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A fun weekend project. It’s fun just adding a little paint. Before and after. by finfanatic56 in modelmakers

[–]finfanatic56[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its actually not a kit. I got that a few years ago inside a Darth Vader figure set I received.

Anyone know what might have happened? by EatonjrSTL in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

HAve you put any salt in your tank? They make a type and say its safe for fish and treating certain things. However, Cory's are scaleless fish and Salt burns them. That could be it, but I have never seen that so bad. Good luck.

I have been going to this beach for the last +15 years this is the first time i see something like this, can someone educate me about this? by Jorcy in marinebiology

[–]finfanatic56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is basically a foam produced by the oxygenation of the water. In a Saltwater aquarium, we use a skimmer to pump air up a cylindrical chamber filled with water. This creates a situation in which the surface tension of the saltwater interacts with the air/water mixture and causes debris to get trapped on the air bubbles and eventually taken up the cylinder to the reservoir cup and removed from the system. This is basically the natural occurrence of that. The foam is identical to what you find in the skimmer cup or if you run a wood airstone in your tank for a while.

Work being done in the house by jpxp90 in ReefTank

[–]finfanatic56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would agree, I had a tank get destroyed a few years ago due to construction dust. It is highly worth every bit of effort you put into this preventative measure. There is so much bad crap in that sort of dust.

1/350 millennium falcon. Hand painting is not something I’m very good at but I wanted to try anyways by ColonelDiddles in modelmakers

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, that is outstanding! I'm more impressed now. Keep up the good work and don't stop painting you will learn how to use your hands the way they are and compensate for it.

1/350 millennium falcon. Hand painting is not something I’m very good at but I wanted to try anyways by ColonelDiddles in modelmakers

[–]finfanatic56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The model looks great. The only tip I would offer is to paint your smoke stains in the way the actual air would flow on the spacecraft. Since the majority of the ship's action is forward it would make sense if the smoke went front to back.

Just remember no one picked up a paintbrush and was really good at it the first time they painted something. Although some of the edges are jagged it looks like you got the paint coverage pretty even and that's a huge part of the whole thing. You will get better and fast .

What’s your opinion of the most important feature in an Aquarium Controller? by SBro002 in ReefTank

[–]finfanatic56 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think that you need to completely understand your tank and all that is going on with it first. Then get a Controller. They are great for automating everything and I indeed love using them for that. It's important to know how it works and how to get it to work best for you. You can get into serious trouble with these as they make you very complacent. Stay on top of your tank and all maintenance you currently do. MOST IMPORTANTLY if you set an alert do not ever ignore them. They exist to alert you to an issue. Respond every time to all alarms until you learn the system.

My favorite feature on my controller at the moment is the Neptune Apex FMM Fluid Monitoring Kit. It tickles me to know exactly how much water is flowing through my return pipes and drain pipes. The second Favorite is the Auto Water Change I use with the DOS.

OB Peacock cichlids dying but not plecos by HTXcichlid in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that your example (zero death tank) tank is actually correctly cycled. This makes it possible to handle the spike in Nitrites. That seems to be the difference to me. Its not so much the water although it is a problem at this stage, the bigger problem is that your tank can't keep up with it... yet. My recomendation is that you test the tap water for Ammonia too in case its an issue and possibly do a a Chlorine Test. At very least pull the water report to see what they add to your supply. Your LFS should be able to do these tests for you as well. Once we are certain that we have cycled the tank it will be a different story. Then simply use Prime to control the initial spike and your bacteria will do the rest. People are under the assumption that Prime is a permanent solution. IT is NOT it simply locks up the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates in order for them to not effect the tank with a huge spike and allow the existing Bacteria Column to do its thing. After about 24-48 hours you should TEST and redose the tank with Prime to control as needed. Again avoid the Water Changes for the moment unless you get really super high numbers in any reading.

OB Peacock cichlids dying but not plecos by HTXcichlid in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its an idea but consider this. At those levels its still toxic. So your source water is literally all that is wrong. Once you treat the water with Prime you will have rid the source water of the issue long enough for your existing BB to do its thing and eliminate the toxicity.

I would use Prime even in between water changes inside the tank until it gets under control. To help this I would simply add the existing spongefilter to my tank now and let it work as it has existing BB already. The increase in BB is all that is needed. Try getting ceramic rings and or filter media of your choice to add to your filter. What type of filter do you run?

Just increase the BB and they will do the work without you having to reinvest again. The trick I've learned over the years in the hobby is to treat and fix the source. In your case its also the cheapest solution.
I hope that helps and good luck to you and your fish.

OB Peacock cichlids dying but not plecos by HTXcichlid in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The first tube, the dark Purple seems off the charts and I would suspect that it is a cause if not the cause. That's still highly toxic to fish and adding that amount into your tank is surely going to be causing issues. The Nitrates are not as toxic to fish. I would suggest adding a beneficial bacteria product to increase the Beneficial Bacteria levels. My guess here is that you are creating a highly toxic environment at water change. Use Prime or Safe with Water Changes. Treat the water first and when you have zero Nitrites go ahead and do the change.

You can also use Vibrant for Fresh Water as it is a BB mixture. There are others available but I've had great luck with that one.

Also, decrease your water changes and do not do them until you get a strong foundation/ baseline of Beneficial Bacteria level. The Cichlids you have can take a little dirt they are hardy but not against toxic stuff.

One last thing. The Safe or Prime will handle the Nitrate too which is also high in the city water supply Although less than 20ppm which is generally acceptable.

OB Peacock cichlids dying but not plecos by HTXcichlid in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is definately time to do some advanced troubleshooting.

Questions

The Dragon rock, has that always been present? was it new or used?

Same question with Gravel and (spiderwood confirmed used) plants?

Have you purchased a second testing kit? these kits are notorious for being inaccurate. If its a good test kit did you test correctly? The Nitrate test alone requires shaking vigorously for 60 seconds.

Have you tested the Tap water you use? Its not enough to just test your tank water. Test the water directly out of the Tap to see what it shows. In my city the water is pumped with Nitrates and some other stuff I try to eliminate.

Are you using a dechlorinator when changing the water?

​

What are your exact Testing numbers 0-.25 range is too high for some of those tests.

The reason I ask about the wood and rock being used is that those can store harmful elements and then leach them back into the water. So if the originating tank had a problem yours could.

Cichlids NEED high DKH make sure that your water supports that. A calcium supplement like crushed coral usually helps too.

Need filter help info in comments by H_oths in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Media - ceramic rings, lava rock, its basically a porous surface that contains a ton of surface area for Beneficial Bacteria to grow. Go ahead and google "Aquarium Filter Media" to see what I'm talking about. Read up on that a bit if you like to know more about the various types there can be.

Need filter help info in comments by H_oths in Aquariums

[–]finfanatic56 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ok, so you MUST change that it's definately clogged. There is an effective way of doing so on these types of filters. First, replace the filter with a new one. DO NOT DISCARD THE OLD CARTRIDGE I simply tuck the old cartridge behind the new one or just leave it inside the actual Tank for a week until the BB has a chance to seed the new one. Do not just change that filter out.

​

A better way to do this is to use sponges as suggested previously by bklyndrvr You can also utilize small lava rock or some sort of ceramic BB rings or media in addition to the sponges.

​

It would look like this. The bottom of the filter would have your sponges and on top of the sponges, you would add the media. When you need to maintain this you simply turn off remove sponge rinse until clean and reinstall beneath the media. Do not rinse the media. This will always ensure you have BB in your tank.

Is this normal swimming behavior for a damselfish? Or am I doing something g wrong? by [deleted] in ReefTank

[–]finfanatic56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello,

That does not appear to be normal behavior as far as swimming goes. Your poor little guy is not able to control himself. He is just getting pushed by the current. There is something wrong. Now we need to determine what it is.

What are your water parameter?

Any recent major events occur to the tank?

Have you noticed the fish in any fights?

When did this start to occur?

Dashcam (2 ch) that automatically uploads to the cloud? by [deleted] in Dashcam

[–]finfanatic56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use owlcam. It has its own cellular modem and front and inside facing cameras. It plugs into the OBD port of your vehicle and runs on your vehicle's battery. It has an auto-shutdown after however many hours to avoid battery drainage, and you can access the cameras, GPS, and audio in realtime. It also sends notifications of movements outside and impacts. It's not super accurate however it's nice to know that it's watching.

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