Started from the Bottom... off to the PENTHOUSE...???!!!

[Jenene]

I have a cheapo ryobi that I use from work seems pretty decent but I just saw at home depot that Milwaukee has one now. I got tons of Milwaukee tools so thinking about picking one up even those it's close to $100

Got a little thing for tools lol

A little thing Ryan? Lol! You are the king of gadgets!
Phil mine is pretty darn good. It says accuracy is to +/ - 1.5%. I have never had any issues. However I am sure the more you spend the better it will be. Follow Ryan's lead. He has always been spot on helping me choose my gadgets��- thanks buddy

[Phillydubs]

I have this guy... its EH... and it was more expensive than yours J! ***! Lol..

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Phillydubs]

I wanted to update things here as I went ahead and purchased an inkbird. Amazon had that joint here in like 12 hrs it seemed, was sort of crazy. I ordered it the one afternoon I had asked everyone for suggestions and boom by 930 am it was at my office. Can not beat that!!!

Anyyyyyways... My good pal Ryan held my hand through this one... As I told him, I am lucky and surprised I keep these fish alive, so anything DIY or electronic or whatever is so over my head. Even as plug n lay friendly as the inkbird seems to be, it is no friend of mine!!!

So, I got it all going and what I thought running, ran out to do some lunch and errands came back and my temp was steadily falling and down 2 degress. No heaters on, no inkbird heat lights, notta. I unplug the heaters and plug them in direct, one works, one doesn't! Oh boy... I try to tinker w the params and all again. I finally get it heating but again only one heater going. So I pull the non-working heater and well well well. My eheim pro is cracked in half basically. Who knows how long this has been and thankfully no ill effects... Blessing in disguise I suppose, as without the purchase of this device I prob would have never known until the second one failed and I really had an issue!

I always keep a back up eheim pro ready. That was the last of an old 150w I always buy the 250w now. I got that one in got it all calibrated again and BINGO. I must say, I do feel a nice sense of relief and back up here. The bird is keep things tight and I am liking it.

As you all said, for the price and peace of mind... this is so wort the coin!

[Ryan925]

I wanted to update things here as I went ahead and purchased an inkbird. Amazon had that joint here in like 12 hrs it seemed, was sort of crazy. I ordered it the one afternoon I had asked everyone for suggestions and boom by 930 am it was at my office. Can not beat that!!!

Anyyyyyways... My good pal Ryan held my hand through this one... As I told him, I am lucky and surprised I keep these fish alive, so anything DIY or electronic or whatever is so over my head. Even as plug n lay friendly as the inkbird seems to be, it is no friend of mine!!!

So, I got it all going and what I thought running, ran out to do some lunch and errands came back and my temp was steadily falling and down 2 degress. No heaters on, no inkbird heat lights, notta. I unplug the heaters and plug them in direct, one works, one doesn't! Oh boy... I try to tinker w the params and all again. I finally get it heating but again only one heater going. So I pull the non-working heater and well well well. My eheim pro is cracked in half basically. Who knows how long this has been and thankfully no ill effects... Blessing in disguise I suppose, as without the purchase of this device I prob would have never known until the second one failed and I really had an issue!

I always keep a back up eheim pro ready. That was the last of an old 150w I always buy the 250w now. I got that one in got it all calibrated again and BINGO. I must say, I do feel a nice sense of relief and back up here. The bird is keep things tight and I am liking it.

As you all said, for the price and peace of mind... this is so wort the coin!

Ok pal let's be honest. How many hours did you spend yesterday staring at the display watching the temp? Lol. Hope you were able to get some sleep last night

[Phillydubs]

Hahaha a solid 3! No joke lol.

I guess this was one good time the tank is at work. Eventually I need to unglue myself and leave

[Jenene]

Glad it all worked out for ya Phil. The cracked heater is everyone's worst nightmare. I honestly don't even look at the Inkbird any more. It just does it's thing. One other great thing about it is it holds the program if power gets cut to it. No need to go back and redo it all.

Relax and enjoy now.

[Phillydubs]

I was actually worried about that once I got it going. I shut my whole system down to feed. One
Button and boom all off. I was nervous it may trip the ink but it's been good

[Jenene]

Glad it's all working for you now. Time to relax and enjoy your gorgeous tank!
Hey! Think I am heading to NYC area next weekend for the Reefapalooza Frag show. Need to be brave. Think I am going solo.

[Phillydubs]

Sounds awesome where is that taking place?

[Jenene]

Sounds awesome where is that taking place?

The Meadowlands.

[Phillydubs]

Dupe Posting but want to document:

Hey guys, looking for some advice since my bio-ball adventure... Unfortunately, things seem a tad off now. The fish just aren't themselves. All are eating but one seems to have shied away the last day and a half.

Just to catch up, I had bio-balls in my first chamber, they were rather mucked up and I decided to pull them all. At this same time, I squeezed my hydro V sponge in tank water as well as my big block sponge and ceramic rings in the second chamber. All were squeezed or rinsed in a bucket of tank water.

This am I am getting a slight spike in ammonia at 0.25 PPM, 0 nitrite, 5-10 nitrate and 7.5 PH

I did a big 75% WC last night, I have water aging now and can do another around 4 pm. Any other suggestions or advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

[Phillydubs]

For those of you still scoring at home, I figured it was time for an update and an ask for some advice... If anyone is still out there that I have not bored to tears by now!

I had made mention in my other " I did it post" as well as another with my finally glare free pics that I was having some issues with the tank and the health of the discus, 2 in particular...

Honestly, I think what I had going on was just, well too much and a colliding of a few evils that really threw the fish. Thankfully, for the most part I stay on top of them, and my buddy Pat's words are always in my head, your discus are talking to you! Some of us choose to listen, others don't or can't bridge the gap in the lingo... Lucky for me, so far, I have been rather decent at reading them and acting when the s hits the fan so to speak...

So between the addition of the barbs and the threadfins, the threadsfins astonishing growth in both size, persona and agression in such a short period....another nod to those of us who underestimate how a good WC and husbandry methods can really spurn a fish to grow, again, taken from another old head here, the famed John Nicholson, give any fish in a LFS the care you give your discus and see what a real angelfish should look like, or gourami or swordtail, or betta or insert fish here... These threadfins exploded w growth. With that their feeding and activity was making the discus uneasy. These fish could open their mouth like baby bass. I was watching them swallow entire cubes of Al's FDBW in one shot, it was impressive, but not to the hungry timid discus! Like a rookie, what did I do? I tried to target feed or feed more, or distract them to feed the discus in hopes they would get theirs, and what did that do... added more work for my filter and my routine because now I had a doubley dirty tank cause I was doubling down on feedings to try and balance which is well, just stupid looking back. This act, caused my filter to really foul faster and uin-turn led to my bio-ball panic where I felt they needed to go. What did that do, it threw off my water levels and really added some more stress and issues for the fish to battle.

What happens when you mix all those factors with the ever susceptible discus... you get fish who act weird, off, sick and not eating... which is what I had from two fish in particular. The others seemed to battle and try and put up the good feeding fight. 2 were not eating at all, one was in there but getting knocked around. The more dominant discus were now extra dom because they had the threads to battle as well as the other hungry discus. Quite easy to see that I had a plethora of issues here.

I hate meds, let me start by saying that. I hate administering them, guessing what to use, asking for advice and getting 10 different answers from 10 diff people I highly respect. It sure is a stressful mess...

I tried a few holistic routes to start... I upped WC and did them daily for a bit, my water params were good. I added some tannins and leaves, I went the orange peel route.... FINALLY I REMOVED THOSE PESKY THREADFINS.

Right before I did that after much consultation and not being able to secure pure metro (as jehmco was sold put) I went ahead and did a few solid rounds of General Cure. I figured if anything it was mild and used by many in qt or for new fish so what could be so bad. After a week of no more threads the GC and good clean water, all of a sudden the 2 non eaters were back in the fold, one am to my surprise there they were getting after some FDBW. It sure was a great relief.

Fast forward to today. There has obviously been a lot going on here. It seems that all these changes have either opened up the tank a bit or started a re-establishment of the pecking order, leading to two big alpha reds. The ones in the pic that are super red, there are 2 are def vying for tank boss, yet they almost seem to like to do so in tandem, where they are starting to cut the tank off from the other 6. I see some chasing some poking, sometimes they are all out and about free, other times the bossmen are keeping their inhabitants in a cornered area under watch...

I am tempted to just let it sort itself out and see how it goes over the next few days weeks... I am also tempted as the overstocker I can be to add a few more to the mix to really spread things and pack them in ***surprise surprise***

I am totally riding the fence right now, with 8 in the 72 with 29 gallon sump, could I add a few, I suppose, my filter is strong and I change water 2-4 times a week give or take. I just don't know if I want to continue to mess with it or if I will just be creating a bigger issue. Id also have to set up a QT and do all of that, so a lot to factor. As well as the costs and lack of selection this time of year for wild fish. Mark has some very nice heckles and I considered a few to almost break the tank up a bit because I loved the stark contrast of the albino threads in the tank. The heckles are much lighter and brighter with that hazy blue hue compared to the dark fish I have now...

Decisions.... decisions....!!!

[Second Hand Pat]

Phil, I would continue to let things settle and observe. Adding more wilds to what you have is not a good idea as in my experience wilds do not like to be crowded. If all the fish are able to eat and have normal poop, leave well enough alone for now. Is it possible you have a pair forming?
Pat

[Phillydubs]

Pat,

Thank you so much for the advice and the feedback! Very appreciated!

I considered a possible pair myself. I really don't know much about breeding to make that call just yet. Ive seen no eggs or cleaning or anything, so not really sure?

[Second Hand Pat]

If one or more of the dominate fish are showing the middle bar and the one directly behind it and a halo then that could be an indicator.
Pat