Posts by Avery

I know that with any type of coral, it really is all about making sure that you have the right lighting, nutrients, and also making sure the tank parameters are setup correctly.

Having any one of those off tends to be stressful to the coral, which can over time kill it (or it can die in the transition from store to your tank when acclimating if done incorrectly too).

Have you recently walked in a pet store, and noticed that a lot of the newer tanks (specifically below 30 gallons) tend to now use a mixture of plastic and glass, or glass and acrylic? I feel like when we get more unique designs using items such as black lit lighting, floor lighting, or various coated glass (such as darker glass) they tend to go without full glass all over.

I always use root tabs before I add substrate, and then liquid fertilizers as time goes on. I’m sure you could push down a ton of root tabs into the substrate again if you wanted too or more near the roots of plants if you used like sand (feel like gravel would be a PITA to push down and not have others try to float up).

Sadly like a range of topics, many either just don’t know, or have received false information from others (even other websites or communities) and they think that it is correct.

With Ich specifically I have seen this a ton of times where many state that heat doesn’t kill them no matter how hot (or the temperature it does will fry all of the fish), but this has been proven false in many studies and that heat alone can eradicate it completely it the temperature increase is 15F above when they first appeared (or from the tank that they originally appeared from). Similarly have seen many people note specific medicine is or isn’t invert safe when it is under correct dosaging.

It’s back and running again! Time to get those tanks on sale!

Looks like Petco is back to doing this, not sure if other big chains are. I know most of the local shops in my area are still taking returns (that is - if it was in their policy to).

I’d have to say when I adding in a pretty badly attacked black knife eel as a friend was tearing down their tank, only to notice a day or two later that it completely killed all of my other community fish in the tank (not sure if it was an attack feast, or if it was super hungry, or what). Kinda sucked the most as doing a favor tended to make me restart my whole tank.

I tend to dip the plants a few times in vinegar and a light copper solution (as copper kills snails and most invertebrates). Then I rinse them throughly in water to make sure the copper treatment is gone so it’s safe for my tanks that do have invertebrates and snails (the ones that I do want that is).

I honestly wouldn’t be too shocked if things don’t settle down until COVID-19 is gone or at least handled a tad more better. Even then it’ll be curious on how many of these events stay as online events, and how many do actually go back into being in-person.

I would probably say the aspect of needing more equipment. A ton of times you can get away with just a tank, heater, and filter with freshwater - although saltwater requires more equipment for daily use and for maintaining levels (ex; making sure the salinity is the same when doing water changes).

Do you wear gloves when you work inside of your reef aquarium in order to not get poked/bit, or do you wing it and watch what you are touching and what is around you at all times?

Since everyone has their own personal opinion on how much substrate they like, if they want it level or at a grade around the tank, and other aspects. What is your preferred substrate depth and does it vary from substrate type (ex; gravel/sand/soil/etc.)?

I normally just rinse it thoroughly with water, and then test the water with a bigger spectrum of parameters to see if it is releasing anything toxic (or has something toxic coating it). If so, I just try to rinse with vinegar and if it that doesn’t do anything - I just discard it.

Where do you end up sourcing your aquascaping material from? Do you source it at your local stores, online, or even around your home in nature itself?

This can range from wood, rocks, to other items that are aquarium safe to give it that biotop feel/look.

From a friend who does this all of the time;

Quote

Put polarized sunglasses on and look at a known peice of tempered glass compared to a known non-tempered peice of glass.


I believe it looks similar to the reflective rainbow I see when I look at my trucks side glass which is tempered.I believe it looks similar to the reflective rainbow I see when I look at my trucks side glass which is tempered.

Otherwise I’d highly recommend on calling the manufacturer and seeing what they say.

I’ve seen a few do it, but I never had a tank that either was too experience for a stand - or was an odd shape and therefore a common stand isn’t really an option.

For strength, I’m sure one could use some type of CAD program or even go to a lumbar yard and see what they would recommend for thickness of wood and what type of wood to use.

When you setup your tanks and stock then, do you go for a majority of them to be schooling fish - or do you go for more centerpiece fish without background fish?

Do you use a protein skimmer for your freshwater tanks, and if so, what made you set one up?

I personally use one for my turtle tank, however I don’t use it in any of my other fish only tanks since I never really had a protein layer on the surface build up enough to warrant one.

I personally do fill my tank up all of the water, I hate the way that water stains look on the tank and they are a huge pain to get rid of.

I believe that the fish major thing that wiped out one of my tanks when I was starting with either Ich or it possibly was something else in the form of a parasite.

As far as cleaning, I used a ton of vinegar, magic erasers, and water to clean it fully out. Then I setup new filter media, and let the tank run through a cycle for a month and half.

By then anything that was there is surely dead without any hosts available.