• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

my new project-Aquarium keeping part 2

ocnbrze said:
UGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

this waiting is killing me!!!!!

so i finally had Butch ship my first order yesterday. it is supposed to be delivered toady. i had one very long job to do. finally finished the job and rushed home trying to beat the delivery. the shipment is being delivered by UPS. since 1030am, on the ups app it has been saying "out for delivery". i get home at 445pm and the app still says"out for delivery". but now in the app it says that it is "to be delivered by 9pm"

UGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm dying here:spitoutdroid::spitoutdroid::spitoutdroid::spitoutdroid::spitoutdroid::spitoutdroid:
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that @ocnbrze my friend. Im anxious to see more photos. Without your delivery, I will have to wait as well. I re-read your previous posts and noticed that you have a 3d background. Its easy to see how the pics don't do it justice. It looks fantastic :)
 
MrJavi said:
Sorry to hear that @ocnbrze my friend. Im anxious to see more photos. Without your delivery, I will have to wait as well. I re-read your previous posts and noticed that you have a 3d background. Its easy to see how the pics don't do it justice. It looks fantastic :)
Click to expand...
yep 3D background.......it really looks super cool. not sure on what i need to do on my note 10+ make the tank look better. it is definitely too blue.

IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!!
sec_unboxing_1.jpg

sec_unboxing_2.jpg

sec_unboxing_3.jpg

sec_shipment_in_tank.jpg


and you are right pictures do not do it justice.....so here are some videos. now i swear the tank is not as blue as in these videos:

and check this out:
read the description for this video for more info.
 
ocnbrze said:
yep 3D background.......it really looks super cool. not sure on what i need to do on my note 10+ make the tank look better. it is definitely too blue.

IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!!
sec_unboxing_1.jpg

sec_unboxing_2.jpg

sec_unboxing_3.jpg

sec_shipment_in_tank.jpg


and you are right pictures do not do it justice.....so here are some videos. now i swear the tank is not as blue as in these videos:

and check this out:
read the description for this video for more info.
Click to expand...

That really cool @ocnbrze , so mouthbrooders carry their babies in their mouth. I never knew that, When you averaged the price per fish you actually got an even better deal than you originally expected.
Blue is beautiful . I think of it as a painters canvas, you can add or remove different elements or choose not to. The main thing is its uniquely your creation and your happy with it. Personally, It better than anthing I could have done. Pretty creative trimming the oversided part to fit so perfectly.
It's very impressive and showpiece. I know you put alot if time into it and it shows. :)
 
MrJavi said:
That really cool @ocnbrze , so mouthbrooders carry their babies in their mouth. I never knew that, When you averaged the price per fish you actually got an even better deal than you originally expected.
Blue is beautiful . I think of it as a painters canvas, you can add or remove different elements or choose not to. The main thing is its uniquely your creation and your happy with it. Personally, It better than anthing I could have done. Pretty creative trimming the oversided part to fit so perfectly.
It's very impressive and showpiece. I know you put alot if time into it and it shows. :)
Click to expand...
 
HORROR STRIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i woke up this morning and looked at my fish. they were all alive, but they did looked really stressed. but i thought that they made it thru the night, they should calm down later today. i just got home from work and to my horror i lost one poli cat and 7 of the star saphires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just tested the water and it tested fine. my water quality did not kill them.....so what did?

well the only thing i can think of is stress and the fact that i only floated the bags they were in to allow them to adjust to my tanks temperature. after they floated for 15 mins i release them. i just used a net, popped open, the bag and poured them into the net, and transferred them to the tank.

what i should have done was to take an airline tubing and tied it into a bucket and have water from my tank drip into the bucket slowly. i then pop open the bag and dump the fish into the bucket while water drips into it. this way they can slowly ease into cleaner water.

so in short i think i killed my fish, by shocking them going from water that they were pooping in during the trip from Georgia to California, to really clean water that is in my tank. it is kind of like going from a nice warm and bubbly jacuzzi to an ice cold pool. it can kind of take your breath away at first.....that most likely happened to my fish.

the survivors look ok. they do not look stressed so the 3 saphires and (i think)5 poli should make it.

i'm so bummed right now. those 10 saphires looked so good together. i think i want a larger group though. i am getting my second order next week...be assured i will not make the same mistake twice.....a very expensive mistake at that!!!!!!

i think i will now have a couple of glasses of some good bourbon i have.....maybe three......LOL
 
Last edited:
ocnbrze said:
HORROR STRIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i woke up this morning and looked at my fish. they were all alive, but they did looked really stressed. but i thought that they made it thru the night, they should calm down later today. i just got home from work and to my horror i lost one poli cat and 7 of the star saphires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just tested the water and it tested fine. my water quality did not kill them.....so what did?

well the only thing i can think of is stress and the fact that i only floated the bags they were in to allow them to adjust to my tanks temperature. after they floated for 15 mins i release them. i just used a net, popped open, the bag and poured them into the net, and transferred them to the tank.

what i should have done was to take an airline tubing and tied it into a bucket and have water from my tank drip into the bucket slowly. i then pop open the bag and dump the fish into the bucket while water drips into it. this way they can slowly ease into cleaner water.

so in short i think i killed my fish, by shocking them going from water that they were pooping in during the trip from Georgia to California, to really clean water that is in my tank.

the survivors look ok. they do not look stressed so the 3 saphires and (i think)5 poli should make it.

i'm so bummed right now. those 10 saphires looked so good together. i think i want a larger group though. i am getting my second order next week...be assured i will not make the same mistake twice.....a very expensive mistake at that!!!!!!

i think i will now have a couple of glasses of some good bourbon i have.....maybe three......LOL
Click to expand...

Ahhh @ocnbrze that sucks!! , so sorry to hear that my friend. Man that hurts just thinking sbout it. So sorry. I just read the first lines of your post and had to respond.
 
MrJavi said:
Ahhh @ocnbrze that sucks!! , so sorry to hear that my friend. Man that hurts just thinking sbout it. So sorry. I just read the first lines of your post and had to respond.
Click to expand...
its all good. i'm a professional so i should have saw that coming. yesterday was such a long day for me, and i was super anxious to get the fish into my tank, that i did not listen to reason.

anyways i liked the 10 that i got, but i think the tank could handle a few more. i think i will get 15 saphires the next time around. those will probably have to wait until after my next shipment comes in next week.

gonna drink some more and smoke a good cigar and just chill for now.
 
ocnbrze said:
its all good. i'm a professional so i should have saw that coming. yesterday was such a long day for me, and i was super anxious to get the fish into my tank, that i did not listen to reason.

anyways i liked the 10 that i got, but i think the tank could handle a few more. i think i will get 15 saphires the next time around. those will probably have to wait until after my next shipment comes in next week.

gonna drink some more and smoke a good cigar and just chill for now.
Click to expand...

Don't be to hard on yourself, The tank looks awesome!!!
 
OK so i finally was able to get in touch with Butch. he is such a cool guy, by the way. we talked and he is not so sure about my theory of stress and shock. he said that if that was the case, they would have been belly up as soon as they hit my water. he thinks that it could be my pH and alkalinity or possibly my background that caused it. he said that in the past he encountered similar circumstances and each time the main culprit was the background....which i'm starting to think that is the case.

but to narrow things down, he wants to know what my pH and alkalinity are for the tank. if they are where they are supposed to be then his thinking is that it could be the background that caused the event.

so here is just a quick lesson on pH and alkalinity with African cichlids. water that is pure like distilled water will have a neutral pH of 7. if you go higher in pH the water will be more basic. if you go lower in pH, the water will be more acidic. now lets talk about hardness and alkalinity.

Hardness is the measure of impurities (mostly metals) in the water. the harder the water, the more stuff is in the water. in my example to simplify things, stuff is referring to carbonates....more specifically calcium carbonate (CaCO3).....or stuff LOL. the more stuff in the water the higher the pH.

Alkalinity is the water's ability to neutralize acids. the less stuff in the water the more acidic the water will get. if there is a lot of stuff in the water, the water will have trouble neutralizing acids. the actual measurement of alkalinity actually is shown as a measure of the amount of base in the water in terms of mg/l and not acids as i defined the term earlier.

African cichlids likes the water hard. they like a high mineral content. they prefer water that is in the 8.0-8.5 range. in my tank i also am using aragonite sand which will releases a lot of stuff in the water. aragonite sand is basically fine crushed coral which contains a lot of stuff to help keep the pH high.

i have never had any issues with keeping Africans in my tap water. my tapwater also has a lot of stuff in it as well. i think he wants to rule out pH and alkalinity because many parts of the U.S. pH levels of tap water can very. and some are more acidic than others.

so to rule this out i will need to buy an alkalinity test kit. i have the pH test kit so i will find out later tonight what that is.

i'll keep you posted on the results when i test the water.
 
I have no experience with fish tanks whatsoever so please forgive me if any of my imput on the subject is wat off but just "food for thought".

When it's time to release the fish into the tank, could one use a razor blade to slice the bag, releasing both fish and water inyo the tank. Im not sure how the oil on the razor bladevwill effect the tank or the fish is my first concer. My second would be, how fast the water and te fish get dispersed. The third would be the fish poop within the bag released into the tank and how that would effect the ecosystem.

If it turned out to be the tank background could you use a cover and gradually lift it each day until the 3d backgound is fully exposed?

Keep in mind my background is construction and remodeling and it probably explains the razor blade idea. :)
 
MrJavi said:
I have no experience with fish tanks whatsoever so please forgive me if any of my imput on the subject is wat off but just "food for thought".

When it's time to release the fish into the tank, could one use a razor blade to slice the bag, releasing both fish and water inyo the tank. Im not sure how the oil on the razor bladevwill effect the tank or the fish is my first concer. My second would be, how fast the water and te fish get dispersed. The third would be the fish poop within the bag released into the tank and how that would effect the ecosystem.

If it turned out to be the tank background could you use a cover and gradually lift it each day until the 3d backgound is fully exposed?

Keep in mind my background is construction and remodeling and it probably explains the razor blade idea. :)
Click to expand...
ok so you never want to introduce water from another water source. there is potential for parasites and disease to be introduced into the tank. some people who do this, the tank turns out fine....but it is a risk that can be easily avoided. and i know that Butch keeps his fish supremely healthy, but again it is a risk that i can avoid very easily.

second you never want to add waste water from the bag into the tank. i'm sure the tanks bio load could have broken it down. but again there is no need to add more waste to the tank when it can be avoided.

thirdly a razor blade as long as it is clean is fine. i used many blades to release fish. just do not use a dirty razor.

the directions for the 3d background did mention to pressure wash it before installing it. i do not have a pressure washer, but i thought the spray nozzle on my garden hose did the job just fine..............maybe not.

it did mention i could soak it overnight as well.....which i probably should have done that. i could have used my garbage can that i use to mix my saltwater in and let it soak in there.....but i was so anxious to get it in and i did not want to wait over night.

if there was some kind of toxins from the background and it leached into the tank, then why are the fish that survived doing fine now? that is the question i want to know, if truly it was the background that did them in.
 
ok here is another chemistry post.

so i have a Salifert KH/Alkalinity test kit. this kit is normally used for saltwater reef tanks. but i looked it up on marinedepot.com which is a very well known place to get most of your supplies from. according to them the Salifert test kit i have should work in freshwater tanks as well as ponds.

so here are the results for my tank and my tap water

my tank
ph 7.8
KH (alkalinity) was 6.1

tap water:
pH 7.4
KH 6.4

the pH is fine, but my alkalinity is pretty low. i might need to add some buffers to the tank to raise it, but i'm not completely sure. African cichlids like the KH to be around 10-18.

here is a very easy to read article if you are willing to learn about water chemistry for fish tanks.
https://fishlab.com/aquarium-kh/

so there is a possibility that i could have shocked them by water chemistry alone. i will need to talk to Butch and see what he thinks.
 
MrJavi said:
I thought it was a 3d backgound, You know like a 3d image.
Click to expand...
oh.... LOL

yeah it is called a 3D background because it has actual caves and crevices. it is not just merely a picture in the background. it actually looks like a real rock wall. it reminds me of tanks i saw at Sea World.....or here in LA, we have the Aquarium of the Pacific. they have some pretty cool 3D backgrounds on there tanks that look just like mine.

....in fact Universal Rocks caters to zoo's and public aquariums as well.
 
Hi @ocnbrze , I've been anticipating you'r next post but no rush my friend.

I read the water chemistry for fish tanks link and the difference between Alkalinity (KH) and Alkaline (PH) was very informative. In fact, I always thought of Alkaline as a battery term and had no idea, it's also referred to as PH. I feel a little smarter reading it. Thanks
 
MrJavi said:
Hi @ocnbrze , I've been anticipating you'r next post but no rush my friend.

I read the water chemistry for fish tanks link and the difference between Alkalinity (KH) and Alkaline (PH) was very informative. In fact, I always thought of Alkaline as a battery term and had no idea, it's also referred to as PH. I feel a little smarter reading it. Thanks
Click to expand...
i'm glad you learned from the article. and sorry for no updates.

over the weekend i bought some African cichlid buffer from Seachem.

ok here is some more chemistry. Buffers help a solution to keep a stable pH when you add more acid or base. In my case i want a higher basic solution so the buffer i added will help to keep the pH in the 7.8-8.4 range. the more buffer i add, the higher the pH will stablize at.

so i tested the water this morning after i added some more buffer last night. i doubled the dose from the day before to see what kind of swing i can get on pH and KH.

here are the results:
pH 8.2
KH 18

i had brought the KH on Sunday up to 12. but i wanted a more drastic change so according to the directions i up the dosage. from what i have been reading online 16-18 KH is ideal for African cichlids. i emailed Butch this morning with the results and i have not heard back from him yet.

while i wait for his reply, you guys can read up on water chemistry in aquariums. pay special attention to what buffers do.
https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
 
MrJavi said:
Hi @ocnbrzeI always thought of Alkaline as a battery term and had no idea, it's also referred to as PH. I feel a little smarter reading it. Thanks
Click to expand...
alkalinity is not referred to as pH, but there is a correlation between pH and alkalinity. any time you are dealing with acids and bases, pH and alkalinity will always be in play.
 
one good thing is that those fish that survived are kicking ass. they are doing really well and eating like a champ. i just received from amazon a drip acclimator. it allows you to slowly add your tank water to your new fish drop by drop.

 
ok so just got an email from Butch and looks like my results of my tank satisfied him to the point that i will be getting my next round of fish sometime this week!!!!!!

i'll keep you posted with pics of the unboxing as well as show you the drip acclimator doing its thing.
 
ocnbrze said:
alkalinity is not referred to as pH, but there is a correlation between pH and alkalinity. any time you are dealing with acids and bases, pH and alkalinity will always be in play.
Click to expand...

I'm sometimes detracted by my girlfriend when online. She'll ask is that a girl?
reply "I don't know, their a Lurker. Well some members I know their gender but it not a dating site, it Android Forums
ocnbrze said:
ok so just got an email from Butch and looks like my results of my tank satisfied him to the point that i will be getting my next round of fish sometime this week!!!!!!

i'll keep you posted with pics of the unboxing as well as show you the drip acclimator doing its thing.
Click to expand...

That's cool, kind of looks like an IV. :)
 
ok so i need a cleanup crew (algea eaters). the ones i had i will have to tell you about. i had three algea eaters prior to the 3d background install. i had a huge sailfin plecostomus (8") and two bristlenose pleco's (2"). i'll show you pics in a sec. the big guy i gave away to my LFS (local fish store). but i liked the two bristlenose pleco's. one was a red pleco (more of a rust color) and the other was a blue eye bristlenose pleco. a day after the 3d background was installed, i noticed they were missing. i thought they died or something.....then i noticed that there was a small gap up by were the out take of my filter was. they somehow snuck behind the background. there was no way i was going to remove the background to get them.....so they are back there for good. i closed the gap at the top by using some aquarium filter foam.....it is just a black sponge basically that is used in all sorts of filtration. it works and you hardly notice it. hopefully they will be fine back there.

so now i need a cleanup crew to keep the algea from going crazy. i did my research online and came across a website called Aquatic Art....and i bought 3 blue eye lemon bristlenose plecos, and one longfin bristlenose pleco.

Blue_Eye_bushynose.jpg

juvenile blue eye bristlenose pleco
adult_blue_eye_bristlenose_pleco.jpg

adult blue eye bristlenose pleco
longfin_bristlenose_pleco.jpg

longfin juvenile bristlenose pleco
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom