Boita Compatibility

[BigFish01]

Hey greenmumma, i dont know if your still trying to figure out your ph thing but this might help you understand it a little better. helped me a little! 
 
http/www.fishlore.com/fishforum/ph/113548-understanding-ph-kh-gh-home-aqauriums.html

 

[greenmumma141]

Oh man, i hate breaking glass stuff, let alone your tank lid 

  ...there would have been some interesting words if I had done that lol.  I have a shop light on my tank too, and I always worry about the water somehow getting to it, but so far so good I guess. 
 
Glad to hear you bn doesn't have fungus or anything, he's just getting spikey lol. I really hope mine is a male, Im pretty sure he is, but I only see a couple on each side of his face, and I know that females sometimes have a few on their cheeks (do fish have cheeks lol). But I guess we'll just wait and see. I like her a lot anyways, so either way Im glad i have her, and I only have 1 in a 60 gal, i could always pick up another later on if she turns into a she.
 
I actually didn't soak the wood at all, i just scrubbed it really well and glued my plants on lol. i DID have to make a couple size modifications to get it to fit

and i only had to do this once to get it in there, so i was quite impressed with myself haha. i took a couple pictures but they're rubbish :gross: i hate my background still, it def. hasn't grown on me like I was hoping it would, and my tank is still kinda swampy, from the diatoms...still. I just noticed that I have to rinse out both of my filter sponges bc they're clogged and the top to the filters have BOTH popped up again. BUT, i did want to show you what the wood looks like in. SO...
 
here's the big piece, just weighing it down with rocks, which took like 4 to weigh it down. it was the weirdest wood Ive ever seen. It's super light and buoyant but cutting the roots was much harder than i thought it would be.  i need to move the plants from behind it, it's pretty messy lol

 
Top of the hill, the cave is still in the back there, you can barely see it through the vallis

 ...and new java twig thing hehe

 
middle of the tank, again looks messy. Having trouble planting all the crypts and swords and making it look good. I think moving the crispus behind the swords will help though...

 
 
silly angels

 
I had so many chances to get a good pic of Edward (my albino bn), but my camera is just not the best for tank shots, and i have to move between settings ugh. this is the best pic i got of him-

 
Here's a tiger lotus bulb i ordered. It cam in the mail on Saturday completely bare and by Tuesday night (last night) it had two new leaf sprouts!

 
thats all

as i said, it's a little swampy hehe but it does look much better in person. 

 

[BigFish01]

I know the looking much better in person thing. i can take millions of photos of my tank and delete most of them and have like 2 left. and the settings on the camera i tell you there are a million different things i can do with mine. I get it figured out and then something changes.. or i take it outside. should just dedicate it to the fish tank and thats it! haha
 
there were all kinds of quiet cursing coming out of my mouth when i broke my lid. of course it would have been much much louder if my girlfriend wasnt upstairs sleeping and needed to be up at 430am.. ha. I was actually very surprised that she didnt wake up as it was!!! 
 
I really really like the look of your new wood and the plants that you have going on. the wood has a very very nice color to it and it looks really good with everything!
 
My plants in my display tank seem to be dwindling down to my qt tank.. ha and they are growing rather quickly in there. the clowns just wont leave them alone. 

every day i came home there was more chunks floating around! I think i found out why they were looking weaker also. tested my gh and kh and it was way off from my little tank and tap water. Not sure whats up with that. I am now using my tap water before any filters and the water softner. Its a little hard for my loaches i think but the ph is the same. guess we will see as we go on! 
 
I really like the tiger lotus. they look really cool!
 
My albino tigers are going in the main tank this weekend i'm pretty sure. 

then to find some more fish to go into the qt tank. 

 my plan is to keep the qt tank up and planted heavily. My gf is already used to it being there maybe she wont get too upset

 

[greenmumma141]

The wood has a really nice color to it, I agree  I think once i rearrange a few plants and am done with these ick meds :gross:, hopefully my tank won't be so swampy. I just can't get it to look neat (as in tidy).
 
I can't wait to see the albinos in the big tank, i bet you're excited!!!
 
Ive never tested my gh or kh, kind of scared to lol Im positive it will just be something else for me to worry about. I haven't looked at that link yet, I was kind of to the point where.... there's not much I can do without buying new filters etc, and i dont want to add chems. to my tank, and all of my fish are fine. Im wondering if that's why certain cories don't seem to do well in my tanks? Im really thinking that it's the LFS that i purchased most of my cories though, and I don't plan to ever go back there. 
 
There was another sprout on the tiger lotus bulb last night. I really like them too, they're very different looking.
 
Have you witnessed the yoyos eating your plants? Maybe it's just the clowns hehehe
 
I bet the plants will do great in your qt tank. I remember my first tank, a 10 gallon. I put a couple plants in and they took off like crazy. They were even pearling at one point. Im thinking about trying to make my own led light fixture for my tank... hmmm....
 
make sure you take pics or a video of the albinos!!!

 

[BigFish01]

The tigers are all in my main tank now. Wow they look good!! I will get some video for ya this weekend. Me and my little bn have been slacking on the algae growth and it looks nasty. He dont seem to like the green algae at all. Maybe i will have to get a couple caes again...

Im kinda wishing i didnt get the hardness tests... Lol just two more things to be in my mind and test for constantly.. Ha

oh well my g.f might be getting a job as a rn at the hospital soon. Great for pay but will be 7pm to 7am. Crappy hours since i work 730 to 530pm...its a foot in the door though so its good

hope everything is going good on your end.

Oh and im concidering rehoming the clowns.. I really like them but they can be destructive! I dont know. Will have to make that decision when i tear the tank down completely to put it in its final home when we finish the livingroom in the basement. I kinda like it setting out so i can walk around it though... Lol

 

[phantomlink]

Thats... some very, very thick substrate you have going on there

 

[BigFish01]

Here's the video I promised you greenmumma. Hope you like it! You get to see the clowns, tigers, albino tigers, and polka dotted loaches
http/youtu.be/7iOQJqKWWx0


Oh and ignore the sickly plant i have there. my plants are all in my little tank but those last couple so they can develop some better roots. then they will try it again!

 

[BigFish01]

I think i need to get some new lights, the regular fluorescent lights dont show off the orange in them like the pink bulb did in  the qt.. Eh oh well, another days project!

 

[greenmumma141]

Great video!!!!! Love videos in the mornin with my coffee
 
The albinos look like they're settling into the new tank quite well! They look really good, I like them a lot. Are they schooling with the tigers? It looked like they were, but at feeding time it's always a bit hard to tell. My barbs go from schooling in a nice neat little group, to splashing around like a school of sharks lol. I almost thought I was going to lose one of my tigers the other day... I had just done a water change so my water level was as high as it can be without the fish swimming into the filters, and I while I was feeding them their dinner, the barbs were showing their regular excitement lol, one of them jumped out of the water and hit the lid!!! I had both sides open, so luckily he hit the median(?)... then kinda just swam around acting stunned for a while. He seems to be doing just fine now though, and he didn't scratch himself or anything. In fact, i think i was much more upset than he was hahaha...
 
I think I need to invest in new bulbs too. I think mine are just not giving off the right colors and that's also why it's hard to get a great pic of the tank.
 
Well, I havent been dosing the ick meds for a bit and Im lowering the temp back down, very slowly. I have a new heater, and Im pretty pleased with it. The temp is just about right on. After I did that big rescape, I had my water level so low for so long (hard to do very in depth tank stuff without the baby chiming in after a while...and the 3 yr old.. and husband haha )  and I didn't even think about the heater! So the next morning! i came down stairs and instantly could tell something was wrong bc I did see any fish swimming around! The temp was at 67!! So i had to run out to petco and get a new heater... 300W :

 It is, however, not black like the last one.. which does bother me a bit but the sword in front of it is doing really well so hopefully it will be covered soon.
 
Speaking of swords, one of mine has a weird little shoot on it that doesnt look like a new life, Im thinking it might bloom!!!!  If so, I will def take some pics..
 
Sorry to hear about your clowns being destructive. That's a big bummer. It's a hard choice to make, but it's definitely legitimate. I would have to rehome any fish that left me plant-less so I don't blame ya, that's for sure. You have the polka dots now, so you won't be loach-less. Im sure its a hard choice though 

  It would def. free up a ton of bottom feeder room for you.. you could get a HUGE schoal of cories going... haha now Im extending the cory obsession to your tank . You could do a lot of things with that much room though...
 
Sorry I havent been checking up on your posts, it's been a crazy week. I got a new a phone . I guess that's kind of all thats been going on really haha it felt like i had much more than that lol

Thats... some very, very thick substrate you have going on there

 
 
I know in know  I have a big hill. I agitate the sand once a week before my water changes, and so far so good!

 

[BigFish01]

I understand the being busy thing I wish I could get a new phone... but I just bought a new toolbox for work.. that about drained me dry.. the albinos do school with the regular tigers. its really cool to watch them. I would be down there watching them right now but its just too cold down there for me tonight.. its probably about 43 deg down there. Went down there to feed them and decided i didnt want to hang out.. haha.
 
finally cleaned all the algae off my glass last night. man I should break that up into separate sections to do per day. thats a lot of glass to clean!!! 
 
What phone did you get? I would love to get a smart phone but i cant see paying the data rates verizon charges. I would use too much for the cheap plans listening to pandora all day at work and it would cost me a fortune. I could switch to sprint but I have never liked their service... oh well
 
Glad you caught your heater issue before it went bad! I finally got all my heaters all situated. I have to check all the time to make sure one dont go bad in the big tank. wouldnt take long for disaster in that cold of temps down there 
 
O i found a t5 fixture i had in my other tool box i'm gonna try to find a bulb for it and add it to my current lighting, will put me at 1.25 wpg i believe, possibly more because t5 is more efficient and wpg is calculated different from what I have read. that reminds me I need to do some searching  

 

[greenmumma141]

I got a LG dynamic. I like it a lot. I guess it's the "entry level" smart phone which is good for me bc Im just starting to text haha. We went with the straight talk unlimited and Im pretty happy with the service and everything. 
 
Yeaaah... 43 is a bit nippy to sit and enjoy the fish. Maybe with a hot, hot, hot cup of coffee lol.  
 
I know what you mean about the algae, it's a lot of work to scrape a tank, even my 30 gallon was a pain.
 
I must be a space shot bc after the WC yesterday, I forgot to plug my heater in again lol, i caught it in a couple hours though so everything was fine. If my tank was in the basement, my fish would probably all be dead lol
 
I have two t8 bulbs, a little over 1 wpg. I want to try using the shop light fixture and wiring the LED pot lights into it, it would give me 60 wpgs but LEDs, so really it would be the same as 120 wpg.      We'll see how that goes if I ever get around to it lol good luck with the T5, 1.25 wpg is good, you should be able to grow all kinds of plants with that.  
 
Decided what to do with the clown loaches?  

 

[BigFish01]

Wow, just starting to text huh? I have been a texter since high school. up here anywhere within ten miles of the lake you get bad reception and verizon is the best out here. they are the only one with 4G also which is cool but still too expensive,  I need to pay off my new toolbox before I can think of that! it cost almost as much as a new car.. we had smart phones before they changed the data rates and it was still like 170 for two phones.. thats too much for me.. Now it might be a little cheaper if I could keep from going over the data limit..... hmm not to mention the phone I want is practically a tablet.. Samsung galaxy note II. that thing is huge! 
 
its warmed up to about 48 now in the basement.. ha! I dont do coffee though.. would have to be hot chocolate or something like that..  
 
I have 4 32 watt t8's hanging over mine, gives me 128watts and i'm assuming with the rocks and everything i'm at about 125gallons, still deeper than most tanks also, might be why the other plants weren't doing so well... they are growing like weeds in my 20gal with almost 2wpg.. soo much easier over a small tank.. haha. I also have some nasty stuff growing in there too. will have to go out this weekend and get another bn to clean that one up! but the plants are happy and healthy so far. if they moved more I would do plants rather than fish.. haha yeah right. 
 
I have not decided yet what to do with the clowns. I will be very very picky on who they go to and I wont give them away for free. I will need to see their tank and make sure its big enough .. ya know. over protective parent here! well heck they are my only kids so it works! 

 

[snazy]

I spent hours reading this thread. Very interesting and a lovely tank.
I wanted to comment on the clown loaches eating plants. Mine at first did but since i started feeding a lot of algae wafers,they stopped completely and now won't touch the same exactly plants they used to vigorously destroy. I had read that clown loaches lacking vegetable matter in their diet would supplement themselves with plants if any are available. I keep feeding now 50/50 of both types of food and they like the algae wafers as much as the other stuff if not more.

 

[snazy]

Here is a recent video of mine:
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cbL_ecBMFA

 

[BigFish01]

Thanks a lot snazy! You probably just saved my clown loaches.

You have a really stunning group. What size tank do you have?  I really do like them a lot. I was also planning on putting gravel around the plants to help keep them from being uprooted also by the big guys. I really love the piece of wood in your tank. It really looks awesome! I'm going to pick up a new tube for my tank tomorrow as well as an algae eater for my grow out tank at the moment. seem to have some brown algae growth which I know the BN plecos love from experience!! then when it comes time the little one will go good with my other in the main tank so its a win win situation.
 
Thanks again snazy, I started with the algae tabs tonight. Will alternate days between the carnivore pellets and the wafers. maybe that will calm them down a lot!  

 
And thanks for the compliment on the tank. its been a lot of work and a lot of changes, thinking about changing it up quite a bit again soon. We will see how that goes. my poor fish hate it when I do that but then again I think they like the change after they calm down.