The calculator I was using to stock with changed????

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Yeah I know. I panicked. I thought that I knew what it was. I tried the water changes and aquarium salt first and things got worse so I researched and treated what I thought it was and things got better then worse. Things just snowballed from there. I kept a tank years ago with goldfish and kept salt in it all the time. I had those three goldfish about four years. Not one illness. Fast forward several several years with my 10 gallon tank. I had a few fish get sick so I treated after researching and everybody was fine in a few weeks. With this illness I was so overwhelmed that I was actually suspecting fish tuberculosis. The worst part was that none of the symptoms fit exactly the way it should have. And the fish looked fine but acted weird right up until their death. I swear I'm not trying to be defensive and I know I made mistakes but whatever this stuff was it moved fast so I felt like I also had to because otherwise they would all die anyway. Honestly that's what it came down to. You are right though and I wish I would have taken pictures of the deceased in case I ever have to do battle with it again. Truth be known if it ever gets that bad again I will probably either euthanize the whole tank and sell it or give it away.
 
Thanks Steelehawk. I am currently re-reading "Great Expectations". I say re-reading because I read it once years ago in school but I didn't realize how many years ago that was until I realized how little of it I remembered. Anyway yep I love the look of driftwood. We used to live close to the river and my husband turned a huge piece we collected into a fireplace mantle for me. I'm a pretty big fan of the stuff. I have two pieces of it in the 29 gallon right now. It did grow the whit clear jelly type substance on it. The danios thought it made for an awesome lunch buffett. I couldn't take it anymore when it got about an inch and a half thick so I pulled it out and rinsed it under scalding hot way. Ughhhh it stunk. Some of the jelly came off while I was removing it from the tank for cleaning and got stuck in the grass ground cover. The 5 initial barbs I had just moved from quarrantine into the main tank enjoyed picking and eating it out of the grass. They even uprooted some of the grass and I had to replant it. They've taken to pecking at the grass since then! It's fairly amusing to watch.
 
Yes, they are fun to watch. I have a 55 gal, guess I said that, and have a few fish in there, but I'm saving for some Discus. They are awesome, but, I just started a 10 gal where I will use it as a breeder for shrimp and or maybe German Blue Ram. I have a pair of those. Wish I was able to write a book like you, Abby.
 
LOL no you don't. I'm told it's called being long winded- ha ha ha. Discus are gorgeous. We just saw a turquoise blue one in our LFS. My husband had to remind me that we have no place for it. Then I had to pull him away from the cichlid tank. A 55 gallon would definitely be fun. I've also fallen in love with the clown loach. Wish I could put a few in this tank. Oh well...
 
The best way to check is by your levels!!! The stock is fine other then the danios may need more swimming space. But if you want to get serious you can check your nitrate levels to see how much room you have but each fish has a different bioload so you can't get a pleco if you don't have that much room.

But what's an under gravel aerator? I've only heard of under gravel filter and some people get them mixed up...
 
For the wood if you can boil it that's great and you should do it but then soak it for a week changing the water in it daily. This will allow any tannins in the wood to come out. Then you can boil it again but make sure it's not hot when you put it in the tank.
 
My driftwood that I currently have has been in about 3 weeks now. I didn't want to soak these pieces because I wanted the tannins in to hopefully help with bringing down the PH levels some. We have notoriously high PH in this area and there is so much limestone around here it's unreal. It's also extremely hard water. I wanted the tannins to come out. I wasn't worried about this driftwood sorry for the misunderstanding. The driftwood I had problems with I am giving up on. It's gorgeous and I think I will repupose it in some sort of plant only terrarium but it came from a locally owned fish store we later learned has a very bad reputation. Oh well live and learn. I won't be going back there : ) I have an API master test kit. I guess I'm afraid of being overstocked once these guys reach maturity. Everything in that calculator said 98% stocked then just changed to 118% Ughhhhh... I guess I really won't know until these guys reach maturity. How fast do tiger barbs grow?
 
Ummm... sorry re-purpose the driftwood not repupose. Auto correct. Why haven't I turned it off yet? Oh the bristlenose. Honestly I had rather get rid of a couple of the barbs than to get rid of him/her. I just love catfish. Except the scary big ones they fish out of the Tennessee River. Man sized monsters that can suck somebody under... yeah... no
 
It's an underwater aerator. It just blows bubbles out without requiring an external pump. It's quieter IMO and you can adjust it so it's a good bit more powerful than the external pump I was using. I like it a lot better than the air hose/air pump/air stone set up. With it there is no airstone to replace. You bury the base of it under your gravel or sand or whatever and bubbles come out the top. I bought a blue LED light that connects on top so it's like a small nightlight. The bubbles are blown out through the light. I mean you know not really but that's what it looks like. I only run it at night. The danios seem to get really excited when it comes on. Then again the danios seem to get really excited about anything. Ha. Ha. No I don't have an undergravel filter. I have two hang on backs Aquaclear 50 and 30.
 
A couple of pictures of the underwater aerator. These were taken from the side of the tank close to the wall. It's actually camouflaged by the driftwood when viewed from front and other side. My flash also went off so the light is really just an overall blue glow from that side of tank. Gosh hope these attached OK.

ForumRunner_20120715_004017.jpg



ForumRunner_20120715_004116.jpg
 
Photos of 29 gallon tank with main light turned on and aerator with blue LED light. Please keep in mind this is not what I hope the end result will be. I'm hoping the plants will keep going enough to hide the heater and filters. Plus we are repainting the walls of our living room "chocolate brown". The second pic is of my 7 barbs in quarrantine. They were all clumped together. That's the side I feed them from. Also first pic I think I cut the corners of the tank off.

ForumRunner_20120715_005035.jpg



ForumRunner_20120715_005210.jpg
 
The water in first pic looks yellow in pic. I swear it's not. My living room walls are currently painted a neutral tan-ish color. I'm halfway through painting them.
 
Closer view of tank I took about 5 weeks or so ago with only 6 zebra danios in tank. One of them you can see up by the heater to the right. I'm using Flourish Excel fertilizer on the plants one a week. The Java ferns already have shoots and the bannana plant has shot up. They still have a long long way to grow. The grass I need to pull apart and spread out. The goal is to have it cover entire bottom and plants to conceal the cords filters etc... Again yellowish tan color is the flash reflecting off the neutral colored walls.

ForumRunner_20120715_010149.jpg
 
Sorry probably photo overload. These are so much better. You can see the light off of the aerator in the background.

ForumRunner_20120715_012326.jpg



ForumRunner_20120715_012314.jpg
 
Abby256 said:
Ughhh... FTW?
Click to expand...
"For The Win"

Had a thought concerning your driftwood issue. You say it came from a mom-n-pop LFS that wasn't so clean? If the wood really was contaminated I would be willing to bet it was pesticides. If the shop was not clean then they had a bug problem and who knows what kind of bug spray that wood came in contact with.
 
OMG you're a genius. That would make perfect sense. When we shopped there it was clean but disorganized. And since then we found out that the store is hit and miss. Some weeks might be clean tanks other weeks everything dying. When we visited they had several cardboard boxes sitting out on the floor. My thought was liability issue if someone tripped and fell over it. But the employee apologized and said that they were in the middle of restocking. Whenever I see cardboard I think roaches. Also since you said pesticide you've made me wonder if they pulled this out of the river and it was contaminated with chemicals from nearby plants. Our parents wouldn't let us swim in it growing up and of course as an adult I see why and no one eats fish from that river but goes to a nearby lake.
 
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