What are you working on?

I feel bad been so busy with things in general I have not updated whats going on in my tanks or had any pics up. Seems like a few of us are going through this....

So what have you been doing with your tanks? At least a spoiler of things to come.... we will post pics when we finish right?

My projects:
2.5g betta tank - I had originally used a fine white sand which has slowly over time got into my little Azoo palm filter (HOB) and totally ate it up. So Ive purchased a new filter and will replace the fine white sand to a little larger grain natural sand. I love my little betta set up, its just a scaled down version of a large tank with a light fixture also. I am also looking to gut the light and put in an LED instead. Here is a pic of what that tank looks like.
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29g Solo Convict tank - Switching out large gravel for a small grain natural gravel and some new aquascape. I have a large lava rock in there along with some Mopani wood. This takes up so much room in the tank I feel like the little con is cramped. I might get him a woman and use my empty 20L to raise fry in. Have a single bristlenose pleco in with him that I need to do something with because this little con has killed 3 so far.
Here is a pic of my homemade stand that has the2.5g betta tank on it. The 29 now has a backgound and is all set up, just a pic for reference.
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The con has grown a little since this pic but you can see the large gravel and wood by him.
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210g - looking to replace my small Oscar because he is a mean runt. So possible fish I am looking for: Hoplarchus psittacus (true parrot cichlid), pike cichlid, Jurupari or eartheater/geo of some sort. Sticking to a SA theme!

So what fish projects are you working on?

Almost forgot, went over to madness's place to pick up a light and some sand and saw what he's been working on. Looking good, cant wait to see his video update, you guys will enjoy it!

I just picked up a 120g from pet pourri, It was an older display tank so I am going to reseal it and scrape paint off it. That is my current project!

In other news I still have my Acarichthys heckelii for sale, it might get along pretty well in your tank.

That might just work out in the tank, depends on what I get next.... been looking at the Hoplarchus psittacus very seriously but its $50.

So what are you planning to keep in the 120g?

I am not sure yet, maybe saltwater? But i have 12 fish or so left to sell before i can tear down the 240.

You can have the heckelii for $25 (thats what i paid for it from wet spot, it is wild caught)

Wow another brain fart, I realized I am looking to build a new stand when the weather get better. I want to do a double-decker for my 20L and 29g. Have a bunch of plywood in the garage for that project.

I will keep it in mind. I will probably check out some stores this weekend. Might even make it up to Pet Pourri. Did they have any stock left at all?

I have two places that I am considering the Hoplarchus psittacus from and one is the Wet Spot. They also have a pike I might consider.

i highly reccomend going the wetspot route. the guy there is very knowledgeable and is nice to boot. ill have to snag some pics of everything going on in my fishy little world here. been busy like urself and just havent had much time to do anything other then maintenance and watch for a while.

im currnetly in cruise control with everything and loving it. will propbably redo my stands on my 150, 135/75 stack, and 240 this summer sometime to make them all match and maybe allow for another 75 under the 150. also contemplating doing a drip system sometime in the future which will eliminate large wc but then again i enjoy tank maintenence to still a bit undecided. lastly ill be rienforcing the floor on the fishroom which holds just fine but better be safe than sorry. but all in all its time to just sit back maintain my tanks and watch my beautiful fish grow into beasts

lol fishman thats where im at. finally got fish big enough to get babies from, so now its watching fish and stealing babies . sucks cuz i gotta set up lots of extra tanks but w.e. got one 8g for fresh fry and a 20L to transfer em to once they get big enough to not be eatten.

'D' you and your thread starters.

I am working on expanding the fish room. Basically turning the entire garage into my room. I just completed the 40 breeder rack, and the stack 75 rack. Will be taking a video here in a couple days or so. I have several blue tanks. I introduced a new fish to one tank and then transferred one of the old residents to another tank, and then moved several of those residents to the rack. Well 2 tanks have ICH, so to be safe I treated the breeder rack. As soon as the discolored water turns clear again, I will shoot a video.

Back to the room expansion. I still need to insulate and rock 2 walls, and then install insulated garage doors. But before I finish rocking, I am either going to replace my electrical service and add a gen/set panel, or leave the existing service and just add the gen/set.

I may also add a couple of ponds this Summer to throw a few pairs, and some grow outs into. Really curious to see how the growth is and the colors, when being outside for a couple months.

Today I just finished sanding and re-staining a 75 gal stand that I will put in my sons room. We will be pulling out his 55 gal African tank and replacing it with a 75.

Hmmmm what else? All I can think of is just trying several new breeding projects.

madness wrote:'D' you and your thread starters.

Sorry, I was inspired by someone else who I picked up some stuff from. Oh wait that was you.

The only thing different for me is a batch of albino bristlenose babies . These are a first -- I didn't think they were big enough to reproduce yet. The problem I have is that there are about a million red cherry shrimp sharing the tank making it really difficult to make sure there is enough food and water changes are an absolute nightmare!! Plus there are three of four different types of snails in there. This little 10 gallon tank is the most time consuming tank to maintain. It looks like some sort of seafood soup. Fish, snails, shrimp, green beans, zucchini and carrots.

I wish I had never bought that little bag of frogbit (along with two shrimp and snail hitchhikers)!

rofl you can A sell the shrimp as feeders or use them urself, and B toss some nylon or pantyhose over the intake for your water changes. itll keep stuff from getting sucked up. also if your looking to ditch some shrimp id be glad to take w.e u can catch off ur hands lol. lots of tanks that could use cleaners/treats

Anthraxx wrote:cleaners/treats

Ive never heard Red Cherry Shrimp categorized that way.

i also would like to add/build a pond outside this summer for either natives or just a koi goldfish pond to keep me entertained when im out there. still waiting for my mom to move her stuff out of the 10x20 shed in the backyard that may turn into another part of the fishroom filled with more tanks and a pond around 1000-1500 gallons filled up with cichlids. thats probably a project for next year when the incomes a little higher though

Zerc wrote:I am not sure yet, maybe saltwater? But i have 12 fish or so left to sell before i can tear down the 240.

You can have the heckelii for $25 (thats what i paid for it from wet spot, it is wild caught)

Do saltwater, after you do freashwater will hold no appeal to you. It's that amazing.

Ok this is saltwater but I have been DIEING to try my hand at SW and the girlfriend wants a rose bubble tip anemone and 2 common clownfish... And now I am getting more hours at work I can afford to jump into the SW part of the hobby

Salt is a dream for me. Problem is I like monster saltwater fish. I would want a grouper or trigger which would pretty much own the tank all to itself. Would be like keeping a solo Dovii or Umbee in a freshwater tank.

I have an RBTA but I will never have commons there are a dozen more beautiful species of clowns.

DMD123- any thing above a 180 is fine for a couple triggers, a grouper and a puffer or an eel. My oppinion on groupers is that they hide too much and are the saltwater goldfish when it comes to eating messy messy messy so you will have to change the water often Maby even weekly.

Naso2 wrote:My oppinion on groupers is that they hide too much and are the saltwater goldfish when it comes to eating messy messy messy so you will have to change the water often Maby even weekly.

I own oscars in my 210g, I know messy and I know multiple water changes per week!

A saltwater water change cost three times as much.

I know! Thats why I wont do the grouper....

My personal recomondation is a FOWLR, stocked with tangs, triggers, angels, rabbitfish, and butterflyfish. Or an LPS reef, I find these the most intresting.

Naso2 wrote:My personal recomondation is a FOWLR, stocked with tangs, triggers, angels, rabbitfish, and butterflyfish. Or an LPS reef, I find these the most intresting.

FOWLR tanks do not require expensive lighting. All you need is live rocks and a sump with a skimmer. Or you can have a HOB skimmer instead of a sump.

What I'm working on...

Well, I've reduced my number of tanks from 21 to 11. We are moving to a smaller home; downsizing from 2350SF to 1440SF. I'm trying to determine which tanks and fish groups I will continue to keep. I've determined to keep at least 1 - 55g and 4 - 20g tanks and my 54g bowfront corner tank. I think somehow I can fit them all into what will be our "fish-den" and still keep mama happy!

This is NOT easy to do folks!

I decided if im doing weekly 20% water changes on a salt tank I will just buy a 24gpd RO/DI because if I am gonna spend that much I might as well spend a little extra

24g per day will take forever in anything bigger than a 75g that is why I have a 150gpd. When you need water fast a gallon per hour just doesn't work.

i just bought my RO on ebay, 100 gal/day. Took me about an hr to fill up my 5 gal bucket.

I plan to have it run into an empty tank that has a power head in it... Was my thinking wrong?

Fish Addict wrote:I plan to have it run into an empty tank that has a power head in it... Was my thinking wrong?

Nothing wrong with that but it will consume more energy with it being run so much.

iam working on switchin my 46gal bowfront to a 90gal, i dont have the room to set up the 90 to cycle it. i want to kno the best way to switch everything over. i was thinkin take all the water from to 46 and put it in the 90, then fill it the rest of the way up which it would be like a 50% water change. what do ya think?

im starting to plant my 78 then after its filled it will be pond time ohh yeah

tayntdawg wrote:iam working on switchin my 46gal bowfront to a 90gal, i dont have the room to set up the 90 to cycle it. i want to kno the best way to switch everything over. i was thinkin take all the water from to 46 and put it in the 90, then fill it the rest of the way up which it would be like a 50% water change. what do ya think?

I did that, not a problem. Just make sure your new water salinity is within range before adding into tank.

I got a few new fish to fill out my 210g, might get one more fish (thinking a chocolate cichlid).

Then I have a little while to figure on who I keep and who goes , got to thin down the group a little.

man you gotta let me come check it out when its finished i love that little oscar and them red hooks DO NOT GET RID OF THEM they have those awasome spots and you do not see them locally that size ever

Sad to say the little O will be one that will most likely go. He is more colorful but also the meaner of the two. I also need to make a choice of flagtail or red hooks at some point. He had turned territorial toward them and chases them to the point where it is not relaxing to watch the tank. Most likely the flagtail will also go. Might even be getting rid of the 3 small spotted silver dollars.

So final stock would probably be something like this:
Tiger Oscar x1
Gold Severum x1
Hoplarchus psittacus x1
Crenicichla sveni x1
Red Hook silver dollar x3

Possibly add a chocolate cichlid.

dont tell me you lost that angel already... personally id keep the silvers in large numbers. or considering trading them all out for larger tiger barbs. i prefer the barbs to the red hooks as they wont eat up a huge amount of filtration or be able to out compete ur larger cichlids. just my opinion on the matter, plus that contrasting green tiger could really compliment ur other fish.

The angel is doing fine, I just forgot about him. He causes no problems so easy to miss. He has settled right in and no one even gives him a second look.

figured id post some pics of what ive been busy with lately. nothing special just a few shots of the tanks from recently. layouts have changed as i finally removed unwanted fish and stripped a cpl more girls.


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Looking good!

When I was talking about changing the 29g out to something I was think very much along what you got going on here. I like this look!
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Thinking about changing to a small African set up instead of the solo convict.

well the background was super cheap. finding rocks for deco to match proved more challenging. due to this if your thinking about doing this urself find the rock u like and get a BG to match. i got mine from designsbynature.com super cheap deal and ur supporting a fellow NW hobbyist (its just one guy). lemme know if you need help picking stock out for it or something.

That's a beautiful tank, Anthraxx.

Anthraxx wrote:lemme know if you need help picking stock out for it or something.

Thanks, will do if I change out the tank. Right now my focus is on the 210g but Im itching to do something in the 29g.

thanks for the compliments betty and D. i really like the tank, but the occupants are another story. it was just sort of a test run on a 3D background. overall im really happy with it as it was only around 70$ in total to get running. already had the junky 10g. i think the LED lighting really helps make that wall pop. just wish these guys would settle in already.

Anthraxx, you inspired me to get into the big tank and work some aquascape magic. I added one of my large branches back into the tank.
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From another angle
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Now I need to finish my 2.5g betta tank and get those pics up. Then my 29g project is next...

sweet pics D.After a long day of shopping and a emotional roller coaster ride i decided to buy a fish to try and keep for another decade......In late 2001 the first fish i bought was my oscar at 3 inches i named him b.o.b i was very uneducated at keeping him but i learned..well last year around
x-mas he passed at 14 inches and i did not think i could ever pull myself to keeping another fish for another 10 years (hence the non profit flipping)....I went to a lfs and found a GEOPHAGUS.B i know they are common (I am a sucker for the never gonna be bought commons.) but i really wanted him he is 3 inches and beautiful.price was a little high for a geo at 12.99 and 3 inches but who cares....wish me luck i hope to keep him for 10-15 years too (thread coming soon).

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RIP B.O.B

BIG OLD BASTARD

Trying to replace an Oscar is very hard to do. When I lost my Midas I tried some other centrals and only one that started to grow on me was a hoga. This was my "rebound" fish and when I lost it due to the disease still being in the tank, I knew I needed a fish that would snap me out of it. So my decision was the Oscar. These guys have a great personality and have really got me going again back into fish keeping.

Geos are not that common. Ive never kept them before but I dont think they are known to be personable like an O. Why not another Oscar?

It was very hard for me to choose but it was watching me walk around the aisle so i could tell it was smart.I just seen a adult geo at AP about 10 inches and it was beautiful also this guy has ate some pellets(the smaller ones you gave me)this morning and took some sweet pictures he is cool and him and everybody get along well.

I do not think i could get another regular oscar and with my severum and going planted soon i do not have the means for one right now.

What type of geo did you end up with? Was it a geophagus brasiliensis? They are quite the lookers.