Posts by Avery

  • Aqueon 15 Gallon LED Column

    Ultimately, this tank is just an extremely weird height and size, and even for a Dwarf Gourami as and snail tank, it just gets way too dirty too fast that requires a ton of maintenance to clean (ex; draining a vast majority of the tank to reach down). I've decided to move on, and start breaking this tank down. Driftwood will be saved and migrated into the turtle tank once I get a bigger tank size (I've already put a piece into here to secure the basking dock more), snails will be fully moved into the turtle tank once I sift through the sand, plants will be moved into the turtle tank another tank I'm going to setup soon, and everything else will be sold (tank, sand, lights, filter, etc.).

    For everyone else, it's a good tank, just really hard to keep up (especially by a window), and it's size really limits you to very specific set of fish (unless you go marine and make this a reef tank, although you'll need to buy a new DIY based hood and lighting system).

  • Shrimp Specific Tanks - Ideal or Avoid?

    For all of you shrimp keepers, have you seen the recent line of shrimp dedicated tanks that many retailers are trying to sell recently? For your given shrimp species only tanks, do you tend to use dedicated tanks like these which are internal filters hidden away being a grate, specific substrate for planted tanks and shrimp to move around, or have a powerhead output for the filter to make sure that it doesn't directly point somewhere static that cannot be moved?

    I've found a bunch of them seem like a really nice deal because they are in a weird starter kit format but missing a few pieces of core equipment like a heater, substrate, or other aspects. Although their size is on the smaller side (ex; <19 gallons), their size is ideal for a perfect planted shrimp tank that can really highlight the shrimp and plants, while providing the needed lighting and layout for doing a lovely aqua scape.

  • How do you handle your corals when moving?

    When you are moving, either between houses or out of one location to another, how do you make sure that your corals are packaged correctly so that they don't die or break apart? Do you make sure that you bring along any cooling bags or heat mats if the temperature is going to swing when moving?

  • Aqueon 40 Gallon Breeder Turtle Tank

    Just a small update, I completely cleaned out the tank from all of the leftover lettuce over time leaving a lovely mess (drained about 30 of the 40 gallon tank). I’ve also purchased another surface skimmer to help push water around and moved the direction of water from counterclockwise to now clockwise. I’ve also stabilized the driftwood slightly more by adding more sand and fixing the rock points that it is surrounded by.

    I still need to clean out the canister filter, but that will be at a later date. I’m also now down to just 4 of the original zebra danios, with the Chinese algae eater being eaten (it’s gone) recently. Turtle is a little bit bigger and doing healthy, no issues so far!

    I might add some additional stocking of faster fish, possibly some of the smaller cichlids in order to add volume in the water column compared to the 4 danios that now school together throughout the tank. I need to also add in more plants, so far it’s left the Anubias alone but it still seems not so green compared to what I think it could be. Possibly thinking of Amazon swords (fast growing), Water wisteria (fast growing) or Java fern (bad taste) to add in around the driftwood.

  • Have you used mollies in a saltwater tank?

    Since mollies have a special ability to move through pure freshwater, to brackish, to saltwater, many people use these fish to determine if there are any issues with their water quality in their tanks since they are fairly cheap compared to many other saltwater fish that are common in the hobby. Have you ever used mollies inside of your tank in order to get used to saltwater (as a beginner), or do you use them as a dither fish in the background since they breed extremely easily and are very popular in the freshwater hobby?

  • Have you ever had to return a fish after finding out it wasn't a good fit?

    Since many fish can actually be completely different in terms of behavior with other species inside of a tank, have you ever had to return a given fish because it just didn't fit well with the rest of your tank or other members of it's own species? Were you able to return it to the store that you purchased it for a credit back, or did you have to find another method to rehome the fish elsewhere?

  • Lazy clownfish

    Do you know how long that is has been like this by chance? Have you tested any of the water parameters, and if there are any other fish in the tank, are they showing similar symptoms or are they still looking healthy?

  • Foods for dwarf frogs

    Most people tend to feed them food that they feed their fish, but ideally worms (smaller worms that can fit in their mouth), pellets that can sink, sometimes flakes, but ideally anything that can fit in their mouth easily without them having to struggle to find the food or fight it (or fight for it with other species in the same tank).

  • Goldfish and African clawed fish

    I've found that keeping African Clawed Frogs tends to be a species only tank (due to their size, and fast movement to catch any smaller fish that move around/above them) unless you have a large long tank. In terms of keeping them with goldfish, I've seen it done, although they come from totally two different habitats in the wild, so their care requirements are different and may result in one species suffering a tad more than the other.

  • Fish and Vacation

    I tend to buy an automatic feeder and place various food in it, but making sure my vacation isn’t longer than a week and a half up to 2 weeks (many of the automatic feeders on market can only supply enough food for about a week). If I need to take longer than 2 weeks, then I try to have a family member or someone I know feed them.

  • Diet for fish to grow faster

    For their diet, it’s always highly recommended to feed a variety of food per week in order to make sure that they aren’t lacking anything from one specific food source. As far as growth, that is normally tied to the temperature of the water (warmer water will result in a faster metabolism which means faster growing compared to colder water).

  • Do you lay your SPS frags down, tie it to something, or place it at an angle?

    Do you just leave any new SPS frags upright and leave them on the frag plugs, do you remove them from the plugs and lay them down, in order to allow them to spread across the rock faster and at the same time while allowing for more natural like growth pattern inside of your aquarium?

    Clearly, one thing to highlight is that tissue on polyps will invariably die so we don't want to lay down down incorrectly of having them faced any specific manner that may cause for them to not get any nutrients (or enough).

  • How do you decide your aquarium height?

    How do you decide how tall that you want your specific tank in your room, and what do you do to make sure it reaches that specific height? I've seen stands have options that can raise/lower, or people use DIY methods to build their own tank stand to make it that given height.

  • Friend’s African Dwarf Frog missing web front hand?

    Can you ask your friend is the frog was always like this, or if after they added it to their tank, it lost it's webbed aspect on it's hand? If anything I'd watch for signs of the infection that you noted, since it's very very common and can lead to a loss of an arm/leg (and then be fatal). I'd also ask if they have any fish in the tank, or other decorations that might have caused for it to loose it over time (such as that SpongeBob Krusty Krab decoration in the photo if the individual webbed hands were caught in multiple times and ripped).

  • Besides boiling, good way to clean ocean driftwood?

    I'd recommend using boiling water, in order to kill anything that could be living or possibly might come alive (ex; eggs from any snails, bugs that have nested within, and even terminates if the wood has been left out for so long without any water touching it).

    You could also dip it within white vinegar for a day to make sure anything on the outside is cleaned up (or the vinegar that soaks within the wood, is treated).