Show me your aquarium

[Caddyshack]

Sway said:

Caddyshack said:

105.4 said:

@S11 Steve,

Any recommendations for aquatic shops in the Sheffield / Chesterfield area?

We’ve almost always used the small aquatics shop in the garden centre between Coal Aston and Eckington.

Go to wharf aquatics, ask for Richard and tell him Toby sent you and I expect he will give you a good look around. He bred my stingray pups that I then bred from.

Dude, how many times?

Pics!!!!

Tigrinus, I believe these are now banned from import, big ones like this are very expensive....the female stingray ate the last one which was smaller.



4 ft long fire eel, they don’t get this big very often, I have a constant fresh water drip feed that flows through an overflow in to the drain, it’s about 25 gallons per day, heavy metal axe takes out chlorine and chloramine. Then it passes through an ion exchange resin to remove any source nitrate which can spike when you get farmers run off from fertilisers (often check your tap water for nitrate) The fish grow large due to this. The tank is too small now and it is 1000 litres plus 300 litre sump filter. I also grow devils ivy (pothos) outside the tank with roots in the water as this strips the tank of nitrate. (Stingrays produce vast amounts of ammonia so you end up with nitrate issues if you don’t have the above)




Big female marbled motoro, these don’t get as big as normal motoros but she is a big girl. Richard at wharf bred from his female who’s mum (my ones grandmother) he personally caught in Peru.

The tank is just under 4 ft front to back, 6 foot long and about 2.5ft top to bottom, the new tank will be much larger and the sump alone will be larger than the tank the fish now live in.

Edited by Caddyshack on Friday 23 April 18:43

Edited by Caddyshack on Friday 23 April 18:46

[Sway]

Oh lordy. Did not disappoint...



Thanks for sharing!

I recall an incredible 'stream' tank with stingrays in (maybe one of the big European shows?) - fell in love.

That fire eel though!

[Caddyshack]

Thanks. It isn’t very easy to make out the size in the pics but the fire eel is as thick as my arm at the shoulder at his thickest point, he can clear a whole pack of king prawns in one sitting and still be looking for more food.

[105.4]

Caddyshack said:

Thanks. It isn’t very easy to make out the size in the pics but the fire eel is as thick as my arm at the shoulder at his thickest point, he can clear a whole pack of king prawns in one sitting and still be looking for more food.

Bloody hell

[Chester draws]

My fishless cycle is progressing. Tested Nitrites yesterday, and they were off the scale. Today down to around 2ppm. Nitrate a lovely red colour!

I had dropped the Ammonia to 2ppm per day from the original 4ppm.

I've put in around 12ppm of Ammonia in total, and given that 1ppm Ammonia converts to about 3ppm of Nitrite, and then to around 4ppm of Nitrate; my 40ish ppm of Nitrate seems about expected.

Going to wait till Nitrite hits zero, (no more ammonia in today) and then see if it can work through 2ppm Ammonia in 24hours.

Couple of water changes and should be ready for fish! Dunno why anyone would want to skip this, it's quite exciting and interesting!

[Caddyshack]

Chester draws said:

My fishless cycle is progressing. Tested Nitrites yesterday, and they were off the scale. Today down to around 2ppm. Nitrate a lovely red colour!

I had dropped the Ammonia to 2ppm per day from the original 4ppm.

I've put in around 12ppm of Ammonia in total, and given that 1ppm Ammonia converts to about 3ppm of Nitrite, and then to around 4ppm of Nitrate; my 40ish ppm of Nitrate seems about expected.

Going to wait till Nitrite hits zero, (no more ammonia in today) and then see if it can work through 2ppm Ammonia in 24hours.

Couple of water changes and should be ready for fish! Dunno why anyone would want to skip this, it's quite exciting and interesting!

Quite a few test kits can be skewed by the presence of ammonia so the others could be showing false results. Have you tested the tap water for nitrate...interested to know what levels you get, mine can be at zero out the tap one week and 40ppm or more others.

[Chester draws]

Caddyshack said:

Quite a few test kits can be skewed by the presence of ammonia so the others could be showing false results. Have you tested the tap water for nitrate...interested to know what levels you get, mine can be at zero out the tap one week and 40ppm or more others.

Interesting. Also I've read that presence of Nitrite can skew (increase) the reading for Nitrate.

Since I started cycling with ammonia, I've only been testing for Nitrite once I've seen the ammonia reduce; similarly only testing for Nitrate once the Nitrite starts to drop.

I've never seen strong red colour in my Nitrate tests until yesterday, always only at the 5-10ppm level.

Also, the 2ppm of Nitrite I had yesterday has gone to zero this morning.

[HustleRussell]

Some small brown snails found their way into my aquarium on some plants which were given to me. I’ve been removing them by hand but they obviously keep popping up here and there.

I do quite like snails but the little brown ones just look a mess. I decided that if I was going to have snails I would have a larger and more attractive species so I ordered four blue Ramshorns.

Whilst I was waiting for them I didn’t seem to see any snails at all- perhaps I had finally banished the nuisance snails?

Anyway I put the blue ones in a week ago and I have so many egg deposits all over the show and will soon be overrun by hundreds of messy little ones.

I now feel very stupid. I knew that Ramshorns have a reputation for reproducing but I can’t believe how quickly it’s happened. A quick glance at the front of the tank today and I can easily spot a hundred eggs.

I don’t suppose I can expect their population to limit itself in any beneficial way?

[S11Steve]

HustleRussell said:

I now feel very stupid. I knew that Ramshorns have a reputation for reproducing but I can’t believe how quickly it’s happened. A quick glance at the front of the tank today and I can easily spot a hundred eggs.

I don’t suppose I can expect their population to limit itself in any beneficial way?

On a positive note, you'll never need to buy another glass scraper again, and you'll save hours not dealing with algae.

Then when that novelty wears off, buy a big happy smiley Fahaka puffer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxTizCAfYA&ab...

[Sway]

S11Steve said:

HustleRussell said:

I now feel very stupid. I knew that Ramshorns have a reputation for reproducing but I can’t believe how quickly it’s happened. A quick glance at the front of the tank today and I can easily spot a hundred eggs.

I don’t suppose I can expect their population to limit itself in any beneficial way?

On a positive note, you'll never need to buy another glass scraper again, and you'll save hours not dealing with algae.

Then when that novelty wears off, buy a big happy smiley Fahaka puffer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxTizCAfYA&ab...

Puffers are awesome!

I had similar - the one bloody time I didn't buy in vitro or from my trusted supplier of potted plants...

So, I got a couple of assassin snails. Fairly pretty, and as per the name, they eat the pest snails.

Except, they fking breed too.

So, my goldfish get a nice live food treat every week - every assassin snail I can find in the other tank.

Which they love.

[LordGrover]

Heh. We used to sell Snail Smasher - worked a treat but caution; fatal for ALL invertebrates.

[HustleRussell]

S11Steve said:

HustleRussell said:

I now feel very stupid. I knew that Ramshorns have a reputation for reproducing but I can’t believe how quickly it’s happened. A quick glance at the front of the tank today and I can easily spot a hundred eggs.

I don’t suppose I can expect their population to limit itself in any beneficial way?

On a positive note, you'll never need to buy another glass scraper again, and you'll save hours not dealing with algae.

Then when that novelty wears off, buy a big happy smiley Fahaka puffer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxTizCAfYA&ab...

A bad motha fahaka alright, but I can’t see it doing well in 6 UK gallons of water!

In fact I don’t have any options really for species which will predate upon Ramshorns which aren’t other snails.

[S11Steve]

Sway said:

Puffers are awesome!.

Not so awesome when they or their species-types dies....

Again on a positive note, my fish food cost has dropped significantly.

[HustleRussell]

LordGrover said:

Heh. We used to sell Snail Smasher - worked a treat but caution; fatal for ALL invertebrates.

I’ve got Amano shrimp which is cool but eliminates the chemical option!

[Caddyshack]

Assassin snails are great. My stingray Eats all snails from the main tank but I used to get snails in the sump, now I just have a few assassins in the sump.

[Chester draws]

Help please. Have I been a complete Muppet?

Believed my fishless cycle to have completed, 3ppm ammonia converted to Nitrates in 24 hours. Just done a BIG water change. (80-90% of my 200 litre tank).

I remembered the dechlorinator, but decided to add it to the tank at the end rather than mess about trying to dose it into each bucket.

But, I turned on the heater, filter and bubbler before I pumped up the last 25 litres of water.

I've had normal tap water in contact with the gravel, plants and decorations for 30-45 minutes, and the same running through the filter for a further 5 before I realised and quickly dosed the full tank volume.

• Have I killed all my new bacteria by contact with chlorine?

• Is it worth testing another 3ppm ammonia to see for sure and then doing another small water change?

(Plan for 'normal' 20% changes was to match temp and dechlorinate in 40litre flexi-tub and then pump in).

[HustleRussell]

The chlorine won’t have helped. Also, what temperature was the water that went in?

I seeded my tank from a friend’s mature tank but an unattended filter malfunction after setup, possibly helped by an intentional gradual drop in temperature, seemed to pretty much kill off all the beneficial bacteria. As I already had a couple of loaches and shrimp in there I accidentally ended up doing a fish-in cycle. I was surprised by how I had managed to seemingly kill all the bacteria but I guess it just didn’t have that good a grip yet. It was only on a bit of old sponge not proper bio media.

ETA: I was busy with tests and water changes for over two weeks afterwards but I still had two apparently healthy loaches and shrimp after cycling and still do now.

Edited by HustleRussell on Thursday 29th April 14:13

[Chester draws]

Water going in was warmed to around 23-24ish, 1 kettle to 1 bucket roughly. And checked tank temperature and new water occasionally as I went along.

I wasn't too concerned with exact temperature, as no fish yet. But didn't want to leave the heater to do all the work.

[otolith]

I think all you can do now is dose it with ammonia and see if it cycles. You may have got away with it, but either way you'll need to know.

[HustleRussell]

Ok so temperature isn’t a problem. I had visions of the tank being filled from a cold tap.

I will let somebody more knowledgeable speculate on the effect of the chlorine. Personally if it were me I’d be looking to verify that I was still cycled.

Maybe it’s time to put the ammonia away and just put some fish food in, or a bit of prawn...