The Aquarium Thread

In My Humble Opinion
41

As far as the SAE or Flag fish go, flag fish are a no-go for the 20L, as they are fin-nippers, and Nova has long, tasty fins…

I’m quarrantining a pair of SAE’s in the 10 gallon tank, it also has a staghorn algae problem (what I thought was BBA was actually staghorn), if they put a dent on the staghorn problem in the Q-tank, I might move them to the 20L once they pass quarrantine

strangely enough, the threat of introducing a more efficient algae eating critter into the 20L has caused the Amanos and Cherry shrimp to start earnestly attacking the Staghorn algae, it’s almost like they’re afraid they’ll get “fired” or something, and are working overtime to make a good impression… hmm, maybe I just needed to put the fear of Og into them?

The secret to plants really isn’t a secret, match the type of plants you want to grow with the amount of light you have in the tank, if you have the standard 15 watt Flourescent tube cover, you’re dealing with a low-light tank (1.5 watts per gallon) and you can grow slow-growing hardy plants;
Java Fern
Java Moss
Cryptocones species (Crypt. Wenditii and the like)
Hornwort
Hygrophilia and Water Wisteria
Water Lettuce
Salvinia
Frogbit

Avoid Duckweed like the plague, once introduced into a tank, it’s almost impossible to eradicate, although an interesting piece of trivia about duckweed is that you can tell how clean your water is by the length of the duckweed roots, short roots indicate polluted water, long roots indicate clean water, the longer the root, the cleaner the water, the duckweed in my 20L has roots that are a little over an inch to an inch and a half long, indicating very clean water

If you’re willing to up the light in your tank, by geting a glass top and another flourescent striplight, you can grow more light-hungry plants, but bear in mind the more light you have, the faster the nutrient/organic uptake is, if you add in “too many” plants (like in my 20L), you’ll find that you’ll have to actually add nitrogen to the tank or the plants will slowly starve, if you get more than 3 WPG, you might need to add CO2 injection to the tank, as plants will need the carbon to help them absorb nutrients, 3+ WPG and no CO2 is an invitation for algae, as algae can assimilate nutrients without the need for carbon suppliments

1-1.5 WPG = Low light, hardy mosses, ferns, hornwort, Thai Onion plants, Hygro and the like
2-2.5 WPG = medium light, most common aquarium plants, water sprite, Amazon Swords, Mayacas, Rotalas, etc…
3+ WPG+carbon dioxide, the fussiest of plants like Glosso, myrophiliums, Madagascar Lace plants and the like

I know it sounds complicated, but it really isn’t, up your light output, maybe to the 2 WPG range, and put the lights on a timer, 8-12 hours or so, the biggest limiting factor for live plants is available light, give them light, and they should exponentially increase their growth

42

I hate small tanks. The bettas in a glass jar just rankles me. I think we owe pets more. We should try to mimic their environments as much as possible. Small fish in a 20 ,I can sort of live with,but most fish require more.
Cichlids are other agrgessive fish will tear up your plants trying to flush out prey fish they expect to be there. I just replant over and over.

43

Bettas in the flower arrangement annoy me. They evolved the ability to breathe air in oxygen poor water, but water quality and temperature are pretty lousy in a flower vase. All I keep now are killis in ten gallon tanks and goldfish in outdoor pools and I keep a light fish load indoors and out.

44

I have a single betta (Greg) in a 5 gallon filtered tank. He gets betta food and the occasional freeze-dried shrimp. He makes bubble nests and lives in a coconut. His water gets a 50% change about every 6 weeks. As far as I can tell based on his limited communication skills, he’s happy. I’m pretty sure I don’t owe him more than that.

45

MacTech, thank you for the plant information. We’re hoping to move within the next couple of months and I’ll be holding off updating until then. But when the time comes, I’ll refer to this thread and let the Other Half work his wonder. :slight_smile:

46

Sounds like he’s got everything he could want except a lady friend. :slight_smile:

47

I have a 20 gallon tank, with two beautiful angels and two little tiny head and tail lights and one gold scuzzbuster (I can’t remember what kind he is). No real plants - I tried them and the scuzzbuster ate them.

I love watching them. I make sure I only buy farmed fish.

48

From my experience with Bettas, i’ve found that any tank size 5 gallon and above is ideal, I’d prefer to have a larger tank for Chiana (my female in the cycled 2.5), but as female bettas are smaller than males, they can tolerate smaller tanks better, and since I’ve set up the 2.5 to be a heavily-planted nano-tank, I needed to have a fish in it to act as the ammonia source for the plants, I’ve been kicking around the idea of partitioning the 10 gallon and putting Rocky on one side and Chiana on the other…

still, Chiana’s current tank is light-years better than the small Death-Cup she was in at the store, unheated, uncycled, 2.0 PPM of Ammonia, no plants or other cover, no places to play Where Do I Fit? (WDIF), and no snails to torment/eat…

her current digs, 2.5 gallons of clean water, Nitrogenous waste levels of 0/0/0, and a filtered**, heated tank with 27 watts of flourescent light pouring in with healthy, growing live plants, a flattened Marimo moss ball she can hide under, a dozen or so sprigs of Hornwort arranged in a “forest”, a stem of Hygrophilia, and a slowly growing clump of Java Moss she loves to jam herself into, a couple brown rams for algae control and for her to play “Snail-Hockey” with

It’s been said that it’s pretty much nigh-impossible to cycle a 2.5 gallon tank, but my 2.5 is holding just fine, thank you, the secret is understocking/overfiltering and heavy planting, just like any other heavily-planted tank

However, if you really want to see a happy Betta, a heavily planted 10 or 20 gallon tank is absolute heaven for them, especially if you have a lot of floating cover plants, back when I had Water Lettuce in my tanks, the Bettas LOVED it, long, fuzzy, wispy roots to play WDIF in, and a large leaf structure to give them overhead cover, the only problem with Water Lettuce is that it killed my other plants, it was so prolific that it shaded out the other plants and soaked up all the nutrients faster than the other plants could get them, once, I deliberately overdosed my 10 gallon with WL in it with 10 mL of Flourish Nitrogen (the reccomended dose was 1 Ml) and it was gone in two days, the root structure doubled in length and fuzziness, I had to quit using the WL as it was too invasive, any tanks I put it in very rapidly became Water Lettuce-only tanks, as it shaded the rooted plants and outcompeted them for nutrients

the Bettas were in heaven in the WL tanks though…
(**Red Sea/Azoo Nano power filter, with a cut down cycled AquaClear sponge and some poly filter floss for water polishing, I may add in some cycled Fluval BioMax rings from the Fluval 204 on the 20L to add biofiltration capacity)

49

Wow, MacTech, I looked at the photo you linked to in your OP, and I’m really impressed with your plants. That’s a beautiful tank; it seems like you’re really into it, from reading your posts. I’ve had aquariums for a little over 30 years now, and I still use plastic plants! I don’t have an active tank right now; I cleaned out my 55 and set it aside when my marble angels died a couple years ago. My memory must be faulty, but I’d swear I had them for about 15 years. Their bodies were smaller than dimes when I got them. I even successfully moved them to this house (in buckets of water in my car) when I moved out here seven years ago. (To minimize the shock, I brought a little over 30 gallons of water with me in buckets to set up the tank here. Let me tell you about making sudden stops with open water buckets…)

Lately, I’ve been getting the urge again. We’ve got terribly hard water here; the farmer next door says “it’s as hard as a rock.” I don’t know of anything except African cichlids that do well in hard water, so, I’m thinking about trying an mbuna community. I’m looking at a plexi tank that’s 96"L x 24"W x 18"'T. Not huge, but I think it would be a good size for cichlids.

50

Thanks, but it’s really nothing special, I basically ignore it, top it off when it needs it, and prune out leaves that are dying or covered with Staghorn algae, the tank basically maintains itself, and it helps that I like the unkempt “Jungle” look

I’ll get some pics of it tonight, it’s grown in completely, the open water in the middle of the tank is no longer open, one massive Hornwort plant has eaten up that space

Africans are great for places with Liquid Rock, but there’s a pretty easy way to soften your water if you want to keep South American species like Discus, Angels and the like

1; get a decent canister filter, an Eheim, Filstar, or Fluval (or even an AquaClear hang-on-back power filter)
2; fill the middle media basket (or middle sponge position on the AC) with Peat Moss (granules or loose peat), the tannic acids in peat will soften the water, lower the pH, and give the water a faint brownish “tea-like” stain, like the water South American fish are used to, it’s safer, and more natural than using pH changing chemicals which are a temporary fix at most, if your water has a high general and carbonate hardness (which I’m sure it does) pH lowering chemicals (concentrated acids) only temporarily lower pH, the natural hardness of your water will cause the pH to rebound (the Aquarist term is “Chasing the Dragon”), and pH swings are stressful to fish, peat is safer, and since it’s in the filter, always there to buffer the pH, pretty much a “set it and forget it” arrangement

Oh, and I’m nowhere near an expert, just a hobbyist with an obsessive-compulsive personality and a photographic memory when it comes to my hobbies, when I first get into a new hobby, I devour as much info as I can, to the point of overload…

51

Heh, yeah…this is naturally limestone-filtered well water. I agree completely about the insanity of pH chemical strategies, so that peat moss idea looks great. It just so happens that there’s several AquaClears around here, and I’ll have a good chance to work on this come mid-April. I’ll have to try setting up something smaller like one of the 30’s with some tetras or something. How often would you replace the peat moss?

52

You guys shamed me into fixing my tanks today. I did a bunch of cleaning and trimming and algae removing and stuff, and now I’ve got my surviving danio in the little tank (a cat snuck up and ate the other little guy when I was cleaning!) and two new oscars in the 29 gallon. It’s all looking surprisingly nice and not depressing.

I think one of the cats stressed the betta to death, though, and he’s trying to do it now to the danio. (The danio has been through a lot more than one fat orange cat, though. I’ve had it for almost three years now and it’s been hard years for a little fishie.) How the hell does the cat even know what that is in there?

53

Here’s the latest pic as of 11 PM 3/28/08

Nova is in the center of the pic, very cooperatively flaring for the camera

sorry about the overly large image, Photoshop’s acting up on me

54

What sort of camera & lighting do you use to photograph your tank?

55

Okay, you guys inspired me, too. I’m not nearly as into aquarium-keeping as some of you, though.
I went to the fish store and bought a couple more sword plants, because I’ve managed to keep some of them alive so far, and some more gravel. I keep hoping the plants will spread, but so far I have more fake plants than real ones.
I also could stand something that does a better job on the glass than the Chinese algae eater I have in there. I just think plecos are so ugly…

I have a 75-gallon full of various kinds of tetras and a half dozen cories. Gravel substrate with laterite, mix of real and live plants, Aqua Clear filter. I’m wondering if I can have both live plants and a sand substrate.

56

Oh, maybe you guys know - is there any way I can tell the sexes of my oscars? Would they breed for me anyway?

They already like to tease the hell out of the cats. I think they give them the middle fin.

57

Just a basic Canon PowerShot A560 7.1 MP digicam, set to “Aquarium” automode setting, put it on a tripod, set the self-timer…

Zsofia Oscars are great fish, very intelligent and with loads of personality, they can be somewhat mischevous too, that is, when they’re not destroying the tank…

Some Oscar stories I read on Aquamaniacs dot net;

One Oscar got up on the bad side of his tank one day, and decided he hated the heater, so he attacked it and actually cracked the glass of the heater

another Oscar keeper had a cat that liked to sit on the top of the aquarium and drink from it, one day the keeper heard a splash from the tank while they were in another room, they ran in, and found the cat frantically trying to get out of the tank, apparently, the Oscar had pulled the cat into the tank…

the only real “drawback” to Oscars is that they grow, very fast, a 29 gallon tank is not going to last them long, minimum tank size for a single Oscar is a 55 gallon, Oscars can get up to 12" long, and are big bodied fish, produce prodigious amounts of waste, and are messy eaters, a good filter is a necessity…

they also like to “aquascape” the tank, if you have any heavy rocks in the tank, you may want to silicone them down, as the oscars may try to move them, don’t bother trying to aquascape the tank yourself, as the Oscars probably won’t share your sense of asthetics

great fish though, if I had a big tank, I’d definitely keep Oscars

58

Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos Unfortunately you can not. Oscars are really smart. When I walked down stairs they would splash water with their tails to let me know they were hungry. I had great luck with feeding them worms or goldfish. They will tear up your plants .

59

Sigh, we’ll see how it goes, then - fish store guy told me 29 gallons and 2 oscars would be fine…

They’ve already been digging holes, which is fine. I do hope they don’t kill all the plants - would they bother floating plants?

60

Rule 1 in the Aquarium hobby; NEVER trust the fishroom clerks in the big chain stores, the only thing they care about is selling fish, your best bet is to find a small independent “mom and pop” store where they actually care about the quality of life of their fish

Rule 2; find a good discussion forum to learn from, I tend to hang out on aquamaniacs dot net, plantedtank dot net, and petshrimp dot com, these are great resources and have lots of knowlegable people

remember, fish are basically trapped in a glass box of water, and have no way of communicating to you if they’re feeling ill, or stressed, or cramped for space

ignore the people that tell you the fish “will grow to fit the size of the tank they’re in”, that may be technically true, but you’ll be stunting their growth and stressing them, shortening their life, after all, you could live in a small bathroom, but would you want to?

you might get 6-12 months out of the 29 before the Oscars get too big, if you think about it logically, your tank is only nine more gallons than my 20 Long, it’s the same floor dimensions (30" long, 12" wide), your tank is just taller, IIRC it’s 18 inches tall, mine’s 12" tall

a 29 is a great community tank though, just not for adult Oscars, as a grow-out tank, yes, but not as a long term home

My basic rules for keeping a stable tank;
1; UNDERSTOCK the tank, use the guideline of 1" of narrow bodied fish per gallon, Oscars get to be around 12", and are messy carnivores that produce huge amounts of waste, Oscars count for double their size in bioload , you’ll have 24" of fish in a 29, that’s technically doable from a mathematical standpoint, but you’ve given yourself essentially no safety net for when the water goes bad, plus, Oscars are aggressive and territorial fish, they’d be on each others nerves constantly…
2; Perform regular water changes, once a week, 25%, if you’re dealing with a fish-only or lightly planted tank, heavily planted tanks have their own unique set of guidelines, in a “normal” tank, water changes are the only way you can prevent Nitrate levels from getting toxic (40+ PPM), the more heavily stocked your tank is and/or the messier your fish are may require more water changes
3; OVERFILTER your tank, you want to typically overfilter by a factor of 5 for a community tank, by 10 for overstocked or messy fish tanks, you’ll want a filter that can filter 290-300 gallons per hour
3A; make sure you use a filter that has re-usable filter media, don’t simply throw away your filter media, if you have an AquaClear filter, stuff it with 2 sponges and the BioMax biological support media, that way you can stagger your filter cleaning duties
3B; when you clean your filter media, clean one piece per cleaning, in the case of an AC with 2 sponges and BioMax, week 1, clean the bottom sponge and move the top sponge to the bottom, week 2, clean the top sponge, and move the top to the bottom, week 3, rinse the BioMax out, and so on and so forth
3C; unless you need to remove stains or medication from your water, do not use activated carbon at all, it’s only effective for a couple days anyway, and after it gets bogged up, it can leach the compounds it absorbed back into the water, there’s really no need to use carbon anyway,
4; TEST your water regularly, for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate, as well as pH, use liquid chemical test kits, test strips are notoriously inaccurate, you should have 0/0/less than 40 PPM for your Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate tests, and your pH should stay stable

if anyone wants to know the secrets of the heavily-planted tank, just ask, I’d rather not make this post any longer than neccecary

these hints should keep your fish healthy, take care of their water, and you take care of them