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04/01/2005 Wow, been a while since I've been on here. Let's see.....I got a new tool for the canister filter. Easier to open, but still a pain. I have to come up with a better design for the end cap. But the filter does work and works well. Ordered a bunch of new stuff :-) new submersible heaters, emergency air pumps for when the power goes out. Fake plants, 30 oz of aquarium sealant, A new type of air pump that is suppose to be quieter because it goes inside the tank. I don't think its any quieter to be honest. Hermy has out grown his home, his 20 gallon tank. So I setup a 55 gallon for him and created a new tank lid that slides back. Looks good, check it out here. My fish on my desk at work died :-( But today I got a Beta from Sonia, it wasn't her's, it belonged to Gary, but she didn't think Gary was taking proper care of it. So she talked him out of the fish and brought it over. He does seem happier, his name is Rufus, I think Sonia named him.
01 Ok, that canister is hard to open. I need a much better design ....grrrr. But for a few months I don't have to worry about it so I'll live with it for now. The baby Cory are doing just fine. We lost the other Pleco :( he was doing so well too. I think its all the baby snails. Speaking of which, the big snail died :-(, but right before he died he had about a dozen babies. Some are getting big. I think they may have eaten all the food up and the Pleco died from starvation.
Ok, lots to update. Let's see......got replacements for the puffers. They are doing well. Mickey has named them, Sponge Bob and Patrick. Ah, the mind of a 4 year old :-) Love that kid. My mistake earlier was not adding proper salt to their tank. We did have to move all the other fish out of that tank. The puffers are very aggressive. I moved them to the med tank, they all are happy it would seem. Couple of days ago Kitty spots something in the gravel filter tube in the Puffer's tank. Turns out our Cory had babies and they have been living under the gravel filter!! They've been there for a while to, they are about half the size of their parents. I did take out the under gravel filter from the puffer tank. I'm tired of messing with it. The canister filter stopped working. It has gotten clogged with Hermy poop. I need a serious wrench to take off the end. Next canister design will have to have an easier lid.
Well! Turns out that canister filter that I have on Hermy's tank is paying off already. Hermy is now coming out when I'm around and swimming up to the tank to greet me! I think the water is clean to the point that Hermy feels better. How cool is that !?! I've decided to build another one, larger for the 55 gallon tank. And possibly smaller ones for the med tank and the 20 gallon tank. I've also thought about creating a gravel cleaner with this technology. We'll see how that goes. Kitty claims that 2 of the neon tetras are missing from the 20 gallon tank. I haven't confirmed this as of yet. The puffer fish were starting to worry me. They were getting real dark and not eating. Read up on them and found that they need live food. I went to the grocery store and bought uncooked shrimp. I know sounds weird, but I got them home, cut them up and fed them to the puffers. They had a field day with the shrimp! So I think they are happier now, and their color is returning.
11/18/2004 Still not crazy about the hosing but I can work with it. I was going with a pull water suction rather than a push water method on the grounds that if the filter became clogged it would not damage the water pump. What a pain in the ass that turned out to be! Priming (forcing enough water into the device so that the pump will kick in and move the water around on its own) the filter. I'm willing to risk the pump so I do not have to worry about priming the #@$%! filter.
11/17/2004 The project is finished. Check it out HERE I'm happy with it. Have an issue with the type of hosing I used, but the filter itself is great. I decided on hooking it up to Hermy's tank since he is the biggest fish and would probably be the most likely to survive any problems that may arise from the filter. I just hooked it up and its running. So I'll post here the final results.
11/12/2004 So....I have spent some money, wasted a bunch of time, and oh yeah...I have hurt myself. I cut my thumb open working with my Dremel tool. All on this canister filter project. Which is coming along and should be done by the weekend. We have gotten some replacement fish for the med tank. Mickey was trying to help out and feed the med tank and dumped about a years worth of food into the tank. I evacuated the occupants to other tanks. Among the evacuees were two new Leopard Puffer fish, that are really cool. They'll grow to be about 6 inches so that's another issue to deal with down the road. But I like them. The rainbow shark and the Bosemanies are still alive and have been moved to the big tank. Them seem happy there. The puffers were moved to the 20 gal tank. They seem happy as well. We got a new type of fish for the med tank, 2 Killies, golden Killies I believe. And 2 fancy guppies as well. One of the guppies has died on us, but the other 3 seem to be doing rather well.
Didn't get replacements for the Golden Grourmias.
Figured I'd hold off until the med tank was empty and the
10/21/2004 Well, I did get 2 Golden Gourmais that were very nice looking fish. Turns out they like to jump out of their tanks. Kitty found one of them still alive and after being put into the tank he lived for another 3 days. Thought he was going to make it. :-( But I still got the sales slip to take them back and get replacements!!! The Rainbow Shark and Bosemanies are doing good.
Hermy is happy in his new home. He is even
coming out a little now to check out what's going on.
Click here to see Hermy's new
home. We also now have some new additions, 3 Boesemani Rainbows and we HAD
a Rainbow Shark :-( It died after two days. Although I have to admit
it looked a little sick when I got him. I want a Rainbow Shark bad for
some reason so will get another one soon. The
We have a new addition to our fish family, an Oscar that I have just named "Hermy". Because he thinks he's a hermit. He's about 6 or 7 inches long, read up on them, they can get up to 14 inches. I got a 20 long tank that would be perfect for him. It has a little cleaning up needed before transferring him over. I've fed him a few feeder fish and a cricket I found. He's still not coming out when I'm in the room. He likes to come out when no one is around. Hence the name. We've lost a few fish, think I stressed them to death by chasing them around with a mini remote control submarine. :-( I know, me bad.
The snail is doing
great! He's one tough snail. We've added to our fish, we now have 2
new groumias. Pictures will be posted in the "see our fish" section later.
I did throw up a page for the new desk tank with prisoner Tiger Barb. He's
doing well in his new environment. Click the following link to see the
page.
07/29/2004 Our lone snail escaped, for 5 days! Kitty found him under the couch I think. He's back in the tank and seems to be doing well. He's one tough snail. We've been having a snail problem, bunch of little snail growing all over the place. In the med tank and the 20 gallon tank. The 55 gallon seems to be snail free still. I've been putting a plastic lid at the bottom of the med tank with vegetables and attracting them to get them out to keep the numbers down. One of the neons died, don't know why. The others are getting big and look healthy. The tiger barb has been transferred to a maximum security prison at my desk at work. He started picking on the other fish, again. Bought a 2 gallon tank and set it up at work. I'll post pictures later. Bought a better filter for the med tank, the vegetables make the water kind of cloudy so went with a more powerful bio wheel filter. It's setup and running with the old filter still going. I don't want to tank it out until the filter is established with the good bacteria the tank needs. 06/30/2004 Med tank levels finally leveled out. Have one snail left, with a bunch of small ones. Bought 8 neon tetras, finally have my school :-) Yea me! 05/10/2004 05/07/2004
04/28/2004 Ok, a little tip
from me to you. Don't put in green beans in your tank for your snails.
I had to
remove everything from the tank to dump the water, clean it out, and then refill
it. That wasn't
fun at all. 04/01/2004 Moved the Tiger
Barb from the 20 gal tank to the big tank. He was picking on the Albino
Barb
way to much, which would have killed him
eventually from the stress. Then while I was changing
the water and vacuuming the gravel, smashed a neon tetra with the vacuum tube.
That sucked :-( We've lost two guppies :-( don't know what happened exactly. They did not seem to have any diseases. I did create a new piece of decor for the fish to hide under in the big tank. To see the web page on the project, Click Here. 03/24/2004 Well, we lost a
Cory catfish. Up and died with no signs of disease. So guessing the
stress of
a new environment did him in. The Placeos have been moved to the big
tank and are just having
a ball cleaning up after the other fish in the tank. The Cory were moved
to the small tank for
fear of not enough to eat from the med tank. They were being chased and
picked on by the Tiger
barb. He's turned a little aggressive, snot head. The Albino Barb
was moved over to the small
tank as well. I caught the Tiger barb in the large fish net and then
closed the cover on it to keep it at the top with the net part submerged to keep him away from the other
fish. After the
timer went off and turned the lights off I let him out of the net. He
isn't picking on the Cory
any more. We bought more fish now that the med tank was empty.
2 more Gourmai (Paradise
fish), two split tail guppies (gf's favorite) and two Scarlet Barbs. We
lost one of the Split 03/05/2004 Well, been a while
since I've updated this blog. The tiger barb that just disappeared on us,
turns out he leaped out of the tank and hit the curtain behind the tank...and
died there. Goes
to show, always look before you leap ;-). I've since last time setup a med
tank. Which we have
had to use already. Unfortunately I didn't get to the sick gourmai in time
:-( ... we lost him.
The cost of meds for the fish to treat the ich and other diseases cost us a
pretty penny. Hence
the med tank. Got some new fish, 4 Cory catfish, a albino barb, and 2
Placeos Lost the snails, both of
them :-( And they were cool too. Getting better
at taking care of them. But still 01/07/2004 We've lost a Gourmai, one of the Red Fire ones :-( The Ich doesn't seem to be too much of a problem now. Although some still have it. Now they are getting another disease, that spots them with a cotton like substance. Giving them meds for that. The tank is in trouble. Hope I can save them.
01/02/2004 Well...Ich is a pain in the ass to get rid of. Lost two Green Tiger Barbs to Ich. Man that sucks. So now treating the big tank with medication every 12 hours and doing a 25% water change every day. On a good note we got rid of the live plants and got fake ones. The tank is much cleaner and looks really good. 12/27/2003 Lost a guppy
:-( Don't know why. Not to Ich, sometimes these things happen.
Did a
water change last night. Came up with a better way to get the filtered
water into the
tank without causing all those bubbles that seem to stick to everything. I
placed the
small air tubing I use as hose under the gravel. It breaks up the water
coming back in. 12/23/2003 We have Ich....damn it. Started treating the tank. Looks like we caught it early, whew!
12/19/2003 Tank levels are perfect! 29 fish and 2 snails living happily and really cool to watch!
12/18/2003 Ok, big
stuff has happened with the fish tank!!! First off, I think my tank was cycled
last time I wrote in the 10th…bummer…but why I say that is
this…..Went to the mom and pop fish store on the 10th.
Found out they have bio spira, which is this new product that has the
live bacteria needed for a tank. You
pour it into a tank that has just been setup and bingo! You can add fish right
away. So I got some, didn’t want
to wait any longer. Also got 10
neon tetras and a barb. Put the
neons in the small tank for holding while the bio spira went into the big tank.
Our calm, nice community fish began trying to eat them!
Had to remove two fish, the main instigators, a guppy and a platy.
the big tank levels were ammonia zero and nitrites 2.0!
Seems all I needed to do was feed the tank more fish waste or food and it
would have been finished cycling. So
lesson learned there. So no
the tank is cycled, YEA!! we go and
get fish, a lot of them. Here’s
the break down: 6
Danios, one died of self inflicted wounds (I think, the others aren't talking) The
tank looks absolutely great!! I
look at the big tank and just get a feeling of satisfaction.
Feels great. No one is
hiding in it, a clear indication that they are adjusted to the tank and are
happy. I
still have to do a level check tonight to see if the tank is supporting all
those fish. I don’t think it will
be a problem. Still wanting to get
4 Cory fish from the neighbor across the street to keep the tank cleaner. Then I might start to add one or two more to see what the
limit of the tank is going to be. No
more than 4 or 6 more though. YEA
ME!!!
12/10/2003 55
gallon tank still cycling…bah, was hoping it would be cycled by now to start
adding fish.
12/04/2003 Water
levels aren’t cycling as quick as I’d like….damn it….I want fish!!!
But a wise man knows when to be patient.
Just kicked that dude in the ass, wouldn’t get out of my way.
But I’ll wait…don’t want to murder any more fish.
The snails are growing and the eggs that are every where have not hatched
and some have even disappeared. I
think they break free and get sucked up into the bio filter.
Which is good, we have the right amount of snails for the tank I think.
I’d guess about there are about 8 or 10 snails.
The largest one about 5mm long. They’re
kind of cool, glad we got them with the plants. 12/01/2003 Our
plants, which have cleaned up a little, not such a mess anymore. Had brought snails to the tank.
Now they are multiplying like crazy.
Might have to get snail eating fish to help keep the snails under
control. Have done a few water
changes and the tank is looking a lot clearer now.
Really starting to come together. I’ve
made a few new tools to make changing water easier.
For about a 3rd of the cost I made a water filter system to
fill the tank back up. Used some
tubing, fittings, and a refrigerator ice maker water filter.
I choose that because of its design.
Cylinder and small, in port at one end, out port at the other end.
I also bought a new siphon hose for the big tank.
Used an old one that came with the 20 gal tank to make then new one much
better. Extended the hose length
from 6 to 12 feet. I can run the
hose right out the back door. No
more carrying buckets…..Whooo Hoooo!!!
11/19/2003 One of
the tetras committed suicide. I
shit you not. Slammed into
something hard and took off the tip of his nose.
Found out that they will do that from time to time.
How strange is that huh. The 55
gal tank is setup and running. Looks
great! has a very natural river bed look to it.
Can’t wait for the schools of fish to be added.
Placed a décor piece from the 20 gal tank along with an old bio-filter.
To help cycle the tank much quicker.
Adding fish food to make ammonia and nitries.
So hopefully it’ll only take a couple of weeks as apposed to 8 weeks.
Made a maintenance schedule chart for each tank to keep track of filter
changes and cleanings. We broke
down and added three different types of plants to the tank already.
Along with bulbs for more plants. Live
plants look really good, but are messy. Might just go with fake plants, we’ll see.
11/12/03 Ok,
bought two books one fish tanks and one on aquarium plants. Did my research and found out that the best filter to
have is the type with the bio-wheel. Then
after some more research found that the Emperor 400 was the best to get.
Cost 56 bucks, not bad really. Got
it off line and in the store they wanted 76 bucks!
Also used a gift card from Walmart for my birthday to buy 75 bucks worth
of tank stuff. Rocks, fake plants,
live plant bulbs, net, heater, air pump, filter brushes, aquarium sponges, and
thermometers. OH! and we got 5 new
fish! Which came up free after we
waited so long for someone to help us with the fish that we actually did all the
work our selves. Talked to a
manager and got them for free. Not
bad. They are now living in the 20
gal tank with the original 3. so
now we have the following: 2
platies, 2 guppies, 1 tiger barb, 1 red barb, 2 tetras.
The tank is very nicely leveled with the ammonia, nitrites, etc.
So the tank has successfully cycled.
Yea me!! doing the water
changes and maintenance. Which I like to do, something about knowing I am keeping
these fish alive and well that is very satisfying.
And they got it good, that tank is well maintained. Onto
the 55 gal tank. Had to scrape all
that crap off of it. Super washed
the tank to get the chemicals I put in it trying to get the crap off. Hope I got it all. We’ll
see after adding the first few fish. Thinking
about adding a second bio filter and stocking the tank really well.
We read that schools of fish are more healthier and happier, and not to
mention less wanting to hide all the time.
So you’re suppose to get 6 or more to make a school.
But I like variety, so would need 4 or 5 schools of fish.
But the tank would look sweet! Going
with a natural look for the tank, gravel with natural colors, the 20 gal has
blue gravel. And some drift wood
plants, some fake ones at first, then live ones.
Rock formation for extra hiding spots.
Not enough and the fish compete over them, possible hurting themselves.
It should be good. Can’t
wait! 11/03/03 Well,
got the two tanks kind of cleaned up. Think
we found the spot to put the 55 gallon tank.
Just a note to anyone out there, figure out where you want your tank.
Once in place and filled with water, it’s a HUGE pain in the ass to
move it. Not counting the weight of
the tank and everything in it, it’s 8 pounds per gallon of water.
55 gallons of water X 8 pounds per gallon = 440 Lbs. of water alone.
One tank has scratches on the glass on the inside.
Hoping it isn’t as noticeable when water is in it.
The other tank has this ring of calcium or some mineral deposit that just
won’t come off. We threw
everything at it, Lime away, CLR, over cleaner, finger nail polish remover.
It has been suggested that we scrape it off with a razor.
Hoping that works so we can use that tank instead, since it doesn’t
have scratches. I read some where
that putting in wood in the fish tank actually helps keep the Ph levels down.
So thinking of the size and shape of wood that I want to go into it. Something that has cracks and holes so the fish can hide a
little. But not too big as the more
water in the tank the better the environment is for the fish.
10/28/03 Well…..it’s
been an experience for sure. We
have gotten about 18 fish total, all have died except 1 guppy, 1 platy, and 1
barb. The water levels went bezerk
and killed off a bunch of the fish. Learned
that we did not let the tank cycle long enough, it should have been 4 to 8
weeks. Not 1 or 2 weeks like the
pet stores say. So haven’t bought
any more fish. Mickey and I were in
Walmart this past weekend stopped by the fish department.
Found out from the guy working there that there was someone wanting to
sell (2) 55 gallon tanks with the filters, heaters and stands.
About an 800 dollar value for 150. I
couldn’t pass up the good deal. The
tanks are about 4 or 5 feet long. Very
big, make my 20 gallon tank look puny. One
tank really needs a good cleaning, the filters and stuff that came with them
will allow me to put together one really good tank.
This time we’re going to get the tank setup and let it cycle for at
least 2 months before adding anything to it.
Although we will put live plants in the tank before the fish to get
taking care of live water plants down pat.
09/08/03 Fishies
continued….Well, it’s been interesting to this point. We wanted about a dozen fish for the tank.
Found out you need to introduce a couple at a time. So we got Fancy
Guppies and Glass fish, 3 a piece. 2
of the guppies died 2 days later. So
went and got replacements, and more fish, 3 Neon Blue Dwarf Gouramis and 3 Red
Wag Platys. So far everything is going ok, only had them since yesterday.
Got a water test kit, 20 more bucks.
But I like watching the fish and now the stress relief can begin, I hope. 09/02/03 Fish
tanks and fishies. If you decide
that you are going to get fish…..be prepared to spend a wad of dough.
Even if you are just wanting to get a small 1 gallon tank (and that is
small) you’ll spend about 35 bucks when all is said and done.
I’m currently at 159 bucks and I haven ‘t even got the fish yet.
And that’s with not paying for the tank, tank cover and light, and the
filter. A friend donated their old
tank (which cleaned up nicely) a 20 gallon tall tank. The tank was pretty dirty from its former inhabitants and
needed a good cleaning. Which I
gave it and then filled the tank up with filtered water.
This helps in making the fish’s environment the cleanest it can be.
Got all the filters and bubble makers hooked up, got the gravel filter in
place and the rocks poured over it. Put
the little decorative pieces in place, turned on the light and whala!
A really nice looking fish tank bubbling and all clean, only thing
missing was my son to enjoy it and the damn fish.
So! Picked up my son from his mother’s, both of us excited to go get
fish. Headed to the pet store
and started looking at fish. Found
out you have to wait a week or two once the water is in the tank for bacteria to
grow that the fish will need. So no
fishies!! Will keep you updated as
this progresses.
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