10 Tank's fish and tanks

[Colin_T]

There are a few dogs near me that howl and bark too much, however they tend to do it in the evening and at night, whereas you get them in the morning. I'm keeping records of the annoyance for the council, not that they will do anything but at least there's a record of it for when I snap and kill the owners for not shutting their dogs up. OMG why can't people control their dogs.

We would like pictures of the bird and garden please

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Colin. Thanks for your reply. We live in a crowded residential area. The houses are really close together and the lots are small. Most houses are two story with full basements, so there's a lot of room in a somewhat smaller, vertical space. But, that's kind of the way we like it. We live in a tri city area with a population of around 350,000. So, I guess the noisy dogs and neighbors is sometimes to be expected. We're really close to everything we need and have a small electric car that zooms around the city so easily. I'll definitely post some photos later today. Thanks for asking. Please check in once in while and leave some of your fish keeping advice.

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[10 Tanks]

Wednesday. Here's a photo of "Peanut". This is my wife's parakeet. She doesn't like to hear the running faucet in the kitchen. She'll scold us if we let it run more than a few seconds! She also doesn't like the sound of a small blender we use.

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[10 Tanks]

More photos on Wednesday. Here are couple of the back yard garden. It's early, but things are starting to really grow. The first is one of my favorite plants. This is a grape vine that produces the sweetest grapes I've ever tasted. By late July this vine will have doubled in size. When I change the water on the outdoor tank, I let the tank water run into the area where the vine is planted. We have some Iris that have already bloomed for the year and four different varieties of tomatoes, along with some annuals in pots.

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[10 Tanks]

Good morning. It's Thursday and we're starting over on the tanks today. We're trying to remove and replace half the water in all the tanks around every five to six days. With this aggressive a water change routine, you could miss a day with no problems as far as water chemistry. This routine will guarantee a steady water chemistry and the water will always be high in the minerals and other nutrients the fish and plants need for sustained good health. We do have some old fish. The oldest is a seven year old Pleco and some six year old White Skirt Tetras. We also have a six year old Orange Saddle hybrid Corydoras. The oldest Goldfish are probably turning seven shortly too. I'm convinced that this is due to two things: Large, regular water changes and just a little food.

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[JackGulley]

The only problem with the “only water changes” method is if you need the tank conditions to be different than your tap. For instance, my water is as soft as a newborn baby, but my tank needs hard water for the shrimp and platys. So I use media in the filter to increase the hardness. If I treated every batch of new water instead, it would be very expensive.

 

[10 Tanks]

The only problem with the “only water changes” method is if you need the tank conditions to be different than your tap. For instance, my water is as soft as a newborn baby, but my tank needs hard water for the shrimp and platys. So I use media in the filter to increase the hardness. If I treated every batch of new water instead, it would be very expensive.

Hello. A valid point. I've been fortunate to live where the water out of the tap has always been near neutral. I've kept a large number of different species over the last 20 years or so and have never considered changing the water chemistry. I just figured that I wouldn't be able to maintain a specific water chemistry and a steady water chemistry through large, frequent water changes would be the best for the fish. I think that over all the years of keeping fish, this has been the case.

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[10 Tanks]

Friday morning. It's coffee break time and am sitting on the couch and planning the day. Three tanks today and this includes the government tank. We typically will do the outdoor tank too, but we did it yesterday. A couple of the government people were over to see how their Koi were doing. I think they left thinking that we'll take better care of their fish than the botanical garden people with the water feature will. I'm thinking they'll just leave the fish with us for the time being and leave the plants to the people at the garden. Anyway, time will tell.

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[10 Tanks]

Saturday morning and we have two more tanks that require a large water change. These two have a small, internal filter in them. Both have some Buenos Aires Tetras and some Guppies. There's also one Red Eyed Tetra in one of the tanks, that has be at least two years old. I really like these new internal filters. Didn't think I would when I put them in, but they work well to aerate the tank water and keep it nice and clear. The Tetras seem to prefer water that has some movement. I've been cleaning these filters every time I perform a water change and I know that helps the filter work at its best.

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[10 Tanks]

Sunday morning. Another pretty, but warm day here. So quiet in the early morning. The best time of the day. So, we'll work on a 60 and 75 gallon tank today. Have noticed the Scissor Tail Rasboras are very shy. They'll stay in one corner of the 75 gallon tank, in a heavily planted area and won't come out until feeding time. I have them in with some Platys and Guppies. They're very slender fish, especially the males. But, they seem healthy, so maybe they'll eventually become more comfortable and move around the tank.

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[10 Tanks]

Sunday morning supplemental post. Have been planning to visit some of local ponds and lakes to find minnows. Will finally get some time today, between water changes in my tanks, to see if I can get some minnows. I have some room in my 75 gallon tank for them. Hopefully, I can net a few and add them to my tank. This may or may not be a nice addition to one of my tanks. We'll see. I believe with so much clean water being run through the 75, the new minnows with thrive like the other fish.

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[10 Tanks]

A third Sunday post. Well, no luck getting the minnows. We went to a couple of lakes and the water was so murky, you couldn't see much. Could have been due to all the water runoff from the mountains flowing into the lakes. We'll just scrap our plans for the minnows until later in the Summer.

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[10 Tanks]

Monday. The beginning of another nice week in the summertime! Four tanks are on the schedule today. We'll go over to the government office and check on their tank and do three here at home. We're slowly moving back to using a little filtration in some tanks. The water just started getting a little too hazy for our liking, so we're using a small, internal filter to filter out the small particles in the water that tend to give it a hazy look. We moved away from filters 10 years ago and then came back to them. Now, we're doing the same thing in the last few months. It appears we've come full circle. But, that's the hobby in our case.

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[10 Tanks]

Monday morning supplemental posting. The outdoor 300 gallon tank is done and the 100 is filling. Fish were fed and everything looks good. At my age, almost 71, the need to downsize is always on my mind. I'm thinking of keeping the 100 gallon plastic tub for moving fish from a smaller tank to it. Might work. Still have quite a bit of time to think about it. I think. Right now, things are working well. The water changes are really no problem and all this tank stuff and my other animal related duties, keeps me very busy.

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[10 Tanks]

Tuesday morning and we're gearing up for today's tank work. It's going to be a fairly light day. We have a 45 gallon tall and a 55 gallon. We're slowly moving toward adding a bit of filtration to the tanks. We're not going back to the sponge filter though. I like these small, internal filters that are used for turtle tanks. If you use this type of filter, you have to lower the water level in the tank just a bit. But they provide just enough filtration to keep the water clear and to add more oxygen to the tank water. They're inexpensive and easy to clean. We'll keep the media extra clean, so it will last as long as possible. Is this the beginning of downsizing? I believe it is. There's not going to be as much water to remove and replace for sure.

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