In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Aquarium Buffs

Discussion in 'Hobbies and Interests' started by wildwest, Feb 24, 2015.

  1. Woodwidow

    Woodwidow

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    So, you know what every one says on here!!! No pics, it didn't happen. I would have loved to see Barbie "wimmin" :D I am glad the lil one is enjoying the tank so much.
     
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  2. Lousyweather

    Lousyweather

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    Years ago, got into the saltwater marine stuff for a time....gets expensive.....I stopped when I had the kids, no longer had the time to maintain the unit. I had a 125 gallon reef, blowing 750 watts of 6000 degree kelvin light from metal halide lamps into the unit- reefs love the light. Also had some supplementary actinics for the on/off cycles. Ran a homemade biofilter, all water mixes were with RO water. Monitored pH and oxidation potential with meters which controlled a solenoid, which in turn controlled my ozone reactor.......I tended to get pretty geared up.....I even have a water cooler, which would run on its own separate pump, cooling the water.......I'll look for pics.
    What killed it for me was the work.....with 4 kids, I found I just didn't have the time for upkeep, and then it starts looking bad...ugh.
    A couple friends of mine and I even incorporated a company to buy live corals and fish directly from the importers....we'd go down when the shipments were flown in and get first picks, as a retailer! of course, we were our own customers, but we'd blow hundreds each, easily, per trip!
    Now I am considering a planted Amazon tank for the 125. I still have the equipment to do CO injection for pH, etc. Will need to change out the lights with the new LED units, find a good price on laterite, etc.....I am holding off because for some reason, I am still very busy! If I cant do it right, I don't wanna do it!
     
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  3. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Wow Lousyweather , sounds like and incredible set up.

    :rofl: :lol:

    I'd like to see a pic if you get the amazon tank going!
     
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  4. Lousyweather

    Lousyweather

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    I tend to go OCD when I really get into something....had a friend with an AMAZING planted tank, not many fish, but some.......was impressive, and a bit less work than the reef tank. I am a bit daunted in creating the planted tank, given I KNOW I can be a bit OCD......and as I check into this once again, I find its like computers......the technology totally changes so fast! I do like the 'New" LED lighting, hoping they don't make the ole electrical meter spin so much! I would probably have to tool up more tho.....maybe a smaller tank? New lights? Have to build a new stand.....been in the cellar too long! I will find my old pics of the reef and post maybe tonight........
     
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  5. Horkn

    Horkn

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    Yes, ocd and reef tanks are hand in hand.

    Automation helps with reef tank upkeep, but they still take a lot of work.
     
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  6. jharkin

    jharkin

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    I'm jealous of all these beautiful saltwater tanks. We got this little 10 gallon for the kids for Christmas. Just a few tetras, a guppy and catfish right now.

    2015-04-03 12.44.44.jpg


    Maybe some of you experts can help me figure out why im getting this bloom of brown (not green) algae all over?

    Tank is about 2 months old now and as best I can tell is fully cycled. Water has cleared, and I only rinse out the filter media every couple weeks - not replacing it so I dont loose the bacteria. I do 10-20% water changes weekly with the gravel vac and keep the lights on about 9hr a day, there is a window across the room but it never gets direct sun.

    I just did a test with one of those cheap api test strips. Its been about 6 days since the last partial water change. Hard to read but the values look like:
    temp 77F
    GH 60ppm
    KH 80ppm
    ph 7-7.5
    ammonia 0
    nitrite 0
    nitrate 30ppm
     
  7. Horkn

    Horkn

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    Jeremy, I think what you have is simply new tank syndrome with the brown algae. If it's what I think it is, it's not really algae, but rather brown diatoms. Vacuum it out, and it should go away on its own. You could possibly treat it, but I don't know the remedy of the top of my head.

    All new tanks, fresh or salt, get diatom blooms at first.
     
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  8. billb3

    billb3

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    brown algae is usually not enough light and not enough oxygen in the water.

    looks like you have good light and an air stone going full blast in the back right corner so maybe phosphates ?
    Source can be tap water.
    If you don't have live plants sometimes you can get away with less light.

    Sometimes you get brown algae as part of the tank balancing out and becoming a "pond".
     
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  9. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Interesting, I am only familiar with brown/gold in salt tanks, and shades of green in fresh tanks.

    Other thing that crosses my mind is not the phosphates in the tap water, but phosphates in the dechlor products, which apparently now are called water conditioners. All of them seemed to have extra stuff in them now. Back in the day, stress coat caused trouble for me, though we had an entire wall of windows facing south... Maybe try a plain ol' dechlorinater instead of water conditioner?
     
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  10. T-Stew

    T-Stew

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    I had lots of fish tanks back when I lived in the city in my first house. Around the house there wasn't much to do so that was my big thing. Took up a lot of time! Had ~5 tanks going, freshwater, brackish, and heavily planted freshwater tanks. 10, 20, 40, 75, and 150 tall tanks. I was in the process of setting up my 'ultimate' tank, a custom built 8 foot 240g tank, fully automated heavily planted tank. I spent probably half a year working on it, and had just got it running when we started looking at houses. Bought a house out in the country before the tank was even fully stocked. Went through the painstaking effort of moving them all. Once I moved back out to the country my time was being spent working on the old house, the land, gardens, built a barn, etc. I started doing all the things I used to do, running, riding bike, paddling, etc and started working on firewood and things like that. I just never had the time to set the aquariums back up. They are still sitting empty today. Anyone need a 240 gallon tank? I'd love to get it set back up, and think I could in the future, but got too much going on still. I'll try and maybe dig up some pics when I get a chance. The 240 I built everything myself except the actual tank.
     
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  11. Horkn

    Horkn

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    What are the tank's dimensions?
     
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  12. mithesaint

    mithesaint

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    Fish geek checking in.

    My current setup is a 150 gallon African cichlid tank. My well water is very hard with a high pH, so I'm limited on what I can keep here. The water softener does a great job making good water for the house, but not so much for fishkeeping. I actually plumbed a line from the house water supply right before the softener and ran it directly to the tank. It drips directly into the tank at a slow rate...around 10 gallons per day. I have an overflow on the tank, and plumbed that to the sump pump in the basement, so I don't have to do water changes anymore. It really helps with the maintenance. I still have to clean out filters occasionally and scrub the glass and clean the sand, but at least I don't have to spend an hour every week draining out and refilling 75-ish gallons of water.

    My previous house had a 90 gallon African cichlid tank and a 135 gallon South American low maintenance planted tank. I had two wild caught Red Shoulder Severums. LOVED those fish. Sold those back to the pet store when I moved.

    I'll post some pics when I get the tank cleaned up (I'm overdue) and get the hood finished. I'm working on hood for it, but not done yet. One of these days...No pics of the new tank yet.

    Here's some pics of the old tanks. I built the stand for the 90 myself. A few rough spots and oopsies, but it worked. Sorry for the poor quality pics.

    90 gallon pics 009.jpg IMG_5340.JPG IMG_5367.JPG 90 gallon pics 026.jpg
     
  13. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Beautiful! I love both african and so americans!!
     
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  14. Lousyweather

    Lousyweather

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    what are you punching in there for lights?
     
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  15. ironpony

    ironpony

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    a picture of my little buddy on my dive in St Croix
    PICT0042.JPG
     
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  16. ironpony

    ironpony

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    A porcupine fish at night under the pier

    PICT0082.JPG
     
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  17. ironpony

    ironpony

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    a pretty coral

    PICT0026.JPG
     
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  18. Horkn

    Horkn

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    Boxfish, cowfish, and puffers are the most dog like of the fishes. Lots of attitude in those guys.
     
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  19. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    I had a yellow tang once that was an absolute crack up, cutie!
     
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  20. Lousyweather

    Lousyweather

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    035.JPG ok....St John......little blue fish
     
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