58g Planted w/overflow and sump

[fishorama]

What is going on here? Jen's plecos are all over the place & looking fat & sassy.

But then there's dougall's meet...sounds like fun...what's with your reluctance, Jen? (yes, I'm calling you out!) You already know 2 people, Gavin & Sheila...Lunch too? Geez, I'm almost in from the west coast. lol. Really, 40 minutes? Just go!!

I just recently got into carnivorous plants, but oh my! I love my maroon pitchers!

 

[dougall]

Lunch would be next month.. we are gonna be in our own state this weekend, doing terrestrial plant stuff.

But you could come for lunch next month too.

 

[myswtsins]

What is going on here? Jen's plecos are all over the place & looking fat & sassy.

But then there's dougall's meet...sounds like fun...what's with your reluctance, Jen? (yes, I'm calling you out!) You already know 2 people, Gavin & Sheila...Lunch too? Geez, I'm almost in from the west coast. lol. Really, 40 minutes? Just go!!

I just recently got into carnivorous plants, but oh my! I love my maroon pitchers!

lol I am most likely going tomorrow, ok!? Geez. The biggest issue with clubs at this point is distance and date/time. They are always an hr+ away and at night and my nights are usually booked. But this one is reasonably close AND in the afternoon so it's a go.

I actually got my first carnivorous plant just last fall too. No idea on species, it was in the pond section as "pitcher plant", very specific. lol I need to redo my pond thread....

 

[fishorama]

Well, it seemed you needed a boot up the arse to actually go !! Consider yourself kicked!

Geez, 40 minutes! It's practically next door here. OK, my friend is driving to our "local" meet tomorrow, but it's fun! Even if I have to drive...

 

[myswtsins]

Whoops, ended up staying up till 5am so no meeting for me this month, maybe next month.

I noticed some breeding behavior a few days ago and now several of the danios are skinnier, cool. I doubt many eggs would survive though. Yes the crypts are pretty dense but with those streamline danios and big mouthed plecos plus a vacuum with barbels (loach) and no moss like material to attach to, not promising. They were breeding right in front of the overflow though so maybe some could survive in the sump!

 

[myswtsins]

Side post - Boy when I asked the guy about the rate of the trapdoor snails breeding and he said pretty fast I doubted him but I have 2 babies already! (I'm kidding here. FYI they are not fast breeders at all. They are sexual breeding livebearers which slows them down quite a bit over say asexual egg layers. Just so happens 1 baby was hitching and the other must have been ready to pop out. Who knows how many more will show up!)

Edit- make that at least 8 live babies and 2 empty shells. There is one rouge assassin snail in there I have to find and remove, hope he's not getting them!

 

[fishorama]

Well, trapdoors are big & cute! Will they be outdoor pets too this summer?

Live bearers scare me...of any kind...except MTS, for the most part I like them.

 

[myswtsins]

The struggle with pH, KH, TDS and RO water continues. Apparently my water is like some super mutant! Finally at a rate of 8 gallons of tap water to 42 gallons of RO water the pH dropped to 7.9! Straight RO water is 7.5 pH at 6 ppm TDS (time to change my filters though because it is usually 2ppm so maybe new filters will lower pH too). Tested it with 3 liquid test kits and 1 digital meter. KH and GH 3, which is great IMO but pH is still so high for those levels. But whatever, advice for shrimp was to lower KH, done! Now to see how things progress.

I'm not getting anywhere with moving fish outside, just like every other year. Can't find a local place to get the tubs or plants I want. And the weather has been insanely moody which is holding everything up.

The usteriana is taking over! It is hard for me to justify removing the plants that is doing the best though, seems like backwards logic lol. And as a testament to the hardiness of this plant it has been alive floating and even growing, in a tank that has no livestock, except a couple pest snails that rode in on the plant and a light that I manual turn on from time to time. For 3 months! I think I want to pot some up and try it in the pond.....

Without ferts the metallic reds just don't do well. I cannot find my root tabs and I have 100s of them so I hate to buy new ones but I'm gonna break down and do it cause I'll just never get around to making my own, obviously!

This tank would make a nice SW setup wouldn't it? ...........

 

[myswtsins]

Nothing on the saltwater teaser huh?

Just updating to say my ancient rummynose passed away today. His nose was still red even shortly after death.

Haven't seen any baby danios but the females are plumping up again.

 

[dougall]

You wouldn't get any plants in SW... but yeah.. tease away.


Sorry for your Rummy though