mad jealous of Taikimoto right now. his job is better than mine.

7/28/2010 9:36:17 PM

yea I already cleaned the filter out. wasn't sure about the gravel. I stirred it up really good with the siphon when emptying it. might as well clean it too and let it cycle when I'm out of town next week.

7/28/2010 10:01:35 PM

Discus are not hard to take care of anymore. With so many reputable breeders now there are tons of captive breed discus that can live in pretty much any environment. If you were keeping the fish you had in your tank previously then discus will be no trouble. If you do go with discus and want some of the highest quality ones available give me a call, we order from one of the premier discus breeders in the country.

7/28/2010 10:49:38 PM

Here is what I got so far. Nothing special, just a little 10 gallon freshwater. When I get the saltwater set back up, I will be sure to post plenty of pictures of it.

8/7/2010 1:22:44 PM

I've grown discus before. They're definitely harder to take care of than your typical goldfish. If you buy juveniles and grow them up like I did, you would have to change your water everyday or you're gonna risk stunting the fish. Keeping water quality in top shape is the name of the game when you're growing discus. Below are my before and after of my discus.
BEFORE


AFTER

8/7/2010 3:54:29 PM

man. we used to have a 55 gallon saltwater at my moms house.

this thread makes me miss that thing.


gg ya'll :

8/7/2010 3:56:24 PM

how much does it cost to maintain a smaller aquarium? well to start and maintain i guess. is fresh or saltwater better? i mean i know it depends on the type of fish one wants.

i have been wanting an aquarium for a long long time, but not a giant one. i just know nothing about it. the last time i had an aquarium we started out with like 3 goldfish and they lasted like 5 seconds so we gave up. sadness.

right now i have 2 empty maybe 15 or 20 gallon tanks. don't know if i have the filter or anything anymore though. might just start completely from scratch.

[Edited on August 27, 2010 at 8:22 PM. Reason : .]

8/27/2010 8:20:58 PM

Anybody have advice on setting up a native saltwater aquarium? I live in Kure Beach and am a big diver and fisherman so I always think about bringing some fish back and creating an aquarium with native plants, sponges, anemones, sea urchins etc. I have had multiple freshwater aquariums and terrariums in the past so I have a ton of gear. Just dont know much about saltwater and/or native fish tanks. Thanks

8/27/2010 9:57:52 PM

2^for saltwater, bigger is better, to a certain point

if you want a small fresh water, it wont cost too much, depending on how many decorations you want. i usually go overboard on decor and plants because if your fish are able to find somewhere to hide quickly they are more likely to stay out and play!

8/27/2010 10:11:12 PM

Need to get an updated photo, it's mostly red and black rocks now.

8/28/2010 10:29:09 AM

Started adding some corals over the past few weeks. Nothing major.

8/30/2010 7:23:40 PM

Took some shots of a tank I am pretty proud of. 450 gallon planted tank with all the bells and whistles. I set it up and also maintain it.

8/31/2010 7:04:09 PM

^Nice planted aquarium. The discus look kinda sickly though. IMO, I would put adult discus in the tank instead of juveniles. Overall, it's an awesome tank. Btw, I still have those plants you gave me a few years ago.

8/31/2010 11:43:25 PM

Yeah, the discus just arent getting the right nutrition even though Ive discussed how/when to feed multiple times. Ive put an automatic feeder on the tank to feed twice a day so hopefully in conjunction with the frozen diet it will help them turn around. Its helped with alot of my 3 day a week feeding saltwater tanks to help balance out the feeding schedule.

glad those plants are doing well

9/1/2010 8:52:50 AM

Our dept. at work had an aquarium downstairs last year, they decided to get rid of a 100-gallon aquarium
due to "budget cuts".

I put a 10-gallon set-up with blackfin tetras and snails on my lab bench to keep me company. I've recruited
the rest of the lab to help feed them.

Maybe I will take a pic someday.

9/1/2010 10:38:45 PM

update on the planted tank, just did a big trim, if you can tell....

home tank still looks the same, havent had time to put much new in it yet.

10/8/2010 8:31:37 PM

How do you keep tannins from leeching out of that wood?

10/12/2010 12:39:07 PM

we had the wood pieces in a few large containers outside and let them cure for about 4 months or so before we put them in the tank. changed the water every so often and havent had any problems with leeching. wood will stop leeching, it just takes time. if you take a fresh piece home and put it in your tank right away it could take a while and lots of water changes to clear up unless you get lucky and it was pre cured. It also depends on the type of wood and where it was collected.

10/12/2010 4:11:35 PM

how do i keep my aquarium from growing algae? its all over everything?

oh and its fresh water.

[Edited on October 14, 2010 at 3:51 PM. Reason : .]

10/14/2010 3:51:12 PM

less light (esp sunlight), less food, more water changes etc etc

describe your setup and how you maintain it and I can give u a better idea of what you need to do.

10/15/2010 9:03:34 AM

i'll take some pics and get back to ya.

10/15/2010 10:55:20 AM

baby large mouth bass


redfin pickerel

10/16/2010 10:58:44 PM

It's been awhile since I've had a tank up and running! 55gal with fancy goldfish - running AquaClear 500 and Rena Filstar XP3. Took the base rock from my old saltwater tank and put it in this one. Doing really well - natural algae are growing on the rock and it's looking more natural each week from stark white. Looked today,and I've got a couple of egg clusters (c; [never mind the potted plants - still working on where to put them - just purchased]





Egg Cluster!


[Edited on October 25, 2010 at 11:49 PM. Reason : add]

10/25/2010 11:47:34 PM

I am setting up my 30 Gallon Saltwater Tank again and just have 1 quick question. I have some old ornamental coral (obviously dead) that I want to use in the tank. With the tank only being 30 Gallon, I am not going to do live rock. Anyway, I have used this coral in a past tank and some of it is stained green from algae. Is there any way I can safely clean this to reuse, or am I pretty much stuck buying new coral?

11/15/2010 9:51:58 AM

^ soak it in bleach, then freshwater with some prime. then air dry

11/15/2010 5:50:18 PM

See, I considered that but I am so freaked out about using bleach. Didn't think about using Prime afterward though.

11/15/2010 5:54:06 PM

man fuck takimoto

11/15/2010 6:10:45 PM

I saw one of your fights at the Longbranch a few weeks/months ago. I was like "hes on the wolfweb!" to my friends and they looked at me like I was a retard. I knew you fought but didnt realize you would be there that night. One of our clients is Darrin Billock and we try to go to his fights as one of our guys trains with him I think.

11/15/2010 6:31:03 PM

lol that was a rough one....

and hopefully ill start training wit darrin, noe of our guys trains with him at our gym on sundays hes a beast on the mat

the fight with him and dehart got cancelled i think, i was hopin to see that

11/15/2010 6:32:52 PM

i need to snap some better pics of some of my maintenance clients (at least the pimp reef ones)

11/15/2010 6:56:58 PM

The bleach did the trick. The coral looks brand new. I am letting it air dry now, and I am getting some Prime today to soak it in before I put it in the tank. Thanks for the advice

11/16/2010 10:17:59 AM

Here's a shot of one of the 1000 gallon tanks I maintain. Have had it for about 3 years now.

Theres tons of glare as it sits in the lobby of a building so its hard to get a good shot. Im going to go at night here soon and turn all the lights off and see if I can get some better up close shots.

Its 8'x4'x4', kinda hard to see the depth in this shot.

12/5/2010 6:36:24 PM

I have a few damsels in the tank now and it is cycling. I am really looking forward to getting "real" fish. I don't think I am going to do a reef tank, mainly because I am so busy and my tank is on the small side (30 gallon). I am just planning to get a few colorful fish, maybe a puffer, and some invertebrates.

^ that is badass, you the man

[Edited on December 6, 2010 at 10:32 AM. Reason : a]

12/6/2010 10:30:23 AM

I came home last night and 2 of my damsels were dead. (the clown and the zebra). Both were perfectly fine and very active when I left for work yesterday morning. I tested the water and all the levels are perfect. I have set up a saltwater tank several times and have never lost damsels, so I am kind of concerned. The other 2 damsels are doing fine. Let me tell you some of the conditions and maybe with your expert knowledge you can help me narrow down what might be the issue.

My first thought was temperature. The heater for our house went out over the weekend and the temperature yesterday dropped in the house to around 60. I have a heater in the tank set to 78, but I noticed that the temperature in the tank fluctuates from 75-80. When I got home yesterday, it was at 74. My first thought is that the rapid temp fluctuation killed them, but I have never had this issue with damsels before, especially considering that it didn't fluctuate out of the optimal level at all. If temp is the issue, I will buy a more expensive / more reliable heater to keep the temp stable.

We also have a wood stove, so I thought maybe smoke from our fires had polluted the tank. But I would think that any drastic water pollution would have killed all of them, not just 2. I had a tank in college that got polluted and everything died within hours (I had hundreds of dollars worth of fish in there at the time).

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Obviously I am very hesitant to put anything of value in there until I get this figured out and get it stabilized.

12/8/2010 9:48:41 AM

all of my fish just died after we battled a mystery illness for about a month. it came & went, & i still don't know what it was. i treated with every method known to man. long story.

anyway, what is the best way to restart? something i read online & what i've done before a long time ago was dump a bunch of bleach in, let it sit for a day or whatever, rinse & rinse & rinse, fill it up w/ shit tons of dechlor, water change, let it sit for a week or so, & cycle.

12/8/2010 9:53:40 AM

takimoto, just curious...what type of sand do you use in the bottom of the last picture you put up? would regular fresh-water aquarium plants die if I put them in that?

12/8/2010 12:02:00 PM

i have a freshwater tank w/ sand here at work and my plants do just fine

i use this, got it from petsmart. CarbiSea, Super Naturals. mine is sunset gold.
http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/super_nat.html
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3956163


[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 12:21 PM. Reason : nm]

12/8/2010 12:19:27 PM

Quote :

"takimoto, just curious...what type of sand do you use in the bottom of the last picture you put up? would regular fresh-water aquarium plants die if I put them in that?"

Is fine grade (very very small grain size) aragonite based sand. Best used for saltwater and cichlid tanks. Not many plants can live in the higher PH ranges that the sand creates, as it helps to buffer the water. We use java fern alot in the cichlid tanks, but they dont root in the sand, just on the wood/rocks.

There are plenty of non calcium carbonate based sands that plants will do fine in.

We use regular Estes Walnut or Nutmeg gravel for our planted tanks, works well.

12/9/2010 1:37:02 AM

bttt

5/18/2011 9:12:01 PM

Some updated pics of my home tank. Will get some shots of the 500g and some others pretty soon.

5/18/2011 9:45:46 PM

^ didn't you just have a baby? Still have time for the tank?

5/19/2011 10:46:50 PM

Oh yeah, plenty of time. Thanks for all the business also.

5/19/2011 11:10:10 PM

Forgot my camera so snapped some shots of the 500g planted tank with my phone, not as good of quality but turned out decent. Gonna do a big clean out/rearrange soon so these are the "before" pics.

5/19/2011 11:33:15 PM

^. You guys keep talking like that, it's like three accounts over the last two years. And one that we cancelled service on. I was trying to be nice, ask how the wife was doing etc. But oh well.

[Edited on May 20, 2011 at 8:31 AM. Reason : .]

5/20/2011 8:22:27 AM

how long does it take for a beta fish to adjust from their crappy petstore conditions and begin showing some good coloration and fin health?

I owned one 6-8 years ago and had a decent sized tank (for 1) with filters, pump and stone that kept the water healthy and with a focused diet (not just beta pellets) he lived for almost 5 years and had some really vibrant colors.

Girlfriend bought one on a whim for our place and got a traditional fish bowl and wants to keep it minimal and decorative like that instead which has resulted in more frequent water changes than i'm sure the fish would like

5/20/2011 8:47:49 AM

Quote :

"^. You guys keep talking like that, it's like three accounts over the last two years. And one that we cancelled service on. I was trying to be nice, ask how the wife was doing etc. But oh well."

Didnt come off that way. And its been alot more than just 3. Ive taken more than 3 over myself in the past 3 months. And how did you let medpro get so screwed up? Don't you keep telling people your this awesome reef expert now?

It looks great now, no more aiptasia, and I even saved all of the corals.

5/20/2011 10:18:15 AM

^ well, i wasn't trying to be a dick. I had heard you and the wife were expecting, figured you'd be busy at the home with a new baby i know I'm too busy to maintain my home tank now and I'm single.

At the most it has been maybe 7 or so over the last few years, and I don't count joyner since we cancelled on him. I haven't told anyone I'm a reef expert, Eric might keep telling people that, but I don't. I maintain a lot of awesome reefs, but I'll never claim to know everything.
I admit, I was disappointed by medpro. I couldn't get rid of the aiptasia through conventional means, and believe me I spent a long time working on it. I was getting ready to frag off all the corals that were encrusted and replace the rock when they cancelled. But don't act like the coral was all dying, except for a blasto that had some aiptasia encroaching on it, all the lps, softies, etc did great. I was seeing a lot of growth, especially with the caps, and didn't have any problem with the fish. There were also some issues there between my boss and the building manager, as well as medpros owner turning off the chiller several times and burning through the top off resevoir. that said, medpro is the only account I've lost, to you or anyone else. and seeing as how I do 51 accounts I'd say that's pretty good.

I'm also taking over running our maintenance side, things are going to be run a lot differently from now on. I'll post some pics of my accounts next week, we can compare.

5/20/2011 11:11:39 AM

Wow, these are gorgeous. My little 30 gal tank is not worthy.

5/20/2011 1:59:25 PM

AQUARIUM BUSINESS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

5/22/2011 8:52:20 AM