AbbeysDad
Fish Gatherer
I've been here in the forum for a little while now, but thought I'd make a more 'formal' introduction.
My name is Mike. I was born, raised and still live in the finger lakes area of Central New York, just a stones throw from Ithaca, New York.
I've been in and out (mostly in) for the last 50 years. In my late teens and early 20's I had 8 tanks, 6 - 10g, 1-20g, and 1-29g. I bred and raised live bearers for a time. Life bounced me in and out of the hobby, but I was mostly a fish only hobbyist.
A few years ago, with a perfectly good 29H in the basement, I went to Petsmart to see about a hood for it. Instead, I came home with a 60g ensemble.
At some point I came to realize that I had high nitrates in my well water, most likely due to a 95 acre farmers field across the road. This began a quest that led to a DIY (tap water) nitrate filter to prepare water for weekly partial water changes. I had also explored many options to reduce tank nitrates. Among many other things, I switched to silica (pool filter sand) for the substrate.
Last year (2016) around April, I bought a 48" Finnex Planted+ 24/7 LED light and planted the tank (Jungle Val, Anubias Nana, Jave Fern, Java Moss, Amazon Sword, Crypts, Rotalla).
I started out low tech, but am now experimenting with DIY CO2, slightly more light and ferts, so I guess I'd call it medium tech right now! I quite like the light's 24/7 mode that begins at 6am with a reddish sunrise, ramps up to midday bright sun, then down to reddish sunset and blue moonlight. I thought it stayed to bright in the wee hours, so I put it on a timer on at 6am, off at midnight.
Along the way I've had some hardship. At one point I began using reclaimed water from my basement dehumidifier. I thought since it was condensed moisture from the air, it should be pure and merely require adjustment for minerals and pH. I never tested the water. I began mixing it with the filtered water for water changes. One time I used more of the reclaimed water than usual and following the water change, the fish were in obvious distress. I tested and discovered ammonia so I treated the tank with Prime. After further detective work, I came the realize that the dehumidifier water that I thought was pure was very high in ammonia! I don't understand why but after I did some web searching, I now know that this is a common issue.
In the following days from the incident, I lost about 6 fish!
So there's a piece of my fishy story. I consider myself an enthusiastic fish keeper and frequent a few forums like this one to offer my two cents where it seems appropriate.
Tank on,
-Mike
My name is Mike. I was born, raised and still live in the finger lakes area of Central New York, just a stones throw from Ithaca, New York.
I've been in and out (mostly in) for the last 50 years. In my late teens and early 20's I had 8 tanks, 6 - 10g, 1-20g, and 1-29g. I bred and raised live bearers for a time. Life bounced me in and out of the hobby, but I was mostly a fish only hobbyist.
A few years ago, with a perfectly good 29H in the basement, I went to Petsmart to see about a hood for it. Instead, I came home with a 60g ensemble.
At some point I came to realize that I had high nitrates in my well water, most likely due to a 95 acre farmers field across the road. This began a quest that led to a DIY (tap water) nitrate filter to prepare water for weekly partial water changes. I had also explored many options to reduce tank nitrates. Among many other things, I switched to silica (pool filter sand) for the substrate.
Last year (2016) around April, I bought a 48" Finnex Planted+ 24/7 LED light and planted the tank (Jungle Val, Anubias Nana, Jave Fern, Java Moss, Amazon Sword, Crypts, Rotalla).
I started out low tech, but am now experimenting with DIY CO2, slightly more light and ferts, so I guess I'd call it medium tech right now! I quite like the light's 24/7 mode that begins at 6am with a reddish sunrise, ramps up to midday bright sun, then down to reddish sunset and blue moonlight. I thought it stayed to bright in the wee hours, so I put it on a timer on at 6am, off at midnight.
Along the way I've had some hardship. At one point I began using reclaimed water from my basement dehumidifier. I thought since it was condensed moisture from the air, it should be pure and merely require adjustment for minerals and pH. I never tested the water. I began mixing it with the filtered water for water changes. One time I used more of the reclaimed water than usual and following the water change, the fish were in obvious distress. I tested and discovered ammonia so I treated the tank with Prime. After further detective work, I came the realize that the dehumidifier water that I thought was pure was very high in ammonia! I don't understand why but after I did some web searching, I now know that this is a common issue.
In the following days from the incident, I lost about 6 fish!
So there's a piece of my fishy story. I consider myself an enthusiastic fish keeper and frequent a few forums like this one to offer my two cents where it seems appropriate.
Tank on,
-Mike
