Slimmed Down Fish Room Journal

[Boundava2 1]

Always wanting to improve the setup with the tanks.
I currently have pothos growing in HOB 3D printed Etsy baskets in the 125. I also have the tank relatively heavily planted with crypts, anubias and one aponogeton ulvaceus.

I have a 120 with 2 Astronotus crassipinnis (bumblebee oscars), 1 sailfin pleco, 1 tire track eel, a blood parrot and a Tandanus tandanus (Australian eel tailed catfish). They have no appreciation for a planted tank. I have tried and the only thing they leave alone is anubias; which isn't the best at dealing with excess nutrients.
So I have been wanting to set the tank up with something like what I have in/on the 125. Problem is that at least one cat likes to use the top of the tank as a look out as there is a a basement window at the left side of the tank. She also loves to stick her little nose into everything and the majority of what people put into use for this situation isn't pet safe.

Looking into pet safe options that like to dangle its roots in water I don't have many moderate-fast growers. Then I thought, why not use a smaller pond plant? Dwarf papyrus came to mind and I have a somewhat local fish store that has some still in stock. They also have some dwarf lotus which I may look into as well.

Depending on the size of the papyrus I may use some in the 60 gallon adjacent to the 120. It currently has a large Marineland Penguin 350 gph filter on it that I may modify for the plants. I want to put a canister filter on it instead, I have 2 Eheim 2217 sitting in the garage and possibly the parts to complete 1 setup.

I also have a 33 gallon that goes through cycles of clear-good or rampant algae infestation. This one has 2 Marineland Penguin 120 HOB (due to the tanks length. However I also want to get a canister filter on the tank since I have a Fluval 207 and a spray-bar setup just sitting around. The cats don't access this tank setup as its not as attractive with a no window view. I could go pothos on it. I have wanted to try peace lilly (fast growers and best filtration), but it is highly toxic so NO.

So this weekend (possibly Friday, depending on how late I am at work) I will be getting the canister filters setup for the 60 and 33. Need to see the size of the papyrus plants to get an idea as to the size of the container I would need for it, so I may do that instead on Friday. Surprisingly Amazon has a lot more of these types of holders available so I would be able to get something relatively fast if needed.

 

[Boundava2 1]

Since I opened on Tuesday I had a set time to leave so I decided to drive up to Aquatics Unlimited in Greenfield, WI and peruse the pond plants they had left.
I was specifically looking for dwarf papyrus, see it's size and if it was growing out of a rootball, or if the individual stems were each individually rooted and if the whole bunch in a pot could be split up. There were a couple other dwarf plants but unfortunately they were somewhat-highly toxic to pets. I did find 1 plant that was not toxic and was nice an small, the white pickerel rush. I would have gotten more that 1 if they had them as they are also moderately fast growers and compact.

 

[MattW43 159]

Is there any fruit or veggie plant that can work with cats?

 

[Boundava2 1]

Problem with many vegies is that they are (in my experience) annual, so have a limited growing life. Herbs may work but cats can't do anything in the allium family (onions, garlic, shallots and chives. Not sure how much rosemary, basil and thyme like their feet wet and mints are more of an attraction than deterrent with kitties. Also unsure or how safe they are with fish as they are aromatic and the leaves and oils may be an issue if they get in the water.
It would be neat to research.

 

[Boundava2 1]

Work is so engaging that I just made a somewhat big purchase on Amazon (at least $$ wise) so I can get the Fluval 207 that was on my saltwater tank up and running on my 33 gallon freshwater tank.

Due to the fact that my saltwater tank move went to heck in a hand-basket, I threw out the tubing and all filter media. I also want to see if I can get a spraybar going on the tank since it is so long.

I also bought 2 aquarium plant holders for the 120, as well as some clay balls for them to hold the dwarf papyrus.

Some of the papyrus will be going for the 60 gallon, but I will convert the large HOB into a holder for them and I have some used red flint coarse sand for that purpose. I have to get into the garage and find the Eheim components to see what-if anything I need for them. I think I have everything
I am going to add the white pickerel rush to my 33 gallon, which currently has 2 HOB. They will be replace by the Fluval 207, but I will keep one of them to hold the pickerel rush and fill it with the same coarse sand.

Hope to get some stuff done today.

 

[Boundava2 1]

So I have delivery instructions for Amazon to deliver to the side door instead if the front as packages are less noticeable and I live in a area where porch pirate are active.
Of course my delivery of the Fluval 307 sponge media, metal hose clamps and suction cups with clamps for intake/outake bars was dropped of at the front steps after 8 pm (photo takes was pitch black with front light) and I missed the email until the next morning and of course the package was gone. Well I think it was the Amazon driver as after I reported it to Amazon it magically was re delivered before the 7pm call back deadline.
So now that I have everything I need and I will be off Friday (but working Saturday-boo)
I have some plans for the tanks in the basement:

The 33 gallon will get the Fluval 307. One of the Marineland Penguin HOB is going to become a plant holder for the white pickerel rush to absorb excess nutrients. The other HOB will go into my future use bin.

The 60 gallon will get the Eheim 2217. The current Marineland Penguin 350 HOB is going to hold the dwarf papyrus but on the 120. I have a Top Fin (Petsmart Brand) filter that I will put some of the dwarf papyrus in for the 60 gallon. Additionally all of the fish currently in the tank will go into the 125 and a pair of cichlids in the 125 will go into the 60 in the hopes they will breed.

I also have to redo the glass lids on the 60, 120 and 125 as the plastic hinges have failed or are failing. Lots of fun ahead for me!

 

[MattW43 159]

Holy filters! Hope you will enjoy the best part of this hobby. Installing and fixing equipment!

 

[Boundava2 1]

So I had yesterday off with the hopes of doing a bunch of fishy stuff in the basement. Life gets in the way sometimes, lol. Of all my plans I spent a few hours messing around with finding my Eheim tubbing and some sponge materials to cut for inserts in the Eheim and some bulky ceramic rings for the bottom filtration. I also had to deep clean it out as I haven't used this filter for close to 8 years and it was still dirty after the cleaning years ago when I temporarily retired it. Since the seeded media was in the massive HOB om the 60; I had to take down the Marineland 350 and remove the sleeves with the media in them and then transfer the media into mesh bags (that wasn't fun at all as I had a 6" container pouring into a 3" bag with medial flying everywhere).
Then I had to lookup media placement and how to setup the hoses...absolutely FUN stuff (in no way, shape or form). Fortunately I am a fish hoarder and still had the right size hoses (5/8" and 1/2") and some SS metal clamps though I may invest in plastic ones when I place my next order at the jungle shop, lol.

I also got the Top fin/aqua-clear knockoff ready for my pond plants and by then I was exhausted and really needing a break and then to some none fishy tasks.

Going to try and knock out some more fishy to do items this weekend, I want to get those pond plants set up and do a deep trimming of the golden Pothos on the 125. I think it maybe stealing the nutrients from the aquatic plants.

On another note, as I was leaving the house today I saw something dart across the little container with the pond plants. Upon close inspection I believe a frog has found a temporary home! S/he looks like a northern leopard frog or a plains leopard frog, though I didn't notice any green, just the white stripes along the back as s/he darted to cover. Probably this as they are located near norther IL border where the plains leopard is not.

northern leopard frog

northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) Photo © Mary Kay Rubey

dnr.illinois.gov

I also saw that whole bunch of pond/bladder snails have populated, so I will have to do a deep cleaning of the papyrus and pickerel otherwise I will have a snail-a-palooza to deal with in my tanks.

 

[Boundava2 1]

So some changes going on in the fish room.

Sis and I have talked, and she wants to step back from the fish responsibilities we share which are WC and feeding, as she doesn't do filter maintenance other than help me get the FXs back into position and hooked up to the hoses.

I decided we will be breaking down the 20L (since it has been nothing but an algae factory since setup) and I think the embers/rasboras are going to go into my box turtles water feature with the endler males and guppy females. I'm unsure about the pangio loaches as they maybe eel snacks in the 125 and maybe too much of a bioload for the little internal filter in the turtle enclosure. Lestat the killer cichlid, will probably go to the not so local fish store as well as the kribs in the 60. The eels in the 60 will move into the 125.
Not 100% on keeping the 13 gal saltwater tank with Chestnut my scorpion leaf fish, or the 15 gallon gizmo the pea puffer tank...I'll see how it works with everything else right now, especially sine we finally got Chestnut to eat raw shrimp pieces, which is what the eels and majority of the fish in the 120 and 125 eat.

I won't be setting up the 38 gallon lake Tanganyika biotope either.

I would like to sell the 60 and 38 (with stand and lid). Thinking about keeping the 20L but I am also not wanting to keep a tank I may not be using for 6 months to a year. Though I may keep the lid as Aqueon-Versa lids are hard to find.
Lol, got the Eheim 2217 set up on the 60, we were going to move Bonnie and Clyde (Sis's ciclid pair) in as a breeding tank, but they will be OK staying in the 125.

 

[Boundava2 1]

So I am done. Dunno what happened between Friday night and today but the 125 stewed. I am going to call Aquatics unlimited and see if they want my remaining fish in the 120 and the eels in the 60. No more fish for me. Thank you all but this is my last post here.

 

[MattW43 159]

Sorry to hear about what’s happened. Hopefully the fish keeping flame will ignite again for you & Sis in the future

 

[Boundava2 1]

Sorry to hear about what’s happened. Hopefully the fish keeping flame will ignite again for you & Sis in the future

Thanks.
Sis talked some sense into me.
So the goal is to break down the 60 and 33 and keep exotic fish to zero for the foreseeable future.
We have done some fish swapping and the 60 gallon that had the 2 juvi unicolor eels and the elderly Borneo eel went into the 125. They are very happy in there, to the point the Borneo eel has started to take food from our fingers; and is now also eating shrimp instead of only red wigglers.
There was also a BN pleco, 2 clown plecos (that survived whatever happened in the 125) and 2 kribs that made the move.

I will not be purchasing any eels in the foreseeable future. However the juvi eels had some super food aggressive panda barbs in the 60 that made the tank feel "safe" so the juvi eels were always out and about.
I gave the barbs to Aquatics Unlimited for store credit and noticed the eels disappear in the tank - even during feeding.

So when they moved to the 125, I wanted some schooling fish that would grow big enough to not be adult eel snacks but nothing food aggressive like the barbs were, and nothing excessively expensive.

After perusing Aquatics Unlimited I decided on Diamond tetras and Head and Taillight tetras as they are both close to 2" (one bigger and the other close to). Got 15 of each but sis forgot about the bichir in the 125, and I may have 8-9 of each left now (greedy bugger, only 3 nights in the tank!) I want to bump the tetras numbers, though I am unsure if they have them in stock now since its been almost 2 weeks.

I was going to ask the Petco in Kenosha if they could order some for me but I found them on Imperial Topicals for about $6.11 ($3.49 each plus shipping and tax). Paid $5.99 in store before tax (they are sold out at the LFS now). Got a school of 10 in each variety. Wanted to add some honey gourami, but those seem to be out everywhere.

I did catch the greedy bichir and put in with the other monsters in the 120. I also saw the largest ropefish in the 125 (the 7 also survived the apocalypse, how I have no freaking clue) that had somehow swam into some fishing thread in the past and it was putting a dent in his body. So I caught him, made a sandwich between a net and towel and was able to snip the clear plastic line off without any harm to the thrashing bugger.