balikiss

Hi everyone. I'm upgrading tanks! Soon will be setting up my new (to me) 50gal. I had figured that black sand would look pretty sharp, and natural at the same time. But after looking at some pictures im not so sure. So the question is...What colour sand is your favorite for making both a good show tank and a natural look? Thank you!

Well if someone else has been able to grow plants with regular daylight bulbs, then so can I!! Another question tho. I haven't been able to find the legs that he was talking about..Any other ideas on how to keep the hood above water? Strips of wood to go across the tank front to back?

This looks like a great little project! But since I don't have the lighting kit to go inside it, could I just use regular household spiral bulbs? I know this is going to cause a lot of WPG talk that I know nothing about. So keeping it simple...Would I be able to grow low light plants (java fern) with two cool white spiral bulbs?

Bit of an update. Just before winter we had our dugout cleaned out with heavy equipment and it literally took three feet of mud off the bottom and the sides were all cleaned up and landscaped. i had totally forgotten about the fish because they were already hibernating. i remembered, but only a couple hrs before it was all finished. i asked the guy if he had seen any fish while cleaning it and he said he didn't. but he remembered one time that he had cleaned a pond with trout in it, and they all swam to the surface because of the very cloudy and dirty water. so I'm eagerly awaiting this spring to see if they survived. But just in case they didn't, im also getting another dozen to put in this spring.

Just recently got the larger tank (everyone was in a 15 gal before) so the filter media is over a year old, and then i added another filter with part old media/part new. the 20 gal has been running for two months.

So for the past few weeks some of my guppies have been getting dropsy and dieing. I came home after been gone for 6 days, and now a lot of guppies are bloated and look like pine cones. Upon farther inspection theres even a few of them who's eyes are huge and sticking out. I don't have a test kit, but i did a water change before i left, and there is enough filtration on the tank. It's a 20 gal tank with about 20 guppies, 4 cory cats and some shrimp. But even the shrimp who were thriving have been dieing off slowly. iv tried adding salt, and parasite medication, but they keep dieing. Any help would be great! thnx.

Well I recently acquired a 20 gal tank, a couple HOB filters, and a couple of heaters. The only thing is that they were sitting in a garage for a couple years probably. Its minus 20 or so around here now, and the filters work awesome, but I'm worried that the freezing may have effected the heaters some how. Will freezing a heater damage it?? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks all.

Definitely a sponge filter, and for guppy fry i also use an elite mini with nylon over the bottom intakes. the mini just offers a bit of mechanical filtration. make sure you turn the flow way down.

Minnows? like white clouds? will they survive the winter tho. Our pond should be at least 12 feet deep. Did you aerate ur pond all winter?? Thats the only thing i'm not sure about.

It definatly could be your betta. Both my female bettas will harass any shrimp they see (even to the point of death a couple times) Theres a pretty good chance you just can't see any shrimp among the plants and gravel. How big is your tank? 8 shrimp isn't that many for even a the smaller tanks. Don't forget that they will often become lighter in colour if being bugged by the fish. So maybe they'v just turned an almost transparent colour and are virtually impossible to see. Hope there just hiding and not dead!

Do a bit of an update. So I put all 10 fish into the pond at the end of may or so. And then I didn't see them and assumed that they had either got eaten by the muskrat or a crow or something. And then last week while riding my horse around the pond I saw a big school of them! Counted all ten there still. They are so bright and colourful now! Must be all that natural food. They seem to be about five or more inches long now. Can't believe how big they've grown in just a few short months. I'll try and get a couple pictures next time I ride.

Well heres a little update on them. Exactly three weeks later..I put the first batch into my 5 gal shrimp tank when they were about 4 days old. Think i put about 20 of them in. Always saw a few of them floating up in the corners, until after the first week. I kinda figured they either were blending in with the rocks, or they had died. And then a couple days ago I saw one!! And it was almost a quarter of an inch long! Super excited that one managed to stay alive. And then next day I found another. And then today another one! So I put the three little ones in the half filled 10 that I was attempting to breed my white clouds in (no luck). They seem to be doing good. Just got my microworm cullture, so i'm gona give the other pair a shot at breeding again.

Heck yes!! Don't really care for the petland in gp. What great news.

wow thats alota shrimp! great job! what are you feeding them?

They are neither cyclops or daphnia, i know what both of those look like...and these are waaay smaller. And they arn't round either, they look like a super small worm that free swims around the surface, occasionally resting on the glass, but then takes off again. Where as daphnia swim in short bursts forward, these guys use a really quick up and down motion to move steadily forward.