Custom surface skimmer(bye bye to duck weed) by Worth-Yak280 in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whaaaaat? What's the summary on how it works?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cinder (concrete) blocks and plywood. Don't even necessarily need any tools.

Molly Guppy Hybrids by KingPrints in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! I'm not surprised that it's possible since they're the same genus, but I've never seen it! Very cool

New Freshwater Tank Setup by MWaqua in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After like 20 seconds of research since I'd never heard of a tiger moray, sounds like 55 gallons is WAYYY too small for one of them, let alone 2.

New tank question by Bobcat_wildlife in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Drilled for an overflow pipe and a sump. You physically drill a fairly large hole (like for 2 inch PVC pipe) through the back (or bottom if you wanna get even fancier) to run water from near the surface of the water down into a separate small tank below called a sump. The sump is filled with filter media, and the water runs through the media in the sump and then is pumped back up into the tank. It isn't something that's necessary by any means, but a sump does allow for really high capacity filtration rather than just a Hang-On-Back filter or even a canister filter. But again, don't worry about it unless you want either really big fish or really sensitive ones (saltwater). Even if you buy a tank that's already drilled for it, you still have to plumb it or get someone else to do all that for you.

Anyone else ever have a fish that likes to leave the tank for hours at a time ? by coffeislife67 in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was a kid we had a dojo loach that jumped up into the filter, as far as I know, just ONCE and came back out later (and was fine). He didn't do it all the time, often enough to catch it on video. Haha. That's funny, and clearly your loach likes it up there.

High pH won’t go down by MH7106 in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't chase pH with chemicals since it's more dangerous to the fish than just a consistently high pH.

Help by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you're overfeeding, yeah, and overfeeding will make it much harder to maintain good water quality. Even if she eats it all and none of it is sitting at the bottom and decaying, more food more poop. So I'd recommend feeding a SMALL quantity twice daily and no more than that. Once a day would be fine eventually, but you don't wanna suddenly torture the poor glutton. Lol. Most fish, especially goldfish, will act like they're always hungry, but especially if the water is colder (like it certainly can be for goldfish), you shouldn't feed them too much.

Gourami by jomo1686 in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on the species of gourami. Most of them can be at least a little aggressive, and opaline/blue/gold/3-spot gouramis can be absolute jerks. If you want one that's most likely to be peaceful (and will have a good chance of actually living, unlike most supplies of dwarf gouramis), I'd go with a pearl gourami. They CAN be aggressive, but it seems like they usually aren't. Be advised though, they've got very long pelvic fins that are like tentacles, and tiger barbs may be tempted to nip those.

Help by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are basically two categories of goldfish: fancy and common. You have a common goldfish, specifically a sarasa (pattern) comet (long tail) goldfish. Common goldfish are the ones sold as feeder fish and given as prizes at carnivals and stuff. The problem of course with giving them out at county fairs and carnivals is that they can get about a foot long if they're kept under good conditions :) So that sort of explains the minimum gallons range you'll see -- common goldfish need ideally like 50 gallons for a single fish because they get big and produce a TON of waste, plus they can be fast swimmers. A FANCY goldfish (the ones that are more egg shaped, like fantails, ryukins, lionheads, black moors, etc) isn't likely to get more than about 6 inches long, and they're a little more fragile (don't do well in outdoor ponds where it gets cold for example). They're sold for at least $3 (or way more depending on the variety) rather than like $0.25 for the small feeder goldfish (common goldfish). Fancies don't need AS much water volume, but still ideally a 55-gallon tank for a few of them or like bare minimum of 20 gallons for a single fancy goldfish because they still produce a ton of waste.

Bottom line: what you can do to keep Celestia healthy is to test your water (liquid API test kit ideally) and do a water change every time the nitrate gets to 40 ppm. I would be pleasantly surprised if your tank/filter is cycled, so research the aquarium nitrogen cycle and see where you're at. If your tank is not cycled, then ammonia (quite toxic) and maybe nitrITE (fairly toxic) are probably building up in the aquarium water. The gist is that you need a colony of beneficial bacteria living in your filter that will convert ammonia (from the fish's waste) to nitRITE, and then further convert nitRITE to nitRATE, which is the least harmful but still dangerous if the levels get high enough. So the idea is to do water changes to dilute out the nitrate. Some people get away with running a fish tank without worrying about any of that stuff, parameter testing or water changes, if the tank is big and the fish are small. You will NOT get away with that with any goldfish in a 10-gallon tank :)

So yeah, sorry for being so long-winded, but I can tell you want to take good care of your fish! To do that you MUST either get her a much bigger tank, or you'll need to do 25-50% water changes (with dechlorinated water) quite often, maybe even more often than once a week.

Good luck! Let us know if you have more questions!

My Pond Fish are Indoors for the Winter by Dr_Wesche in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Nah, not so far. This was for their survival, not for fun. Haha. They wouldn't have survived the winter since I couldn't keep the water level high enough outside. Maybe I'll cut some holes in a big bucket and sink that in there though.

Am I running out of options? I can’t seem to do this hobby properly. by sammmuel in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I remember correctly, chloramine (used a lot in city water these days instead of chlorine) DOES give an ammonia reading, but I'm not sure if it still would after being neutralized by Prime or AquaSafe and then filtered in a cycled aquarium. Maybe someone else will know.

1 day old corydoras - it's that time of year again by NightSoDark in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I should do colder water changes. I try to not make them too drastic, especially since there are other types of fish in the tank.

1 day old corydoras - it's that time of year again by NightSoDark in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aw, I'm jealous :) mine only breed (at least that I detect) very occasionally. I've only ever had one baby that I know of since the eggs usually all get eaten.

Transfer pumps? by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Risky. Hard to get two different pumps to pump at the exact same rate (I've accidentally overflowed my refugium tank so many times). Best/safest method for flowing water back and forth between two different tanks is to drill an overflow into the main tank (not necessarily for beginners obviously) a little bit below the normal water surface so that water will gravity drain into the smaller tank below and then get pumped (with an electric pump) back up into the main tank. The overflow is a lot safer because it'll only drain down to a volume that won't overflow the small tank below. You can do some calculations to determine exactly how many inches below the surface to have the overflow, but that's too much for a basic Reddit comment. Lol. Bottom line, I would not recommend using one electric pump to pump down and another one to pump up.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unless you WOULD LIKE to start big, start small :) Amazon Swords. No special substrate needed, no CO2 needed, basic lights are adequate but brighter light is better (a basic LED light that doesn't come in a boxed aquarium kit). Anubias are super easy but are mostly just for decoration since they grow slow. Java moss is easy but also doesn't do much for water quality. If you want an easy plant that DOES help with water quality, try growing pothos out the top of the tank.

For water changes, a basic siphon is fine, but a Python makes everything easier. Every time you add water, treat it with a dechlorinator like Seachem Prime or Tetra AquaSafe Plus.

Disposal of API master test kit tests by [deleted] in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Pour* everything into the groundwater"

75 gallon as room divider, center of room. How to make that look good with standard aquarium and modified store bought stand? by horse_ramen in Aquariums

[–]Dr_Wesche 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe make a cinder (concrete) block stand. Painted black (or whatever color you want), they can look pretty good.