold the lids in. I kinda want to get rid of it but idk if it's worth risking damaging the actual structural glass cross member under it. P.S. Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel is good for painting the backs. A lot less picky and didn't pull up as easy as acrylics I've used in the past. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/c21576eb-9396-40dc-8e15-dabf5925b115/IMG_20181205_222244.jpg The only source of light in this picture is the 3 tube 48" reef grade T5. No apparent missed spots.

Steel wool the rust off or use a strong acid then rinse imo, then paint it otherwise it will be hideous.

Well I think I found my issue, my 40G has a PH of 7ish and a GH of 125ppm/dKH of 7 Meanwhile the smaller tank with the PH issues has a GH of 50/dKH of 1 Now I just need to figure out what the damn hell caused that, it would explain how the PH changes so rapidly.

Awesome man, just need a buffer like equilibrium or neutral from seachem What that means is something is causing a shift to acidity. Could be aquasoil if its not in big tank due to it decaying and acidifying the water. This can help lower gH and then the co2/bacteria/waste will lower the pH. Either an inert substrate or a buffer such as equilibrium/neutral will fix it. I would recommend equilibrium over neutral though.

I haven't posted in a while, but here's and update on my weird child; she's a chukker

Cute axolotl! She really is a big girl

Breaking News: either my tank is in a noneuclidean plane of existence, or I can't measure for shit anymore. (The black bar is center in relation to the tank, the glass bar is center in relation to the glass lids that it needs to hold) https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/b30e2ceb-31a2-4e46-8c6a-f4720616193d/IMG_20181208_155347.jpg BRB redoing everything and doubting myself. I could just glue it on in relation to the glass lids and not have any problems, but i would know that it's not perfect.

Also the two glass pieces on the glass bar are not square, either. This thing is an OCD disaster.

CLEAN THE RUST UGH WAIT DID YOU ACTUALLY JUST PAINT OVER IT Oh my god man and the lids This hurts my eyes

There is glass. The metal is sandwiched in. It's a huge structural piece of glass, then the metal strip which is siliconed in on the ends under the rim, and then on top of the metal is another piece of glass that the lids rest on, and then a small strip that goes between the lids on the top. Overtime, the metal bar got rusty because it wasn't completely sealed up, so moisture got in and rusted it. Eventually the seal gave way and the top piece of glass that the lids rest on came free. The lids kept it more or less in place so we just let it be until now since we're restarting the tank. I scraped off as much rust as I could and painted over it with Rust-Oleum(which looks better than the bare rusty metal), and then sealed it in with silicone properly. Any visible rust in those pics is rust stain on the glass underneath that wouldn't come up. Once the glass part is in place, and the lids on, the metal won't be noticable. We didn't know there was metal in there until the part came off, originally. Also, what's wrong with my lids?

Was looking on my phone briefly, doesnt look so bad now that I got a closer look. Damn than metal though, shouldnt be too hard to hide. And the lids looked really uneven, but thats just me being pedantic Still cant get over why the hell anyone put metal in there to begin with, asking for trouble.

A lot of older tanks used metal sides to keep the glass together, its not that uncommon for an older tank to have metal parts. Also I finally got my little dwarf gourami a female, only been in the tank for 30 minutes and shes sticking to him like glue so thats a good sign (I hope) Also harlequin rasboras, livestock is pretty much done for the big tank now and with them all swimming around it actually looks amazing. It completely outshines the cory tank thats for sure

Yeh mine has metal on the sides although nowhere water could possibly go. Nice though. I love Harlequins, but 50% of mine jumped out when I was at work the first day due to a gap above the aerator..

Noticed my male gourami was acting a little odd so after watching him for about 10 minutes and a tad of research I've come to the conclusion the fucker is trying to court the female I literally just added less than 4 hours ago. God damn this boy thirsty af

Finished setting up a home for my newest Betta. I wanted to do something with lots of plants, but now I'm fighting a pest snail invasion lol https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/225195/98d08101-2afa-4873-ad1e-650ef7e603a7/20181209_113352.jpg Here's the whole table https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/225195/d1562193-97c9-4612-be07-623b906331e5/20181209_113711.jpg

What are you using for the black substrate?

Tropica soil https://theplantguy.ca/products/tropica-aquarium-soil And a layer of clay underneath

Looks slick. What kind of clay?

Tropica Plant Growth Substrate

Oh man, I miss the Big Al's in Edmonton. Wish we had them here in Houston.

Just putting this out there, honey gourami are damn adorable. My female is really timid (like the male was originally) but when its feeding time if she isn't where the food is the male goes and gets her to come over, its the cutest thing I've ever seen from this hobby. I wish I could get a video of it but anytime I take out the phone they both freak out and scoot away

That's adorable. Its a shame that they fear whatever they think the phone is

Usually a bigger fish

What do they think of us then? Really weird octopus?

We just got some stunning cichlids in at work today https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/225195/8c753adf-9331-45e3-8bf2-2529c80ed819/20181215_131941.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/225195/26b47dc0-0745-4719-bf1d-9d0cd9962e0e/20181215_131954.jpg

I see some Venustus, OB Peacocks, some albino peacocks of some kind, and others I have no idea what they are but they're all beautiful.