Making Mistakes - 55g planted tank (mis)adventure

[Iminit]

So true. Anything he discus don’t eat everything else does. I stay from all San Francisco Bay frozen foods. Hakari is what I use. Since you’re getting the fdbw also get the discus chow. Everything eats this including my shrimp.

[ravvlet]

So true. Anything he discus don’t eat everything else does. I stay from all San Francisco Bay frozen foods. Hakari is what I use. Since you’re getting the fdbw also get the discus chow. Everything eats this including my shrimp.

Dang, are they not a good company? I normally buy Hikari but decided to try them for the goldfish and betta. No worries, I think I got it for free for buying $100 of stuff at Aquarium coop when they were running a sale - or maybe that was the daphina. Does Al sell the discus chow too? For some crazy reason I thought it was just blackworms on his site, oops.

[Iminit]

Yes he does sell discus chow!

[AquaticNerd]

If I recall correctly, SFBay Frozen Foods at one point were known to come in carrying harmful parasites (I think it was their frozen bloodworms?) whereas Hikari did not. These days, I don't feel comfortable feeding frozen foods much due to this, so I stick with freeze-dried or prepared foods. Al's FDBW and discus chow are good examples. I've also fed krill flakes and some other ocean nutritiion flakes that were high in protein.

[fljones3]

I use Al’s FDBW and discus chow; along with Original Stendker granules. Probably will drop the Stendker granules just to simplify feeding.

[ravvlet]

Ok! Dang! I’ll reserve the SFB for the betta and carp tank (my goldfish has been joined by WCMM) then and not feed it to the discus!

And I’m going to place an order for the chow ASAP!

Not much to report here. Sitting around letting bacteria grow. I’ll be playing with the fluval vacc today to see how much shrimp poo I can get with it - it’s painfully obvious on this clean looking sand thankfully.

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The plants came back after I accidentally melted them whilst setting up! So that’s a relief.

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Testing the clean up crew out on some frozen food! Watching the shrimp fight over it was very amusing. I realize these guys are snack size; these are all culls. Speaking of shrimp-

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I got these ridiculous “betta” tanks for $20 off someone, with plants and ADA aqua soil. Too small for fish, but Theresa simple built in filter and it’s perfect for small shrimp colonies. We are going to do green jade and yellow/goldback in these two - and will have then collected every neo color besides black/chocolate! Hoping to have enough to sell 5 nice specimens of each color at the Greater Seattle aquarium society auction come April. The other shrimp tanks are coming along nicely, seeing a lot of berried ladies, and the really stupid shrimp in partial cycle is just about done- seeing nitrates and almost time to do a water change and let it sit (besides weekly maintenance for TDS/ferts).

[ravvlet]

A week later, and parameters are holding steady. In fact, I’ve managed to cram enough plants in there (I hooked some hornwort onto the driftwood) that the nitrates are now at zero too! So with great fear and trepidation we have placed our order with Golden State. If we do well by these guys, they’ll be part of the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society home show in February. I’ve got my water change system down and will be vacuuming and doing small water changes to get into the routine while waiting for them to arrive.

I also picked up a copy of Jack Whattley’s Discus for the perfectionist and it’s been a great read. Lots of good info easily laid out in there.

[fishy_jim]

Very exciting !! Looking forward seeing the fish ! When are they arriving what strains did you go with and what size?

[ravvlet]

We went with the assorted batch, so we don’t know what we are getting; thought it would be more fun that way. According to the website we will get an email to arrange shipping day!

[brewmaster15]

We went with the assorted batch, so we don’t know what we are getting; thought it would be more fun that way. According to the website we will get an email to arrange shipping day!

You should let Lynda know about this Thread. Give her the link. She may enjoy watching along.

Best of Luck. You have put in far more effort in learning about these fish than most novices.

[jwcarlson]

Can't wait to see them!
One minor warning about hornwort. It's one of the top five (I think) plants at nitrogen absorption and I think three of the top 5 are terrestrial. It can go from booming to a melted pile of nothing seemingly instantly. So be aware that it might shed all the leaves if allowed to sit at 0 nitrates for very long.
Not a big deal other than the mess!

[Iminit]

What size did you order and will they send you a picture of what they are sending. They did for me.
Yes hornwort can either grow great or melt. It is a mess when it melts. Grows great in some of my tanks and completely refused to in others. Will test nitrates in those tanks. Definitely melts in all discus tanks!! Grows great in shrimp tanks.

[ravvlet]

Can't wait to see them!
One minor warning about hornwort. It's one of the top five (I think) plants at nitrogen absorption and I think three of the top 5 are terrestrial. It can go from booming to a melted pile of nothing seemingly instantly. So be aware that it might shed all the leaves if allowed to sit at 0 nitrates for very long.
Not a big deal other than the mess!

Good to know. I have some in all my tanks and it’s done great. I have to trim it weekly and end up throwing out fistfuls of the stuff!

[ravvlet]

You should let Lynda know about this Thread. Give her the link. She may enjoy watching along.

Best of Luck. You have put in far more effort in learning about these fish than most novices.

Thanks! I told them I got advised to shop at Golden State by you guys, but I’ll share the thread with them when they email me to arrange delivery!

[ravvlet]

What size did you order and will they send you a picture of what they are sending. They did for me.
Yes hornwort can either grow great or melt. It is a mess when it melts. Grows great in some of my tanks and completely refused to in others. Will test nitrates in those tanks. Definitely melts in all discus tanks!! Grows great in shrimp tanks.

The assorted are the 3-3.5 in ones I believe. If I see it starting to go funny I’ll be sure to pull it out. So far it seems happy and I haven’t really dosed the tank with ferts or anything lately.