Aquariums... anybody?

[thomasortega]

I've been postponing this thread for several weeks, until today I finally managed to find some time.

First or all, I want to thank Kevin (Revvinkevin) and Manny for "accidentally" relighting an old passion that I love and abandoned when I moved to the USA.

It was funny because when I was in Brazil, it was absurdly expensive to import supplies for my marine aquarium and I always said "Gosh, when I move to the USA, it will be so much cheaper and I'll end up with a million tanks at home." Only $10 for a bag of salt? In Brazil it costs $400 (US dollars) for exactly the same Seachem salt!

Anyway, even with an absurd cost, I had a 750 liter marine tank, two 120 liters freshwater tanks, 1 marine nano cube (15 liter) and 5 "water box" cubes (12 liters each) planted.

My marine tank caused me an absurd loss years ago when the top of a reverse osmosis sump filter cracked and the aquarium drained in the middle of the night. I woke up in the morning to find my apartment flooded and thousands of dollars of discus, a starfish, a seahorse and my coral reef dead. Only one of the starfish survived, even being thrown in one of the freshwater tanks (It's still alive until today and huge at my sister's house.

That made me so pissed off that I gave the giant tank to my sister, then ended up reducing my collection to only one 120 liter freshwater tank with piranhas that I gave to a friend one day before I moved to the USA.

ANYWAY... almost four years have past. Manny one day mentions "I want an aquarium". OMG! That phrase hit me like a bomb! in two seconds I was excited, throwing up a rainbow, with little hearts jumping off my eyes and butterflies in the stomach.

Kevin got 10 gal "starter kit", I got a 5 gal Aqueon starter kit.

Both our tanks are "meh" just like all starter kits, with those flimsy Chinese-crap back filters, but we gotta start at some point, right? My very first "aquarium" was a tiny 1 liter betta tank. Manny did a very nice artificial decoration on his tank (great for a beginner). I went a bit more conservative, but added one live plant to mine.

Yesterday I purchased a decent Seachem filter to mine. Days ago I bought a LED light bar.It's great because it has an electronic control that can simulate the daylight cycle (and it had a ridiculous "disco light" model that Kevin, the fishes and I hated

I want to have a bigger tank (of course nothing absurdly big because I don't want my apartment to collapse), freshwater with a school of tetras and a smaller marine tank (probably 20 gal max). I don't want to have a coral reef anymore because it's a real PITA to take care of it, even for advanced aquarists. Oh, and I also want to have a nano cube or a water box in the bathroom with maybe a clown fish and an anemone or a jellyfish tank, that I always loved.

I'm curious. How about you, guys? Does anybody else here also love aquariums the same way I love?

 

[tomturbomatic]

I kept them for years, from age 7 on; it was a good way to play in the water without playing with the washer or dishwasher when I was younger. I used to raise the aquatic plants and swap them at the store for fish. The death of the whole thing came when I moved to a house with brass supply pipes and the plants did not like that.  I gave the equipment & tanks to my brother.

 

[kate1]

I have never really wanted a huge aquarium or anything, honestly mostly because I would have no idea how to decorate around one or know where to even put such a thing. My son really loves fish though so I bought him a betta fish for his birthday with a little 2.5 gallon tank. I got a little moss ball and a few aquatic plants to go in the tank too. It’s small and fits on a table and with the plants and everything it looks really nice and fits in with the rest of my decor nicely, I have numerous house plants in every room and I have the fish tank with a small grouping of potted plants. My son is happy taking care of his little fishy and I’m happy. I’ve actually considered buying a second tank and getting a different colored betta for another part of the room but I’m not entirely sure.

 

[thomasortega]

That's cool, Kate!

Bettas are awesome fishes.

I wouldn't recommend a giant tank because the maintenance is a pain and the monthly cost can be very high in water treatment and consequently food. and I'm not considering the electrical bill, during the summer you spend tons of electricity with chillers (which is almost like a central air conditioner for the fishes "home") running 24/7 and during the winter the heater running like crazy.

Small aquariums, on the other hand are also very difficult to manage because of the concentrations. I recommend smaller than 10 gallon ONLY if you have very advanced knowledge as a silly mistake like 1 drop more of a chemical can cause a complete chaos with the water ballance.

15-25 gal freshwater is ideal for beginners. They're inexpensive to set up, easy to maintain and don't cause any impact to the electrical bill.

If you like to spend some minutes per day "relaxing" while you do the yeard work, then make a planted tank... if not, there are silk-made artificial plants (never plastic) that are extremely realistic. Luckily nowadays aquariums can be almost fully automated and the automation is not expensive as it used to be 5 years ago.

The only problem with excess automation is that you can forget the aquarium exists and remember you have fishes to admire and love only when the alarm sounds to refill the automatic feeder or to alert you to do a 10% water change or wash the filter media.

Nowadays companies want to have more profit with disposable media... NEVER replace the filter media unless it's visibly damaged. When doing a water change, just shake the media in the bucket with the old aquarium water to remove excess. never wash it in the sink. Every time you replace the media, it can take up to 3 weeks for the good bacteria to buildup again and ammonia levels in the tank can suddenly peak and kill the fish. Aquarium filters are not like Vacuum cleaner filters that work best when extremely clean. That brown thing that looks like dirt is actually what makes the filter work best, so never clean it until it shines... just remove the excess that can reduce the flow, never a neat freak clean.

For a betta, there's a myth that they must be alone. That's sad! Spending the life with nobody to play with. Bettas can't be together with other bettas (unless the tank has a divider) or some tropical fish, but they do well with invertebrates. Consider getting a snail or a shrimp (never a small shrimp or it will be eaten by the betta) or a tiny crab. They also help cleaning the tank.

Cory and catfish also get along well with bettas if your tank is at least 5 gal.

 

[spacedogb]

I have a 125gal Saltwater tank that I currently have set up with freshwater Cichlids. The upkeep and cost of saltwater is more than I care to spend right now.

 

[sudsmaster]

Never had a saltwater tank but have had varying sizes of aquariums since high school... off and on... I used to spend a lot of time after school in the same building at the Steinhardt Aquarium in SF, so I guess I got a bit spoiled by those displays.

My favorite tank was a "natural" setup. Just water, some plants, and some small fish from a local pond. Easy maintenance.

For the past 22 years I've lived on a property with an in-ground koi pond. So I have spent a fair amount of time and money on getting that going again, and going through the trials of keeping the fish healthy and protecting them against predators. Currently one of the koi has to be about 20 lbs... it's a glutton... also have a pond turtle in there that is getting fat and happy. Plus a bunch of average gold fish, which mate and spawn new ones; there's a crop of younguns stirring up the silt right now.

It can be relaxing to gaze into a nice aquarium. Or sitting by the side of a koi pond and feeding the turtle strips of chicken (she loves it).

 

[sudsomatic]

Algae is the devil

I've had aquariums off and on over the years. Always smaller sized freshwater tanks as Saltwater was out of my budget. The last 10 years, give or take, I've maintained a 55 Gallon tank that I inherited from a relative that got tired of maintaining it

 

The past 2 years or so, Algae has been harder and harder to deal with.

 

It seemed to start when I bought live plants to replace my shoddy looking plastic ones. I got this fine, hair-like algae growing all over everything almost overnight. This was new to me, had never seen anything like it before.

 

I tried water changes up to a 70% new water ratio, followed up with algae treatments but the problem persisted, i used an old net to pull it off of everything as well as I could, but it just grew back seemingly worse. Finally, out of frustration, I pulled everything out and cleaned it thoroughly, got rid of the live plants (just in case) and purchased new gravel. I thought I was good to go but the "hair" came back!  I discovered I did not clean my pump thoroughly as it seemed to originate from that area on the water intake tube and the glass it was placed near.

 

I decided to treat again as the amount was more manageable this time (I also cleaned that pump again) and for a bit all seemed fine.. but then one day I notice these odd little pollops popping up everywhere. They started tiny, I didn't notice them at first, but suddenly they are everywhere and they are blooming! the millions of little pollops opened up into these growths that reminded me a little bit of the spiky outer hull of chestnuts. Again, something I had never seen or experienced before in this aquarium or all the past tanks I've ran.

 

And so I played the same games, replaced and treated the water... it just seemed to make it worse. Fished out the blooms... only for a hundred more to pop up a few days later. And finally pulled out the last ditch effort again and fully emptied and scrubbed everything, starting over with clean accessories and pump and new gravel and water.

 

It looked really nice once again, my two fish (A giant Angel Fish and an almost as big Silver Dollar) that had somehow survived all the algae shenanigans lived through their 3rd "restart" and I was in the process of letting the tank get acclimated so I could introduce some new fish.

 

And then.... I encountered The Blob! About 2 weeks ago I discovered this odd, gelatinous, growth slowly creeping from behind my center piece ornament in the tank. It had slowly started to inch it's way into one of my plastic plants, one of those small short kind made to look like a sea urchin. The way it has slowly began to envelope it, it looks exactly like the Outer Space creature from that Steve McQueen flick.

 

The Blob is slowly growing and taking over the center of the tank. He resembles a giant loogie in color and texture. I haven't tried to  extract him as I'm worried it will break apart and go all over infecting other areas, or worse, that it might crawl up the net and devour my flesh

 

My 2 fish are moving to a relatives tank soon. I think I'm done with being an Aquarist , at least for a little while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thomasortega]

WOW...

Nowadays Algae is the easiest of the problems to deal with.

Algae is usually the result of something wrong (specially pH and Light). plants have nothing to do with algae.

1) NEVER clean your aquarium as you did... you're actually getting rid of the bacteria that helps with the ammonia cycle AND algae.

2)Get some algae eaters (snails, frogs, catfish, etc). They're not "maids" as many people think, but they help a lot.

3) Install a "green killing machine" filter. It's very affordable and probably the best breakthrough on the last 10 years. it literally exterminate algae. It's so effective that some people are installing giant versions of it in swimming pools.

 

[sudsomatic]

Thomas..

Haha, my post was exaggerated  for comedic effect. Sadly.... I'm obviously not as funny in print as I think I am in my head though

 

But it has been a struggle with algae last couple years. I've had a tank off and on since I was a kid and had never seen these 'exotic'  types of algae before, just the regular mossy stuff that grows on the ornaments.

 

You're right, live plants don't cause algae, I wasn't overly explained in that area.. I bought the plants from a (new to me) fish store I had heard about which was a fish hobbyist couple with a few dozen tanks set up in their garage. I later discovered they closed suddenly due to a large number of complaints from customers for selling diseased fish.

 

I knew plants actually help with algae so while I didn't see how they would 'cause' it I did read where it's possible that a live plant (just like a plastic one or any ornament) that is infected with algae can contaminate a tank quickly if the conditions are right. Since all the fish I had purchased from them had died within 2 months I figured their plants could be sickly/infected in some way also. Since the problem didn't exist before their plants and fish were added, I got rid of them partly for that reason, but also because the algae had done a real number on them in the meantime and they no longer looked healthy.

 

My Chinese Algae eaters I had owned for several years up to then didn't touch the new (to me) varieties of algae. They still cleaned the sides of the tank and the ornaments but just ignored the hair, and later when I put them back in after the first scrub down when algae moss began to appear again for them to feed on, they avoided the chestnuts as well, nudging either kind out of the way to get the moss growth. Eventually they passed away from old age or possibly shock from the algae treatments right before the second scrub down. My intention was to replace them but was waiting for my tank to condition, just as I was waiting on that to get other new fish, but never came about due to the blob.

 

You're also right in that a scrub down like that isn't the way to go for all of those reasons mentioned, I knew this then. But since all my efforts had proved fruitless and most of my fish population had died off it was out of desperation.

 

I'd never heard of The Green Killing Machine, that's really cool, I'm keeping it in mind for future tanks. I have to move soon and that's a big  part of closing down the tank as well. I know in a year or two, after I'm settled I'll likely miss it and want it back again.

 

 Thanks for that!

 

[sudsmaster]

The water in my koi pond stays crystal clear (well, most of the time). I don't use any chemicals. I designed a filter setup that incorporates filter media that sort of resemble hair curlers, in a tank that used to be a sand filter, and that is pumped up into an area on top of a waterfall/mountain where it bubbles through filter media that looks like brightly colored plastic dry ramen noodles. About once a year I have to back flush the filter vessel, and clean the ramen filter media with a hose over the compost bin (makes for great fertilizer). The only PITA is that I have to clean out the pump prefilter basket about once a week during the warm months. Takes about five minutes but I don't enjoy it.

 

[thomasortega]

This is the green killing machine.

There are dozens of different brands of UV sterilizers but none of them compares to the GKM in terms of performance. Not even Seachem or Fluval, the two best (and most expensive) brands ever.

The GKM is like the Enola Gay was in Japan. You set up, turn it on and you can almost see the device saying "Hasta la vista, Baby" like the Terminator and the algae running away from the aquarium screaming.

It kills the spores, so algae can't reproduce.

If you have a massive infestation, then of course you'll have to scrub (never drain, just scrub and let the GKM filter and kill the algae.

Once you're done with the algae massacre the GKM will make sure new spores don't have a change to grow.

For me it was definitely the most impressive water treatment device I've ever seen.

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/green-killing-machine-internal-uv-sterilizer-with-power-head

 

[sudsmaster]

What's wrong with a bio-filter that deprives the algae of the nutrients it needs to grow?

 

[thomasortega]

Nothing wrong, but they don't really deprive 100%.

And algae is a plague... it doesn't need much to grow "beautifully" and reproduce like crazy. It reaches a point that the algae can literally kill the filter.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, in my pond, the only algae that bothers me is if it turns the water green. Stuff growing on the bottom/sides is not a problem. For a while a few years back (like 10) it did have a problem with string algae, but even that has gone away as I've refined the bio-filtration. The key seems to be the ramen filter media. I don't add any chemicals.

I've also read that string algae is an indication of good water quality.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

My mom swore that she would never go through with and bear all that labor, upkeep, hard work and tremendous expense with owning and maintaining those mini Sea Worlds back when I was in grade school, while of which, it seemed, as if all my friends and all their cousins, had at least had one...

Fast forward to years later, in my twenties, while my mother must have hit her mid-life-crisis that, then, it was not one, but quite a few, there was endless joy in tending those tanks, and taking care of every one of those inhabiting aquatic creatures!

While, me, not wanting any pets of any sort, reluctantly gave into my daughter’s need for what's her second set of goldfish:

(Followed by at least one jumbo-remnant of my late-mother’s fancy-turned-most enjoyable hobby! —Oh, and plus bonus pics of a has-been fridge, defunct microwave, and obsolete TV!)

— Dave

 

[twintubdexter]

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">When my back problems along with my current illness made talking care of my small aquarium too difficult, it turned into cube of green Jello. The only thing left in there were catfish. Occasionally I'd see some near the glass. Friends said "just dump the whole thing in the trash" but I couldn't do that. 2 catfish had turned into 20 after one (obviously a nymphomaniac) went on an egg-laying spree. I just didn't have the heart to dump them despite people saying "what, you think you'd be the first person to flush fish down the toilet?' I ordered a little 5 gallon aquarium from Amazon that I can manage. They're a little cramped but happy. I saw eggs on the glass last week. I think I'll put a NO VACANCY sign reversed on the glass. </span>

 

[thomasortega]

Lol. I'm having the same "sexual" problem with my snails and shrimps.

 

[petek]

This is my 75 gal community tank housing about 60 odd fish. I've had tanks most of my life other than an 11 year hiatus after moving here.. Got this tank last fall. I'd kept my old Fluval 404 canister but I've also added a Marineland 350 hang on back to handle the excess waste and reduce canister cleanouts which I do about every 5-6 weeks. I just keep foams in the hang on back that I can quickly rinse out in the laundry sink . In the canister I have one basket of medium and fine foams and in the other 3 I'm just switching from the old Fluval ceramic rings to Biohome Ultimate Media one basket at a time. The canister foams only get rinsed off in tank water every 5-6 weeks. The hang on back has reduced that chore so I could probably let it go even longer. And I do a 30 to 40 percent partial waterchange every 10 to 12 days. The plants are all real. I fertilize them daily with Excel , Flourish, and every 3 days with Flourish Advance. They really take off.
There's very little algae. There are 8 otocinclus and 2 Thai algae eaters (flying foxes) plus the numerous Mollys eat some too. There are also a few snails but the 3 Yoyo loaches keep the numbers way down , too down.. I actually like snails.
The other inhabitants are
1 angel
15 neons
6 red minor tetras
3 candy can tetras
6 zebra danios
3 liberty mollies
8 or 10 dalmation and sailfin mollies
7 cories
2 blue mollies
a few mix breed fry and maybe something else I've forgotten

 

[twintubdexter]

petek

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">That's so beautiful you almost don't need fish.</span>