JayWho

Don't buy unless it's on sale. I have one for my snakes and frogs, and the hot spot of my turtle. It's accurate'ish... I also use a standalone thermometer for comparison.

I recently acquired a baby razorback musk turtle, which I have setup in a 10 gallon aquarium. I'm not looking to house it with any fish yet, but when it's time to upsize it, it's moving into my 55 gallon aquarium, which will become a turtle tank. This tank currently houses a smorgasbord of fish. Clown loaches, giant danios, lelupi cichlids, synodontis catfish, bristlenose plecostomus... I'm strongly thinking of getting a long, short tank (like a 25g long) for the cichlids and synodontis cats, and moving them to their own setup, but how do you figure the rest will fare with a mostly aquatic turtle? 3 loaches, 3 danios, 3 plecos (all full grown but the loaches - 2 are 6", one is 4". The plecos are small though; maybe 2.5-3") in what will likely be approximately 30 gallons of water, filtered by a canister filter. This is my first turtle. I know it may eat the fish once it's big enough, but what is your experience? I've seen videos of lots of turtles homed with all variety of fish. I'm thinking I'll just give it a try and see what happens. I might just rehome them all though. The turtle is the size of a loonie currently, so there's plenty of time still. I would like to know your experiences with turtles and fish though (or any turtle experience for that matter). What worked; what didn't. Things you would recommend, and things to stay away from. It's a pretty interesting reptile, and spends nearly all it's time in the water. Pretty easy transition from fish. I'm looking forward to it getting used to it's setup and not swimming away and hiding anytime I get too close!

I have recently become quite interested in green horned frogs (pacman frogs) and have acquired 2 of them, with plans to get a couple more at the upcoming reptile show next month, if available. I know this is an aquatic forum, but amphibians are half aquatic, and there's knowledge here so I figured I'd ask away. I have a pretty simple setup: 10 gallon tank, with just coconut fibre substrate, a water dish, a half coconut shell to hide under and a pothos plant in a pot. My DIY mind got the wheels turning and I was thinking of ways to complicate my setup unnecessarily to "make it better" (that's what DIY'ers do, right? lol)...more out of curiosity than anything really. But, has anyone ever tried a setup where the substrate was raised up so that there was a water volume underneath it, then filter the water with say a sponge filter run off an airline or small pump, to run back up to the top of the substrate and cycle through? I mean, you generally only change the coconut fibre once a month or so, so I wouldn't expect it to be saving me tons of money that way or anything. But, theoretically it would make the environment healthier for the frog...no? Better than an unfiltered system where the waste just builds up until cleaning everything? Frogs partially breathe through their skin, so water health would contribute to their overall health. Or do you think frog waste is too much for this, especially once they reach adult size and can eat small mice? This would probably be a lot of work for a small enclosure, and a 10 gallon tank might be too short for such an idea. But in theory, if you say, had some egg crate (or a plastic "tray" of some kind with holes drilled in it for drainage), lined it with some screen to help keep the coconut fibre from draining into the water reservoir, and raised it up (to act as the "floor" for the frog) by supporting it with some pieces of pvc pipe cut to length and standing on end. Then put a sponge filter in the space underneath, on one end of the tank, with the output rising slightly above the level of the substrate, and the drainage holes on the opposite side of the tank, so the water is forced to cycle... Would it work? Haha. Or am I just crazy? If nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about, I'll sketch up a picture for reference.

Interesting, that... I got my 110g for free. Every smaller tank I've had to pay for...

I always use giant danios in my cichlid tanks. They outlast everything. Not sure if they'd be aggressive enough to deal with piranha, but they're cheap and might be worth a try.

Say no more. No need to elaborate. It's none of their business anyway. Political correctness is way overboard these days.

I'm surprised there's not a phone/tablet app for this yet...

I don't see a post with the info - is the auction the usual time and place?

I wasn't able to make it out to this one. The only thing I would have been on the lookout for were synodontus lucipinnus.

Thought I'd post some pictures of my stand that incorporates fish tank and DJ studio. Sorry for the quality of the iphone pics. I got the tank for free, missing bottom trim and with some cracks, so started by leak testing it for a couple weeks. Then began construction and I built the platform for the tank, and the DJ table. I just today finished the shelf for the speakers and records/accessories. Leak test: Aquarium stand: DJ Table: Assembled and filling: All set up: Added a DIY LED fixture, and DIY overhead sump: Canister filter outputs into the sump, which drains back into the aquarium: The entire planter box is filled with plastic dish scrubbies. I also later added a 3rd drain line as 2 wasn't enough: Added the shelves for records and accessories, and the speaker shelves: (iphones suck) A more in focus picture of the studio part:

I ended up getting a free 6' tank and have just set that up and tore down the old tanks. I still made my own stand for it though, as I also DJ and my old table/desk I was using to hold my music equipment was about 6' long as well. The aquarium is sitting on a 2x4 frame on the floor, and the DJ table is over-top, combining the footprints.

I boil my driftwood until it doesn't make my water dark; boil for at least 5-8 minutes, and if the water is dark, rinse, repeat. This will leach out the tannins faster. A small piece of driftwood shouldn't take too long.

http://www.bigalspets.ca/filstar-canister-filter-xp-s.html It says it's good up to 45 gallons, and pumps 250gph (not sure if that's before or after media). From what I've found on the XP2, it's good up to 75 gallons and with media pumps ~150gph. (I also run a powerhead on a large sponge filter, and a second powerhead on a small coarse sponge at opposite ends of the tank - so it's not my only filtration) I'd say a larger model couldn't hurt, but it's not necessarily needed either.

Just wrap scratch pads around the filter intake and hold them with rubber bands. Big Al's has sponges in their pond section as well.

I have a Rena XP2 that I initially ran on a 40 gallon saltwater tank for 5-6 years, and am now running on a 55 gallon freshwater (going on 9+ months now). Will be moving it to the 110 gallon setup once it's ready as well. I've never had any problems with it, other than wanting more flow (just means I should upgrade). It can take a licking and keep on ticking.

All the tanks I've kept over 20 years I've done with fish. (I didn't even learn about the fishless cycle until recently, on these boards) I tend to use giant danios for larger tanks - a small pleco for small tanks. I use fish that are hardy and can tolerate some stress. Used filter media is the best way to go if possible.

For cichlids you want maximum surface area. The more floor territory the better. Aquarium height is less important.

Lots of cichlid tanks that run sumps use powerheads to move detritus around and into the filter intakes. Many cichlids enjoy the turbulence. I use two powerheads on a 50 gallon tank along with a canister filter and the fish don't mind it at all.

I think that for some people this would be a no-brainer, but I had to learn the hard way... I went to Big Al's last night to buy some Clown Loaches and ended up picking up 5. My cousin came with me, and I brought the dogs, as I always do. We stopped at Home Depot on the way back so I could get the measurements of something, and stupid me left the fish in the car with the dogs, thinking they would probably be ok. We were in the store for maybe 5 minutes and came back out and one of the dogs had pulled the fish out of the store bag, ripped open the outside bag and punctured the inside bag that the loaches were in, which had drained all over my back seat, and the loaches were suffocating and being stepped on by the dogs. Big Al's was closed, as we were one of the last customers at closing time. So, my cousin attempts to pile the fish into the remaining drops of water in the bag while I speed to the closest store (Tim Horton's) to get a bottle of water, because it's all I could think of at the moment. I run into what was one of the slowest and most frustrating line up experiences EVER, the teenager ahead of me stumbling through everything he was ordering until I spurt out that I just need a bottle of water while he's paying. I asked if they had a non-refrigerated bottle, but they didn't, so it had to do. I poured some of it out, gave it a good shake and put it on the defrost vent on full to try and warm it up, because it was COLD. It was also de-ionized water, which I wasn't sure if it was ok for fish, but didn't care at this point, as I was more worried about breathing... At least, I hoped, it would be chlorine-free. It didn't seem to be warming up very much at all, so I just said "F--- it. They're dying." and poured some water in the corner of the bag my cousin had the fish in. He's holding it in his hands, trying to warm the water up and monitoring the fish ("One's definitely still alive" :cry: ) while I'm speeding home to the west end from the south side. I got home, parked and took the loaches from my cousin, ran up to my apartment, used scissors to cut the corner of the bag they were in off into a small plastic container, put some aquarium water in there and crossed my fingers... It had been about 15-20 minutes since we were at Home Depot. There was one that seemed to be dead the whole time - I'm thinking it got stepped on by my larger dog when she was shooed into the backseat where the fish had already been dragged to by the smaller dog. The other 4 are alive and seem to be doing well - they even ate this morning. So that's good. New addition to the car is a sealable, dog-proof container. Now priority is on getting my 80 gallon tank resealed and setup so I can apologize by moving them into it... lol Poor little traumatized fish... Welcome home?

Wish I had known that. I would have stayed and went for them. I left before any of the petricolas came up.

Did the person that bought the tub of driftwood (or someone that has extra?) want to sell a piece? I tried to bid on a couple, but had to limit my budget to $20. Was disappointed to not see any Synodontus Lucipinnus or more Julidochromis species this time. Though I did get an aquaclear mini for my 10g molly/guppy tank that has started to produce fry; and an air pump to better run my sponge filters once I have my 80 gallon tank set up.

Stick with what you want. You just might have to keep weeding them out until you have some hardy ones. Or try a different store maybe?

A few neons shouldn't be dying in a 20 gallon tank if there was any bioload to provide a cycle in those 2 months... You might have just gotten bunk fish... I ask about the water from the bags, because it's got lots of urine and poop in it and could be spiking your ammonia... But not if your levels are zero. I vote bad luck, unfortunately. As I've learned from my years in this hobby - sometimes fish just die.

Are the neons coming from a LFS? Are you adding the water from the bags to the tank?

All I got was snails and duckweed!