• We welcome content that is not political, divisive, or offensive. If we feel your content leans this way or has the potential to, it may be removed at any time. A hot pepper forum is not the place for such content. Thank you for respecting the community!

hobbies New aquarium!

Grass Snake said:
Yeah I hate water changes especially if I’m having to mix salt. Can’t do nothing with salt water so it goes down the drain. Are you using water from the tap or do you have a water filtration system? For my salt tank it’s small enough I just buy distilled water in gallons but that getting costly and old.
Click to expand...

My water is perfect for Malawi straight out of the tap. I have an RODI filter for when I was doing salt. My dread of all the endless maintenance outpaced my enthusiasm for marine aquaria pretty quickly. I do NOT miss mucking out the protein skimmer. Ugh. Or filling the top-off reservoir. Or mixing salt. Or freaking refractometers.. Lol.

Oh, btw - nitrite levels continue to climb, but still no appreciable decline in ammonia. Wait on.
 
Last edited:
Tinkerbelle099 said:
hey Grass Snake, do you have an aquarium?
I think we need pictures :D
Click to expand...
Looks like crap right now it’s embarrassing. It really needs some attention. I’ll share pics after it’s cleaned up. Here’s a pic of a shrimp for now. My friend brought him from the ocean thinking I could use another critter in my tank but he’s not going in my main tank. Now I’m just stuck with him. The Wife wants to release him back in the ocean (300 miles away). I’m thinking about grilling him up but since it was your birthday yesterday he all yours Happy Birthday Tinks
2343258D-C9C9-449F-804B-A14DF7037E30.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Hey Eckley have you see this for water changes? Kind of pricey but seems like a time saver. If I could use tap I’d probably get this.
 
Grass Snake said:
Hey Eckley have you see this for water changes? Kind of pricey but seems like a time saver. If I could use tap I’d probably get this.
Click to expand...

I've had them in the past. A turkey baster is easier and the sand falls back out. I like to keep the flow and aquascape working together to prevent stuff settling on the sand. Lemme see if I can find a photo I'm thinking of.. little trick I used to use.

Well, this isn't the photo I wanted. I've got one somewhere of this tank before it was filled. You can still sort of see it, I'll just have to explain a bit. This was one of several working tanks I kept for breeding Victorians back when I swam to the front door. See the little nozzles poking up through the sand in the foreground? They're at the ends of PVC pipe I had running along under the sand. There are two more nozzles in the back behind the rocks. They are the outputs of the two powerheads driving sponge filters in the rear corners. The nozzles were positioned such that nothing could ever settle on the sand - every little bit of poo and detritus was eventually caught by the sponges (which also hosted large populations of my nitrifyers). This is all the filtration this 55g tank needs. I simply pulled the sponges, squeezed them out in the waste water from a change, then put them back. This trick works for show tanks, too - just hide the nozzles with rocks. Black powerheads, black sponges, black background, and careful aquascape and the equipment just about disappears.
IMG_5295.jpg


Derp, here it is. Both corners had one of these jobs.
03310122471.jpg


0331012247a1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Tinkerbelle099 said:
Don't you dare eat my birthday shrimpy - I shall love him and hug him and call him Cecil :lol:
Click to expand...

He doesn't look too terribly appetizing, anyway..

An old fish buddy of mine once rescued an 18" pacu from a guy who was going to eat it because he couldn't keep it.
 
Last edited:
Just checked levels. Nitrites are way high, which is good, and ammonia is coming down, which is also good. I dosed the ammonia back up to where I need it. Coming along. Jazzed to finally be making progress again!
 
Ammonia's still not being consumed fast enough, but I got a big fat nitrate reading! So both types of nitrifyers are present and growing. Wait on.
20221112_142827.jpg
 
Lol, you're good. Go ahead and tease - this is taking forever.. It's been well over a year now since I resolved to build this thing.

Just a few more days, gang. I dosed the ammonia back up this afternoon. Nitrites and nitrates will climb and climb, then ammonia and nitrites will crash and I'll just continue to feed the tank ammonia until the fish arrive. We're looking for yellow, blue, and red tubes.

It's getting a tad funky in the display. Some bacterial splotches on the sand here and there and some hair algae. This is all good at this point. It's ALIVE!!
 
Last edited:
Getting antsy, wanna test the thing every couple hours, lol. Need to wait the full 24 hours to keep the dose consistent. Few more hours to go.

Somebody please remind me to set the water temp back down when I talk about having the fish ordered. I've got it up a few degrees for the cycle and I'm apt to forget about it.
 
Ammonia is good - consuming 4ppm in 24 hours or less. Just need nitrites to crash now. It'll be this week.
 
I've got new lights arriving today and Wife has started painting the new canopy lid. Eager to test nitrites this afternoon. Funny, the poplar canopy lid has started to move back into shape. If I left it I bet it would be curly in the summer and flat in the winter.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top