# The 3 Amanos & a Nerite in a Planted 75g



## CowBoYReX (Nov 30, 2013)

I Love the anubias


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

They're getting use to the routine fairly quickly, the oranda which has been more shy before doesn't head into the anubias when I take off the lid now and they're getting better at grabbing sinking pellets (store use to feed them floating) then foraging through the sand to get what they missed.

Still have a few details to figure out for them like how many times a week they can get meaty meal. xjasminex told me the young ones need protein for growth but I'm unsure for long long they're considered 'young' (to what size) and how often to feed still... Also read that they release growth stunting hormones into the water (a good reason to do water changes.. besides the high nitrogen levels they produce), but don't know for how long? Until sexual maturity? Also curious about how often/many peas to feed for periodic digestive help (clear out)..





CowBoYReX said:


> I Love the anubias


Thank you ^^


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Shame you have only two, you could have named them after the four apocalyptic horsemen.
Those two could pass for death and pestilence


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nordic said:


> Shame you have only two, you could have named them after the four apocalyptic horsemen.
> Those two could pass for death and pestilence


I don't think I could take the amount of water changes I'd have to do for 4! Would probably have to start off with a 75g just for my own sanity.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Had a busy week/weekend! I tried to order a Finnex Ray2 30" light... piece of [censor] only has LEDs covering 22" inches of it! Sent the piece of junk back and bought a planted + 36" since I already had on and knew it was 34"+ of light and not a rip off. Got the new one mounted using some leftover shelving materials, but will probably have to lower it. Giant dark blob in reflection of second photo is my old dog laying on my feet ^^



I'll be moving the anubias around so it gets decent light from the LED once the riparium is planted and hopefully getting more vertical smooth rocks in there to hide the rhizome/anchoring. I also am waiting on a sword plant that should be here tomorrow for the tank.


Went shopping yesterday at local garden centers. I'd hoped to get purple queen and coleus, but the former was not at any garden center I visited and the latter I didn't realize could get so big/wide-some tags read max at 30"x36"! They looked so small on others ripariums, I wonder if the centers just had larger species, or if on a tank light they stay smaller? I was tempted by sedum and geranium but couldn't recall if I'd seen them on a riparium before so did not buy 9need to go look into them).
Either way I ended up with these:

sweet potato vine, lime green and dark purple, and a friendship plant. I had the friendship plant before on my 55g but sold it when it was being out competed for light. Want to try it again. 

I also managed to get old seeds from my aqauponic system days (3 years ago) to sprout so I'll be growing some organic lettuce. I'm hoping to get spinach seeds to sprout too but they were mostly duds back then so not too hopeful (may have to buy a per-sprouted plant), as well as some oregano.. I can't find my other seed packs any more sadly. 


Going to set up the tank as a sort of aquaponic/riparium with some edible and non edible plants in the back section. I'll probably buy an air pump and toss some air stones in the back for oxygenating the roots since its not going to get much in the way of water flow. Kinda of excited to grow my own greens again since I can feed them to the fish and save on $. I've thought about buying a cucumber plant too but don't have the proepr kelvin lights for fruiting.

I hate seed starter kits after trying one for the aquaponic system, [censor]y plastic lid did not stay on, so instead I start seedling in a clear tuper wear with a paper towel dampened with tank water and either with its lid with some tiny holes for venting, or clear sandwich bags. Currently trying to get spinach and oregano to sprout. Once sprouted I'm putting them on my old riparium trellis rafts on the worm culture bin to grow a bit. The foam absorbs water from the tank and the light on the tub is on 14 hours a day. once they get a bit bigger I'll move them to the tank.




On the goldfish front they're settled in very quickly and use to me. I've had the oranda nibble my finder by Wed' last week, and the calico the day after. Now they both eat from my hand at the beginning of feeding but once food start getting to the bottom they stay down low to go after it. The oranda lets me pet it only lightly and slowly on fin tips, calico isn't in a petting mood yet. Haven't named either until I can be positive on gender.. I'm 85% sure the calico fantail is female due to vent shape and a symmetrical body shape from above. Oranda... not so sure, has a female vent shape but is not a symmetrical body wise from above. My husband hopes the oranda will be a male.

This past weekend I had a mini panic attack...Every day i am doing 15 gallon water changes, and every 4 days or so a 25-30 gallon water change since the tank is still cycled (doing prime to bind ammonia/nitrite each day too). Well during one of the water changes I knocked out a chunk of foam in the faux wall (the black lexan has holes drilled in it with black filter foam stuffed in to allow water flow threw). I didn't notice when I did this and when refilling the tank I use a pump to make it go faster. I put the hose in the back part of the tank to refill to not disturb fish/substrate. I noticed only the oranda was coming over to hang with me while refilling.. where was the calico? I looked all over, in the anubias.. nothing! Then.. light bulb.."OH [CENSOR]!" I turn off the hose nozzle and look in the back section. My poor calico fantail had been blasted with high pressure water for a good minute back there! I ran and turned off the pump then had to carefully net her and move her back to the front section (she was very calm about netting and being taken out of the water for a moment and stuff the foam back into the hole she'd gone through. Thankfully she managed to be undamaged-neither scales, eyes, gills, or fins showed issues from the lil' adventure. I think I need to get more egg crate and make a little box behind each of the foam pieces to keep them from going through again. I'm hoping any future mishaps I can pick them up by hand to move back.



Some other photos taken during water change. That's not uneaten food on the substrate, black diamond has a lot of orange hued particles in it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

First riparium plants are on after a 1 hour fully submerged dip in water to remove any possible pests.


Hoping to get the edibles grown enough to slap on there in the next few weeks.


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## CowBoYReX (Nov 30, 2013)

Looks good


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[5/2]*
Still haven't names them but they eat readily from my hand now. The oranda lets me pet it, fantail isn't too keen on petting yet though. I'm actually not 100% if my fantail is a fantail or a ryukin that hasn't gotten eh accentuated back arch yet.. hope its not ryukin (nothing against ryukin, its just not what I wanted for a first goldfish).
spam-o-fish-photos! I need to find the cord to upload photos from the real camera and stop using my phone, can't get good shots with this but oh well.

*ninja nibble*










Adjusted the lights, tossed a scallion on test tank 9far left) it grew a new blade of 'grass' in 2 days! Also put on the sweetflag from my 20g long since it wasn't getting enough light.




Oh I also stuffed aquacelar 70 foam media behind the cut outs in the lexan so the goldies can't get in the back section any more. And got an air pump set up for them. I think the outflow arrangement puts a lot of oxygen in the tank (i see bubbles at the opposite end) but sometimes I knock the spraybar under water which defeats it so air stone doesn't hurt ^^

I still need to add more black diamond and plant the sword plants I got from a RAOK.... right now they're just floating.

*[5/5]*
If you've read my other journals (specifically the 55g Riparium Reign journal) I make mention of my angelfish, CarmelYumYum. My husband named her when he first saw her as the tan/brown marking on her dorsal fin was the hue of carmel, and he was hungry haha. Well my husband finally decided on a name for the blue oranda, he wanted to call him/her Chocolate for the bronze hue in its body (though I explained that will likely go away as they grow). If I'd known he'd do a food name I might have bought an orange fantail instead to name Orange Sherbet (my favorite ice cream flavor... which I annoying have a heck of a time getting the good brands of around here >.< ), but as I have a spotted calico I named her Sprinkles to go along with the food theme.
I planted the swords I'd gotten as a raok last week finally. SO far the goldies are leaving them be (not dug up or completely destroyed).. I expect to loose all the original leaves but knowing how resilient swords are from my very old Argentinian sword (only plant still alive from my first aquatic plant purchase many years ago) I'm not too worried.
Lettuce seedlings are about ready to go on the tank, and I think I'm going to try to take photos of the terrestrial plant growth from the angle shown below from now on to see growth easily-resting phone on tank trim so its always same angle/distance. I managed to get a decent shot of Chocolate.. wish the dorsal and top of the caudal was in focus too but the rest is. Sprinkles doesn't want to hold still for a decent shot =.=






I'm able to pick up/handle Chocolate now.. Sprinkles is still being shy about getting petted or manhandled but it doesn't stop her from attacking my fingers when they're in the tank, especially when there's food involved.





CowBoYReX said:


> Looks good


Thanks ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So I've ditched the riparium plants and decided to go aquaponic- growing veggies for my husband and the goldies on the back section instead.
Btw the friendship is still available if anyone wants it.
I may be selling the swords in the near future too..
Anubias in other quarantine tanks are about ready to be transferred over.

*[5/17/16]*
So made some changes for terrestrial plants.. took out the ornamental sweet potato vines and sweet flag, also going to remove the friendship plant soon. I'm doing all vegetable -aquaponic style for above water plants. Decided to grow the lettuce that's already spouted (its been moved to the tank), as well as some scallions and cucumbers. The latter two I just got seeds for this week and sowed directly onto the expanded clay media in the shower caddies on the tank, should see spouts in 1-2 weeks ^^ Look forward to having some yummy organic home grown veggies this summer. The scallion I'd put on the tank a few weeks ago is growing real fast.
Anubias are doing good, some are a bit more beat up than I'd prefer but there are new leaves coming in so yay! Swords in front have lost most of their old leaves and have new healthy growth. Goldies haven't dug them up yet, though one baby sword with short roots sometimes gets knocked loose when they swim through the plants. I really need to find my bag of root tabs to stuff 1 under these plants.
Anubias in quarantine tanks are also doing good and I'm hoping to give them a did to remove algae and transfer them to the 40g breeder by the end of the month ^^
Fish are doing well. Chocolate has no issues with handling but Sprinkles is still a bit iffy, she's most tolerant of touches at feeding time when preoccupied by trying to snag food before her tank mate. Their tank has been doing well and nitrates are staying at about tap's nitrate range (5-10ppm). 

Just some photos after doing a water change.. need to get a better in focus shot of the tank. The large green mass at the surface is all my water sprite. its been my biggest nitrate absorber in the tank and more than tripled in mass from the amount I first added!Sprinkles:"Food?"

Waiting on those seeds to sprout....

Friendship plant.. I need to find another place for this once the veggies start growing so i can add more seeds/plants in the back.. anyone want this plant (its 2 large stems and several small stems)?

Cheap and easy seed sprouting: plastic zip bag, container, paper tower dampened with tank water and seeds. Set in sunny window or under tank light and wait. These are spinach seeds, for some reason the packet I'd gotten has a low sprouting % compared to my other veggies, lettuce for example was a 99% sprouting success in same setup).



*5/22/17]*
So I transplanted the spinach seedling I got from my seed sprouting setup and tossed in what was left of my old spinach seeds to see if any others might sprout. I also split up the cucumber seedlings between 2 planters, i may split them up more. Cucumbers are showing some sighs of potassium deficiency (yellow pinholes started), so upped my potassium dosing. I need to buy another shower caddie/planter or two to maximize available space for plants, soon I'll have to split up the lettuce seedlings. Also need to pull out and sell the friendship plant. 


I have a TON of water sprite in the tank now, its been growing like mad.. wish I could put up a for sale thread in this forum for it but I'm not at the 200 post minimum yet to open the privilege for private messages.
Ah well have some photos


Pardon the diatoms, I'm letting them build up and will eventually buy either a mystery or more preferably a nerite snail... I hate female nerites though, their eggs are a real pain. I did a big water cahnge earlier today but the fish have eaten since then so of course there's some more turds.. Should have used light brown gravel in the tank instead of black 'sand'.

*[5/31/16]*
Ended up buying a nerite, fingers crossed its not a girl!! I let the diatoms run wild before getting it. Amusingly when I went to buy the snail it was hauled out of the holding tank with a pond snail riding its back.. who's just deposited eggs on its back. The petco employee who runs the fish section pulled the snail off and looked perplexed at the egg sack. I told him what it was and laughed at that snail's choice of location. The egg sack was scrubbed off and my snail was bagged and come home. After a good long drip acclimation I put 'em in (after feeding the goldies so they would not be hungry and trying to have escargot).
Snail went to work but not anywhere I wanted... rather than clean the front tank glass and plant leaves it decided to clean the black back wall and stones anubias were tied too... ah well I won't have to worry about feeding it for a while.


Current veggie count is 4 cucumbers, 4 lettuce, 7 scallions, and 7 spinach..tosed in a few more scallion seeds. I'll be thinning these plants out more as they grow.


Have some snail photos, a diatom-y tank, and quick view of the veggies.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Wow I've been terrible at updating this! 
*[6/3/16]*
I'm a bit disappointing my my nerite, he's so insanely slow going.. I put him on an anubias leaf at lunch time yesterday, 24 hours later he is still working the same leaf and not even 1/3 of it is clean yet.. ugh!! My pond snails clean faster!! But I don't want a population explosion (and it would be nuclear) with all the diatoms present for them to feed on... thus leading to dangerously high nitrates. So I decided to start cleaning want I want clean and leave the rest for the nerite, I'm working on the anubias leaves during water changes with a paper towel, and then will get the front glass. Between the rock and back/side walls and the entries slow eating habits I'd say its set for life.

Need to dip my qt anubias to get rid of pond snails then transfer them over tot eh goldfish tank.. also need to get to a landscaping yard some time to pick up some nicer looking rocks to tie the anubias too.



Oh I don't know if I mentioned it but a few weeks ago I found out both goldfish are girls! At first I thought I saw mating behavior as Chocolate chased Sprinkles around and nipped at her crotch. I thought "oh great I'm gonna end up with eggs and more goldfish that I don't have room for!" But then I saw Sprinkles do the same to Chocolate, and periodically they'd break off and eat the eggs they were releasing... that's some fresh roe!


*[6/7/16]*
Sadly the nerite died. I noticed 2 days ago that it wasn't moving, I put it on a rock and checked every hour.. nothing.. Pulled it out and phew... yep, dead snail stench. Kinda sad, loved the shell.. so debating if I want to return it for a refund or get the 'meat' out and save the shell.

I went back to the petco I bought it from yesterday and after tangent-ing on bettas (omg they had such a lovely selection of kings this time!!! Not the standard wild coloration but 2 blue and blacks (one a darker blue, the other a more blue-green), a metallic green and red, and a marble with lovely tropical feeling hues-light blue, white, light green, and peach-ish sort of orange-pink) I spoke with an employee who kinda knows me (always use to play with/gave treats to my previous dog-she knew the dogs name but I don't think she knows me.. but I can't recall her's either so shh). She said all the snails up and died a few days ago (after I'd bought mine), I suspect it was ammonia positioning as there was a dozen in small under 1g hang on breeder baskets...Who knows when/if they ever got water changes. So now I'm not blaming my goldfish for the nerite's death, but likely ti was already deing from poor water quality at the store, hence its insane slow-ness to eat... New shipment will be coming in in a few days so I'll pop by the store and snag a new snail before it has time to stew in filth too long.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Uh oh. Once you go goldfish you never go back. :surprise: The Betta boys are gonna get jealous.

Love the set up. Subscribed.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[6/9/16]*
So I decided to buy a peppermint mystery snail from a member on anther forum. It should be here tomorrow, fingers crossed it makes it ok! I've always wanted to try a peppermint mystery snail very since I fist saw a photo of one, so when I saw a journal for someone breeding mystery snails that had some peppermint babies I asked and bought one ^^
Its still a baby around nickle size so I'll likely let it grow in some of my qt tanks and clean out my black worm culture bin that has diatoms too.
Not sure how big I should get it before putting it into the goldfish tank, anyone have suggestions for minimum mystery snail size to try to reduce it being on the menu?


Veggies are growing nicely, need to rip out 3 of the 4 cucumbers soon.. debating if I want to stick others in my qt tank and just dump in removed tank water each day for nitrates or if I should simply toss em.. hmm.. Lettuce is starting to look more like lettuce as it grows, spinach is still a bit puny..
Crappy underwater shot sorry. Water sprite has been growing like a beast! Had to thin it out today to give the anubias and swords some light. I have 2 packages for sale in the "For Sale" sub forum.
No shots of the goldies, everything came out supper blurry today.






*[7/10/16]*
Mystery snail arrived this morning. It was wrapped in a not so damp paper towel and looked very retracted into its shell.. at first I thought it was dead and dried out but it was cruising around the anubias qt tank shortly after putting it in!

I moved the sponge filter over from my unused black worm bin as well as sticking in a heater... and an air stone for good measure.
For a peppermint its a bit more purple-burgundy than I'd thought but its still cute



I put some soilent green in but so far the snail is just scouring the walls looking for diatoms (sadly I'd cleaned the walls a few days ago since some greens pot algae was taking hold in the qt). If it doesn't take an interest in the soilent green by fish dinner time I'll remove it and try an algae wafer.




This one is still young, about thumb nail size-maybe a little larger. Can't wait for it to grow up more. 
I'd be tempted to buy more of these snails but most of my tanks already have smaller snail species cleaning things up so don't need one there,no lid (ripariums), betta in the tank that eats snails (and large shrimp), or just too small a tank for the bioload (2-3g betta tanks).. I'd like at least 5g for a big snail species, or 10g like the qt this one is in.



*[7/15/16]*
Mystery snail was added to the goldfish tank several days ago. Its still alive/not on the menu and munching away on diatoms. Most of the time I can't find amongst the plant mass. But got a shot of it before it left qt tank, and a shot today during water change. Its shell is a pink-ish purple but the spiral/tip is more purple. I'm thinking of naming it something along the lines of "Very Berry" and calling it "Berry/Berrie" for short. I'm nota fan of that flavor of ice cream but mmm there are some yummy looking photos of it on google! I think I'm going to go make a chocolate and orange sherbet (yes if I ever get an orange goldie that will be its name) cone now ^^






Have a [censor] ton of removed water sprite I don't know what to do with too, 5 10"x6"x2" bins worth.







Varmint said:


> Uh oh. Once you go goldfish you never go back. :surprise: The Betta boys are gonna get jealous.
> 
> Love the set up. Subscribed.


I do enjoy them, but I think I'd be more mts over bettas than goldfish (simply because I'm cheap and smaller tank=less $ than a big one.. and bigger filter/heater/lighting). But I REALLY want to get my hands on a 125g without spending half a grand and getting some more goldies (after DIY in tank sumping it like this tank moving all my 55g riparium plants onto it, and having room for more plants YAY!!).. maybe someday.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

I have tried to have mystery snails but could not keep them alive!
I put it down to lack of food. Between piggy goldfish and the other nails i figured that they where out competed. 

Your goldies are filling out nicely tooo! Look at those bellies!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[6/20/16]*
I promise to get a shot of the goldfish again someday! But for now have another couple photos of Very Berry. Love the spots on their flesh.





*[6/22/16]*
Ok got some not so great but at least not complete blur shots of Chocolate and Sprinkles! Hate the glare/reflection from the other tanks.. Also one more of Very Berry ^^ Slow snail is much easier to photograph than speedy goldies.


Isn't s/he cute?!


Not full tank shots at I have a diatom explosion atm, and Very Berry did not get the memo about cleaning the glass and anubias leaves as top priority =.=


Sprinkles is getting noticeably fatter than Chocolate, I'm assuming because she's more aggressive at eating food off the substrate. Chocolate has no problem with hand feeding (prefers it to sifting sand) so I'm trying to make sure more foods gets sucked in to Chocolates mouth rather then mostly fall to the bottom. 
Speaking of eating, Very Berry was on the cucumber munching away when I gave the other two their breakfast ^^
I may actually try catching and weighing them today, might take some above perspective photos of them in the smaller bucket too if they aren't splashy spaz-zoids about it.
[later that day]

So finally weighed them. Used 2 orange 1g (or less?) buckets from home depot I got specifically for this and borrowed a food scale. Chocolate was very calm the entire time. Sprinkles wasn't too keen on the initial grab to remove from tank but did great for the rest of her handling! Not much for photos, orange bucket doesn't make for good photo shoot.
Pudgy sprinkles actually weighs as much as Chocolate, both at 39 grams. Going to go weigh out food for them now to have a better idea of how much to give each.
Here are some quick photos
















xjasminex said:


> I have tried to have mystery snails but could not keep them alive!
> I put it down to lack of food. Between piggy goldfish and the other nails i figured that they where out competed.
> 
> Your goldies are filling out nicely tooo! Look at those bellies!


I put in a cucumber slice 1-2x a week and usually see the mystery snail eating it more than the fish. My goldies eat any pond snails that get into the display section of the tank (didn't even know I had any in that tank for a long while because of this). SO only way mystery snail misses out on food is if I clean the front and side glass (i don't clean the false walls though).
If you ever used any meds with copper in it on the tank snails and shrimp won't live in there, mystery snails also need calcium for their shells.

I was kinda over feeding them for a bit >.>''' I thought I read you feed 10% body weight a day, then found I should be feeding only 2-3% body weight >.<


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[6/24/16]*
Loooook deeeep into my heaaaart (of lettuce ^.~ )
Tasty looking isn't it?



I tore off two pieces from a smaller lettuce plant that had a little damage and put them in with the goldies to try. No blanching. Spotted Chocolate under the lettuce nibbling at it a short time ago.


Sorry so many shots of the snail but its just so much easier to get non blurred shots of! Hubby really liked how this one turned out. Ignore the algae covered food clip and particles floating around-took this right after dropping in soilent green dinner.




And this was the day I realized I was over feeding >.>



*[6/28/16]*
Ended up pulling off the scallions and shifting the lettuce around so the smaller lettuce plants had a chance to grow (and not be smothered by the big one). Cucumber plant is getting big. I realized I probably should have kept 2 plants to cross pollinate.. oops >.> Fish are doing well as well as mystery snail which i feel has noticeably grown more since it arrive! S/he has been working on the diatoms, side wall has the cool tracks of sail noming all over. Water sprite is growing like a bloody best, need to thin it out AGAIN! 

Quick batch of photos showing the plants. Debating if I should raise the lights to keep them above the cucumber or let it just do it's thing.

Water sprite mass is huge! its 30" across, 13" wide, and a good 4.5"+ deep! I'm debating if I should keep the water sprite more aggressively thinned or sell off the anubias that's smothered under it.






Speaking of pollinating.. first cucumber blooms are started already! That was fast 0.O

Dunno if I can pollinate successfully with 2 blooms from same plant but will try once I have a few opened up.





Suction cups keep giving out on the food clips.. I'm thinking to getting magnetic ones.. but I may also simply DIY with glass beads and fishing line (like my rhizome plant anchor diy).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[6/30/16]*
I spotted Very Berry on the substrate with no body parts sticking out of the shell like usual (foot was not out/no eyes/antenna etc). For a second I was afraid the goldfish ate him/her so I pulled 'em out of the tank and checked-trapdoor still intact so they're just hiding out. After getting over that initial scare I noticed something.. my mystery snail seems to be changing color  its going from an almost burgundy with lighter pink accents color to more solid color/starting to get a bit more purple. This is my first (and currently only) mystery snail, is it common for them to darken up?

First photo is by goldfish tank (where the other snail photos have been taken) which has 3000k T5 + 7000k LEDS, second photo is by 20g long with 6500k cfl bulbs.





Photo from last week to compare



Took a better comparison shot of it in the tank to show how much snail changed in a week


June 24-------------------------------------------------------------------------June 30



Lettuce monster continues to grow





But hey it (and all that water sprite) are sucking up my nitrates! Tank on left, tap on right:5ppm!





"Welcome to the jungle we got fun and games" popped into my head when I looked into the waster sprite mass




Some day I'll get some in focus shots of the goldfish again!




*[7/5/16]*
Decided to sell off the anubias in my goldfish tank+ all the extras I had just hanging out in lit qt tanks. Sold most of it to a member on another forum. Just have the small species left to sell (micro (rare) petite, and nana-great for a betta or other small nano/pico tanks!). 

Raffled most of my water sprite to thin it out

My husband had a simple salad using the lettuce grown on the goldfish tank last week, said it was delicious. I haven't had any yet. Biggest lettuce is 11" diameter! Cucumber blooms I keep dabbing with a paint brush to try to pollinate.. no signs of success yet but giving it time..may have to sprout a second plant. Spinach is still small and has sown signs of magnesium deficiency. Easy enough to fix with a tiny bit of Epsom salt (added a little last week). Also shown: cucumber roots in sump section of tank.







Took some photos of Chocolate and Sprinkles.. can never get both in a shot and in focus =,=.. I made a mini GIF of them dancing around eagerly waiting for food but can't figure out how to upload a video/animated GIF to photobucket grrr

Almost a great shot but then Sprinkles hid behind Chocolate =.=


How most photos turn out:


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Good luck with your cucumbers, I got tired of the fruit flies coming from the neighboring farms to sting mine. I think the only things I grow without much interference is aubergines (yuck, but they like the summer heat), and peas (also yuck, but they like the winter cold). At least my wife eats the peas. Oh and some potatoes come up every year.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[7/7/16]*
After reading on modded gel foods I'm excited to finish the batch I have to try making my own, will still use soilnet green as the base but add some other yummies..
Thinking of using baby carrots, lettuce or cucumber, garlic, little bit of meat pie (another repashy gel), goldfish pellets, omega one flakes. Will mess with amounts when I make it.
I have a ton of soilent green powder. When I ordered it online somehow it left an extra soilent green in the cart which my husband kindly bought since he though I forget to order, so I have 2 huge containers of that.


*[7/11/16]*
water sprite mass was too much so had to pull it out!
Some pre-gutting shots. They were *not amused *that I as holding a phone rather than their lunch.


I shipped out 3 boxes of water sprite (and some sampler other plants) from my raffle on a goldfish forum. Hopefully I'll be over flowing with water sprite again in a few months and can do another raok/raffle.

So when I got my mystery snail the seller told me they don't like strong flow and prefer warmer temps than I have it at.. but the seller has seen recent photos and sees a little baffled that mine is growing faster than hers now (might be because I have just 1 so no growth stunting hormone fun). But also the past 2 days I keep finding Very Berry at the stronger flow point in the tank: right under the spray bar output! Guess when I cleaned the front and side glass i took a bit of their food away so now they're cleaning the otehr side by the filter a lot.




Last photo of sexy lettuce for a while, having family over tonight and am going to hack off a lot of leaves for a salad!



Also WOOT CUBUMBER BABIES!!!











lettuce post dinner shot. Not much of a dent in it, just bottom leaves.


Empty tank + how I keep the water sprite in place: glass beads+ fishing line!





And finally some post rescaping shots




Sprinkles is explaining or plotting_ something_!












Nordic said:


> Good luck with your cucumbers, I got tired of the fruit flies coming from the neighboring farms to sting mine. I think the only things I grow without much interference is aubergines (yuck, but they like the summer heat), and peas (also yuck, but they like the winter cold). At least my wife eats the peas. Oh and some potatoes come up every year.


I'm not a fan of eggplant (aubergines) either, but my husband likes it as eggplant parmesan.
So far no issues with fruit flies *knocks on wood*. We keep fly tape up in the left corner behind the tank, and also have apple cider vinegar in jars with a plastic bag over it (rubber band to hold it on) that has a small hole-gnats/fruit flies go in but can't get out and drown just in case. 
Having plants indoors and grown from seeds really helps reduce insect issues, but then you have to provide them with proepr lighting instead of just using the sun (unless you have a green house).
I had wanted to grow sweet potatos from plants bought at a store (not seeds) but they had aphids so I had to toss them, and cleaned/put in new media for the new plant seeds to grow it.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

I honestly think you would regret sweet potato indoors, if how they grow outdoors is anything to go by.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[7/12/16]*
Home made gel food time! I didn't buy anything for this, just used what I had available at the house.

So 2 days ago my husband had tuna casserole (i don't eat fish/shellfish-any other fish keepers that don't eat these foods? i didn't like them even before I kept fish as pets). I strained off the water a safe some tiny tuna scraps that i put in the fridge in a sealed cup. Today i decided to use them + some other foods around the house to make a better gel food for the goldfish! Didn't get photos of everything but most of it. 


some baby carrots boiling (these took forever to soften up enough).


sliced cucumbers that were frozen but I thawed in microwave, de-skinned, also water leftover from nuking cucumber (using later)




Hikari algae wafers, Omega One tropical fish flakes, and Hikari goldfish pellets. Chopped up and soaked Hikari products in the still hot cucumber water.




Garlic cloves diced and boiled with carrots





Cucumber and 1 orange slice diced up, also carrots and garlic post boiling




Poured water from carrot/garlic boil onto Hikari foods, let sit a while until softened, those+ flakes plopped on top of fruit/veggies



Strained water from all food boiling/softening + tuna water 9and tiny bits of tuna)


Repashy products: used 1/2 cup soilent green and 1/8 cup meat pie




Post boil/cookie sheet cooling-1g bag. Bite size portions cut for lunch!



Fish love it, they eat it off the bottom faster than their regular soilent green only gel. Will make a larger batch of non repashy add ins next time.





*[7/14/16]*
Chocolate and Sprinkles have been loving the new food! Usually when I feed the gel 1/2 or so ends up on the substrate and can take a half hour or so to be eaten. This stuff gets sucked up fast, all gone in under 5-10 minutes! I'm leaving it as a large thin sheet that I cut chunks off of for every meal, dice small, and thaw. 

Very Berry frequently hanging out completely out of the water by the lid when I open up for at least 2 of the meals during the day. If it wasn't the only mystery snail in the tank I'd think it was going to lay eggs. S/he keeps getting more purple, only the tip of the spiral has a bit of pink left in it now.



There finally up to date!




Nordic said:


> I honestly think you would regret sweet potato indoors, if how they grow outdoors is anything to go by.


On a goldfihs forum someone documented growing a sweet potato spud on a tank (lower 1/3 or so in water). I can't find the thread of photos now grrr. Anyways it grew monster over 3 feet roots and a nice long leafy vine.. but eventfully the spud rotted from always being wet.
If I tried it I'd keep the spud out of water completely and just put roots in tank, see if it lasted longer.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

It is easy to make your own sweet potato plants, suspend a sweet potato in a jar of water by sticking some toothpicks into it, leave it somewhere bright. Lots of tiny plants will sprout on the outside, you just cut them off and plant them.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

My sweet potato in water has been going crazy!!!
I bet if i put it in the tank it would suck up some major nitrates.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Water sprite still growing.. need to add heavier weights as some bunches are floating up >.>''




Nordic said:


> It is easy to make your own sweet potato plants, suspend a sweet potato in a jar of water by sticking some toothpicks into it, leave it somewhere bright. Lots of tiny plants will sprout on the outside, you just cut them off and plant them.





xjasminex said:


> My sweet potato in water has been going crazy!!!
> I bet if i put it in the tank it would suck up some major nitrates.


If I had the room on my tank I think I'd try that, but its stuffed right now! No room fro more greens.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[7/14/16]*
Chocolate and Sprinkles have been loving the new food! Usually when I feed the gel 1/2 or so ends up on the substrate and can take a half hour or so to be eaten. This stuff gets sucked up fast, all gone in under 5-10 minutes! I'm leaving it as a large thin sheet that I cut chunks off of for every meal, dice small, and thaw. 

Very Berry frequently hanging out completely out of the water by the lid when I open up for at least 2 of the meals during the day. If it wasn't the only mystery snail in the tank I'd think it was going to lay eggs. S/he keeps getting more purple, only the tip of the spiral has a bit of pink left in it now.




*[7/15/16]*
Quick shot of Very Berry. S/he had a bit of shell damage when the crack/line was the end of their shell, possibly from falling onto a rock? Hoping it'll heal/smooth over with time.



Also cucumber size update, currently 1 big and 2 tiny ones growing. I cross pollinate the flowers every 2-3 days.





*[7/17-18/16]*
Hmm diatom-y, time to go at the glass with a utility blade! You can see the mystery snail munch tracks through the algae.





Grrrrr AAAAARRRGGG I HAVE THE HICCUPS AND THEY WON'T FREAKING STOP!!!!
Sorry had to vent that, have had them all afternoon.. *hiccup* ugh


From yesterday:
Post cleaning above view look into the tank. Water sprite is still growing fast. I had to add more weights to 3 of the bunches as they were floating up.






Front tank shots. Pardon the messy-ness, tossed lunch in before this was taken




Today:
I gave them an orange slice a little before lunch time and they loved it! But every time i tried to take a photo of them eating it they'd see me and com tot eh front/top of the tank "Food?" "You ahve food go eat it!"".... more food now?" =.=



I've been debating setting up a DIY green house (using pvc, not sure about the cover yet though) as I'm too frugal to spend $1000+ on a green house. If I do eventually do this I think I'd move my goldfish tank 55g and 20g long (all tanks outside office), as well as my living room betta tanks (maybe 3 of the 4) to the green house + get an above ground pond if i can find one that will fit (or maybe DIY a large tank with thick glass and plywood)then cram the place full of plants! 
Plus side: less electricity for lights and heater (use sun + green house effect) and year round jungle
down side: less tanks in active areas of the house/have to go outside to see tanks/feed fish. Also have to figure out how to get water there in winter: outside hose is not an option as it freezes.
Green house would have to be:
sealed (top to bottom) to avoid bug getting in, have good insulated cover to keep temp constant (it gets cold here in winter) if I made operable sections I'd have to use fine mesh screen to keep anything from flying/falling in
handle snow.. we usually don't get a ton but last year we did.. i need it to at least last an over night heavy snow o be cleared in the morning.
allow sufficient light through for plant growth.

I might bail on the whole idea.. dunno just started researching into it. If anyone keeps a green house I'd love to hear details on it from you.


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## darklord (Feb 22, 2015)

This setup is really great inspiration. AquaAurora, I want to ask a newbie question, how to plant seeds in the clay balls? 

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

darklord said:


> This setup is really great inspiration. AquaAurora, I want to ask a newbie question, how to plant seeds in the clay balls?
> 
> Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


Thanks ^^
I set up my planters with expanded clay media, and just take a pinch fo seeds in my fingers and sprinkle them on over the media. Nothing special at all. I try to have enough clay media that the top layer it is above the water line so seeds aren't submerged, the clay wicks up moisture from the water below so it give the seeds the wetness they need to germinate. I found (for me at least) they sprout quicker this way than using seed starter kits or simple Tupperware and damp paper towel in a windowsill-if you're worried about sprout them on the media this is a cheap easy alternative, just poke some small holes in the lid with a fork to let a little air in and dip a paper towel in tank water before putting seeds on it. After they sprout you can transfer them onto the clay media and put them where you want. You can look up youtube videos on aquaponics for more info/options for getting seeds sprouted.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I've bailed on the idea of a green house, while I'd love having less electricity used for heaters/lights, I don't want all my tanks out and away from main traffic areas of the home.. also the issue with water changes in winter... not to mention threat of [censor] holes breaking it, or tree branches falling on it causing disasters..would rather keep everything inside where its safe.

So instead I'm hunting around for 125g or 75g but having a hard time find anything at a good price. New cost a fortune, most used cost more + need cleaning.. or cost a little less (but not at the price range I really want) and need repairs.. I'm wary of used because there can be leaks/cracks/structural issues... but then everything now a days is made so [censor]ly its not like buying new is any guarantee against a tank exploding from being poorly put together. I'm also a bit picky about what I'd take in use tanks.. don't like the wood trimmed tanks as I grew up with black trim=can hold water, wood trim=reptile/herp tank (aka not made to handle water pressure). Also don't want anything drilled for a sump, just another leak disaster waiting to happen (yes I am a pessimist, but after the tank disaster I had with my 55g (twice!) don't want to set myself up for any excuse for another.)



If I get a 75g I can use the table the 55g is on now (and its lights), if i get a 125g I can get more fish but I need to do a custom (low) stand and get more lights...I'd end up doing the same diy in tank sump as the 40g breeder has and more my 55g's riparium onto the back /sump section along with filter(s) and heater(s), just have air stones/wands upfront.

I'd thought of just mounting some window planter baskets behind my 55g tank, move plants into that, and use a canister filter but I think I'd have the same issue as my first 55g disaster as it'd be very similar for the aquaponic setup I use to have.



My huge debate after i manage to get a hold of a tank is first, what to do with my current 55g tropical fish, and second do I want to put my 2 existing goldfish in the larger setup+ add more.. or only put new fish in there? Being new to goldfish I'm not sure how well they do when a new fish is added. I know from a lot of reading of betta sororities you remove everyone, rearrange things, then release the new one first before all the previous fish to reduce aggression to the new gal (not a guarantee but a help)-same thing is good for adding new angelfish or ram cichlids to a tank than already has angels/rams. But those are more aggressive species than goldfish...The pessimist in me says keep new separate from old, or else (even with quarantine) something nasty might get in and kill the originals... I've also run into a few instances when reading of goldfish eating other goldfish's eyes!





Side tangent I wonder where I can find more fantails.. seems more places like selling ryukin, oranda, celestrial, ranchu, etc or mutts/mixes but not much for pure fantail love around here..


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## darklord (Feb 22, 2015)

AquaAurora said:


> Thanks ^^
> I set up my planters with expanded clay media, and just take a pinch fo seeds in my fingers and sprinkle them on over the media. Nothing special at all. I try to have enough clay media that the top layer it is above the water line so seeds aren't submerged, the clay wicks up moisture from the water below so it give the seeds the wetness they need to germinate. I found (for me at least) they sprout quicker this way than using seed starter kits or simple Tupperware and damp paper towel in a windowsill-if you're worried about sprout them on the media this is a cheap easy alternative, just poke some small holes in the lid with a fork to let a little air in and dip a paper towel in tank water before putting seeds on it. After they sprout you can transfer them onto the clay media and put them where you want. You can look up youtube videos on aquaponics for more info/options for getting seeds sprouted.


Hi AquaAurora, 

Thanks I was worried about the seeds got too damp or drown. I tried sprinkle the seeds on the clay balls but seems not really working. And some seeds needed darkness to germinate, so I'm not sure how thick a layer of clay balls to place them under.

OK looks like I need to try more experiment. I've been successful so far only with mint and rosemary cuttings. 

Cheers! 

darklord 

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Some shots for a few days ago 
Lettuce is looking more like a tree as the lower leaves are harvested for salads, look at that monster root/stem!






Cucumber continues to grow, hoping it will fill out more evenly instead of looking like a gourd/squash



A view of emersed grown water sprite under some of the smaller lettuce



Chocolate hand feeding (Sprinkles did not want to be part of the photo op), you can really see the colors in this photo, love the bronze hue



And Very Berry munching on cucumber




In other news I should be getting my husband's brother's used 75g+ extras this/next week. For those that have read the horror story of the niece and the neon (tetras) he is not _that _one's father, different brother. I'm hoping I can get a good deal on it.. I'm so itching for a tank I almost grabbed a 75g top fin at petsmart for $116 (deal ends at end of month). If I hadn't already said we're buying from my in-law I'd get that tank and dig out my old canister filter, ten build a stand just high enough to let it work.

I want to decommission the 55g to take its plants, heater, and filter (plus substrate) for the new tank but hubby wants to keep the fish which means I don't get to tear the tank down... I keep trying to lessen my # of tanks but my husband keeps pushing for more!


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## Watercrayfish (Apr 21, 2016)

Wow thats is one kitchen garden you have there.

Congrats for the new tank deal.
But now its confirmed an acute case of MTS and proven its contagious. Lol


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Watercrayfish said:


> Wow thats is one kitchen garden you have there.
> 
> Congrats for the new tank deal.
> But now its confirmed an acute case of MTS and proven its contagious. Lol


Thanks ^^ and yes indeed, he's even spoken of converting on of the guest rooms into a fish room O.O


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

More tank shorts,

showing full top section




Underwater-photos don't do it justice! Its a thick lush jungle of water sprite!






Whole lot of this happening: girl on girl chasing and egg noming, they'll take turns chasing eachother.


I need to find the usb cable for my husband's camera, see if I can get better photos.


Hubbywants to turn one of the guest rooms into a fish/plant room. Have to haul the bed and other furniture out. Will likely set up the 75g (once I get it from my brother in law) in there. I'm itching to grab up some house plants I want to stick in there but trying to wait until the room is actually cleared out *fidget fidget*


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[censor] yeh!!!*

*[CENSOR] YES!!! I got not 1 but 2! 2 freaking new 75gs for $75 each!!!!! *Call up all petcos in reasonable driving distance from you and see if they have 75g, their $ per a gallon sale is on and if they get 75g tanks in (though they shouldn't) they are part of the sale!!! Had to make an hour drive each way but its soooooo worth it, the next cheapest 75g i could find within 2 hours of me is $130 for just 1 tank.

SOOOO FLIPPING HAPPY RIGHT NOW!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!

My brother in-law still hasn't dug up his old tank yet but if he does I'll just upgrade my tropical 55g to 75g (he'll be bummed, if he'd pulled it out last weekend like he originally planned he would have gotten more money for it). Gotta get some equipment then plants then go fish hunting! I have 2 canister filters in storage (sunsun and jumbo eheim) I'll be using, just need heater(s) and light(s). Husband will be building stands for the tanks since we don't trust that compressed wood/particle board junk most stores sell for stands.

Going to be doing a water bridge/connector between the tanks so it'll be like a 125g, hoping I can set up intake on one tank and output on the other to let water flow through both tanks.

here's a video on water bridges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmsHa5spqc

Unsure if we'll make it from glass (have some scrap, have to see how thick and long it is), or with pvc (more expensive but won't shatter when cutting like glass can).

Bio-Elite Aquarium Water-Bridge


Going to do shubunkins in the connected tanks, just want to find a local (aka less than 2 hours or less drive) source. I don't like in philly and refuse to drive in there (omg the traffic on that road is a [censor] nightmare! Near accidents CONSTANTLY!! dunno how you philly locals can stand it) so will have to look in other towns around me.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

More photos of tank growth, cucumber is getting HEAVY, lettuce has grown past the the light, and water sprite is getting HUGE again! Also Very Berry munching, Chocolate and Sprinkles were not cooperating for photo op. Spinach is kinda sad, may rip out and toss in some more lettuce seeds.













Finally got my own scale. Sadly I can't find one that deals in fractions of a gram for food measurement though. Weighed fish and put them in a non orange bucket this time so i could get better shots.

Chocolate is 40 grams. She appears to have a wound on her side, at least I hope its a wound and not a tumor/cysts.





Sprinkles is 37grams (Chocolate has been hogging more food with hand feeding, will have to compensate more for Sprinkles), she did not want to hold still for photos


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> *[CENSOR] YES!!! I got not 1 but 2! 2 freaking new 75gs for $75 each!!!!! *Call up all petcos in reasonable driving distance from you and see if they have 75g, their $ per a gallon sale is on and if they get 75g tanks in (though they shouldn't) they are part of the sale!!! Had to make an hour drive each way but its soooooo worth it, the next cheapest 75g i could find within 2 hours of me is $130 for just 1 tank.
> 
> SOOOO FLIPPING HAPPY RIGHT NOW!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!
> 
> ...


I loved the water bridge from the first moment I saw it a couple of years ago. Please keep us updated. I want to know how you will keep the bridge clean. 

Wow. To think I first met you online when you had dozens of vases with Bettas. Look how far you've come! :crying:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/4/16]*
Hello new tanks! Good Bye money!!
I always have fun prepping and setting up new tank(s) but it hurts to look at the bank account as money keeps going, going, going, for all the parts!
Bought roughly $80 of black lexan to make a an in tank sump on one of the 75gs (like the 40g breeder) to put riparium plants behind, spent $40+ on a 150g rated air pump, and about $130 on an LED light for the other tank (aquatic plants only), x2 300 watt heaters at just under $18 each... Still have to get: a [censor] ton of air line tubing, decide on air dispersal method (regular air stones or maybe some diy fun with pvc pipe making an air curtain if I can find small enough diameter pvc piping), air line splitters, substrate (debating about sticking to my $8 per 50lb bag black diamond.. or splurging and getting Tahitian moon sand at ~$17 per 20lb bag)...Then there the lumber for making stands, may have to buy more black paint to paint back of tanks, buying pvc or glass for water bridge connector. Planters, large landscaping rocks (hoping I can find some good rocks at landscaping centers), light timer, surge suppressors, water change buckets and siphon, plants, and of course fish costs. x.x UGH Thankfully I have filters covered (2 canister filters in storage) but may need some more tubing.
Will start posting photos of the 75g setup/build once my husband and I get to work on it!






*[8/9/16]*
Big photo dump today!

First up "WHO'S THAT POKEMON?!" (sorry couldn't resist)



IT'S CHOCOLATE! She had to go into qt for several days. Thanks to a very helpful forum member on a goldfish site I got info on what was wrong (bacterial cysts) and how to fix it quickly. Chocolate got very orange in qt, wasn't happy with the mental word themed 'white room' tank.



Put her back into the main tank today (infected area is all better) and she colored up quickly, was very happy to be back home.
1 minute in main tank, black hue is coming back. 30 mins later she's back to normal color.




Mean while Very Berry has been doing ok keeping algae down, I still have to scrape the front and side glass. But there is a conundrum... the snail shell is covered in algae! If I had 2 snails they'd clean eachother but I won't risk getting a male and having clutches of eggs. So need to figure out how to clean the shell without damaging it.




In other news OMG YAY GREEN IN THE TEST VILE! Most people don't want to see ammonia readings (don't worry had prime dosed to bind it) but in spring the waste management plant had construction which put a TON of particulates into the tap, making it impossible to get ammonia readings when tested (always came up 0ppm even with dumping in pure ammonia to test water). So I had to cycle the goldfish tank blind basically back in April (dosed to bind prime and did a lot of water changes so they made it through ok). But happy to see ammonia again!



Pulled the spinach out and tossed in some lettuce seeds (should sprout by the end of the work week), spinach never really did that well compared to the other veggies on the tank. Somehow duckweed got into the back section of the tank.. no clue how  at least its not up front.





Annnd onto the 75gs
Tank that will have faux back for sump via black lexan



other tank with light (that cost as much as the 2 tanks x.x), pump, and heaters.



Black paint and foam rollers. WE always use behr for interior/exterior home, figured why not for tank too? (most of it will be used for tough up outside).



Lil' helper investigating things



Tank flipped onto its side for painting



Painted.. had to edge in with a brush). Btw if you want to paint the outside of a tank GET A FOAM ROLLER sooooo much easier than doing it all with a paint brush 9did this with a 10gs-took a week of applying coats to cover it all-foam roller did it in 1 application)



Watching paint dry



Waiting for paint to dry my helper took a nap




Ok so funny story. You know how 40g breeders don't have a brace? Well I forgot that 75gs DO and ordered the lexan as 1 large piece, forgetting the brace would make it impossible to get in (oops)! Thankfully handy hubby was able to cut the piece in half to fit it in (he also drilled it with holes (that I will stuff black foam in like the 40g breeder). He used the scraps that came witht eh other to brace the lexan when first siliconed into place (photo taken after pieces were removed-painter's tape still up. Have to silicone the back side still (I get to do that as the space is too narrow for my husband's muscular arms), after that dries I get to paint the back.
Wasn't too happy as the ebay seller I ordered from cut the original piece too tall/long by 1/4", but hubby was able to fix that when it was cut to fit between the braces.





Next up will be getting lumber for the stands! Little bummed that our usual place is no longer family oriented (aka you got quality wood-not bowed, chipped, knotted pieces) but turned into a big business which means compromised quality :c


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)




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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nordic said:


>


Refresh page, possibly clear cookies/cache too, tell me if they show up now?


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Third from last one, still not showing.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nordic said:


> Third from last one, still not showing.


Opps yep, I didn't copy that one over, just redid it so should show now (still curious why they didn't show up first time i posted them.. >.> ).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Sooo at the grocery store today I found this large what I believe is dieffenbachia? I saw one a another store a few weeks ago but someone else bought that one so I grabbed this one.. almost went and got a whole 'other cart to get some other house plants too (great price) buuut resisted since I still need to gut the guest room these plants will go in. Because the plants are poisonous to dogs I have to keep them out of reach so it limits places to store multiple large potted plants.



Bought some shower caddies to use as planter baskets.. my grocery store never has many at at one time, will take a few trips to stock up on enough.



Reflection heavy shot to try to show how much the water sprite has grown (its hit the surface and spread to the front of the tank on one side already!)



And Chocolate back to normal color looking shocked (gulping), wish this was a little more in focus.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> Sooo at the grocery store today I found this large what I believe is dieffenbachia? I saw one a another store a few weeks ago but someone else bought that one so I grabbed this one.. almost went and got a whole 'other cart to get some other house plants too (great price) buuut resisted since I still need to gut the guest room these plants will go in. Because the plants are poisonous to dogs I have to keep them out of reach so it limits places to store multiple large potted plants.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Keep the goldfish from chewing on the dieffenbachia too. Not good for any pet. We had a parrot (mean old thing) who like to chew on the stalks and have her tongue get numb. She would then proceed to rub her tongue back and forth loudly on her beak. Crazy.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Varmint said:


> Keep the goldfish from chewing on the dieffenbachia too. Not good for any pet. We had a parrot (mean old thing) who like to chew on the stalks and have her tongue get numb. She would then proceed to rub her tongue back and forth loudly on her beak. Crazy.


Don't worry the terrestrial plants will be out of reach for the goldfish. I am using the lexan to make a faux back wall and keeping the roots of the plants in the sump area behind that (along with filtration/heater equipment). Same as the 40g breeder, I'd bet Sprinkles and Chocolate would eat the cucumber and lettuce roots if they had access to them.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/12/16]*
A few more plants for the shubunkin room.

Monstera deliciosa aka swiss cheese plant (needs some love to bounce back)










Calathea orbifolia itty-bitty thing. Want to try it on the riparium but will keep it potted in soil until its big enough to take clippings from.










Also some creeping jenny I found at the local park, growing against a 50g drum trash bin.









I'm looking to get my hands on pothos n'joy (sometimes called glacier), but can't find it locally so I may have to buy online.

I also have a Boston fern but can't get a decent shot of it yet. Did not buy the palm I wanted yet, the ones I saw at the store had some suspicious dense webbing with little white bugs.. or something like micro tent caterpillars going on...did not want


Bought lumber for stands today. Cost more than the 2 tanks x.x Several bowed pieces so hubby has them clamped to some straight boards to help correct the bowing.


Siliconed the back side of the lexan the otehr day, tight fit to get an arm in between trim and lexan, also put a brace behind the cut in the lexan to hopefully keep it from folding/falling over. Hoping to flip the lexan 75g today and start painting (need help flipping tank to avoid breaking it).


I've been digging around and have and no luck finding a local source/store for Bristol shubunkin, can find the more common variation but not the nice big rounded tales.. I may have to order from a breeder in Ohio, but I don't like not getting to see fish before buying (pick out ones I want)... ah well still a lot more prep to do before tank is ready for fish so i'll keep hunting. I found a Bristol shubunkin farm in Italy but i don't want to deal with transshipping fish (my wallet hurts just thinking about it).


I think I'll stick with my usual black diamond substrate, $8 for 50 lbs, just cant beat that! I think i may need 2-3 bags for $16-24, I'd pay that much for just 1 back of 20lb tahinian moon sand.. and would need a 6x of those... get the 'fun' of thoroughly rinsing the coal slag off before putting into tank, that will take quite a bit of time >.< Still have to go get large river rocks for one of the tanks too... I wish i could find giant Pocono rocks (6-16") around here but most land scaping yards its 3"-6" if you're lucky grrr. I was tempted by some cool looking shale rock but its way to sharp, would mutilate the shubunkins when they started getting frisky.




On an unrelated note (and tank) here's a peace lily spathe being shy (bloomed facing the back of the tank) just really like how the shot turned out..











*[8/16/16]*
*Farwell Chocolate, On the Hunt for a New Fish Friend.*
Sadly we lost Chocolate last week. She seemed fine and at at 4pm, but when I came down a little before 8pm I could not find her. Finally dug through the plants to locate her, she was motionless, tail shredded. I thought she was dead but when I picked her up out of the water she gulped after a few seconds. I set up the qt tank but she didn't survive the night (which sucks as I'd had a dream that she was swimming happily and healthy just before I woke up the next morning). Husband pointed out the next morning that the middle rock had shifted, so perhaps she god stuck (though there was no body/scale damage). For paranoia sake I bleach soaked the qt tank and equipment and Sprinkles is on a 1 month qt in the display.
After a 24 hours soak I rinsed the [censor] out of everything then re-set up the qt tank and put in a lot of prime to deal with any possible remaining chlorine. My husband and I went on the hunt for a new fish but had just bad luck the whole day. We went tot eh store we originally got Chocolate and Sprinkles from, now the outdoor pond fish and plants were out so I got to drool over that (and constantly say under my breath "You cannot buy plants yet, you cannot buy plants yet"). Not as impressive as some places I'm sure but still nice selection (if you ignore all the hair algae x.x) they had several plants I wanted to grab including water celery , black elephant ear, sag, even Leopardess (sooooo waaaaannnnnttt!!!!). 


















The entry into the back pond area had a large pond with some very friendly big koi, including a hard to see dark grey-black one with bronze metallic scale tips.



















There were several fancies outside in the ponds, some were in a large net but 3 had gotten out and triumphantly swam around the whole enclosure until they get stuck _under _the net (but they freed themselves before I could think about sticking my hands in to help) That container pond also had giant tadpoles, and ninja pond snails (covered in algae so blended right in). There were a few in the net I liked mostly orange-red hue with black flecking all over (like someone flicked paint off a paint brush bristles at them). Sadly did not take a photo of them.

My husband took an interest in a small fancy (unsure if ryukin or fantail) in another pond there that was a blue/grey with black and yellow head dot. At the time I was worried it may be too small for Sprinkles (unsure about size difference issues), Circled the cute-y in photo below









The indoor display was lacking-many goldfish tanks were empty and what was there looks sick-clamped fins, flipped gill plate, bottom laying, no one was wiggle dancing at the front glass for us... outside fish at least were very active.

After that we tried to stop at a "pet store" in a shopping center we passed to get to the other place... well this "pet store" was more of a specialty dog food/treats/toys/groomer shop.. so that was a bust.. Out local petcos have all stopped have multiple display tanks for golsfihs and just keep a few mis-matched ones 1 large display but never have much selection so that was fail.. Only know of 1 Walmart that carries fish 'near' us but it was always in a horrid state so scared to even look there...By now it was hot as [censor], my husband and I were sick of the heat so we went home.... Will have to try again this weekend at some other stores.




Debating about going back and getting the one my husband liked now though after speaking with some people on a goldfish forum about size difference If its not there we have a few other stores to hunt around at this weekend.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/17/16]*
*Aquaponics*
Since the tank is down one fish it seemed a fine time to take out some plants. Cucumber plant was ripped out 9took 2 hands so no photos sorry), the one fruit it yielded looks pretty good, haven't tried it yet though.

















Monster lettuce stock went to seed after it grew past the light, I'd read it gets a bitter taste when it goes to seed so yanked it out (with a bit of effort) had to knock off the top several inches to get it out from under the light, what is left is 30" long (roots and stem)! Base of the stock was thicker than my thumb! Pardon all the airline tubing.

















































Tossed in some new cucumber and lettuce seeds.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/17/16]
Shubunkin Tanks WIP*

First up, photo of some peace lily 'domino' babies. I had pollinated one of my 2 big plants but the spathe and several months grown seeds vanished on me O.O no clue what the [censor] happened but can't find the spathe stock or seeds.. but the plants decided to make some new off shoots from their base. Had a [censor] of a time getting them out, had to pull the plants from their basket completely to get the babies free, then had to hack back the mother plants roots to stuff them back in and on the 55g tank again... sorry I'm rambling, there's 3 small plants, currently in soil but I'll be putting them on the 75g riparium by the window once its set up. I love this plant, various degrees of white flecks to almost 1/2 a leaf being white. They start small but can get to 2' easy.












And a spam of shots of the 75g progress. Put a brace behind the split Lexan using some of the scrap-siliconed into place. messy job as this is the back side (not the viewing side where fish will be). Photo of the non riparium tank with back and side that will face the window painted, other side is not painted so it can be views from couch that will be moved into the room. And finally shots of the tank with Lexan-painted back, bottom 9since sand will be thin) and both sides, but did not paint over the back area so i can see into it in case of equipment issues (heater/filter). Used painters tape to make it easy.. need to razor off that drip from the 'back' too.











































Bought 2 50lb bags of black diamond, have to get of my lazy arse and start rinsing it.. maybe tomorrow >.>''



No photos of it but hubby is working on the stands. Its been hot as [censor] here and his work shop area is not insulated or set up with house ac so not much fun to work in in the heat. Will get photos of stands when done and brought into the 'fish room'.



Boston fern is looking pretty crappy, not sure if it was over water before I bought it but its been loosing leaves like crazy..trying to save ti but may have to buy another (from a difference source). I ended up buying some pothos n'joy from etsy but apparently the seller I got it from takes a long time to ship stuff ugh =,=hopefully it makes it here ok.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Meet the New Kids-Introductions then QT begins!

So this past weekend my husband and I went on the hunt for a replacement buddy for Sprinkles. I'd planned o try a place butterlfy had recommended on Sunday, but Saturday we went by Petsmart and nearly left empty handed. We had a laugh at one we dubbed "mustache-e-o" a mostly orange oranda with white face (mist eye level to under lower jaw) and black upper lip. Wish I'd thought to take a photo but didn't >.<

We were about to leave when my husband spotted a goldy in mustache-e-o's tank he really liked (tank is up high so fish not at the front and low are hidden). I don't know all the proepr names for colorations yet, but I think its almost a 'wild' type color(?) back before they were bred to orange . It's sort of a pale brown-bronze-gold hue (anyone care to tell me the proepr term for this color. It had little to no went and looked healthy as I could tell (no lethargy/swim issues, no veins/gill/scale damage or signs of external parasites, eyes were not cloudy) so we asked an employee to net 'em out. While they were trying to catch our new goldfish another we kinda liked but my hubby wasn't too interested in getting before got caught by accident. It's mostly orange but with a yellow under side and hint of white by chin/under pectorals. Tips on caudal and dorsal are white and also have some black accents in fins. Husband said we'll take that one too, give the new guy a buddy (since its smaller than sprinkles). The employee was kind enough to go grab a larger fish bag and was real liberal with water and air int eh bag, she also double bagged them (most employees at this store don't). 


You can see the orange ones white markings better in this shot











I like to think they're in aw' of my 55g riparium (where they're looking atm). 











Tried showing them to Sprinkles but she had no interest-was hunting down food scraps. They did look into their final home tank though and seemed excited (too bad they need a 4-6 week qt first). No photos as they were all out of focus.



Starting to drip acclimate, put an air stone in with the. More "OMG" as they look around the room of planted tanks ^^ They're on an old old fold-able chair from the 80s-90s covered in paint. Now-a-days I use it for water changes and acclimation.










Above view. I believe they are just around 2" body (not counting tail) as this cub is 5.5"x5.5". Orange one is just a hair longer than the other. If I put sprinkles in this tank she's touch side to side as body+ tail is about 5-5.5".










Water test on the bag they came home in.. lot of nitrates (and some ammonia). Dosed prime to bind ammonia when I first opened bag. pH is same as my tap.


















Weighing time.. though I don't know how much I trust my scale as its actually not level on the top where you place an item to weight =,= [massive expletives about imported [censor] from China would go here]. Also some close up shots. They're in a smaller bowl than I'd used for Chocolate and Sprinkles... and they would not hold still in the bowl, most non blurred shots I could get. orange one does not have damaged fins, tips are white...white bowl makes them hard to see.


































Took several hours to acclimate (removing water from container every 10 minutes and letting tank water trip in via air lien tube and air pressure valve), then floated them in a bag with air stone in the tank to get up to temp before releasing. Dosed prime to bind ammonia and let them be. They INHALED their food at dinner time, had to resist feeding them more.


Next morning (Sunday) I did a huge water change. They did NOT like the low water level.











Started a round of Prazipro dosing 1/2 teaspoon for the 10g tank. I also put 10 level teaspoons of aq salt into a nylon stocking and let it sit int eh tank for 24 hours. I'd read on this forum that you should not increase salinity past 0.1-0.2% when dosing prazipro, so I'll wait until Friday or Saturday to do a big water change to remove the meds and increase the salt then.


I had planned to grabbing filter media from my 20g long for the qt tank but a white cloud mysterious died the day before I went it to get the foam so I did not use it.. new guys have to go through qt without a cycle. I'm using an old hob (came with my original 10g tank), 2 air stones and a heater. Dosing Prime daily to keep ammonia from being an issue.


This is my first time doing a 'proper' qt on goldfish (Sprinkles and Chocolate went straight into a planted tank, couldn't dose salt or meds as I had aquaponics going). SO if any other goldfish experts on here notice I'm doing anything wrong or have tips for qt tank let me know.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[/8/22/16]
Stop and Smell the Flowers (and sneeze)*
Grabbed 2 white antheriums and an orchid at a local home improvement store yesterday. Orchid is more blue than photo shows. Orchid won't go on the riparium, but antheriums will.


















Saw a 'wild' hibiscus on the walk yesterday in the meadow at our park.. Not the best condition but it was the only open bloom, there were 2 plants with 3-4 other buds getting ready to open. This was not here last year so not sure if someone dumped their house/garden plant out here or what. 








As a small child my mom kept a huge red hibiscus that spent winter inside by our sliding glass doors for sun, and summers on the deck, only plant she managed not to have a black thumb with. Sadly she finally killed it about 14 years ago though. 'Shame as I really liked it, would have taken it if I'd known she was going to neglect it to die.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/24/16]*
I'd started cleaning my 'sand' yesterday, got about 1/2 a bag rinsed! Took a lunch break and proceeded to gouge my index finger open on a blade when I tried to thin the dead fronds from the Boston fern (ended up hacking out over 2/3) of its foliage). Was an accident of course, but if not for the blade running into my finger nail I think I'd have lost a decent chunk of flesh... took forever to stop bleeding.. sorry I'll stop getting into the gory details, but needless to say I won't be hand rinsing any more sand for a while until this closes up. I'm hoping I have enough for the tank I intend to plant. I was thinking of trying something similar to this:
using nylon stocking to hold in some sand and a root tab for plants until they're well established and anchor themselves just fine.. or maybe I should just plant normally and wait to add fish so roots can spread (but I'd need more sand).. hmm..

Started trying to hunt down low $ foam for the canister filter, was hoping to get some in bulk so I could just cut to fit and have plenty leftover for replacing later on.



So got another plant for my 75g riparium (ordered online) today gotta say I'm extremely disappointing. For $13 and being told its a 4" pot-of-plant shipped sans the pot, its NOT the amount of plant I'd expect.
Sellers photo, looks like a nice *full *pot of plants right?









This is what I got/ how it looks in a 4" pot.

















Dunno about the rest of you but when I buy a 4" potted plant at the store there's usually 3-4x as much plant as I got. SO yeah needless to say, not too happy.


In brighter news the stands are put together and urethaned, debating about painting them (kinda think I might?). Downside: we have a family member staying over for the week using the guest room we want to convert into the fish room (couldn't put them in the other room as it had the painted tanks+ other equipment stuffed in there. So gotta wait >.< Once stands and tanks are in we can order materials for the water bridge.

New fishies in qt are doing well, they eat the food real fast. The bronze one comes close to my fingers but won't hand feed yet. Will do a wc on friday when prazi pro treatment is done.

I need to do a wc on Sprinkle's tank to remove poop some time today.. >.>



Some shots from yesterday. My super cheap substrate, can't beat $8 for 50lbs!!! I find it humorous the red text says "PRODUCT MUST STAY DRY" but then I'm not using it for its original purpose.










And rinsing it outside, put it in a bucket on a metal lawn chair so I don't mess up my back being hunched over. I find rinsing it in small batches makes it go faster-gets all the sludge/oil out faster with a thin layer.











Sprinkles enjoying a chunk of orange before lunch.









I tried giving some tiny pieces to the new guys but they were not interested in the orange at all.

Also shot of 40 water test from today (nitrates look more red in photo then it actually is) 0pmm, 0pmm, 10ppm even after ripping out several of the aquaponic plants! Gotta love that water sprite ^^











Also good news the family member will be leaving tomorrow so we can gut the future fish room and set up tank and stands tomorrow afternoon hopefully YAY!

I've been debating over the # of Bristol shubunkins to get.. its going to be 2 connected 75gs.. thinking maybe 6-8? I have 2 spare ~12g tubs I used for black worm culturing before that I'll likely store in the fish room to be qt tanks as needed. I'm debating if I should start the bristols off in the tubs so I can give the them some time with a salt treatment-being a planted tank I won't put aq salt in the main display, split them into groups of 3-4 between the tubs.


Also I've been trying to get a sweet potato to sprout some roots and vine for me but it's being a stubborn [censor] and not growing anything for me even though I've had it suspended over water for over a week =,=


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/25/16]*
Finger is slowly healing, hoping to work on sand again tomorrow.

Got the tank stands into the fish room (will get photos tomorrow), still need to take out the bed though, then drag the tanks in. I think I'm gonna paint the stands, since white cedar was used for the legs and white pine for the rest..not sure if I'll paint black (works with tank trim but much darker than room colors), or white (goes with room trim but then it will put a reflection into tank when taking photos) ... hmmmm. I'd love to just paint the room black but.. I'm too terribly lazy for that =.= also it woudl mean buying Kills white and painting again prior to selling the house if we ever wanted to.

Threw a bunch of $ at an ebay seller for plants, hope they make it here ok (also hope to have the tanks on the stands with water by the time the plants arrive. I'll likely qt plants in a bin for 2 weeks or so and use No Planaria to get rid of any snails, or freshly hatched snails.

Look forward to giving the qt tank a much needed water change tomorrow. Thinking 2x 90%ish water changes then start raising the salt level.






*[8/26/16]*

Photos of the 75g tank stands my hubby made. He had to modify the design slightly as the quality of wood these days is such [censor] the boards were warped even after he tried to unawarp them so had to add extra bracing on the lower part of the legs. But it gives me a extra space to store some things under the tanks ^^. Keeping stands open instead of cabinet style since one will be right over a vent. Will take more shots once the bed is removed and the tanks brought in here (hopefully will happen today/this weekend). Then I should get the motivation to finish rinsing my 'sand'. Also have to buy replacement eheim 16/22 mm tubing as mine is all cut up from using for aquaponics and the 55g a few years back. I may make an inline heater for 1 of the 2 heaters on the return tubing, and keep the other heater in the diy sump of the other tank. 


























Some shots from the qt tank. Did a 90%+ water change to remove prazipro, took a shot while tank was shallow and the tow were together, pardon the water stains under the tank.









Starting to raise salinity again, but 10 level teaspoons of aq salt into a nylon stocking toe and tied it off. It sinks when first put in, dissolved slowly, then floats when all dissolved. The bronze one is curious about it. Will be adding more tonight, and again in the morning to bring salt level to 0.3%.









Won't hold still for a clear shot but I love the dorsal fin, very tall and undamaged (unlike the orange one which has a slight kink)


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

Not sure how i missed out on this thread, but that stand looks fantastic! And if you ever get rid of the tanks, you'll have some nice looking benches lol.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[8/30/16]*

Yesterday I felt much like the panicy white rabbit of Alice in wander land "No time to say hello, goodbye, I'M LATE I'M LATE I'M LATE!" While not specifically late to anything I had quite the full plate. New goldies needed a 100% water change and add in of aq salt, my husband's 12g long needed a water change as I did a no planaria round to get rid of the mini ramshorns that were taking over (this stuff is great for killing off snails-doesn't seem to work on mts though). I also desperately needed to do a grocery run (and also get more aq salt because [CENSOR] it takes a LOT of salt for that 0.3% salinity in just a 10g!!). Well on top of all that my plant order came in! Was not expecting that! So now I also had to dump my pre-rinsed sand into the 75g, set up light, heater, and air stones for some circulation, stuff plants in (no time to aquascpae just jam 'em in there!), and add no planaria to kill off any snails (and do another treatment in a week or so to kill off hatchlings)!

Scale with total weight of container+ salt (salt weighs about 210 g on its own), look how much salt it takes!!




















Pre plant tank setup, put sand bag in a 5g bucket to keep it from falling all over floor.. it fulled about 4g worth of bucket.. as wet sand it was [CENSOR] HEAVY!! (today my bake is killing me from lifting it)



















Shot of the riparium with light over it to show the holes in the faux wall (will stuff with black foam)











Seller is a really nice person, and I'd buy from again, s/he contacted me saying one of the plants on my order did not look healthy and offered to replace it with something else I wanted. I gave 2 options for them to choose from, they sent both + the healthiest of the unhealthy plant so i got a LOT more swords than I expected. Most of the plants are nearly full grown too! So they're decently tall in the tank already. Again i did not aquascae-plant placement is not permanent.











































Powder tretment added to kill snails




















 plant liist: (not in order as I don't know a few of the swords):
 (mine from qt tank) Nymphaea taiwan
Amazon sword (thr problem plant)
Aponogeton crispus
Red flame sword
Red tiger lotus,
Red jungle val
Java fern on mat
the free extras where 3 melon swords and 2 Altlandsberg swords!


The mat is NOT shrimp safe, metal ends exposed, going to buy super glue to seal those.. or might just rip moss off mat and tie to ss mesh.

Plan is to hopefully scape and train the lotus and n. taiwan to stay compact via aggressive trimming, let swords grow tall, and have vals take over the back wall trailing on surface. If java fern does well maybe it'll take over the substrate with time, if not oh well.







I'd ordered a 64 oz online but it won't be here till end or week or likely next week and after dosing for salt yesterday I have... 2-3 level teaspoons left (need 30 a day)? I was a bit pissed when I got to petco and the only one they had was the 16 oz and it cost as much as I paid for the 64 oz online =.= ugh whatever. goldfish were lacking at petco, mostly kois and some itty bitty goldies (surprised the koi didn't swallow them).. there were a few mores that had their own tank but they looked to be halt dead already, clamped and lethargic. Betta selection wasn't so great and some looked pretty sad. A father-daughter came and looked at bettas, I had to bite my tongue not to drown them in a sea of information on proper care (plus I was in a hurry so no time for that).






theatermusic87 said:


> Not sure how i missed out on this thread, but that stand looks fantastic! And if you ever get rid of the tanks, you'll have some nice looking benches lol.


Thank you ^^


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Uhoh, two months have gone by, and you'd been doing dang near daily updates! What happened?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Uhoh, two months have gone by, and you'd been doing dang near daily updates! What happened?


Sorry I've been insanely busy, will update here soon (maybe tomorrow...or next week) with photos.

quick text update: 
40g
All the goldfish are getting along well, husband named the new pens Tangerine (orange) and Ginger (bronze). Tangerine has a fused upper caudal fin but gets around fine-all of them eat well and are behaved.. we'll see how that lasts once the new 2 get to sexual maturity as I'm still unsure of their genders. Mystery snail is in my 7g cube now, have I think 2 or 3 nerites in the 40g breeder. Redoing aquaponics, trying some hot peppers and spinach for my hubby (i can't handle peppers/spicey food). Added seeds last week waiting for germination. Sump section is solid duckweed on surface which is fine-free food for goldies..front section diatoms keep taking over the water sprite (and the nerites seem to like to hide behind rocks instead of clean up ugh).

75gs
6" diameter Pvc water bridge is put together(cost more than the 2 tanks combined!!! ouch, but angle of bridge+ unlevel tanks (one is lower than other) means I cannot use glass). Water bridge was silicone sealed by hubby because it got air leaks without silcione-water bridge pressure is different than in tank instead of water leaking out air leaks in and pushes water back into the tank... anyways its functional now.. eheim canister filter is not (some rubber part wore down and cannot find replacement art). Did not want to buy new top/pump for ehiem so pulled out old sunsun canister + bought a new one-they do 500+gph each they're really cheap for the gph. Husband also got a 200+gph pump. canister filters on each tank, smaller pump pulls water through bridge its on a 1 hour on, 2 hour off timer, just so it doesn't get stagnate in there. Someday may reduce to 1 canister and have intake on one side and outflow on the other (need a connector though-they give veer short hose >.<).
Plants have all underwater growth now+ got some new plants crinium (exact kind unknown). Have diatoms, need to get nerites, also need to get sand in the riparium side and rocks.


more text walls to come


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well I would update with photos but photobucket is down for maintenance again =.=


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

ok so photo spam dump from early September before new fish went into 40g breeder/redo of aquaponic plants







































Ginger and Tangeine whiel still in qt































75gs riparium plants + room plants (orchid and swiss cheese plant have since died >.<)








































75g platned tank photo
































weighing the goldies








































Very berry before s/he moved into my 7g cube
















40g breeder 









acclimation!









so much water sprite
















First meeting-Sprinkle's isn't too sure about the new roomies here

















but they get along just fine










Got a goldfish plant for the fish room (sadly also died-have problems over or under watering plants >.>'') blooms look vaguely like goldfish hence its name, really wish I hadn't killed that on :c
















































75g with plants and ehiem canister tubing-I ordered 12' and got 20'+! Shame the [censor] canister didn't want to work for me =.=










Swiss cheese plant .. which i eventually killed putting it on a pond pot (not a riparium friendly plant), replaced with the dumb cane.
















Helper in the fish room









View from the couch of the 75g







































40g breeder everyone wanting food























Peek at filtration side of faux wall










more photo dumping to come


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Water sprite took over the back section, more apparent after removing the planters when first batch of aquaponic veggies were taking out.
















side project for fish room: pond pots for bettas. these are plastic but have no hole in the bottom and look decent. They hold about 6 galls with nothing else in them. I;m guessing 4-5 at most with substrate and planters I put in.
One started with swiss cheese plant but it didn't like wet roots and KOed so I moved the Dumb cane over and added purple waffle. After mvoign thedumb cane I put the dwarf peace lily, dragone' tongue, and fittonia albivenis from the 20g riparium onto 'my' pot.



















































































































Got 2 pots, my husband and i both picked out 1 betta per a pot. My original betta for the pond pot: a dtpk mustard aremgedon male. he was so pale when he came home. He colored up well later on though. He was eventually named Crius after the Greek titan god of constellations. My husband grabbed a 'king' aka half giant pk male he named Papillon both for the butterfly and a movie with that name. Papillon has a scar on one of his gill plates but it doesn't effect his breathing/use of it. He's a normal wild color type-common in many half giants. he's so huge though I think he's a true giant betta!


















'nother set of shots of 75g planted tank
















i tried adding nerites from petco to the tank but petco has had real [censor]ed up snails for past several month-every batch they get in dies. Sadly these did too.I recently replaced them with 2 smaller petsmart nerites (no photos of) which I now can't find in the big tanks but don't see them dead on the sand or on the floor of the room.

















the pvc bridge before siliconeing























back to the pond pots (bought smaller heaters but started with old ehiem jagars in here) reflection and eventually bio film make it hard to get betta photos






























Got fake silk plants from e-bay for my pond pot 






























One of my otehr bettas died so I moved the dtpk to his tank in a more active room where I can see him and grabbed a yellow salamander/mustard ee male, i think he's eepk. My husband named him Ciel from the anime Black Butler.

















Papillon's pond pot















i weirdly like the look of the 'oil slick' here

























Ciel's pond pot






























75g planted again









Riparium 75g with foam put behind the cut holes to let water through to filtration side-need to get black foam to make it less visible.










planted 75g a few weeks later: all emersed growth has been removed.































most pond pot spam also bubble nests!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[11/12/16]*
*FML =.=*
So the water bridge that cost more than the 2 75g tanks combined.. had critical failure.. and the pump I used to move water from one tank to another to keep the bridge's water from going stagnate...well that pushed 12-15 gallons of water into one tank and with nowhere to go (since water bridge had broken its seal, the water dumped out the tank >.<
I was lucky enough the rubbermaid bin under the tank caught ~10 gallons of the mess but it was still a disaster.
Lesson learned: Don't use silicone to seal critical plastics together-silicone if for glass... pvs glue is for plastics.


*[[11/14/16]*
Hardwood needs some oil soap still.. and carpeted basement needed a wetvac clean-ceiling drained and dried out so quick re-spackle will fix it.
had 3 loads of laundry from all the towels used to clean up the mess x.x Will be keeping the tanks separate for now... may cut out the silicone and pvc glue the tube.. or maybe not (woudl hate to waste such expense pvc though). I'm waiting until ginger and tangerine get to sexual maturity to see if they're 2 males. If so I'll have to split the group and give either the boys, or Sprinkles one of the 75gs (and get more) and the other I'll get some bristol shubunkin in.
Our ups guy (very nice man) said the holiday havoc has already started so I won't be buying the Bristol until after the holidays.. maybe not until spring now. Works fine for me, more time for plants to grow.
I need to do a clean in the main planted 75g, diatoms are all over and the 2 tiny nerites are cleaning but not fast enough and not the plant leaves. If I didn't dislike dealing with plecos (poop and plant uprooting) I'd get a bn to nom the diatoms, but I really don't want to..

The 40g breeder has several seedlings going on the aquaponics now- spinach first batch just molded (seeds), tossed in a lot more seeds and of course 2 spouted in each planter so had to add more planters. The pasilla bajo pepper also sprouted (sprout in photo above is jalapeño).





*[11/15/16]*
Uuuuugh not a good past couple of days for me! First the water bridge, last night I found out I have a Pinguecula on my eye (if you're squeamish don't look it up) which doesn't go away...And today I had a panic attack as I couldn't find Sprinkles in the 40g tank. She somehow got herself between the corner rock and fuax tank wall (I have no [censor] idea how) I was mortified that she was dead, moved the rock and she swam away! Oh thank god! Lost several scales (I pulled over half a dozen out of the tank) but nothing else in the way of damage so I'm very happy she shouldn't have any complications. Decided to guy the display area of the tank-took out the rocks and threw out the water sprite as it was overrun with algae and I was sick of fighting it. Did a huge water change to clean up debris a bit. Tank feels so empty without anything but goldfish in there.
Went out at lunch time with my hubby and picked up some fake plants from Michels. They had metal in them but with a bit of work I pulled the metal wired out and cut down the base to silicone into a mold with gravel to act as an anchor (more info/photos on that later). Will be 24-48 hours before they're ready. I'd looked at petsmart first but their fake plants were much smaller for the same price range. I also grabbed 3 new nerite snails for the 75g. I cleaned off the plants and most of the back wall with a big water change yesterday but put the new ones in to help keep diatoms in check.

anyways photo spam
empty tank is empty








jalapeño









pasilla bajo

















spinach


































new nerites-the baseball cap/black cap nerite is HUGE










other nerite residents (you can see both if you look closely)











planted 75g


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

I love this project! How many years did it take you to get the hang of how to use the lighting? You seem confident on what lights to use for just about any setup. And you make it look so easy.

That's a lot of perseverance you have, too. I do a water change and tank maintenance on my 20 gallon and I call it a day lol. I can't imagine 75.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Fish Em said:


> I love this project! How many years did it take you to get the hang of how to use the lighting? You seem confident on what lights to use for just about any setup. And you make it look so easy.
> 
> That's a lot of perseverance you have, too. I do a water change and tank maintenance on my 20 gallon and I call it a day lol. I can't imagine 75.


Thank you, I've been doing aquaponics and growing aquatic plants since April 2014. I mostly use cfl bulbs and clamp lamps as they're cheap and easy to adjust but do use LEDs and t5s too.
I found this post helpful for figuring out cfl heights
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...r-bulbs-lighting-question-2.html#post837592s:
I got generalized info on LEDs and t5s from here:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/184368-lighting-aquarium-par-instead-watts.html
and some finnex LEDs here:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/189944-finnex-ray-ii-fugeray-par-data.html


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ok so got a bit done over the weekend! First up the new fake plant(s).
Took a few tries to get the molds right for anchoring down the new fake plants and turns out I'd bought 3 but one was plenty to fill up the tank! The fake hosta on I got was too tall for the 40g breeder, and the 2nd of this same style just won't fit so I'll be selling it (maybe..).


































































Took a bit of work to get them the way I wanted-they originally came with metal wire so I had to do a bit of DIY to remove those then anchor them.

The goldies love it-gives shade and line of sight break up to encourage them to go to the other side of the tank, and no fin damage so its not too rough. As a reminder this is a 40g breeder but with faux walls so its about 30" long, 16" tall and 13" wide display area (may tweak later on as they grow-depending on who/if I need to separate due to gender and mating (attempt) chasing).

Will post more on other projects later, have to go feed fish right now.








Forgot to take an update shot of the base of the fake plant in the 40g, messed with the rocks a little... and of course I tried to take a photo at feeding time so everyone decided to photobomb me =.= 



























waiting on my nerties to finish cleaning the glass, its much better than it was but not perfect yet


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Haven't updated here in a long while. Sadly Sprinkles passed-she got dropsy but the otehr 2 are fine and healthy, its been 2+ months. Very Berry the Mystery Snail is back in the tank. Spinash was grown and harvested and is gone. Jalapeno pepper plant is spitting out perppers like no ones business! last count was at 16 but that was a week ago.. probably over 20 by now! The pasil Bajo pepper plants also has some peppers growing

















some older photos: 36" long 26 gall tuffstuff tub I'll use for aquaponics on the goldfish tank.. once I harvest the peppers,side view of tank sans the sand, largest pepper a week ago (bigger now), very berry, tangerine and ginger


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I just enjoyed reading thru your thread. Have to admit I've always loved the bronze/silver coloring of goldies like your Chocolate and Ginger, and black moors- but I don't care for the "pot belly" look of fancies... if there was that metallic scale color in a more streamlined fish- someday maybe I will get me a metallic betta. 

I am so impressed with the scope of your projects- love the acquaponics system you set up. Too bad the water bridge didn't work out- that idea looked cool. Were you hoping the fish would use it to swim between the tanks? 

Wow you had a ton of watersprite. So pretty and lacey. I didn't see mention why you took it all out and replaced with plastic plants... was it just getting too much trouble to maintain... ?

Can't wait to see more!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

#aquaponicsaregr8


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

JJ09 said:


> I just enjoyed reading thru your thread. Have to admit I've always loved the bronze/silver coloring of goldies like your Chocolate and Ginger, and black moors- but I don't care for the "pot belly" look of fancies... if there was that metallic scale color in a more streamlined fish- someday maybe I will get me a metallic betta.
> 
> I am so impressed with the scope of your projects- love the acquaponics system you set up. Too bad the water bridge didn't work out- that idea looked cool. Were you hoping the fish would use it to swim between the tanks?
> 
> ...


I've seen some single tailed goldfish with the chocolate/bronze hue but they can turn orange still.. I'd read of a hybrid between koi and single tailed goldfish that is black but its sterile. The single tails need a LOT more tank space. I use to not like the fat bellies fancies but hanging but with them at the store, they're like underwater puppies. I'm still not a fan of telescope (moore), bubble eye, or celestial eye goldfish.. the eyes bulging out/air sacks under eye/upturned eyes jut bother me... also more prone to damage.

Water bridge failed due to using silicone instead of pvc glue to seal it. Yes had hoped fish would use it for original purpose when I wanted bristol shubunkin. But when I wanted to switch stock plant to tilapia I originally thought of putting screen over the pipe intake to keep them separate so i can split them up and have mono-genderd tanks (all boys in 1, all girls in the other) so they don't get all hanky-panky and slow down there growth but shared same water.. Instead we're just ditching the water bridge and keeping the tanks separate, if there's a disease or failure on 1 it won't effect the other this way.

Stopped using water sprite upfront as it started having huge algae issues and was unsightly on the live plants (slime algae). Still have water sprite in the sump section though. The fake plant is easier to clean-just pull out of tank-dump in a 5g bucket with bleach/water for an hour- rinse- put back in. Water sprite wasn't an issue before the algae, when it over grew I hacked off a ton,, replanted the pieces I wanted and RAOKed the rest.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

UUUUGH FML Planned out using storage totes over the 75g tanks and connected with pvc.. took too long to get it done and between getting the totes and actually putting them together forgot the key point of how much space would be added by the pvc connectors.. without the connectors I could push 3 totes together over th4 8" long tank.. with the connectors in i can only fit 2.. my lights and pluming plants hinged on them staying in a 48" length range. I'm so frustrated I could scream!

For all the time and money wasted on this I'm just going to toss it and buy the [censor] 48" long storage bin that have a 1 month wait to get shipped =.= And of course the pvc is all pvc glued together so there's not popping it apart and using the pieces on the new container that will fit.. grrrr


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Its been a while since I've posted photos.. peppers are gone (had a pest infestation), goldfish spent some time in the 75g while the 40g was re-siliconed and new aquaponics system setup with it. My husband used leftover shelving from the 75g aquaponics to make a rack for the 40g grow bed-roughly 36"x13" tuffstuff bin is now growing lettuce and spinach. Goldies are back in and Tangerine definitely prefers the smaller 40g tank over the larger 75g (she was a bit skittish in there).
pump and heater are in a corner sump my husband helped build cutting strips from the black faux wall the tank use to have, and a giant piece of foam acts as a pre-filter. Dumps out in the grow bed with the use of an old canister filter 'u' for outflow. Managed to scavenge the cheap alternative bulkheads we'd put on some fail storage bins adventure to sue on the 75gs and the goldfish 40g grow beds to let water dump back into the tank. 
Originally had the 36" finnex led over the grow bed but it wasn't enough.. and it died (used clamp lamps for a few days) so got a 4'x13" 4 bulb T5 which works great! Tangerine and Ginger are about the size that Chocolate and Sprinkles were when they first came home, and I've had goldfish for nearly a year now.
The 75gs were going to be Bristol shubunkin goldfish tanks but now they'll be tilapia aquaponic tanks.. will post a thread for them if anyone is interested.
SO enough typing here is a photo dump


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

very cool


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[1/11/19]*
so, bad at updating. back to just aquarium-2 goldies in a 75g

Last of the older goldfish-oringally had a ton of beautiful black markings and started around 38 grams. S/he is now at 55ish grams and lost 99% of their black.










Sadly I'd lost everyone else.. but got a new roommate for them. We named the new one Pepper. First days home getting weighed and our newest/youngest pup came to check the oranda out, Pepper was just as curious.









After qt I had to bug bomb the room the 75g is in so unplugged air pump and taped up the tank so nothing got in and moved the fantail to a separate temp tank for a few days. They both were acclimated and put back into the tank at the same time (different buckets). They're getting along great and eat constantly! I'm tossing in baby spinach (and sometimes other salad greens) 4-6 times a day + small portions of soilent green 2 times a day! Ps peper is a photo bomber!


































Tank is doing well, plants get nibbled but not destroyed.. have bba (black beard algae) but I think increasing water changes will help with that.

























view from the couch


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

I love love your tank! I have been getting the goldfish blues lately and your post isn’t helping. Look at all those plants! I’m so jealous! They look great! So healthy! What are your water parameters like? Any rip plants in there? 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

xjasminex said:


> I love love your tank! I have been getting the goldfish blues lately and your post isn’t helping. Look at all those plants! I’m so jealous! They look great! So healthy! What are your water parameters like? Any rip plants in there?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Hey! nice to see you again. Sorry you're in the goldfish blues. bet I know what could fix that ^.~
pH 7.5 gh kh I haven't tested in a few years but I think 30-50s??
temp around 74-75F
0 ammonia 0 nitrite was 80 nitrate last week but I was sick and only did 1 75% water change. Moving up to 2-3 small water changes a week (25%) just to suck out all the poop, and 1 big 75% water change. Hoping to keep nitrates down and starve out the black beard algae. 

No riparium plants right now but very tempted to put some of my pothos on top of the tank with roots in to help with nitrates and reduce the light coming in from the window (has blinds but still tank get extra light which may also contribute to the algae).


I have another 75g (both were tilapia aquaponics for a few years) but that [censor] tilapia got so big and violent they slammed the tank a lot and actually broke the silicone seal somewhere so it leaked (a tiny bit but constantly-only found because of mold growing on underside of home built wood stand)! So I have to scrape out all the silicone and redo that tank once I feel better, then it will be a big riparium tank. Still unsure what I want to stock with (something small and quiet this time!)


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## Thelongsnail (Dec 2, 2015)

What a gorgeous tank and fish! You don't see many nice goldfish tanks, so this is a nice change 

I only looked after goldfish for a couple of months (after receiving them for free off facebook from a horrible tiny tank) but absolutely fell in love with them. They still come up and look at me when I visit them in the pond they live in now.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Thelongsnail said:


> What a gorgeous tank and fish! You don't see many nice goldfish tanks, so this is a nice change
> 
> I only looked after goldfish for a couple of months (after receiving them for free off facebook from a horrible tiny tank) but absolutely fell in love with them. They still come up and look at me when I visit them in the pond they live in now.


 Thank you ^^ I've seen and been inspired by nicer looking tanks including xjasminex who had a journal with stunning photos of her planted goldfish tank, sadly the signature link appears to be dead now? You can see a photo in their signature still.
Btw your tanks are very nice too!

Bump: *[1/15/19]*



















Enjoying spinach. End of the bag so all the pieces were so tiny x.x Thinking to trying to grow my own lettuce again for them.


Btw I don't think I mentioned this but this fantail in the photo is named Tarragon now. Original name was Quinoa (since we use tri color quinoa in some of out cooking) but with the black all gone needed a rename.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

AquaAurora said:


> Thank you ^^ I've seen and been inspired by nicer looking tanks including xjasminex who had a journal with stunning photos of her planted goldfish tank, sadly the signature link appears to be dead now? You can see a photo in their signature still.
> Btw your tanks are very nice too!
> 
> Bump: *[1/15/19]*
> ...




I’ll have to see if I can fix it, didn’t realize it’s dead. I’m still planning on getting a custom tank. I plan on trying to get my hands on some bristols! Hoping I can get an nice setup with a sump. Custom aquariums is where I think I’ll get it. I just have to save my money because it won’t be cheap. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

xjasminex said:


> I’ll have to see if I can fix it, didn’t realize it’s dead. I’m still planning on getting a custom tank. I plan on trying to get my hands on some bristols! Hoping I can get an nice setup with a sump. Custom aquariums is where I think I’ll get it. I just have to save my money because it won’t be cheap.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Back when i tried to setup the 2 75gs with a water bridge I'd planned to get Bristols too!! Water bridge had a critical failure from seal issue so that idea went away. I've love to get a custom tank-would get a 12" high, 6' long, 2-3' on a low stand.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[2/1/19]*
Just a quick update on the 75g. Ended up having issues-rain and then freezing temps froze my window shut (yes I water change into the garden even in winter, tank placement is not conducive for draining into a tub/sink, and bucket brigading it would cripple me). Did 2 70% water changes on a wed and friday last week. 

Unfortunately I lost my olive nerite snail-it was old so not surprised. But ti think that spiked ammonia a bit-didn't find it until water change was done so coudln't test to confirm. A few days later Tarragon got real bad swelling by the base of the tail and dropsy/sbd. I moved her to the qt tank and started treatment but she didn't make it through the night. 

Pepper is all alone now, seemed very distraught about loosing Tarragon the first 2 days but has calmed down and is use to being solo again (was solo in qt when first came home). 

I decided I won't buy any more goldfish. I love them but I feel like I loose them too fast, so will be sticking to smaller fish. Once Pepper passes I'm thinking of turning the 75g into a walstad tank since all the plants should do well with that. Would get organic soil and gravel plant everything and re-cycle. 

Then I dunno.. I REALLY want danio tinwini so might put those in and maybe some otos. After they're settled in I might get a baby angelfish again (1), Carmel YumYum (don't look at me, my husband named her and was apparently hungry at the time) got along great with otos and other small fish since it was raised with them, so hoping for the same again. I don't think danio will be an issue for the angel, they're suppose to be peaceful dither fish (compared to other danio)
Will throw up some photos of pepper later.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

I’m sorry to hear this! Hopefully they won’t suffer to long! 


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[3/21/19]*
I fought off blue-green algae (actually cyanobaceria) with chemclean-works great. Side effect the bba that was growing on top of the cyanobacteria also died.. its coming back now (april).

photo after treatment









to compare here is an OLD tank photo from January 









DIE ALGAE DIE! (and cyanobacteria!!)









*[4/19/19]*
So for any who don't know-most goldfish with black markings/spots the black reseeds/goes away with age. Those 'panda' goldfish turn orange pretty quick. So Pepper won't be very peppery for long.
Kinda neglecting the tank, plants take care of things, but algae keeps coming back. Need to do another chemclean treatment.. and more water changes. I finally modded a siphon so I can slap it on a cut garden hose and feed it to the tub (with fine mesh strainer) to do water changes, sooo much easier.
















Plan to add dwarf sag and various vals leftover from redoing the 12g long to this tank.. need to clean some more substrate to put in first, its very shallow in the front.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

ph*[12/9/19]*
So long past overdue for an update.
Sadly no more goldfish. Tank has only had a lone diligent female nerite since spring. Did not touch the tank since the last goldfish passed, vals and swords looks a little sad but everything else grew just fine. 

Finally did a water change about a month ago? Pulled the air pump off and put submerged pumps onto the sponge filters pipe. Then I decided *to be an idiot* and add extra lights because the corners are dark since its 48" tank with a 36" light.
Aaaaand *boom *hair algae bloom in just a few days! x.x
























Turned the extra lights off and got 3 amano shrimp. Harldy ever saw them-and at most 2. I suspected 1 might be a false amano and amusing after telling my husband that i wished they'd hang out side by by at the front glass so I could compare them, *they did! and not just 2 but all 3! * This was after doing a water change and manually removing a lot of the hair algae since the amanos were not impressing me.. but maybe 3 is too few to make an impact in a 75g after 10 days. And all 3 are indeed amano, I think 2 female and 1 male.

Tank post hand cleaning + amano and nerite shots


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## Quint (Mar 24, 2019)

Those are the true amano from what I can tell. 3 in that big of a tank isnt going to make much difference I would imagine even with a lone nerite to help out. Cool looking tank though. 

Not to highjack your thread but here are a couple pics of false amanos, ones I have had for a while.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Quint said:


> Those are the true amano from what I can tell. 3 in that big of a tank isnt going to make much difference I would imagine even with a lone nerite to help out. Cool looking tank though.
> 
> Not to highjack your thread but here are a couple pics of false amanos, ones I have had for a while.


Yeh I thought as much (not enough shrimp) will probably add more after the holidays.

Not a high-jack so no worries. Thank you for the photos-will keep them handy when I get more shrimp if I buy from a local store ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

tearing this tank down, plants for sale here:
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/153-sale-trade/1305337-tank-tear-down-big-driftwood-plants.html


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