Hippoherder

Thanks!

Thanks for the quick reply. I need to buy an RO unit. I was going to refill a few of my RO 5gallon bottles to mix in with water changes but all they had was remineralized. I'm not sure I see a useful purpose for remineralized RO in aquarium use....unless maybe you are using it for a nano and it will be 100% of the water for the tank.

I know they RO filter the water and then add mineral content back, but I'm not sure whatthat means for PH, GH, and KH. Is it now just purified ph 7 water with a high KH and GH? Hard RO water? I suppose the values depend on the company remineralizing it. I was just wondering how the end values are different than regular RO. Is it just RO with a higher buffer or did we just reproduce Calgary tap water without the chlorine and chloramines?

Thanks Fishclub girl!

I was wanting to start some tiger vals going for a guppy tank. For ease of maintenance I was wanting to grow them in net pots. What sort of substrate would be good for the vals? Should I use some kind of aquatic soil of sand?

Could bamboo be a problem? I didn't know that. I had 6 bamboo in the filtration reservoir under the 10 gallon. They went immediately from the 10 gallon into the 55 with much of the water from the 10 gallon. So theyve been immersed in an aquarium for a little over 8 months now. It did well in the 10 gallon.

The fish looked fine on the day of purchase, I did test my water and have it tested. The water is fine from a cycling standpoint. NTS shouldn't have been the issue. The fish were behaving like it was but no showing any obvious outer signs of disease that I could recognize. I did take the fish back to big Al's and the salesperson said this has been a big problem for them lately. They've had a lot of die-off lately and have been getting (or what I was told) bad stock from the supplier as there have been big die offs shortly after getting new stock. *shrug* They gave me a credit for the fish, but that doesn't help replace my breeding population of lampeyes or the other fish. The ranges between 76 F and 77 F. I'm just going to break down the tank, clean it, and get rid of the plants, substrate, and replace the filtration on it. Without knowing what the issue is, I just have to start over I guess.

Well...not many fish left now. Dissapointing that no one has some insight.

I had a 10 gallon aquaponic setup...very mature-lots of plants inside and a few outside. It had 7 lampeyes and a couple of ember tertas. I upgraded to a 55 gallon. I dumped the water from the 10 and all of the plants in addition to hitting it with more nitrifying bacteria and MTS. I added aquarium sand and 2 filters (one rated for a 55gallon and the other for a 30 gallon). Fast forward 2-3 weeks and I start adding a few fish - 3 cories (young) 2 small khuli loaches. I anchor some plants to aquarium rocks purchased from a pet store (they came in a bag with some rubber bands). Another week or so goes by and I added 3 platys from Big Als....then the whole tank started to take a turn. Fish start dying and showing signs of NTS....but not all. The cories and ember tetras are fine- eating, swimming, acting normally. The platies, a loach and the lampeyes start to fail. The water was checked with a test kit and by the store. Its fine...I think. PH 7.6 (on my test kit...Big Als had 7.2 but they used a strip not drops). Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrates about 10 I was told by the pet store that the rocks and rubber bands were fine. BUT if you go into Big Als, none of the tanks look healthy. Many fish acting like the fish in my tank... Any thoughts? There are no signs of disease (spotting, ich...) The water seems fine. I've been doing small water changes (5 gallons at a time). I have no clue other than to think there is something toxic in Big Als water... but its only effecting certain species. T

Yes, you can't buy them without one or sell to someone who doesn't have one, unless it's a food item (dead). $150/year last I checked. I'm using them for aquaponics, but practicing with guppies first.

Yes, I'll be doing it. It requires a permit though.

Great! Thanks for the feedback. Time for a trip to Home Depot.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this in their aquarium. How does it do with fish that appreciate sand that isn't overly coarse...Cories for example.

Nice I'm jealose. You aren't doing hydroponics. You're doing aquaponics. It looks great. I can't tell from the picture, but is that a Hoya?

The tank looks great! Don't SA chiclids need a lower ph than African? Let me know if you ever breed SA chiclids.

+1 to flyfisher's post. That's how I relocated mine. Must be wierd for the fish. They dive into their shells, and when they poke their heads out again, they are in a totally new place. It's like some kind of alien fish abduction for them.

+1 on the Malaysian trumpet snails. They are great for sand as they burrow and dig through it. They breed like crazy though. A vacuum is also good, you just need to practice a little so you don't siphon the sand out. It's easy.

I have a few bags from Understory enterprises, and use them in my frog tank. They are a top notch supply. I'll play around with it in a spare tank to see what it does for the ph. If it works well, I might do a leaf litter bottom for a cory tank. It should do wonders for raising fry in the same tank. Thanks

Anything overly inbred. I like the different behaviours fish exhibit. Some are so inbred they are nothing like they are normally.

Thank you. Doing research on the net, there seems to be differing statements regarding this, but very few come from people keeping it in an aquarium. They are mostly gardening sources. I did read in a few places that maple/oak leaves would do the trick, which would be nice as I have a few bags of them.

Is it interchangeable for its effects on ph and water quality in the aquarium?

This may be counter intuitive, but what about pygmy cories? 20 pygmies and 8 or so praecox or blue eyes sounds like it may be a start. They are easy to breed if I need more and can adjust the population and filtration as needed.

There is expanding foam for ponds. You can buy some at Pices. Another method is to cut and silicone (as the glue) construction foam, you can then paint it with Drylok, which Canadian Tire can order in. I had them do it for me and still have an unused can. The drylok can be mixed with different concrete paint colors. I've seen some pretty cool backgrounds done in that method.

I like the pleco ideas. I was reading up on the Panaques, and I read that they can't have too much in the way of protein as it will cause digestive troubles and I am sure there will be protein intensive times for the rainbows. I will read up on the rhino plecos. An army if bn plecos is an idea if all else fails. The additional water volume and filtration from the grow beds will be several times more than the initial 90 gallons. Although it would be nice to have something a bit easier to find homes for any extra offspring than bn.

Thanks Rick. The suggestion regarding the goldfish has to do with the amount of waste they produce. Aquaponics depends on fish waste to feed the plants in the grow beds. Depending on the type of plant you are trying to grow, you may need more waste production to be successful. So lettuce and herbs will run well off nearly anything, where tomatoes will require a mature system with significant fish waste production. Goldfish and tilapia are ideal. It can be done with other fish. You just need to keep the bio load up. Rainbows aren't as easy as livebearers to keep the fish population up, but with a dedicated breeding tank, it shouldn't be too difficult (based on my Gertrude and Praecox experience anyways). So I basically need a bow-friendly bottom feeder that doesn't get huge breeds well, and poops a lot lol. It's looking like cories and bn. Thanks again. Looking forward to seeing your tanks.