Percilus

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome. Sounds like your suffering from mts worse than I am haha. I only have a chi/ebi/24/5.5 running right now Wish I could do more but other priorities first. 10/20 eventually ! Current living situation I wont be adding anything bigger than a 30 without risking getting the boot haha.

welcome

There are many medicinal options. Most will harm the shrimp though. A quick google search will bring them up. Yer correct everything seems to enjoy eating shrimplets, it is their purpose in the wild after all

I'd add something that will eat them. A small Tetra school would probably do it. They wouldn't harm your shrimp I don't think. What's a typical wild diet for a fish such as a tetra? With its iridescent blue and vivid red colors, the cardinal tetra is one of the most striking fishes in the world. Huge numbers are collected and exported each year from their Amazonian home, but although they are a familiar sight in aquarium shops, little is known of their life in the wild. One of the most important steps in finding out about the biology of any species is to find out what it eats. Researchers examining the diet of cardinal tetras from flooded forests and stream tributaries of the Rio Negro found that the fish were naturally eating a very broad range of foods. The stomach contents of the fish included crustaceans, such as Daphnia species and copepods, the larvae and adults of flies, mosquitoes, beetles, and bugs, as well as ants, shrimps, fish fry, eggs, algae, and fibrous plant matter. The smaller fish -- those measuring 1 inch (2.5 cm) -- also preyed extensively on tiny rotifers. Perhaps most surprisingly, the results also showed up scales and parts of other; larger fish, which suggests that the cardinal tetras are not averse to scavenging on dead fish. * Source http://infolific.com/pets/fish-in-the-wild/fish-diets-in-the-wild/ You can also in the future dip your plants in a 25/1 solutions of bleach prior to planting to ensure no hitchhikers that are unwanted.

Cool

Thanks for the info

Yea to help out with Either would do fine but depends on what purpose you'd like them for. If it's for algae control, go with Amanos. In my personal experience, Amanos are hardier shrimp. I was leaning towards Amano for a clean up crew plus sometimes I hear they have interesting behaviour and are fun to watch. Probably some MTS and was contemplating maybe a couple Dario Dario. Anyone that owns Scarlet Badis let me know if you think they would be happy in a 10x10x16 foot print heavily planted.

Welcome! Tanks are way better than tv after a long day I even find the maintenance part helps me focus away from crap and relax.

Hey Ron on that note would a Amano or Cherry shrimp do well in a heavily planted chi 6.6? I know the footprint is pretty terrible for stalking fish. Shrimp/snails is what I was thinking or just a single betta or something. Since your a shrimp guy let me know what yea think. Novice here as well. I've heard cherry shrimp are probably my best bet for hardiness? How many could I do?

So you've bought used T5HO fixtures even though you have an Aquaray on its way? I only bought 1 mini 400. I'll try it on a used chi I bought for $25. Will be a good experiment to because it's the 6.6 chi and it's 16 " high. If i see a cheap Finnex fixture I'll grab that used and try it as well if I can and than I can make a judgement from experience as Blink said you never know for sure until you do it yourself and know for sure. There was a guy selling a 30 " Finnex planted + but he wanted more than I wanted to pay for that experiment. The t5's are fully functional set ups not just lights. Perfect for me to learn with. Mcturtles tanks you probably know her.

Reytube Those are stunning. That discus tank is gorgeous. Great choice on their colour!

That is quite possibly for me anyhow one of the best aquascaped 10 gallons I've seen on the internet. Congrats. I don't think it needs a trim at all it was perfect in my opinion.

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

No vendetta. Just the professionals I talked to all over North America and Europe don't seem to agree with the average forum posters on line about finnex lights. A lot of my information came straight from the people who set this stuff up for a living. I fibbed a lot and had them quote me set ups I never intended to go through with. Picked their brains about lighting among other things. Plus the science on line etc. I never stated I was correct. I don't like to pay $350 for something I know won't do what I want it to do later and than have to upgrade. Wasting time and money is stupid in my opinion and I'm not rich. I overwhelmingly was told to go with T5HO lighting by almost every source in planted tanks I spoke with. For price and for results. So I've decided to go T5HO for now second hand due to a deal presenting itself and the fact that in 5 years LED's might be a hell of a lot farther along and cheaper. About that time I probably will have the skill and know how to do what I want with the equipment I purchase along the way. I do care about carbon footprint but I'm not going to spend $1000 to get the LED that "may" (that's a strong maybe in most people's opinion) perform as well as a quad T5HO. I intend to one day have a carpet of baby tears a lot deeper than 16 inches and every professional immediately recommended to stay away from LED. Most experienced hobbyist's have told me the same. A couple recommended aquaray for price and for possibly being able to do a high tech set up like say does. Don't get me wrong that guy has 25 years experience and the best equipment money can buy. But he is one of the main inspirations I have for even pursuing this hobby. I'm not the type of guy that sits at home and watches tv all night. I don't have a bucket load of money to throw at this hobby I have other goals and aspirations that I work on daily in my life that drain my resources as well. So I won't just drop $150-$350 to try something out. If the equipment can't be put to use later with my end goals I wont purchase it. I'm happy the Finnex lights work. Talk to a European forum They despise Finnex and love TMC. Come back over here and it's the other way around majorities speaking. I honestly personally don't know the answer like I said earlier. I was trying to find the answer. So basically I said screw LED because no one argues about the capabilities of a T5HO set up haha. So I won't be wasting my money at least. Piece of mind wins out over energy costs this time I would so go LED if I knew for sure. On a personal note. If a company can't be bothered to get CSA approval for the Canadian market place it not only sends up red flags but also I personally won't give them my business just on general principle. I don't care how good their product is I refuse to jump through hoops for a company who won't provide a warranty for their product in my country and doesn't care about providing good service to my country. Almost everyone else is represented here? Your telling me there isn't a big enough market to give bigals a cut and stock in Canada? I call bullshit. That's just my personal opinion. I would never drive to Montana for a light lol. I'd be the biggest hypocrite ever doing something like that my wife would cuff me in the head haha. I don't expect you to understand. I'm just being honest. I never believe everything I read. I go with my gut on most things and the law of averages. No ones right all the time but it's served me well in the past. I'd like everyone to know I was not offended in this debate at all and did not intend to offend anyone either. Lighting brings out some strong opinions in the hobby I find and I learned a lot of things from speaking with you guys/gals. Thank you.

Yea I was aware of this. How is the light doing for you? Salt or fresh? I kinda bit the bullet and bought some T5HO set ups second hand I couldn't beat the price and I wont need to replace any equipment for quite some time. Thx for the reply.

Curious what you use in Edmonton if not prime though. It's common for Edmonton water to test .25 ammonia right out of the tap. Why I use prime to begin with. Nice to have around if you get a unforeseen spike as well. I have not noticed any odd behaviour from my betta. I usually overdose a bit as well.

My guy has always eaten fine. But he used to like to flare at his reflection in his 5.5 g on the sides. So I removed the background, Has been fine since. He seems to love the floating log thing I bought him at bigals as well. That might calm him down. Check your water if he's spitting out the pellets he may be sick or stressed from a spike that's gone unnoticed. If it's fine and your pellets are not the smallest available try that. If not you may just have to feed him something else. A pack of hikari frozen bloods will last a life time for a betta lol Just use a small water testing pipette to siphon them out of a cup you sliver some into with a knife and aquarium water in it to thaw it out. He will come running right up and you can control the flow of the worms down to 1 or 2 max easy so you don't have to siphon anything he missed or turn your filter off to feed. A note about the log I find the damn things paint or whatever is wearing away and I have to scrub it off periodically and it's not looking as good now after like 2 months. My boy Vince does love it though. Till I plant a home for him i rested it on a big silk anubias rip off fake plant on the dead side in his tank gives him a nice spot to rest with a breathing or feeding hole at the surface.. As for the flaring if he's in a 5ish size tank I'd either remove the background or background the sides as well so he can't see himself as well High decor on the sides will help as well possibly.

My crowntail does well with the marina slim s10 on a 5.5 g at the moment. Has pretty slow adjustable flow. More so than say a aquaclear

I'm actually in Edmonton or I would have taken you up on this offer

Strange I have not found anything talking about this yet in my research. I will search harder. I did order the aquaray mini 400 already. As far as LED options that don't run $1000 a fixture I don't think I'm going to find a better deal unless I want a T5HO set up so hopefully the popular European aquarist opinion on these lights ability to grow plants pretty damn well for a lower priced LED is true.

I'll have to check that out.

Hello all couple questions for those with planted tanks. I have been using purigen as biomedia in my hob. I know this might not be a great setup in the future when I plant and possibly use ferts. What do you guys use for bio media in your filters? I hear filter floss and lava rock might be better choices for bio media. Also recommend me a good quality canister filter please. I'd like to get away from using hob on my main tanks. My main tanks are only going to be 5-55 gallon sizes but you can never have too much filtration haha! Is there any way you could run 3 small tanks off one beast canister filter. I just think the maintenance on a canister would be less annoying and the filtration would be superior. Correct me if I'm wrong.