From The Ashes. Another Planted Journal

[Man of fish]

I didn't mean to be mean

I sowwy

 

[FishFanatic04]

Question for all those who know... DO ALL plecos poop like Bn's? I realize with all this stupid playsand showing I'll get to look a poo all day

 

[Man of fish]

No. There's a lot of varieties that dont actually!

Get the bn fiahfanatic get the bn! You are under my command, get the bn!!!

 

[FishFanatic04]

ugh FINE!

 

[Man of fish]

my work here is done I'll be sticking around incase you somehow fall out of my command.

 

[gregswimm]

Well, I rescaped both tanks today I am not happy. My Vallisneria americana showed up today and it looks awful. It's supposed to be green right? The 2 swords that I ordered are lovely though.

Problem is, I have 9 swords in a cluster around the wood. With the vallis in the corner and the dwarf sag all over. There's something very wrong about how I have planted the swords. My kiddies were starting to whine about how hungry they are So I had to stop.


All the crypts were moved to my 46g which is another problem story.

Send the valls back!

And I wouldn't mess with the swords too much, they are susceptible to melt.

 

[FishFanatic04]

The guy I ordered the vallis from mentioned sending me a new shipment. The good thing is I only paid a $1 a plant even though his listing on aquabid was for $3.35 each. I do know how to haggle.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Well. My tanks are just cycling away on their own! Most people would have put a smiley face, but I am no where near ready to stock these tanks. I expected to be cycling until July 1st and thats where my budget gets slightly lifted. I am only adding 2 or 3 fish per tank to start and then stocking super slowly after that so I am not cycling my filter the the capacity most people do. I am going to go to the point where the ammonia in my tap is fully cleared in lees then a day. None of the 3-5 ppm in 12 hours stuff. That's too much effort when my bacteria will die back after adding a few fish.

In hindsight, I wish I could have just setup one tank with both filters instead of cycling the two, but the plant situation messed with that.

I am thinking about added a few Bolivians Here and a few platies to my 46g to hold the filters until I can order the serious stuff.

My heart is aching for a Betta as this is the first time in my life since being 4-5 years old, that I haven't had a Betta in my home. I plan to order a beauty from thailand. Some kind of full finned Halfmoon is the ticket.

 

[gregswimm]

The filters will be fine. Once cycled they never really un-cycle. It may die back, but once it's cycled it's more or less ready for fish. You could put a few pieces of food in the tank, they will slowly release ammonia which will keep your filter up .

I'm not sure a half-moon betta is such a good idea in that tank. They cannot swim too well with all that extra finage. But a wild type could work, even a plakat or king beta could be a better choice. Check it out , if you I might bid unless you want it .

Something like this for cichlid stocking would be a fantastic deal. Wait for a pair to bond and trade the rest for other fish . Like $25 for 6 fish shipped. Even some moliwe for $55 shipped isn't such a horrible deal considering how hard they are to find. Anything but bolivians, so mundane lol.

 

[FishFanatic04]

lol The betta isn't for this tank!!! I planned to let it live big in my 46g depending on how things work out.

This 75g is meant for Angelfish and everything is planned around that. It is going to be a S. American biotope and Bettas are certainly not S. american



I already have a tentative stocking plan here. My thread on the Angelfish choices is here...Angelfish Types I am looking into a wild breed with lines that I can track 100%


I plan to have Bolivian Rams with them and have a nice breeding tank I can setup if I see any pairs. In the case of aggression it can be called the "time-out" tank.

The Bolivians aren't going anywhere on my list. I have had them and they ended up being so full of personality and colored up more then I thought they would based on things I read about them. They were fantastic and fit with my water parameters perfectly.

I really like Kribs actually and want to keep some but my husband is very settled on Bolivians and it's the only thing he has shown interest in with this hobby.

 

[gregswimm]

Ya mang, angels are awesome! There are plenty of WC fish out there and pure bread F1s, too many people like to make garbage 'designer' types. Bolivians are like the goldfish of the cichlid world lol.

Well, Im off to go #106### up your angle fish threat

 

[FishFanatic04]

Water tests today showed zero ammonia and a nice nitrite spike after 24 hours. The 46g is a few days farther along as the nitrites were 1.0 ppm. Must be over the hump there.

In a few weeks I'll be able to add some fish. I am thinking about hitting up the petsmart sale and buying a bunch of platies and guppies to toss in both tanks. There are many benefits to doing this.

1. My tanks will stay cycled enough until I can order my true stock.
2. Some platies and guppies at petsmart are only $1 each right now. Mollys are $1 too but I dislike Mollys.
3. I actually like platies. And have never had a guppy. The tanks would be very lively to start instead of adding one or two fish every few weeks.
4. I'm friends with the employees in my local petco and they will take the extra platies and pop them back up for sale, so no harm done.


My big issue with this is possibly introducing parasites. I need to get over that squeamishness. People buy fish from stores and online all the time and are fine.

Another benefit would be the tanks maturing. If there are any problems left from the bleaching of everything, I would rather find out with fish that cost $1

 

[gregswimm]

NOoooooo, don't get any fish from those big chain stores. Every time I get something it always ends up with fish AIDS. Those tanks are never very clean and constantly have sick/dead fish going in and out of them. Saving a few buck on a fish isn't worth bringing an infection to your tank again.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Is it different then a stranger on aquabid? Thats the debate I am having now. Saving a few bucks isn't the goal: I'm trying to get stock into my tanks after cycling these filters, otherwise I'll have ammonia spikes when I order the fish that I have to get online. The angels are going to be close to $180 or more if I get the BN's there. Shipping is expensive. I can't buy a few at a time and pay multiple shipping charges.

Adding 6 angelfish and 2 or 3 bn's to a tank at once could leave me with an ammonia spike and a water change adds ammonia. My filter will be overwhelmed the $180 in fish stock will be overly stressed and exposed to ammonia and nitrite poisoning. I will not add them to a tank that can't handle their bioload. I also will not add them until the tank is more mature.

I am trying to do this thing the right way, and be cost effective. I cant shop at my LFS. The only option is a chain store. I can't stock my tanks they way I need to without going to Petsmart. Petsmart has a warranty on fish as well. I can QT them for a few days, feed a medication laced food and if they are healthy they go in the big tank.

Please don't knock the chain stores in my thread. That's a good way to get my journal closed.

 

[gregswimm]

QT for no less than 30 days. Also feed the tank, you wont have ammo issues, I promise. FF I love your journals, you also do the best hard-scapes I have ever seen! I would hate to see anything bad happen to your tank, I would kick myself if I didn't say anything.

I need to get off and get back to cramming for my histology exam >_<