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

Considering trying to raise a saugeye, but I have been told they are notoriously difficult to keep up with. Anyone got any advice?

[QUOTE=archival;52175814]Old seals are actually nightmare fuel to me. Also update, seems he's just a standard pond snail judging from the curl on the back thats formed and his coloration. I'd be tempted to leave him in there for now as I have nothing else in there to clean stuff but if he starts to lay eggs then ill have a problem. I've heard trumpet snails are good because they dig up the sand alot thus stopping gas from forming and killing any fish that digs it up but if im going to be putting corries in there they will probably just do that anyway yeah?[/QUOTE] Yeah corries love to dig their barbels into the sand.

[t]http://i.imgur.com/LxFKxAp.jpg[/t] So, when those two arrived, about 2 months ago, they were the same size. Bit irked about the demasoni not growing almost at all, any word of advice?

Fuck me, I dropped one of my water test vials and it shattered into bajillion tiny pieces, with an ammonia test in it. Amazon only has them in packs of 24 but ebay has individual ones, I just hate ebay. :frown:

[QUOTE=archival;52175814]Old seals are actually nightmare fuel to me. Also update, seems he's just a standard pond snail judging from the curl on the back thats formed and his coloration. I'd be tempted to leave him in there for now as I have nothing else in there to clean stuff but if he starts to lay eggs then ill have a problem. I've heard trumpet snails are good because they [B]dig up the sand alot thus stopping gas from forming and killing any fish that digs it up[/B] but if im going to be putting corries in there they will probably just do that anyway yeah?[/QUOTE] well that's something I didn't know I had to worry about. I pretty much just feed my goldfish and clean out his filter once the wheel slows down and clean out the whole tank every few months

[QUOTE=Dr.C;52183420]well that's something I didn't know I had to worry about. I pretty much just feed my goldfish and clean out his filter once the wheel slows down and clean out the whole tank every few months[/QUOTE] Its only an issue with fine sand that compacts really hard, any large substrate wont have the issue

[QUOTE=archival;52184969]Its only an issue with fine sand that compacts really hard, any large substrate wont have the issue[/QUOTE] It can happen with rocks too actually. Just not as likely.

[QUOTE=Eriorguez;52182384][t]http://i.imgur.com/LxFKxAp.jpg[/t] So, when those two arrived, about 2 months ago, they were the same size. Bit irked about the demasoni not growing almost at all, any word of advice?[/QUOTE] Could be that he just has a slower growth rate to begin with, some cichlids take forever. It could also be his access to food or the water quality. Also picking up a 125 tomorrow. Fuck I'm nervous. Still have to buy moving stuff too for it. Not sure but my fish probably have to go in a trash can temporarily so I can keep at least one filter off the 90 running. :excited:

You know something is seriously wrong when your ammonia test turns [B]blue[/B].

Once I buy the car I'm saving up for, I want to set up a ~50-60gal planted tank. Is there any in between for co2 systems? I don't really want to spend like $800 on a co2 setup but I also don't want a ghetto rigged yeast setup.

Look for the azoo regulator kit, I believe it was around 70 bucks off drs foster smith. I haven't had an issue with that, a cheap diffuser, and my dad's crappy old 5lb co2 tank. Make sure you get the special co2 proof tubing, co2 will leak through the regular airline tubes. You can get co2 refilled on the cheap at some welding shops. I go to a homebrew/liquor store place since I moved (was only 10 bucks at the welding shop by my parents) and they do it for 15 bucks compared to an ungodly 30 at airgas. [url]http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9895[/url] Also I'm kinda mad. One of my mollies has the shimmies. Paid 5 bucks for it (butterly creamsicle lyretail female) and I think it's a genetic related issue since no other fish had it and my water is fine. Grr. I added salt and prime right now to be safe and I will do a 15-20% change in the morning. Oh. I got the 125 last saturday...Leveling it was PISSING ME THE FUCK OFF. Dear god. It's all shimmed up though, gunna add cardboard n junk in between the shims so I feel better. Just have to do a big water change tomorrow and aquascape. Got me some rocks from the park too. Oh and I want to go chop a huge driftwood I saw there too. It was pretty. People will look at me weird though when they see me carrying a 6ft long log on my shoulder. IIRC oak and sycamore are safe and that's all that grows there. I also picked up a baby sun catfish and a jack dempsey. The guy at petco also gave me 3 free baby convicts. Was watching the grow out from nice parents they had in one of the tanks, surprised so many babies made it haha. I hope most will be female so I can attempt to harem breed my male. Anyone in socal can come pick up my 90 gallon with accessories n junk, 160 dorra. I hope I can sell it without resorting to craigslist. maybe I will see if I can donate it to an animal shelter/rescue, should be good for turtles. I think there is also a koi rescue near me, I will see if they will take it if I can't sell it.

[QUOTE=GamerChick;52217762]Look for the azoo regulator kit, I believe it was around 70 bucks off drs foster smith. I haven't had an issue with that, a cheap diffuser, and my dad's crappy old 5lb co2 tank. Make sure you get the special co2 proof tubing, co2 will leak through the regular airline tubes. You can get co2 refilled on the cheap at some welding shops. I go to a homebrew/liquor store place since I moved (was only 10 bucks at the welding shop by my parents) and they do it for 15 bucks compared to an ungodly 30 at airgas. [url]http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9895[/url] Also I'm kinda mad. One of my mollies has the shimmies. Paid 5 bucks for it (butterly creamsicle lyretail female) and I think it's a genetic related issue since no other fish had it and my water is fine. Grr. I added salt and prime right now to be safe and I will do a 15-20% change in the morning. Oh. I got the 125 last saturday...Leveling it was PISSING ME THE FUCK OFF. Dear god. It's all shimmed up though, gunna add cardboard n junk in between the shims so I feel better. Just have to do a big water change tomorrow and aquascape. Got me some rocks from the park too. Oh and I want to go chop a huge driftwood I saw there too. It was pretty. People will look at me weird though when they see me carrying a 6ft long log on my shoulder. IIRC oak and sycamore are safe and that's all that grows there. I also picked up a baby sun catfish and a jack dempsey. The guy at petco also gave me 3 free baby convicts. Was watching the grow out from nice parents they had in one of the tanks, surprised so many babies made it haha. I hope most will be female so I can attempt to harem breed my male. Anyone in socal can come pick up my 90 gallon with accessories n junk, 160 dorra. I hope I can sell it without resorting to craigslist. maybe I will see if I can donate it to an animal shelter/rescue, should be good for turtles. I think there is also a koi rescue near me, I will see if they will take it if I can't sell it.[/QUOTE] One of my mollies had the shimmies, she just wasn't liking the water despite everything being fine. I left her alone for a few days and she ended up fine. And then months later she died but that's a different story. [editline]12th May 2017[/editline] So I thought my tank was just cloudy, opened the blinds and uh... Looks like algae is taking over. [t]http://i.imgur.com/wVms3PL.png[/t]

Have you tried floating [I]Ceratopteris thalictroides[/I] in your tank before? It helps a lot with water quality and consequently algae. Just explodes out with growth. What are your parameters at?

[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;52218840]Have you tried floating [I]Ceratopteris thalictroides[/I] in your tank before? It helps a lot with water quality and consequently algae. Just explodes out with growth. What are your parameters at?[/QUOTE] When it started getting cloudy everything got BAD Ammonia is currently sitting at 8.0 ppm or higher, it keeps turning blue so that isn't a good sign. Nitrites and nitrates are both great, nitrites are low and almost non-existent and nitrates are good. [editline]e[/editline] I just changed 20 gallons out of the 60, and now that I have some Seachem Prime let's see if it makes a difference.

Sounds like the city probably added chloramines if the ammonia is that high. You might wanna set your water change water up in a trash can filtered with ammonia reducing media. Would be worth a shot. I would pick up a new ammonia test kit too to rule out that it's bad. They should sell them separate from the master kit. If the ammonia is still that high call the city and find out wtf happened. Hell I don't think 8ppm ammonia awould even be safe to drink. Yeesh. Either that or something really fucked up the cycle. Weird. Maybe there is too much bioload on your tank somehow? Oh if you can't control the green floaty algae due to tap water issues a uv sterilizer should clear it up no problem.

[url]https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Microsystems-Submersible-Sterilizer-Clarifier/dp/B00JGCWYYI[/url] Is this decent? How do they even work, like attachment wise.

Not sure on that particular brand. But basically it has a uv in there that ruins organelles in parasites and algae. Make sure it has a fairly low flowrate, you want more time for the nasties to be in there and die. I have a coralife turbo twist inline style. I connect mine to a shitty low flow powerhead, but on those you can also connect it directly to canister or sump tubing. I haven't had any problems with ich or anything since I slapped it on there even despite not quarantining new guys like I should haha. The water is also much clearer than it was before. Only major issue with all uvs is the bulbs go bad pretty quick. Like you should replace them every 6 to 8 months bad and you have to handle them carefully like halogens. I will have to hunt down a generic bulb too, coralife wants 25 a pop for their replacements on a 100 dollar unit. Eh.

So they pull water in with a separate pump then?

Yeah, they also have some that are basically like an internal filter just it passes a uv before farting out into the tank.

So its been roughly 7 weeks since setting my freshwater tank up and im yet to see any evidence of bacteria forming, the ammonia levels have been sitting rather low as up until now I've been relying on trimmings from the plants to break down and cause it. At this point I can either start putting a bunch of food in to try and raise it, hopefully without killing the plants, or just go ahead and buy some quick cycle bacteria for like $20. Anyone had experience with using bottled bacteria? I've only read good things about it but if it was truly a miracle worker wouldn't everyone just use it and never bother forming it naturally?

I use it to jumpstart mine. The brand I get is microbe lift. Name is nite out 2. Never had an issue with that. It's about 10 or 15 usd for a big bottle, might be expensive there. Also never had issues with the cheaper store brand one. Just make sure they aren't expired. It's also good to add after big maintenance on the tank, like if you really gotta deep clean a filter. It won't give you an instant cycle but will definitely help seed the thing better than air will. Also I think you just don't have enough ammonia to make it cycle faster if it has already been 7 weeks. Maybe the cycle stalled a bit. You can try to use drops of pure ammonia to help further, not the scented type. Aim for 4ppm ammonia. When that dissapears to 0ppm and reads as nitrite and then nitrate the tank is cycled. Do a water change so the nitrate is lower than 40ppm to be safe, preferably less than 20ppm, and you should be ok to add a few fish. That and the supplement should help the tank cycle within a few more weeks or so. Any leftover ammonia is a good household cleaner too haha.

[QUOTE=archival;52234451]So its been roughly 7 weeks since setting my freshwater tank up and im yet to see any evidence of bacteria forming, the ammonia levels have been sitting rather low as up until now I've been relying on trimmings from the plants to break down and cause it. At this point I can either start putting a bunch of food in to try and raise it, hopefully without killing the plants, or just go ahead and buy some quick cycle bacteria for like $20. Anyone had experience with using bottled bacteria? I've only read good things about it but if it was truly a miracle worker wouldn't everyone just use it and never bother forming it naturally?[/QUOTE] Without knowing what your ammonia levels are my first guess is also that there isn't enough food in your tank for the bacteria to grow. If you've got live plants in there they're gong to be competing for nutrients with the bacteria too. If your plants can tolerate it, you can crank the temperature up to something like 27-28C as that will greatly speed up the growth of your bacteria. Just be sure to dial everything back down when you're ready to introduce fish. I'm less of a fan of bottled bacteria. There's some doubt currently whether nitrobacter and nitrosomas are actually the nitrifying bacteria in aquaria and that's usually what people sell. Also it's often stored improperly during shipping and in stores. I am a fan of the ammonia cycling method, but many people do not have access to ACS reagent grade ammonia at home, and finding additive free stuff can be vexing for many people. Another option would be filter squeezings from a friend.

God damn this algae. It keeps coming back even though it's fine for a day.

Well I'm mad. Yesterday my oldest cory cat got stuck somehow on my biggest sponge filter with the weaker molly and died. Still upset. I had that fucker for over 5 years. UGH. The tanks are not the same without him. I shoulda looked for him sooner, he was missing but I assumed he was hiding in one of the caves for a few days. Had to euthanize him since he didn't recover, he is in the freezer until I can bury him with his mate at my parents house. Also mama salvini made quick work of that molly haha. It was an expensive treat though. :s: [QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52242040]God damn this algae. It keeps coming back even though it's fine for a day.[/QUOTE] Hmm. maybe you have a lot of extra crap under the gravel which is making extra nutrients? Maybe give it a couple of really good vacuumings?

Nothing is coming up but the substrate under the rocks at this point, I honestly have no idea what's happening in my tank.

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52243075]Nothing is coming up but the substrate under the rocks at this point, I honestly have no idea what's happening in my tank.[/QUOTE] What kind of filter do you have(the make/model)? How often do you clean your filter? What kind of media? How often do you do water changes? How do you normally do water changes? How long do you leave the light on? Does the tank get direct sunlight? Also, how many gallons? Also also, how old is the tank, how did you cycle it, and how long did you let it cycle? We'll figure this out. It's not coming out of nowhere. [editline]18th May 2017[/editline] Actually, reading through the thread again we've figured the high ammonia in your tap water isn't doing you any favors. As GamerChick said, you might want to sent up a thing in a bucket to pre-treat your water before adding it in. I was going to make one for my saltwater tank to mix the saltwater way back when but I never got around to it. That gives us a good lead, but let's start from square one with those questions first.

I already have a bucket for pretreating. And the goal eventually is to get a RO filter for the sink.

I don't know what I did differently, but I woke up this morning and my tank was no longer green and significantly less cloudy. Ooookay then.

and somehow my rubbernose managed to rip his gill. [t]http://i.imgur.com/n4QljR2.jpg[/t] I bet if he wasn't such an aggresive fuckhead this wouldn't happen. I saw him stick himself to the side of the gold gourami in the background there earlier, I bet he's the one that fought back.

That pleco should heal just fine. One of mine was missing half it's dorsal when he got too close to the baby salvinis and it has grown back in a month. Also I'm kinda sad. My tinfoil barb croaked after a water change. Luckily the other fish are fine. Not sure what did it, params were fine but there may have been a minor ph swing (added a huge driftwood last week, tannins galore) and ammonia was reading a bit. I forgot to use prime since I got distracted so maybe that's why. Hmmm. Anyway he grew 2.5 inches in the 2ish months I had him. Was 5 inches. He's in the freezer waiting to be buried tomorrow. :( Oh and my aunt wants my cousin's tank gone since he moved out so I'm getting 2 elderly guppies back that I gave her last year and a few tetras and some white cloud minnows.