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  #61  
Old January 26th, 2006, 09:02 PM
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I think black skirts would be fine in your
25g tank. They really are too big for a 10g (as are mollies).
Cardinals definetly dont live 10 years. Maybe 5 at most,
but i still doubt that. Neons and Glowlights average lifespan is
get this "185 days", but can live to a maximum of "560 days".
Mine are 3 years old or so, so have beat that by a lot.
Thats in my fish book, cant remember what its called, its an older
one my mom gave me.

I dont suspect cardinals live that much longer than neons.

You definetly would not want to put any tetra in a brackish water
tank. Mollies, though not really needing salt at all, will be tolerant of it,
tetras are definetly not tolerant of salt. A half dose is usually recommended.
More than that often results in bloating and dropsy, as salt improves osmosis, and opens the pores in the skin more, allowing a greater amount of water to flow through, resulting in imbalances.
I am definetly not a pro-salt person myself, dont believe in it, dont use it, dont keep mollies in brackish water only in fresh. Im of the belief that salt is a placebo, it makes you feel good but does nothing for the fish beside improving osmosis. Thats just me though.

I read your mention of frogs - ADFS come from several lakes in Africa - they are called the Rift Lakes. Victoria, Tanganiyka, Malawi, and a couple others.
These lakes are often temps of 82 to 88 or even 90+ degrees. These frogs have poor internal temperature regulators, and unlike our native frogs who can be frozen and come back to life, ADFS cant handle cold temps (temps below 76F). They develop red leg - which is caused by a pooling of blood in the extremities, espescially the back legs, and lack of blood flow to the lungs, heart, and brain. This results in death.
I make sure mine stay warm, as I also lost 2 to this in my early days of fish keeping when I was told by the pet store that 72F was warm enough for any tropical fish!
I love the little guys. I recently lost 1 to an injury (im betting it was a yoyo loach in its zeal for food that nipped him).
I plan to get a couple more. I like to keep around 5 of them at least.
Great little frogs. Or, I may move the remaining 3 I have now to my 10g tank.
Then they arent at risk from the yoyos.

I lost one of my 3 pearl gouramis yesterday, she was severely bloated, and I am assuming that her body was unable to pass the dead camallanus worms out, and resulted in death. (most common cause of death in fish being treated for camallanus worms).
It was a sad day - pearl gouramis are my favorite gouramis, these ones eat from my hand and come to the top for pets every morning. Very friendly fish. Sad to lose one.

P.S. your hubby should talk to my boyfriend. On Valentines Day im lucky if I get a box of chocolates lol
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  #62  
Old January 27th, 2006, 07:49 PM
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Emergency!
My betta is losing his tail, fin rot, I turned the filter right down and left it overnight, I think it could have been that(low oxygen), or the tank really needs cleaning, it's not even been a week yet since the last one. The only other things it could be are the harlies decided to pick on him or a bacterial infection. The other fish are all fine though, none of them are losing their tails! It wasn't the temp cause it has been holding steady at 78 F. pH was back up to 7.5, the kH wasn't too bad but the water was back to being hard. I did a water change but didn't try to adjust anything. The new water has been steeping with peat and a chunk of driftwood for almost a week, it was softer, more acidic and the kh was lower. He's in lights out, he was 'pacing' the front of the tank, so I turned out the lights.
I checked with all my books, and the 'net and I couldn't find too much. I dosed the tank with mela-fix and will do so for the next 6 days, then change the water again. I hope his tail grows back, it was so pretty before!
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  #63  
Old January 30th, 2006, 08:10 PM
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Colleen, how is your betta doing?
Is its tail still receding, or is it starting to heal?
Fin rot is usually fungal, there are a couple
ways to help.
A salt dip will often help, as it is an antiseptic and
will kill the fungus. Mix 2-3 tbls salt in 1 litre of tank water.
Dip the betta for 30-60 seconds, however long he appears
to tolerate, or hold him in your hand and just dip his tail
for about 60 seconds.

Pimafix + Melafix would be my treatment of choice, following
a salt dip of the affected area.
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  #64  
Old January 31st, 2006, 11:43 AM
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Thanks Koran,
His tail is looking ragged, it is still receding as well as the top fin. I have been using just mela-fix for the last 5 days, I'll do a water change and start using both mela-fix and pim-afix, I will try the salt dip as well, I don't know if he'll let me hold him but we'll see. He's flaring it normally and his eyes are bright and clear, they were dull when I first noticed it. It's strange that the other fish were not affected, good but strange. Treating the whole tank will prevent them from getting it though.
The harlies have been displaying and the pandas have also been acting like they are thinking about spawning, it's funny to watch. Now I just have to get the pH and GH stabilized, I'm thinking the GH is phosphate buffered since the peat has barely touched it, I will be testing for phosphates and maybe using Phos-X to remove them, is there any other recommendations you'd like to make for this? I have been testing the water in the tank as well as the buckets with peat in them, the GH barely moves with the peat added to it, that's why I'm thinking it's not carbonate hardness buffering the water but rather phosphates. I'll let you know when I get the test and test the water.
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  #65  
Old February 1st, 2006, 01:59 AM
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Hi Colleen,
definetly sounds like the betta has something fungal going on.
I really think a salt dip would help and so would the pimafix.
I have been blessed with never ever having a single case of fin rot yet.
*cross my fingers*
have had mouth rot before though, and salt dip+ pimafix+melafix did the trick.
I wouldnt be surprised if he just caught his tail on a plant, rock, something and got a tiny tear which led to a fungal infection.

I had no idea phosphate would buffer GH. I thought phospates = bad cuz they cause unwanted algae to grow. If you have excess phosphates you too should have excess algae. In hordes really.

GH is a measure of the general hardness of water caused by calcium ions.
You must have super calcinated water. Do you have a well drilled right through limestone?! we did at our last rental place!
The peat still lowered it though.
I suspect though that due to your HOB filters being not very large for the addition of peat - that you just simply cannot use enough.
If you had a canister, I would suggest adding a whole box of peat granular to it to lower the GH.
My water is super buffered - 2 boxes of peat granular takes it from
ph 7.6 to ph 6.6 and from GH of <300ppm (thats how high my test goes), down to a GH of >80ppm.I suspect you simply need more peat than a HOB filter can handle. I think my large driftwood peice, due to it being hemlock also adds some large amounts of tannins to the water which help buffer it as well. Hemlock never sinks as it never waterlogs, and it always releases tannins. Its been 3 years and the water is still very tea colored.
Really a great peice of wood, except for the need to consistently retether it to the slate once a year.
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  #66  
Old February 2nd, 2006, 12:40 AM
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Hi Koran, after 6 days of just Mela-fix his tail is looking better. It is not so ragged as yesterday, it doesn't appear to be getting any smaller, he still looks happy, he's active, eating, foraging, playing tag with the otos and pandas! I think you may be right, there are some tight spots in the tank and lately he has been seen rooting around in almost all of them! He gets in and starts rooting, he stirs up a bunch of stuff while he's at it, the harlies come darting around catching all the bits and then he pulls out and moves on to a new spot! I try not to overfeed to cut down on nitrates etc building up but he finds all the spots where food collects LOL. I also saw him nipping at his own tail yesterday, which was actually kind of funny to watch as it is so short right now. I will be changing the water then continuing Mela-fix and adding pima-fix during the re-growing of the tail to prevent bacterial infection etc. I am not so sure about stressing him out with a salt dip, I may not know then which treatment did the trick. I am also not sure how long the tail growing will take. It is a much larger tail than the danios tail was (lost to another danio in a high-speed chase LOL).
I read about phosphates buffering the water at the seachem site I think it was, I go all over the 'net now, read here and there. I still have to get a test to prove/disprove that there is any phosphate in the tap water, then I'll know where to go from there. It could also be as you say that I need to get more peat in the water. I will increase the amount in the water change buckets until it reaches the desired levels. Plus there is the blackwater extract which is looking better every day. You should check out the arguments over on FP about trying to change the water! Yikes, I'm almost scared to even mention it now! I also ran into something interesting about CO2 and pH and photosynthesis. Maybe you've noticed the pH drops over night then rises during the day. It happens in my tank without CO2 and I'm trying to figure out what effect adding CO2 will have on this natural shift in pH. Especially as I'm trying to lower the KH and GH in the tank with peat, I'm wondering if the shift will be larger than if I left the KH and GH alone.

I am hoping to get a new hood with an extra bulb in it soon as well as the Hagen CO2 kit on the 25g. Then I will have moderate light, about 2 wpg and CO2 enhanced growth. I'm leaving the 10 alone though, it has plenty light and the fish are making enough CO2, plus I am using Excel when the fish don't have tail rot!
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  #67  
Old February 7th, 2006, 12:09 PM
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Tail Growing Back!

Yay! Buddy's tail is growing back! It is definitely bigger than it was yesterday. So now do I continue dosing mela and pima fix until it is all grown back or do I just change the water and add extra water conditioner? I would also like to clean the filter but I haven't yet. He seems to like going under the return, it's like a high power shower! He's gotten so good at surfing, I think the harlies taught him!

During treatment I reduced my Excel use and now I have beard and hair algae and who knows what. I also noticed his tail didn't start growing noticebly until after I started dosing the excel again at the double strength for algae fighting. Weird huh?!
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Old February 7th, 2006, 06:27 PM
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Colleen, I am so glad he is getting better!
If the tail ends are clear whitish and growing back
with no signs of fluff or redness, you should be fine
to discontinue the mela-pima fix use.

Good clean water will heal him now.

I find it very very very strange that you claim Flourish
Excel prevents algae.
I used it, and found it caused black beard algae,
staghorn algae, and brown diatoms in mass amounts,
so I stopped using it. Have never had any since, except
in my 10g super high light tank, and thats only cuz I
sometimes leave the light on too long.
Flourish Excel is often noted for causing algae problems and
diatom growth. I am amazed that you find it is an algae preventative.
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  #69  
Old February 7th, 2006, 06:39 PM
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The plant guys over at FP swear by it, and I had no problems until I stopped dosing at least every other day. We'll see how it goes, it takes about double the dose to prevent algae, I don't know how it will affect algae already there. I started a log on the other site to chronicle my tanks conversion from non CO2 to CO2 and better light. That's for the 25 though the 10 will stay non-CO2 and it has decent light already.

His tail and fins are looking really good, he seems to like hanging his tail in the filter return LOL. I will probably do a water change,add actvated charcoal then clean the filter in a few days. He's back to his old self, clear eyes, bright colour, he's also back to being very active. The harlies look nervous, they have gotten used to him moping by the heater, now he's out front pacing. He likes to charge me whenever I get too close to the tank!
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Old February 13th, 2006, 02:34 PM
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Sad news! One of the pandas in the 10g with the betta has passed away. It looks like a fungas was groing on it. I didn't catch it right away so I had no idea it was sick. I haven't put the ac in the filter yet, should I do another round of mela-fix and pima-fix to be sure the other fish don't get it? The rest all seem healthy, I did a water change yesterday, and Buddy's tail is still growing in. I was thinking either another round of the prior treatment or a different anti-fungal to get the stuff in the water from the panda. It shouldn't hurt to do that should it, or should I just do a couple of water changes in succession?
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Old February 13th, 2006, 03:12 PM
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The mela-fix pima-fix treatment could definetly be
repeated.
Im sorry to hear of the loss of your panda!
Sometimes these things just happen!
I would definetly do a few water changes before
using another med, even though melafix and pimafix
claim they dont react with other meds.
Whichever Maracyn treats fungus would probably
be a good bet.
I doubt however that any other fish will get it.
Just maybe keep an eye out for a few days
and watch the fish to make sure.
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  #72  
Old February 13th, 2006, 07:21 PM
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Thanks for your quick reply! I think I'll just do the water changes and keep an eye on the other fish. I didn't rush to clear out the mela-fix and pima-fix as it recommends it for adding new fish, so I figured it could gradually come out during water changes and that would help to prevent it from being spread to the other fish.
They do all seem to be acting normally, they rise to eat and swim around like normal. Buddy has gone back to rooting out bits for himself and the others, he really does go all over the tank. I am also going to wait a bit, then get 2 more pandas, I had wanted 6 originally but am not wanting to overstock the tank because of it's size. Then I will have 1 betta, 5 harlies, 5 pandas and 2 otos and tons of plants.

Now the CO2 bug has bit me well and truly, I haven't got the unit for the 25 and I'm already making inquiries into a DIY for the 10! The plants are looking good, but I think they could do better, the trick seems to be keeping iron and potassium going into the tank, CO2 would also lower the KH and pH a bit, then I wouldn't have to use quite as much peat as I do, not that I will stop using the peat, I love how it makes the fish look! And it is also supposed to make them more immune to fungus. I'm sure you were right and the betta tore his fin prior to me turning the filter down, that would allow the fungas to get in. The panda's have been doing some flashing before the water change and the one that died could have been wounded doing that.
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Old February 15th, 2006, 10:47 PM
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Talking

Got my CO2 and my light! The Hagen CO2 kit was on sale at Superpet so I grabbed one, later when I have it figured out I may move the canister to the smaller tank and do a DIY on the bigger tank, it seems so easy now that I have seen one!
I picked up a Coralife light, 65 watts 6700K, now I need to find a rim and glass cover for the tank. Mine (the one that came with the tank) doesn't have a rim or a glass cover, the light fixture is protected from moisture by a gasket thingy, this is going to be the tricky part. There is a glass place nearby so tomorrow I am heading there with pictures, dimensions and the light fixture, maybe I'll have something rigged up soon.
It's funny I was talking to my hubby and he seemed to think I had already got the stuff I wanted and was just waiting for my birthday to pull it out, so I figured what the heck and went out and got it!

nudge nudge
I've been wanting to use that one.
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  #74  
Old February 19th, 2006, 02:48 AM
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Colleen...woohoo!!
How is your c02 working? Is it easy to use?
I really like Corallife power compacts..thats what I use
on my 75g ...135w power compact.
My birthday is tomorrow, so Will be going on monday to
pick out my present....
I cant wait!

my frog passed away...poor frog...rip little guy.
Glad hes not suffering any more though!
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  #75  
Old February 19th, 2006, 02:00 PM
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The Nutrafin (Hagen) CO2 kit is really easy to set-up, it is like a ready-made DIY kit, you don't have a lot of control over the flow rate, but this isn't an issue yet as the bubbles aren't moving that quickly anyway. I have some valves from an air kit that I could patch in if I needed to slow down the bubble rate.

Getting the light on the tank was a hassle, my tank has no top rim for the glass track to sit on so I had to find a rim and adapt it to my tank, I was able to get a bottom rim from another Waterhome 25 kit, then I had to trim the supports off so the track would sit on the rim. There is no glass top that fits either so I had to get a 36" and trim the tracks and the glass, what fun, do not try this without practicing first, it is not easy! I will be replacing the two pieces we had to cut, too many sharp jagged edges, they are covered by the track at least. Overall, I'm happy with the way it looks and the amount of light I have now, I'll post a pic at the bottom, a before and after so you can really see the difference. Now I can widen my scope of plants that I can use a bit, I'm starting to plan for the re-plant in the spring, I may even start adding plants now as the light and CO2 may cause some algae growth. I want red, a rotala macandra or something, or a lily, I've seen some that are red, and I also want some nice bushy plants. Oh so much fun!

So have you figured out which CO2 kit you're going to get? Now that I have the Hagen one I see how easy DIY can be, I may switch this one to the smaller tank and put a larger bottle on my 25. The ladder diffuser is adjustable for smaller tanks, but it says it is only good for up to 20 gallons. It would be great for the 10, and the ladders can be purchased separately. I got lucky that SuperPet clearance had the whole kit on sale, 1/2 price! I should have got two!

Sorry about the frog, I was hoping you could pull him through, how are the others?
Your Friend Colleen


Before

And after
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  #76  
Old February 20th, 2006, 07:21 PM
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OMG Colleen! The difference is light is amazing!!!!
I love the huge sword you have in the back left.
Gorgeous! I have one of those exact
same swords in my 25g, but its only about 1/5 that size.
Of course its only under .5wpg so thats why!

I am going to get the Nutrafin (hagen) c02, same as you
got there. Glad to hear its easy! I am hoping that after
I get it, I can model a larger one for my 75g tank, and maybe
use a large bottle, like a 2.5g water jug. Big enough...small enough
to shake! I thought bout using a 5g jug...but full of water impossible
to lift and shake!

The other froggies are doing really good. It seems whatever it
was wasnt contagious, it remained isolated to that frog alone.
I suspect it had a wound that quickly developed gangrene.
Poor thing. Im glad it isnt suffering anymore though.

Today will be a sad day though....remember Sneaky Pete,
my female angel whos swim bladder was ruptured?
Well, after about 8-9 weeks now, she has not taken
a turn for the better. She is now swollen like a melon on
that side. Poor thing. I have decided that despite her
few attempts at recovery...it is now just too far gone.
It will just continue to reinflate and deflate...causing her
pain and suffering.
The poor thing. She stopped eating 3 days ago, and now isnt
even moving enough to keep the snails off her. Every day I
pick snails off her as she floats at the surface.
Today I am going to Euthanize her. I will miss her greatly.
I just cant stand to watch her suffer anymore.
:sad: :sad: :sad:

Are you going to do a log on your changes with c02 and higher
light? Id love to watch it progress!
I will be going to get my c02 on wednesday when I go to town.
I will probably do a log on it to see if there is any change,
and do weekly pictures.

My sister got me a Balloon Belly Blue Ram for my birthday!!
It looks like a little female and gosh is she a beauty!
I will take some pics tonight when my batteries finish
charging so you can see her!
Ive put her in my 10g tank for awhile so she can grow,
and so I can make sure my big tank is worm free. Im
monitoring for 60 days to ensure worm free status!
So far 17 days and not a sign!
Lucky too...only lost 2 bolivian rams, 2 pearl gouramis, and
a rummynose tetra to the darn things. I count myself
lucky!
My sister QT'ed the Blue Ram for over a week already,
and gosh its healthy and gorgeous!
Never had a blue ram before....I am going to have to make
up a bag of peat for my small tank to soften the water for
her...im sure she wont appreciate the hard water in that tank
much.
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Old February 20th, 2006, 11:30 PM
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Yeah, the fish all need shades!
I have a log going in the Planted Tank forum on FP detailing how I did the changes, my trials and tribulations. I am pleased with it so far though. The light emphasizes the need to change the gravel, and that sword does look amazing. It has finally outgrown that tank, I will be giving it to my brother, I hope it does well there, he has a lot less light than I do on his 55g.

I am glad the other froggies are doing well, it must have been just him, poor thing. And I'm so sorry to hear that Sneakypete isn't doing well!:sad: I had hoped she would make a recovery. If the swim bladder is ruptured though I guess there isn't really anything you can do. Better she not suffer anymore.

The new ram sounds great! I was at Petcetera today and they had rams in tank labelled as ruby cichlids, a man there bought two because the 'rubies' were cheaper than they would be if they were in the right tank. They had no rams in the ram tank. Ha ha! I almost got Gorgeous a mate, they had a beautiful male krib with a double eyespot on his tail and really good colouring considering they never look as good in the store tanks as they do at home. But since I am treating for ich I decided to wait. It was real hard to walk away though.

2 of my barbs and a couple of the danios had ich spots, only one for most of them though. I decided to treat it, I think I know what caused it and it shouldn't happen again. The temp outside dropped massively last week and the house furnace and the tank heaters just couldn't keep up, so I think that may have caused an overnight swing in the tank. The fish are the new ones I got a month or so ago, so they haven't developed strong coping systems yet I guess, I may lose one barb anyway, it looks thin, but it is still eating. Do they ever stop? I used the Jungle Labs stuff, did 2 doses with a WC in between, the most prominent spot is disappearing, I wonder if I should do one more dose or cean up the meds? One of my otos is clamping his fins and I can't find what that means. So I may just stick to tank maintenance and hope that works. He may not like the higher temp in the tank either, it is a bit above what they're used to. He could also be dealing with the new light and CO2, though the pH hasn't really dropped yet, the KH and GH are still above what I'm aiming for, but right now I don't want to mess too much with it. I will be getting the Kents Blackwater extract soon. And I will still have peat in the filters.

I also dosed the 10g for fungus, but will be clearing that out, I had done it before you posted that the other fish may not be affected, I lost 2 pandas though and wanted to clear it out before losing anymore. They get a WC tomorrow then I'm putting AC in the filter to clear out the med. Jungle Labs Fungus Eliminator, I figured it would be stronger than the Mela-Fix for getting the fungus from wherever it is in the tank. We'll see.
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Old February 21st, 2006, 06:56 PM
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Hi Colleen!
HAH - they label the Bolivian Rams as Ruby Crown Cichlids here
at the petcetera too! They call the Blue Rams, Ramirezi Cichlid.
This is one is a potbelly blue ram ...omg she is gorgeous.
She has the typical ram colors, with a black stripe down her
eye which almost reaches the ones on her pectoral fins.
Her tummy is bright pink - why im guessing its a female.
And she has bright blue lipstick! Shes a stylish one I guess!


If the otto is clamping his fins but has no spots I would assume
hes just responding poorly to the medication. I have used
that same med before and the plecos and ottos went clamped
fins till it was gone. Didnt hurt them, maybe just irritated them?

If the spots are fully gone and its been a couple days, Id start
the W/C's to get the med out.

Day before Yesterday when I got the Ram, I decided I better
do water changes before adding her, so did a big 40% on each tank.
Wow ever clean now!
The ten gallon is looking gorgeous!! Im so happy with it.
I cant wait to get my c02 tomorrow!
Im going to start a log on fp for it, do weekly shots to see if it
makes a difference.
Need to trim back the Ambulia in my 10g again its totally taking over the
tank. When I did a w/c I pulled off all the stuff on top that
was growing algae, and junked it.
The plants are looking a little leggy so Im debating whether to pull
them and trim them and replant. But I did that only about 3-4
months ago....maybe I should wait longer.

omg on a side note and a bit of a rant....about 1 month/5 weeks ago
I bought a Rena XP 2 filter. It was missing one of the big hoses!
So I called them right away and they said they were going to mail
me out a replacement asap. Well its been like 5 weeks now and I still
havent got it! Where are they sending it from.....taiwan?
I am going to check today and if it still isnt here call em again.
I would really like to get this filter up and running!
by the way....it looks awesome.
For setup anyway easy easy easy!
Cant wait.

Jungle Labs FUngus Eliminator --- I have had great results
with that. Works well and seems to be quite mild for use with
corys and scaleless fish.
Im sorry to hear about your pandas. Its hard when you lose a cory.
They are just so adorable I hate losing them.
Ive been lucky, only lost 2 of the 10 hasbrosus I had in total now.
All 4 of the last 4 I bought are doing great.
I put some peat in my Cascade filter on my 10g yesterday, and
already all the fish seem brighter.
I wish the three guppies would grow faster so they can move out.
Somehow though...the tank still stays clean longer and
looks emptier with the 1 paradise fish, 1 balloon ram, 4 pencilfish,
3 baby guppies, 2 frogs, and 8 C. Hasbrosus, than it ever did when it
was a platy and guppy tank!
Anyway Im rambling now totally.
Talk to you later!
Koran.
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  #79  
Old February 22nd, 2006, 06:54 PM
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gottahavepets gottahavepets is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Stony Plain, Alberta
Posts: 153
Hi Koran,
The fungus dosing seemed to be killing my water sprite so I pulled it out and chucked it. I think I'll put vals or sags in place of them. The pandas seem to be feeling better, they have come out of hiding again and are very visible up front. The otos look better as well.
I will probably lose one barb, I'm debating doing it now or waiting, he's real skinny and tries to eat but spits it out. I'm suspecting TB for that one, I've had some fish exhibit the same symptoms and lost them, there's no effective treatment, but in the past it's also been pretty restricted to weaker individuals, no major losses. That's why I am hesitating, it may not spread if the other fish are healthy enough to resist.

Well now I know of one more place to find Bolivians, I couldn't find them before because they had the wrong name. Actually I checked the FP profiles and that's one of the names listed. Oh well, they were $3 less than the other rams they had a tank for.

They must be making the hoses from scratch, growing the rubber tree from seed and everything! My gosh, that would be frustrating, you deserve a good rant now and then.

When I had the 2 guppies in my little 2g that I had way back when, I couldn't believe how much mess two little fish could make! I was actually glad when they passed on.

Today is Wednesday so hopefully you get the CO2 kit you wanted, if you have any questions about it feel free to ask me, I'll be checking in regularly!
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  #80  
Old February 23rd, 2006, 10:10 PM
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Sneaky Sneaky is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Ladysmith British Columbia
Posts: 536
hi Colleen,
yep, guppies are definetly one of the messier little fish!
Im glad im down to just 3 left. I mean I love the little guys
they are super cute and friendly...but enough is enough!
you know?

I went in yesterday to get my c02 kit, and they didnt have any
left!!!
argh!
So, waiting till next week, or I may stop in and check
at another pet store when Im in town for my class on wednesday
night.
I checked it out at Petsmart, but they wanted 50.00 for it!!
Way more than the 32.99 the other place is charging!
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  #81  
Old February 24th, 2006, 01:20 AM
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gottahavepets gottahavepets is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Stony Plain, Alberta
Posts: 153
Hi Koran,
Oh how frustrating! If there's a Superpet or a Superpet Clearance Center nearby check there, I got mine for $24.99, almost 1/2 price, they are usually around $40-50 here.

So I lost a couple of fish from my 25g. One oto and one tiger barb, the oto death is a bit of a mystery, and the barb got really skinny, I was suspecting TB, but I cleaned my filter today during a water change, I've done 4 in about 5 days or something! There was this really thick, tarry almost black gunk clogging up the sponge and the filter was a mess! So I cleaned that out and replaced the peat, then started it up again, it runs nice and quiet again. I was very surprised as I do filter maintenance every month. I'm pretty sure it was the water sprite dying in the tank from the med, and the moss is always getting caught in the uptake, so some of it must be getting into the filter as well. I will replace the sponge in a couple of days and then remove the carbon in about a week. I need more peat or some blackwater extract, I can't wait for spring, I can get a big bale of peat for about $3, rather than the little box for $15. With the CO2 in the tank, pH is 7.2 and holding, KH is 120 ppm, or 6.8 dKH, that puts my CO2 at 12.7 ppm. Which is pretty good I think. I haven't done anything to the tank to lower pH except the peat in about 2 weeks now, so that should be a good reading. My high KH seems to keep the pH from dropping too much. Lowering the KH by much more may cause a drop, so I'm not too sure how much I want to mess with it. I may not be as aggressive with it as I was, but I still am going to use the peat/blackwater extract.
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Old February 27th, 2006, 07:08 PM
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gottahavepets gottahavepets is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Stony Plain, Alberta
Posts: 153
Well it has been almost 2 weeks since adding the CO2, it is now time to change the bottle, I am trying to figure out an easy way to do this, I have a 1.5 L wine bottle, attached to it is a whiskey spout, an air kit valve, then I will attach that to the tube going into the tank. I have found that the spout has an air release hole, to make pouring booze smoother I guess, so I need to seal it with aquarium sealant for this to work. Too bad I have the sugar water ready and the yeast has been actvated, the bottle is still too hot though so I haven't added the yeast to the bottle. Here's the link for the advice I'm sort of following, the article talks about various yeasts and how they each work, I never knew there was a difference but it is a pretty vast difference. It also gives some good diagrams for putting a system together. The whiskey spouts were my own idea, I was shopping at Ikea and decided to try them. I couldn't find the bulkhead fittings the article shows. I did only check one hobby shop though.

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

I hope that works, it was a pretty good article for someone who has never made a system. I am happy with the Hagen system, but I feel the bottle will need changing too often, I could just go and get another canister to make the changes easier, and I may wind up doing just that if this doesn't work. I don't know how I feel about having the wine bottle sitting there beside the tank, I'm not that bad a boozer, really!

Have you got your system up and running yet Koran?
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