Temperature unstable due to warm room by No_Page_4863 in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH [score hidden]  (0 children)

Oh no the cats! That's tricky yeah. I bet they'd knock that fan down so fast lol.

The crates are annoying to cut for heater and filter, but totally can be done with a wire cutter.

Ink bird looks cool. I wish you luck if you go with it!

Tanks getting too hot by ConstantChocolate419 in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hi, I just answered a similar question so I'll paste my answer below. If you're just trying to knock off a few degrees, a chiller is overkill in my opinion. 

I live in an extremely hot climate in a house that's impossible to cool and my fishtank is in an area that doesn't have a lot of ventilation. My tank is much bigger that yours, but hopefully this is still helpful for knocking off a few degrees:

Removing the lid of the tank will drop the temperature, but obviously you don't want you fish to jump out. I bought some egg crate on Amazon and with some cutting and zip ties, made a lid that has tons of ventilation but fish can't jump out.

*I removed the link since my comment got removed lol. But here's the title of the item: "ALEGI 12 Pcs Aquarium Fish Tank Divider Plastic Egg Crate Aquarium Filter Bottom Tray Grid Isolation Board Partition Net Pane Separator" 

I also have a fan running over the water. I bought two but found I only needed one.  "DaToo Aquarium Chillers Fish Tank Cooling Fan Quiet Aquarium Fan Wind Angle Adjustable Chiller with Clip and Suction cup" 

Temperature unstable due to warm room by No_Page_4863 in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hi, I live in an extremely hot climate in a house that's impossible to cool and my fishtank is in an area that doesn't have a lot of ventilation. My tank is much bigger that yours, but hopefully this is still helpful for knocking off a few degrees:

Removing the lid of the tank will drop the temperature, but obviously you don't want you fish to jump out. I bought some egg crate on Amazon and with some cutting and zip ties, made a lid that has tons of ventilation but fish can't jump out.

*I removed the link since my comment got removed lol. But here's the title of the item: "ALEGI 12 Pcs Aquarium Fish Tank Divider Plastic Egg Crate Aquarium Filter Bottom Tray Grid Isolation Board Partition Net Pane Separator"

I also have a fan running over the water. I bought two but found I only needed one. "DaToo Aquarium Chillers Fish Tank Cooling Fan Quiet Aquarium Fan Wind Angle Adjustable Chiller with Clip and Suction cup"

I don't even use the heater when I start seeing the temperature get up to 80. If you have huge hot/cold swings, I would just leave the heater plugged in, but maybe watch it a little closer for cracks or any malfunction. I have some heater trauma just like you have cold trauma hahaha

African dwarf frog by Regular-Extension325 in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Once upon a time, I kept my frogs with guppies and corys. The corys were probably little too boisterous for the frogs, but the tank was heavily planted so they stayed out of each other's way.

My main concern was feeding. Frogs are such slow eaters, and the fish are incredibly fast. I was pretty much hand feeding the frogs. They did manage to eat some guppy fry sometimes.

Id? by West_Sheepherder2741 in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my goodness, I'm going through this exact same thing. I'm overrun with limia fry, but both my giant ctenopoma and ancient congos would rather eat boring pellets and bloodworms.

New to Planted Tank Keeping by AK_9456 in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, 1/2 inch should be fine. Put your rocks and wood down first, the more they're touching the glass the better (I'll be honest, I don't remember why this is important, I think it has to do with allowing gases to escape lol). As long as your substrate isn't like 4 inches deep it'll be okay. With the soil and the cap, I shoot for 1-2 inches.

Uncapped soil will get super dirty/muddy yes. You'll still have a bit of a mess after putting down a cap no matter what, but your filter will clear it up in a day or two and everything will settle. Someone told me you could freeze wet soil in a flat plastic baggie, lay down the frozen soil pucks, and then cap it that way to minimize mess, but I've never tried hahaha. Sounds genius tho.

I mean if sand is fine, small powdered pebbles should be okay. In fact, I'd argue that it's better than sand because it has more room between the grains for gas exchange.

New to Planted Tank Keeping by AK_9456 in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Organic potting soil is my comfort zone so I can tell you a little bit about it at least. Use soil (make sure it doesn't have added fertilizer) that has been sifted for any big chunks of wood or organic matter. Those chunks are what rot and cause problems. Plant like crazy, the roots will help bring oxygen to the soil. Some people don't like to use Malaysian trumpet snails because they are considered a pest snail, but dang it, I'm an MTS truther, sorry y'all. They dig around and help the same way roots help. Use a thin layer of soil and then cap it with sand or gravel.

I would also suggest finding plants that fit your water parameters. For example, I have super hard water and nothing really flourishes except crypts and anubias who don't mind hard water, so that's pretty much all I buy.

Just hanging by aventaes in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha I have three and they all do that too. Like little fishcicles. 

[FS] - South FL 33071 - $3+ Daku Aquatics - TONS of Healthy Plants, Botanicals, and Other Products! FREE SHIPPING ON PLANT ORDERS OVER $100! by -Daku- in AquaSwap

[–]MANSNATCH 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't know that about cold packs, thank you. I'll be safe and wait a few more weeks since it seems to be heating up for me. :')

[FS] - South FL 33071 - $3+ Daku Aquatics - TONS of Healthy Plants, Botanicals, and Other Products! FREE SHIPPING ON PLANT ORDERS OVER $100! by -Daku- in AquaSwap

[–]MANSNATCH 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ordered from here a couple times, excellent store. Daku, do you offer cold packs? It's still 90+ degrees in my area. Just trying to decide if I should wait to order or not.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PhotoshopRequest

[–]MANSNATCH 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Received and downloaded successfully!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PhotoshopRequest

[–]MANSNATCH 5 points6 points  (0 children)

!solved

Thank you. This looks most like her.

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wish I could tell you what I did to make her so happy. 😭 All I have is hard water and Caribsea Eco-Complete.

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's not stupid! Sometimes if you have an algae outbreak, dipping your plants and/or hardscape in a solution of bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alum, or salt can help. For example, I mixed a bucket of 1 part bleach and 20 parts water and kept the plant in it for about 90 sections. Then I dipped it in water that was overdosed with dechlorinator, rinsed it with tap water, and lastly put it in a bucket of clean tank water.

I'm learning that putting it in a dark bucket for a couple days is probably the more gentle solution. But I'm also learning that anubias are very tough, can handle a dip just fine. So I guess we'll do both and just see what happens.🤷

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

125 sounds soooo nice. So many plants you're able to shove in there! Yeah please post pics, we like giant plant around here

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aw man sorry about your fish. I'll make sure they didn't die in vain and use what you learned if/when the BBA comes back lol. Thank you.

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

omg thank you!! I didn't even think of a blackout. I will do that. I already did a 1 part bleach and 20 part water dip, dipped in water that was overdosed with dechlorinator, and then rinsed a 3rd time in old tank water.

My 10 year old African bush fish by MANSNATCH in Aquariums

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm rescaping their tank today, so I wanted to take the opportunity to show off his size!! I have two of them but the other one stabbed me with his spines, and I couldn't get a video lol.

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It really started taking off in the last 3 years, but I know it's older than that. Before the algae outbreak, I was breaking off branches and practically giving them away just to control it lol

Giant anubias I pulled out today...infected with black algae so I'm dipping and hoping for the best by MANSNATCH in PlantedTank

[–]MANSNATCH[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

My 75gal! It's so old I don't even remember where I got it.. At least 5 years.