Aquarium Fish Forum; Everything Aquatic

Setting Up A New Saltwater Aquarium

2012-04-13T09:03:00.003-07:00

If you've decided that you want to keep fish as pets in your home, then the first steps to getting ready is the purchase and setup of an aquarium to house them. Aquariums come in several varieties, here we'll be discussing the steps for preparing saltwater aquariums for their new inhabitants.
Saltwater aquariums differ from freshwater aquariums in that, obviously, the water used is saltwater which gives a home to a large variety of beautifully colored tropical fish, the same kind you would find natively living in the ocean. In order to make a happy, healthy home for these fish, there are some things you must know and have ready.

For starters, before you purchase your aquarium, you should know how many fish you are interested in purchasing, what sizes they will grow to be and whether or not they can live together. You don't want an overcrowded tank or one that is too small and you definitely don't want your fish fighting or even eating each other. Try to get a tank slightly larger than you need in order to accommodate any new fish you plan on adding to it. Then, if you decide to bring new fish into the aquarium, the room is already there and available without needing to upgrade in size. Once you have your aquarium tank, choose a place for it away from natural light sources (that will cause algae to grow in your tank). Also, make sure you have a sturdy stand capable of supporting not only the aquarium, but the water you'll be filling it with later as well.

Once set up, make sure to clean out your aquarium with a soft cloth or sponge to remove any potential residue left on the inside of the tank before you begin to fill the bottom with your sand, gravel or other substrate. Once the substrate is set, you can either add your pre-mixed saltwater to the aquarium, or add a tap water and sea salt mix (according to proper instructions). After you have your water, fill the tank to about one third full and check the gravity (amount of dissolved salts in the water) which should read about 1.025. Once it's filled, you can set up the rest of your aquarium accessories like the lighting, heaters, filters and pumps (depending on the size and placement of your aquarium) which you should let run for about a day while you measure water temperature, check the salinity balance and also check the tank for leaks.

Once you have the water and equipment of your tank prepared, you should be ready to introduce the underwater landscaping. The addition of live rock to an aquarium is incredibly important for many reasons. The first of which is to make the fish more comfortable, having live rock more closely simulates their natural home. One of the others is that live rock generates organisms such as bacteria that help your aquarium's inhabitants live long, happy lives. It can also be used as a hiding place for shy or easily scared fish as well as becoming an anchor for any corals you decide to introduce to the aquarium. Any live rock you purchase must be cured before adding it to your tank. If not, you risk polluting your tank with deadly ammonia which can, at best, make your fish very sick and at worst, kill them. It's simple to cure most live rock in around one to three weeks in any container large enough to house the rock. You can also cure your rock while setting up your tank before you introduce your fish to the environment.

When you have finished introducing rocks and other accessories to your tank, you can begin cycling by adding a source of ammonia to your tank. This can easily be done by adding manufacturer suggested fluids to your tank. When you do, bacteria that should be in your tank will begin to multiply and the ammonia levels will decrease, leaving behind nitrite. Eventually the rate at which the bacteria breaks down the nitrite will overtake the rate it is created and your tank's system will achieve a good balance of both nitrate and bacteria. This is the most time consuming step in the process and can take up to six weeks to complete. Note that while nitrite isn't toxic to your fish, it can have a negative impact on the tank as a whole and can be easily recognized by watching for an outbreak of algae. Be sure to test ammonia and nitrite levels regularly with testing kits.

Once cycling is complete, make any adjustments you may think necessary to your underwater landscape and you will finally be ready to introduce the fish to their new home! The safest way to add the fish is to place them only one or two at a time to the tank. This gives the tank's bacteria nitrogen cycle system time to adjust to the new ammonia production strain. Test your water until it has returned to normal and wait bout a week before adding more. There you have it, a fully functional and well balanced saltwater aquarium. While the process is time consuming, the end product of beautiful saltwater aquariums is well worth the wait. Just make sure to regularly clean, test and maintain your tank and equipment to ensure the safety and happiness of your new fish.

By Robert Lobitz

Resources:
See also Saltwater, Marine Reef Aquarium Care, Basics

For proper maintenance of your saltwater aquarium UV Sterilizer, the UV Bulbs should be changed once every six months, for further information, please read this article:
UV Sterilization; Facts & Information

ZooMed Turtle Canister Filter Set-Up, Use, Maintenance, Review

2011-10-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

By Parker002

PART 1 - Unboxing and Initial Setup

1. The first thing I noticed it that it seems to be built from sturdy materials. It's plastic but not cheap plastic. The latches in particular seem to be well-built which is a plus because those are the pieces that would likely break due to regular use.

--- Update #1: I was cleaning the hood on the tank today and was moving stuff around. I noticed that the outflow hose was starting to crimp a bit because of where I was moving the canister. They're REALLY soft and have pretty thin walls for filter tubing. I'm gonna go to the hardware store and replace them.
--- Update #2: I went to the local hardware store as well as one of the big box stores and came up empty on replacement tubing. The hose barbs on the filter are 1/2" ID. However, standard 5/8" OD tubing slips out of the compression collars. 3/4" OD tubing doesn't fit into the compression collars at all. Upon measuring, the provided tubing is 5/8" OD but is 7/16" ID. That must be why it's so pliable - the hose barb stretches it enough that the compression collars don't allow the hose to detach. I ended up removing one of the existing hoses and stashing it. I then aggressively cut the other one so that it simply can't twist and subsequently crimp. Overall, I'm kind of disappointed.

2. Upon separating all of the parts, I found that I was missing one of the compression collars needed to connect the vinyl tubing. I called ZooMed, waited on hold for LESS THAN 2 minutes and when I told them of my predicament, the rep said "look inside one of the intake strainers. They tend to settle in there during shipping." Sure enough, there it was. So ZooMed quickly and painlessly turned a potential minus into a big plus - excellent customer service!

3. All of the pieces assembled quickly and easily. Both the intake and outflow have flow limiters and they're built right into the elbows that sit on the tank. Very interesting design, we'll see if they actually work well.

4. I like that the outflow has both a spraybar and outflow diverter option. My daughter decided to go with the diverter but it's nice to know we've got options and can change it whenever we want.

5. The outflow is configurable but the intake is NOT. The intake strainer attaches to the elbow via a clear, rigid tube that is 12" long. This means it absolutely won't work on a standard 20x10x12 10-gallon tank. My tank achieves 14 gallons by adding 4 inches to the height (20x10x16) and it's STILL too long. Rather than cut the tube, I think I will just use a few inches of vinyl tubing.

6. The filter canister has 3 chambers, two of which came pre-populated with sponges. The primary chamber contains a fine sponge (smaller pores than a Filter Max but considerably larger than a Hydro Sponge) and the 2nd compartment has a coarse sponge similar to the Filter Max in porosity. While this might not suit some, I find it to be a big plus. I've developed a pretty strong preference for sponges (over floss-type materials) due to their easy maintenance and durability over time. The presence of two sponges with different pore structures sounds like an interesting idea too.

7. The 3rd chamber is for BOTH chemical and biological filtration. This could be a potential issue for people. The filter came with two bags of ceramic rings (about 1/4 cup each I think) and a carbon pillow (about 1/4 cup). The material properties that keep the carbon pillow from ripping easily also keep it from fitting well into the bottom of the chamber. The chamber is fairly rounded at the bottom and the pillow is rigidly square. This means the pillow is occupying about 3 times the space that its payload would otherwise occupy if it were laying flat on it's side.

8. In turn, the above issue with the pillow means you'll be putting roughly 1/4 of the ceramic rings provided in a baggie and storing them somewhere - all of the included ceramic rings simply won't fit if you're using the carbon too. In my case, I generally only use the included carbon and once it's exhausted I remove it and replace it with more bio media. Ultimately, this canister will be filled with a mixture of ceramic rings and Seachem Matrix that I have leftover from my other canister. So it's not a big problem for me but I see where it could be for others. Overall, if the 3rd chamber is just used for bio-media, it would imagine it could probably hold an entire 500mL bottle of Matrix which to me seems like quite a bit for a 14G tank.

PART 2 - Installation

1. Installing it was easy. It took us about 45 minutes total and that includes a 20% water change and the fact that we basically took EVERY plant out of her tank (the space vacated by the HOB intake and sponge filter allowed us to rearrange her plants).

2. The hose collars (similar to the ones on my AquaTop) work very well and create a nice tight fit. No leaks at all with the hoses.

3. While we were working, we needed to reduce splashing, so we turned down the outflow using the inline mechanism I mentioned in the previous section. It works well.

4. The intake tube issue I mentioned was easily solved with a short piece of vinyl tubing.

5. The canister itself fits neatly right next to the tank and is not too large or unsightly.

6. Priming the canister is a little funky. There's a small opening in the top with a screw-in cap - you pour water in there to fill the canister. I filled it all the way up and plugged it in - it started right up and it only took about 15 seconds to expel the remaining air from the intake tube.

7. While the intake was bubble-free quickly, the outflow was not. It was obvious that there was air trapped in the canister itself. Letting it run for several minutes didn't solve the issue so I eventually resorted to uncrewing the cap - mistake. Like any good pressurized setup, the air was quickly expelled and I wasn't paying good enough attention to avoid shooting water all over the dresser and floor. I guess if one is very careful, the priming issue can be overcome easily by removing the cap but it's certainly not a desirable solution.

--- Update #1: When I walked by the tank this morning, I could hear a knocking sound. I can't prove it was coming from the filter because it wasn't constant. I can prove the the canister still had considerable air trapped in it. You could hear the bubbling sound when you walked by - the vibrations through the floor jostled it just enough to cause some air to escape. I tilted it back and forth to expel it. I haven't heard the bubbling or the knocking since.
--- Update #2: When I walked by the tank this morning, I could hear a knocking sound. I can't prove it was coming from the filter because it wasn't constant. I can prove the the canister still had considerable air trapped in it. You could hear the bubbling sound when you walked by - the vibrations through the floor jostled it just enough to cause some air to escape. I tilted it back and forth to expel it. I haven't heard the bubbling or the knocking since.
--- Update #3: I've stricken one of my comments from the original post. I walked by it again a bit ago and it was still spitting out air. I removed the cap and this time I was VERY careful - water still spilled out onto the floor and furniture. So even with close attention, it's impossible to avoid spillage. I don't recommend removing the cap. I did pick up the filter and tilt it sideways a couple of times. It seems better but it seemed better before, too. On a good note though, tilting it didn't affect flow or function, nor did it leak.
--- Update #4: I believe that this canister is INTENDED to spit air bubbles once in a while. While cleaning it, I noticed it has a small piece of airline tubing attached to the intake tube. Reading in the instructions, this is present to bleed air out of the top of the canister periodically.

8. Flow is very good, especially considering that it's packed with carbon and rings. Honestly, it's just about PERFECT for this size tank. I would definitely hesitate to use it on anything above 20G. Despite us stirring up quite a bit of muck the water is almost clear again and it's only been about 20 minutes.

---Update #1: We decided to remove the simple jet adapter and install the spray bar in a vertical position. Flow is REALLY strong with it this way. We tried turning down the flow but in the end, we opted for position some decorations to protect a couple of plants and let the flow go through on high.

PART 3 - Maintenance/Cleaning

1. Removing the intake/output fitting was simple and straightforward. It twists off (as opposed to using an open/close lever like my AquaTop) but did not spill a drop of water.

2. While removing the fitting from the head did not spill water, removing the head from the canister did, creating a large puddle (luckily I had a towel underneath). I actually don't see any way to remove the canister head without spilling water because the water level is actually higher than the top of the canister housing when the pump is running. The only thing I can think of is to siphon water out of the priming hole.

3. Due to the strange side-by-side nature of the media arrangement, I'm thinking customizing media beyond replacing bio/carbon is going to be hard if not impossible. I just can't tell by looking what direction the water flows through, so using a micron pad or something similar probably won't work.

4. Cleaning the canister with the ceramic rings sitting in there loose proved to be difficult, so I removed all of the rings and put them in a standard 4x8" mesh media bag. Just by sight, it looked like the media bag might fit well and since it was only 3/4 full, I topped it off with Seachem Matrix. I threw away the carbon pillow and dropped the full bag into the chamber - it fit absolutely perfectly.

5. Getting it running again was smooth and simple - I re-attached the head and filled it with dechlorinated water through the priming hole. I re-attached the intake/outflow fitting and plugged in the power - it spit air for about 30 seconds and was then back to full strength

6. All in all, cleaning it was even easier than installing it. From start to finish, it took only 10 minutes!

For the FULL Thread, follow this link:
ZooMed "turtle" filters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For other articles that may interest readers of this article:
*Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

*Aquarium Filtration; Filters; this is an excellent article with reviews, information, troubleshooting and more about choosing the correct aquarium filter.
This includes information about under-rated Sponge Filters or Fluidized Sand Bed Filters of which will outperform many of the most expensive canister filters.

*UV Sterilization; this is an excellent article for those desiring to lower the risk of disease in their shrimp tank, especially since shrimp are sensitive to many medications. This article starts with basics, answers many facts and myths, and provides UV bulb maintenance information too.

For Aquarium Repair Information, see: Aquarium Silicone, Tank Repair, Applications, DIY

Feeding Fish (AKA Golden Piranhas)

2011-03-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

By Goldenpuon:

This is an comedic narrative essay I (goldenpuon) wrote for a college class. It is about my experience feeding my goldfish. (They are crazy about food I might add.)

Dinner for My Golden Piranhas

It is 6:00 PM. It’s time to feed the fish! As I grin and wonder what antics I will see from my goldfish this evening, I recall why they are so dear to me. My beloved pets were once feeder fish that were raised for the sole purpose of being eaten by larger aquatic animals. But did that mean the inch-long creatures were treated well? No, the poor souls were packed like sardines into small tanks with hundreds of other sick and malnourished individuals. Many lay dead in heaps or weakly flailed their fins in the filter’s current. They were pushed into aquarium walls, other debilitated fish, and even cannibalized by their famished brethren. That is when I became involved. I was on a mission to save the few goldfish I could. I hand-chose the most active and disease-free fish I could find and took them home.

It has been years since the goldfishes’ rescue, and they have blossomed. They have completely lost their fear of humans and gladly accept food given by hand. The fishes’ scales shine, their bodies are plump, and they really seem to enjoy their spacious, clean aquarium. I have done a great service by saving these animals’ lives. This realization brings me even closer to these critters that are as precious to me as any dog or cat.

I suddenly cease daydreaming. It is now a quarter after six. I have mouths to feed! I jump up from my computer desk and scamper to the kitchen cupboard. Using my right hand, I grab the cupboard door knob and hastily swing it open. I eye the cabinet’s contents only a second before I spot my desired quarry: Omega One Goldfish pellets.

After I snatch up the container of food, I close the cupboard door just gently enough not to make a racket. I stride over the old, blotchy kitchen tile. Then I set the fishes’ evening meal on the spotless countertop ledge adjacent to my forty gallon aquarium. I can already see the fish swarming to the left side on the tank they are always fed on. I run back over the discolored tiles and to the nearly spotless kitchen sink. I twist the cold water knob on full force, speedily rinse my hands in the cool water flowing from the faucet, and once more sprint across the kitchen to the tank. After thoroughly drying my hands on a thrice-used yellow rag, I twist open the lid to the aliment and place the lid face-down on the counter.

By now, the ever more gluttonous and eager goldfish are feverishly dancing near the glass. A white little fish paces up and down in frenzy, jerking its entire body eagerly from side to side. Another opens its round, capacious mouth and franticly nibbles on the glass. The largest, orange fish even forgets itself and gives its small silver friend a hardy nip. The rest of the goldfish madly speed through the water carelessly bumping and prodding one another. “You’re silly fish!” I laugh as I give my aquatic pets a caring grin. I reach my hand into the food container and seize a few dozen tiny pellets between my thumb and index finger.

I hold the pellets firmly in my hand to prevent them from dropping to the thick, beige carpet, where they are difficult to spot. At this point, the fish have lost all sense. Eight wild savages beg for their meal at the speed of light. They jostle near the water’s surface with crazed ferocity as they mindlessly smack and strike one another with their fins and bodies. Slowly, the eight goldfish─ still side-by side and miraculously uninjured─ make their way to the water’s surface.

Smiling to myself, I lift the translucent plastic lid of the tank and slide my hand inside the aquarium. I hear clicking and popping noises as a two goldfish nibble at the surface, envisioning that the object of their desire. Casually, I dip my hand into the cold aquarium water. Eager mouths are ready. I smile as several of the toothless creatures bite at my fingers with all their might. I have no concerns about the fish hurting me; even their most forceful bites don’t leave a mark on my hand. Still, their antics, love of food, and reckless, piranha-like behavior amuse me. As I ponder what drives them, I release the fishes’ dinner.

After this, chaos ensues once more. Fish dash for slowly pellets slowly descending to the tank bottom. They rush to gobble up as many bits as they can. Several of the fish practically inhale three pellets at once. Another greedy food-addict nips a tangerine-colored fish’s mouth in hopes that the harassed fish will spit out its partially digested meal. After I screw the lid back onto the Omega One Goldfish pellet container and deposit it safely back into the cabinet, I amble back to the aquarium.

There is no provender left in sight. None is floating in the water column, motionless on the aquarium bottom, or concealed among decorations and green and yellow leaves. However, the ambitious quest for left-overs will persist for a minimum of three hours. I gaze in awe at the fish poking their heads into bushy plants’ fronds, scouring every inch of the tank bottom and sides with their mouths’, and even taking an occasional nibble at the cylindrical filter intake tube. I wave at the fish to both to be silly and express how much I love my goofy, single-minded pets.

After fifteen minutes, I step back from the aquarium. I gaze around the living room until I spot my mother slouched forward on an armchair, carefully reading over paperwork. “Want to know what the goldfish did?” I ask excitedly as I do every evening. She turns away and peers closer at the documents, visibly tormented by my constant talk about fish. But I don’t give her reaction much thought. I merely shrug and return to the aquarium.

Two of the goldfish abandon their futile search. They swim up to me, wiggling their fins in greeting, but not with as much enthusiasm as before. I shake my head. Their calmness will be short-lived. As soon as I disappear from sight, these two will join the other savages speedily foraging once more.

Crazy goldfish, I rescued you, and your behavior has forever changed me. Without me, none of you would have ever experienced the comfort of a clean tank or known the heart of a caring human-being. If I had not seen the terrible suffering in that tiny tank and taken you home, I would not be the person I am now. Golden piranhas: the creatures that form the fishy center of my world.

Omega, Tetra, Hikari, HBH and other Fish Foods

2010-11-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Introduction

This Everything Aquatic Blog post comes from the the forum board thread: Omega One brand fish food. This post has been edited with both added and deleted information.
Posts from the original thread are began with each author for ease of following the flow of comments, information.

parker002
I originally came here to ask a question but a quick search revealed what I wanted to know - that Carl and others think this is a quality food.

Rather than ask a question for which I already have an answer, I thought I'd just mention this for anybody that might benefit.

I noticed that an online retailer was selling specialized foods for livebearers that was formulated more towards the herbivorous side, containing vegetable ingredients such as spirulina.

I already feed Hikari Spirulina Brine Shrimp, which my fish absolutely love but it's a treat moreso than a staple diet.

Later, when I was at Petsmart getting some cat food I asked the lady and she said that corporate has mandated they feed their livebearers Omega One brand Veggie Rounds.

So I took a look at it and compared it to some of the foods in the catalog, like Tetra Veggie Crisps.

The top 5 ingredients in the Omega One food were whole kelp, spirulina, whole salmon, black cod, and whole herring. Wheat flour was the 7th ingredient listed and in fact, the ONLY two "filler" ingredients in the food were wheat flour and wheat gluten. Outside of the 7 ingredients I just mentioned, the rest of the ingredients were either additional seafood ingredients (ie. krill), added vitamins, or coloring.

The Tetra food, by comparison, has the following top ten ingredients: Fish Meal, Dried Yeast, Cornstarch, Shrimp Meal, Wheat Gluten, Ground Brown Rice, Potato Protein, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Fish Oil, and Algae Meal.

It also contains MILK (?!?!?!) and 3 ingredients I recognize as preservatives. There's a half dozen artificial colorings and some things that I have no idea what they are for, like Cobalt Nitrate Hexahydrate.

What was somewhat disheartening, after digging deeper, was that the ingredient lists some of my favorite food brands (like the Hikari Micro Pellets I FINALLY found for my neon/glo-lite Tetras) looked a lot closer to the Tetra food than the Omega One. The micro pellets, for example, contains not only wheat fillers but corn as well.

All of that said, though, I have to tip my hat to Petsmart if what the sales associate told me is true. The big box stores sometimes get the reputation of being "puppy mills" when it comes to fish, and sometimes rightfully so. But it sure looks like to me that they're feeding their fish one of the better foods available instead of just using the cheap stuff.

Carl
While I still feel Hikari is a much better brand than Tetra (based in part on feeding trials where Tetra did not do well when compared to many brands), Hikari has also done a good job of marketing, thus convincing many that Hikari is the best of the best when often they are not.

As for fillers, some are needed (such as roughage), and what ingredients lists often do not show is the quality of the source. Hikari for instance uses regular committed sources, while Tetra goes for the lowest bidder at the time. Finally, Hikari also does a better job than many foods at 'upping' their food quality with "minor" ingredients as well as research & testing.

I do agree that Omega One is "one of the best brands", my only complaint is they use very much the same ingredients (albeit quality) for the entire line, this is particularly noticeable with the Omega Veggie Flakes where Spirluina & other vegetable content is not as good as products such as the superior HBH Veggie Flake or Spirulina 20 Veggie diets (unless this has changed sine the last time I checked).

Also (& not to seem bitter), Omega was originally marketed via specialty stores only that in turn spent a great deal of effort in promoting their product. After achieving much public attention of their product via these specialty stores effort, Omega Fish foods ceased sales to these store and is now primarily a mass market fish food brand (it is even found on Amazon, which has a terrible reputation of selling cr## aquarium products with no product knowledge to back them up).

This of course does not make Omega a poor product, as I have used and tested it extensively (and still recommend it in my fish nutrition article), I just have some ethical issues with the company and I am attempting to explain why PetsMart promotes this product (in other words PetsMart and PetCo are not doing this out of the "goodness of their hearts", rather these foods are provided to these stores as part of a marketing plan).

Parker002
Yeah, I didn't mean to make it sound like Hikari was "as bad" as Tetra.

I just noticed that their ingredient lists looked more like Tetra than it did Omega One.

I also realize that this varies by individual product as much as it does brand in a lot of cases. A good example is Aqueon, who makes a few flakes with artificial color enhancers as well as most flakes without.

FYI, I'm not using Veggie Flakes, I'm using Veggie Rounds, which are similar to the sinking wafers you would feed to pleco only thinner and smaller. Unfortunately, I don't have access to HBH or Spirulina 20 here. We only have 3 LFS. 2 of them sell basically all the same foods as the Petsmarts/Petcos. The other LFS makes and packages his own food and since I don't know anything about it really, I haven't tried it.

Finally, there's no need to apologize for sounding bitter. That IS pretty poor on their part. They used the grass roots guys to do the heavy lifting and then turned around and cashed in with a bigger distribution channel. It's especially bad if they just used the specialty stores to avoid having to shell out a lot of money for marketing.

Babygeige
I've used Omega One Veggie Rounds before too! They definitely have some of the better ingredients out there. Right now I'm using HBH Algae Grazers. After I got the pleco, I decided that the little can of Veggie Rounds I had before wasn't going to last long. The Algae Grazers come in a nice resealable bag. The beginning of their ingredients list is Spirulina Algae, dehydrated alfalfa mean, pea power, soy flower... and on and on. There are a lot of vegetable powders in it, not sure if that's good or bad.

I believe I bought this at Petsmart.
My cories and pleco enjoy them and they seem to be doing ok...

You know what else I bought on a whim at Petsmart? Dried seaweed. It comes in sheets, and I just tear off a VERY small piece and try to weigh it down with an anchor. I pretty much just use it for my shrimp tank. One small piece breaks up into lots of bits of seaweed! I really need to get a new veggie clip, then I can try it in other tanks. The ingredient list on that package just says "Dried Nori Sheets." It has lots of protein... 37%

Parker002
I'm definitely not a fish food expert but have done a lot of research around food ingredients, whether it's for my fish, my dog, or ME.

Back during the "great dog food scare" (my brother lost his dog due to renal failure) I started watching closely - I was shocked to see so many ingredients that have no place in a dog's diet, like eggs, milk, and grain gluten. In my opinion, they're adding those things to increase the protein content in the cheapest way possible.

Gluten has long been used in Asia as a meat substitute, especially in Japan. Much like they have soybean tofu, they also have gluten-based foods that have similar texture. That being said, you wouldn't feed tofu to your dog (or fish) would you? Tofu is supposed to be consumed by people - we're omnivores. Vegetable protein extracts (or worse, synthetic vegetable proteins) aren't metabolized the same way by strictly carnivorous animals like dogs.

In my opinion, I would watch out for protein "fillers" which on your list above would be soy. A veggie food should contain VEGGIES. When they're adding wheat gluten, soy, or other proteins derived from grains, they're NOT adding as much REAL protein that fish need which would be derived from obvious sources, such as...I don't know...FISH?

However, the biggest problem with soy and gluten proteins isn't the above.

Glutens are also the basic source of glutamate, what the Japanese call "umami". The 4 basic tastes are salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. The 5th taste, umami, is what we call savory - the flavor produced by proteins and amino acids found primarily in meat. In several Asian cultures, especially where Buddhism was prevalent, there was a desire to experience umami without eating meat so foods using soy and gluten proteins became very popular.

Of course, in the modern world it seems making things naturally is either too time-consuming, too expensive, or both. Some scientist somewhere found a way to synthesize umami by extracting the amino acids and then processing them into a salt. It's being used anywhere and everywhere we'll allow it, both in our food and our pets.

The effects of MSG have been studied extensively and go well beyond the common stuff you've heard about, like migraine headaches for example. I'm sure all of us have heard people say that they're hungry again not 2 hours after eating at the all-you can eat buffet. The reason for that is because MSG effects insulin response, which causes your blood sugar to drop. That makes you hungry again despite the fact that you just ate.

Rather than provide an incomplete list from my own memory, I actually Googled this so you can see. This came from the book “Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills” by Russell Blaylock. M.D.

The following additives always contain MSG:
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Yeast extract
Monosodium glutamate
Autolyzed yeast
Gelatin
Monopotassium glutamate
Sodium caseinate
Textured protein
Calcium caseinate
Hydrolyzed protein (any protein that is hydrolyzed)

I have also learned to watch for the following as they either can contain MSG or are related to MSG - malt flavorings or extracts, "natural" meat flavorings, soy sauce or soy proteins, milk-derived proteins such as whey, wheat proteins, and protein or enzyme "isolates".

There are vegetables that are just naturally high in protein and thus "umami" which you'll find in Japanese food and also in fish food. One of them is nori - how ironic!

"Dried Nori Sheets."
I have a package of it. My ghost shrimp won't eat it. It just sits there in a gelatinous sludge until I vacuum it out.

Carl
Very Informative Parker!

I too attended many Pet Food seminars (mostly for Dog and Cat Food when I was more active in this aspect of the pet industry); it is amazing what can and does go into many pet foods and that you can produce the "Guaranteed Analysis" of proteins, ash, etc. with some pretty poor ingredients (such as old leather shoes in one example I recall).

The only part of your excellent lesson I do not quite follow is about "nori". Were you stating this is the same as MSG?

The reason I am unclear is that there are many excellent vegetable, non meat sources of usable proteins (amino acids) such as Spirulina. Nori is also highly digestible and I have seen Yellow Tangs in particular fatten up and get back lost color from poor diets (which often sadly included feeding lettuce) from a diet that included copious amounts of nori (at least 50% of the diet)

Of coarse it depends upon the fish or other animal you are feeding as you would not expect your cat to thrive on alfalfa while your horse would not do very well even on the best brand cat food available.

I am also curious as to the Aqueon foods you found with artificial color enhancers, as this is Aqueon's claim to only use natural ingredient such as "Natural Astaxanthin" & "Marigold Powder" found in their Cichlid Sticks and Tropical fish food flakes.

Of coarse what a fish food manufacturer claims and what in fact is the reality of their product may be a gray area, however I personally have not seen this with Aqueon while I have with Omega (as an example, Omega's Veggie flake is not really a true Veggie Flake).

Parker002
Sorry if that was misleading.

I was attempting to say that the largest variety of natural, savory flavors come from animal-derived proteins/amino acids. However, it's not necessary to use artificial flavorings like MSG to experience umami without meat.

Many vegetables contain glutamates, like tomatoes and potatoes (actually, most MSG production today starts with the fermentation of beets). Mushrooms are also naturally savory.

However, some vegetables are extremely high in natural umami. It's no coincidence that nori seaweed is so prevalent in Japanese cuisine. In terms of amino acids/proteins, nori is one of the most "savory" plants in the world.

Sorry I made it confusing before. I should have just said "nori is one of the best fish food ingredients I can think of."

By the way, another big concept in umami is the "layering" of flavors because some savory flavors are subtle and certain proteins combined with others create more interesting combinations.

A good example would be slapping a slice of cheese on a hamburger. The hamburger by itself is savory. So is the cheese. However, putting them together produces a more complex flavor that the two individually can't provide. It's the reason why a sushi roll has fish in the middle and nori on the outside.

My fish get to experience this a few times a week when I feed them Hikari Spirulina Brine Shrimp.

Other Aquarium Articles of Interest:
*Aquarium Lighting
*Head Pressure in Aquarium Pumps
*Betta Fin Rot
*Aquarium Parasites

New Tank Cycling; Aquarium Blog

2010-09-18T07:56:00.002-07:00

From the Everything Aquatic Thread: New tank cycling parameter confusion by Aquaglory (Nicole)

Hi everyone. It's been a while...

Well, I don't think my tank is fully cycled, yet (I'm at day 33). The pH dropping to 6.0 probably stalled the process, along with some leftover plant decay (from before I had adequate lighting) and from new plants suffering from shipping. I had done some spotty water changes to try to bring up the pH and to get rid of as much decaying plant material as possible, and then the last couple of times added a small amount of bicarb with the water change. When I did this last kind of water change, I noticed that my ammonia went to 0.25ppm, nitrite 0.25ppm, and nitrate 5ppm. I added Amquel plus to protect the cardinals. I have to admit that the last time I added bicarbonate, the pH went up too quickly from 6.0 to 6.5 and I think this triggered an Ich infection. At least the pH has finally stabilized in the past couple of days.

I started Seachem Paraguard yesterday (I had seen one spot on one cardinal the day before yesterday. Today I saw a different cardinal with a single spot, but none on the others). All cardinals are acting lively and healthy, feeding eagerly on Spirulina flakes and picking on the occasional detritus worm (not as many in the tank as before, now). I also added Nitromax (even if it's not ideal, I wanted to boost the system while I was treating with Paraguard, also to help bring down the ammonia/nitrite levels). Interestingly, before adding either the Paraguard or Nitromax yesterday, the parameters were: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, and nitrate 5. I have a lot of plants in the tank with fairly vigorous growth (had to prune some yesterday). I have only tested the pH today, but am planning to test the other parameters, later.

SOOOOO....... What would I do differently if I were to start this process all over again? Carl may or may not disagree with some of this, but I think I would try it this way:

-In this particular situation, I knew I wanted some plants that require better lighting. I would try to start out with the right lighting first to minimize plant die-off in the beginning. The AquaRay GroBeam 500 is working great for my 36 gallon bow front. If anyone is wondering, my plants are doing significantly better than when I had just the T-8 bulb that came originally with the tank. I use both of them, now. As an example, I have some Telanthera reineckii that, after about a third of it melting, is now growing well with the tops of the leaves bronze colored and the undersides very dark pink.

-The Baylee's Better Bottom substrate (meant for plants) that I got on AquaBid.com has worked extremely well for me, so far, so I would use it again. I chose the very fine gravel for easier planting.

-I would fill the tank with treated water, using Seachem Prime (I had avoided it because I had not read the label properly and thought that it coated the fish to give them a slime coat. I didn't want it to coat my Neocaridina shrimp that I have in my 5 gallon tank). I now realize I was wrong, Seachem Prime STIMULATES the slime coat PRODUCTION by the fish rather than choking the fish with some kind of Aloe vera-like coating all over, including the gills. At this point, I will just finish off the Amquel plus/API tap-water conditioner combination that I've been using, so far. This combination is a bit redundant, but the API tap-water conditioner neutralizes toxic metals while the Amquel plus does not. Seachem Prime does it all.

-I would then let things run for 24 hours to let things settle a bit. The tank will be super cloudy at this point.

-I would only bring my pH down from 7.8 (what's in my tap water) to 7.4 or 7.5, but wait until the tank was established before trying to adjust it further. (When I first filled this current tank, I had brought the pH to my desired 6.8 pH level, then the plant decay drove it down further.)

-If I were smart and planned way ahead, I would have place the sponge and the ceramic chips from the new filter into my established tank 2 OR 3 WEEKS PRIOR to starting the new tank. OR If I had media that I could use from an old, non-infected tank, I would then use that in the new tank-- either filter media/sponge or gravel.

-I would still add the driftwood from the established tank. Prior to adding any new/dry driftwood, I would soak it, like I did, for a long time in hot tap water with very frequent total water replacement (at least daily) until the water was not turning yellow much, anymore. Then, when I was ready to place it in the tank, I would soak it one more time but in treated water to get rid of any chlorine/chloramine.

By the way, for any "newbies" reading, the new driftwood developed an unsightly translucent white film for a couple of weeks that eventually went away on its own (the old driftwood did not). Just leave the film alone-- you can't get rid of it manually anyway; all you will do is dislodge swaths of it that will float around your tank.

If I didn't have any media I could use from an old tank, I would use one of the bacterial starters on the market.
I would even consider trying the Tetra Safe Start again, but this time adding it to the tank the day after starting to add some fish food or ammonia drops (Tetra recommends starting with fish the day BEFORE adding the Safe Start so ammonia would be present, but that would be cycling with fish). If I had the money, I would consider the Turbostart700 (super expensive, though). If fish were in the tank, I would minimize feeding (no more than a flake a day) until the tank appeared to be cycled so that the ammonia would not build up too quickly. (I may not feed much more than that even after the tank was cycled.)

Of note: I had kind of started cycling the tank with fish food, but did not continue to add food daily, so I think the ammonia never adequately built up to get the nitrification started. I was concerned about pollution from the food itself. I also mistakenly thought that the decaying plants would provide the ammonia needed. I didn't realize that that decay was actually slowing the process.

-Though I might add plants from day one, I would not add any frilly plants like Myriophyllum (frill), Hornwort, or Cabomba until later in the process when the nitrites would start to show. These fine leaved plants were the ones that disintegrated the most in the beginning and caused the pH crash. If I did add plants from the start, I would first choose Java Fern and/or Annubias, since these are tough plants that tend not to disintegrate so rapidly, if at all, under proper conditions. If there were any plant decay, I would promptly remove it (even with scissors or with a fish net, if necessary).

-Then, I would let the system "roll", adding the necessary ammonia (see Carl's info on cycling tanks) until I would see those sought-after nitrites, followed by nitrate spikes... SIGH...... Also, I read online that water changes ARE advocated to maintain levels of ammonia not too much above 1ppm. This person did a little experiment and actually found that, not only were water changes OK, but the tank that had water changes done cycled faster by one day. (He had 2 tanks both fishless cycled from scratch, using ammonia drops- same dose in both tanks. One tank he left alone other than dosing ammonia, the other he maintained lower ammonia levels with water changes). By the way, this guy also advocated maximum water circulation to optimize oxygenation.

So I hope this little summary of the lessons I have learned so far will help someone else...

(I keep hoping I'm close to cycled!!! LOL)

Nicole

Suggested Reading:

• “The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle”
• “Aquarium Nitrates”
• “Hydrogen Sulfides”
• “Use of RO and Household Soft Water in Aquarium”

Other Reading of Aquatic Interest:

• “Aquarium Lighting”
• “Aquarium Planaria”
• “Wonder Shells”

Bamboo Shrimp; in Aquarium

2010-06-13T09:29:00.003-07:00

By parker002 from the Everything Aquatic Forum Board

I posted my observations about temperature, it's relationship, and how I sensed it was affecting my shrimp.

Several people commented that they appreciated it since there aren't a lot of people here that are keeping them. So I thought I would start a thread to share some of the other things I'm learning now that my bamboo shrimp experience is in full swing. Maybe I can even convince a few of you to get one!

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a scientist or a professional aquarist. This stuff is based on my own observations and some stuff I've read on the internet that is supported by those observations. I AM NOT AN EXPERT.

First of all, if you're not sure what I'm talking about, I'm talking about atyopsis - a "filter feeding" shrimp. At your LFS, you'll see them referred to as bamboo, wood, or flower shrimp. They might also be referred to as Singapore shrimp. They're different from a lot of other shrimp in that they don't have claws, they have 4 feathery front "arms". Rather than killing (like crayfish) or picking (like algae-eaters) with claws, they use their feathers to filter micro-organisms from the water.

Here's a picture of mine. The girls call him Pierre. The picture isn't great, but it does show his filters in action.

The only real advice I can give if you are thinking about getting a bamboo shrimp is to remember that he's not a fish. Of course, that fact is probably why you wanted a shrimp in the first place but the flip-side is that you have to treat him differently, too.

Here are some things I've had to deal with:

Absolutely DO NOT remove all your ornaments while cleaning your tank. These guys want places to hang out. A bare tank is a sure way to stress them to death

food

fish food

livebearers

Also see my comments in the next bullet regarding scavenging

I should be more specific about scavenging. These shrimp are NOT scavengers in the sense that they'll pick through the substrate looking for leftover fish food. In fact, if they're doing that, they're probably STARVING. In the strictest sense of the word, scavenger means an animal that feeds on dead or decaying matter and a bamboo shrimp certainly does that. They just do so PASSIVELY (filtering the water column) whereas I think a lot of people hear scavenger and think of the raccoon in their garbage or a vulture picking at a deer on the highway

bloodworms

Turbo Start

proper mineralization

mineral content

substrate

lighting

after it was

Hopefully, this spurs a few of you to try this out. My shrimp is easily the most interesting item in my tank!

For Sponge Filters which are excellent for use in your Shrimp Aquariums (regardless of type of shrimp), as these provide unbeatable bio filtration in a small space with gentle water agitation. These premium Sponge Filters also provide spaces for shrimp to hide.

For the full Thread, Please follow this link:Bamboo shrimp anecdotes.

For other articles that may interest readers of this article:

*Aquarium Chemistry; Including the importance of Calcium

*Aquarium Planaria

*Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle*Aquarium Lighting; this is an excellent article for those desiring an advanced planted aquarium for their shrimp.

*UV Sterilization; this is an excellent article for those desiring to lower the risk of disease in their shrimp tank, especially since shrimp are sensitive to many medications. This article starts with basics, answers many facts and myths, and provides UV bulb maintenance information too.

*Betta Fin Rot; Ammonia Control

Water clouds with Flourish Iron

2010-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

From the Complete Thread: Water clouds with Flourish Iron

Polaris96
Relatively new to all of this. First let me thank everyone on this site and americanaquariumproducts.com for all of your advice. I'm grateful that there's plenty of real science going on here, in addition to the anecdotal stuff (which is just as important, but much easier to find).

I've got a 10gal planted freshwater tank with community fish (tetras, barbs, 1 gourami, and 2 corys) and some cherry shrimp. Currently using a gravel filter with sponges on the outlets. I add flourish excel every other day and a weekly dose of flourish and flourish iron.

The iron makes my water cloudy for about two days (sometimes three). Is this normal? should I reduce the dose? maybe spread it over several dosings? I doubt the dose is too high because I never show ANY iron content when I test the water (defaulting to the recommended 1mL/10gal)

The tank looks wonderful when the water's clear Anyone had this issue?

Carl
What are your other parameters?

I have not had this happen, but this seems to describe a precipitation out of solution problem (although not a big problem IMO).
The question is why this is happening; my thoughts are your Iron is causing the temporary precipitation of carbonates and calcium/magnesium, especially if your GH or KH is quite high

See also this SeaChem fact sheet:
Flourish Iron

Polaris96
ahhhhhh. yep. that's it.

I've got GH++ right now due to an idiot misread of the dosage on the Seachem Equilibrium bottle (it's embarrassing for an Engineer to admit he f'ed up the chemistry ... ) I dosed a 10gal tank with two tablespoons of Equilibrium. it was a serious error abd whacked my Nitrites in a day. I feel really bad about that.

tank, this morning was:
NH3 [34] 0.25ppm
NO3 0
NO4 10ppm
pH 7
KH 71.6
GH off the scale. My table ends at 214.8ppm for 12 drop titration. I need about 40 drops to kick on the test (API). (one of these days I'll graph the data and extrapolate the curve if the relationship is clear, but, for now, I'm just logging GH as 214.8++)

I've added a water softener pillow, which has caused the GH number to stop climbing, at least. I'm thinking it's gonna be a long haul of gradual dissolution until water changes carry out the overage. At least my local water is good for this (New York, Long Island) I've got high pH and Carbonate but zero magnesium or trace salts (no bedrock, here).

I don't see any way of dealing with this, save to let it run its course. At least nothing seems to be adversely affected (so far).

by the way, any idea why I get no measurable levels of Fe even directly after adding SeaChem Flourish Iron? I have tested with both RedSea and Hagen kits after assuming, incorrectly, that the reagent may have been off.

Carl
Did you mean PO4 rather than NO4 (I cannot think of any compound that NO4 stand for)?

I do not have an answer for testing of your Iron, as I have only added it via dosing, often via root tabs since this is a trace element...

I would not be too concerned about your GH as 200-300 is not even close to a dangerous level, as well GH is also necessary to prevent ph spikes during peak hours of photosynthesis and this cloudy water issue is only a temporary nuisance.
You could also try mixing the iron supplement in a gallon of your tank water than setting it aside for a couple of days to settle prior to adding to your aquarium.

See these articles for further information:
Aquarium Chemistry; pH, GH, KH, more

Planted Freshwater Aquarium Care

Polaris96
NO4 would be a pernitrate, and I'm not even sure if nitrogen will form one in the regular environment. Its goobledygook - I messed up. sorry for the confusion.

I should have written NO2 instead of NO3 and NO3 instead of NO4.

I have already read the articles you included, but thanks anyway for the links. It's obvious you put a good deal of analytical rigor into them and I've referred a bunch of my peers who have aquaria to them.

So refreshing not to hear another rant on, " Duuuuuuuuuuuuude my African Cichlids don't bother any other fish as long as I keep feeding them tetramin boiled for exactly 23 minutes in whale fat. They just SAY that crap about aggression to get you to buy another tank, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan."

Carl
OK, I forgot all about this.
My understanding of NO4 pernitrate cannot exist because O (Oxygen) is always -2 in a compound

How did you test for pernitrate?

I have to admit I have never thought of or had a question about pernitrate, so my knowledge of this is very basic.

Polaris96
I meant to say I screwed up the empirical formula for Nitrates and Nitrites by adding an extra Oxygen radical to each. I didn't test for pernitrates; I just messed up the formula when I wrote the post.

The compound could, theoretically, exist, because Oxygen and Nitrogen are both anions ( "-" charged). It would require a cation group to balance the sum of the negative charges. That’s why nitrates and nitrites always exist as "something" nitrate (eg. Potassium Nitrate or Ammonium Nitrate). I know you know this already, I'm just throwing it in for the benefit of any interested hobbyists that might skim the post.

I don't think there are many naturally occurring cation groups that fit pernitrate charge criteria, but this is only a hunch. A Horticultural or Agricultural chemist would be our "go to" guy here for hard facts. I think you would already know about pernitrates if they were important.

By the way, has anybody experimented with Ozone to energize the Redox potential in aquaria? It has seen some usage in atmospheric recycling.

Carl
Ozone has been used in the past in the Aquarium Hobby to increase the Redox.
However the other side of the equation has often been overlooked in the hobby

Babygeige
I don't really have anything to add as to the science/chemistry aspect of this conversation, but I'm just curious what plants you have in your tank.

Generally from what I've read, most of the basic maintenance plants don't really require the addition of iron, they'll get enough of what they need from the trace amounts in water. Unless you're growing plants with red leaves and high light requirements, you may not even need to add this.

I haven't used any iron additives in my tanks yet. I've only just begun to consider it for my Narrow Leaf Ludwigia, only as an experiment to see if it would make a difference in its color.

.....it looks like you need the Iron in there, if only for the pogo and red ludwigia. I think I am going to try some for my ludwigia too. The leaves on mine have a slightly reddish tint to them, but I'm very curious to see how much the addition of iron would help.

I can't think of why iron doesn't show up on your testing though. I wonder if the bottle of additive is ok. Do they expire? Or perhaps you got a bad bottle...

Bikeguy
the iron tests DO expire....but that only makes it less sensitive....it should register something. the odds of 2 kits being off tho are astronomical. now i`m not a chemist....but could there be some other element in the New York water that is neutralizing the iron??? kinda like the ammo out that changes ammonia???

To continue reading this thread, please follow this link:
Water clouds with Flourish Iron

Also for plant lighting information, please see this top notch article:

*Aquarium Lighting

OR for Freshwater Care in General:

*Freshwater Aquarium Care, Cloudy Water Information

A Couples of suggested filters for planted aquariums:

Rena Filstar Filter and Parts

TMC Fluidized Filter

Uninterruptible Power Source/ UPS Test

2010-03-24T14:01:00.001-07:00

From the complete thread: UPS Test

fishfever:
This might be of some interest to anyone that experiences power outages from time to time and was considering a UPS purchase to keep things running during a blackout. On Black Friday I purchased a couple of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), mostly to replace some aging ones I had for computer backup but since the sale price was so good I ended up getting 2 spare ones. I wanted to try one out for aquarium back-up power to run at least 1 filter in my tank when power is lost. The model I got was an APC 550VA/330W; it just so happens that one of the larger aquarium supply businesses also sells this model for this purpose (I can't recall who now) but I didn't know this at the time of purchase. Anyway I've been experimenting a bit with it off and on when I have spare time.

As a reference, I used a 40-watt lamp as my first test. To test the UPS, it must be fully charged (overnight) then unplugged from the wall to simulate power loss. The 40-watt lamp lasted exactly 90 minutes which was pretty good. Next I tried some air pumps and HOB filters each by them self to isolate each test load. The results weren't nearly as good. Of the 3 air pumps I have only one ran normally. The other two did not run or the output dropped to virtually nothing. I also have 3 HOB filters and only one ran completely normally. One ran acceptably but seemed a little erratic and one did not run.

TEST
----

40-watt lamp - ran 90 minutes
no-name small air pump that came with 3g hex tank - did not run
TopFin (Petsmart brand) 60g air pump - did not run
Whisper 10 air pump with 2.2-watt motor - ran normally for 65 minutes
Aqueon 10 HOB - ran, forgot time but seemed to have trouble starting at first so had to cycle power manually
Aqueon 30 HOB - did not run, made clicking noises

Via Aqua Vitalife 200 HOB with 8-watt motor - ran normally for 60 minutes

Although we generally have reliable power here and it's rare to lose power for more than a few hours, I thought this would be a nice addition to my setup; it also has surge protection built-in (it has surge-protected outlets that are not battery-backed) so it may help pro-long the life of other things (heater, UV sterilizer, etc.).
You may be wondering why the run times (for those that ran normally) are so low, especially compared to the 40-watt lamp which would appear to be a much bigger load. Without getting too technical, this particular UPS (and most of the cheaper ones) when on battery backup attempts to synthesize the normal household waveform (sinusoidal) instead of generating a true sinusoid. This can play havoc with some kinds of loads (motors in particular). Other possible problems that could reduce motor efficiency are harmonics and low power factor but I suspect the main problem here is the approximated sinusoid output (which can increase harmonics as well).

I also tried piggybacking my spare UPS to see if I could get double the run time but the second UPS would make clicking noises every few seconds when I unplugged the first UPS from the wall (meaning it was confused by the non-sinusoid output and was switching back and forth between normal and lost power mode). It should be noted that if you are wanting to run a resistive load like a heater with a UPS it should be fine (although I can't see the need for this since temperature drops rather slowly).

Carl
Interesting post fishfever

This is subject that I have actually had a lot of experience in, in part dating back to the 1980s to find a way to protect my clients tanks from power failure where I designed my own DC pumps with electric switches (I purchased at Radio Shack) to hold the circuit open while plugged into House Current (loss of power closed the circuit)

Later as I became an avid RV camper I experimented with Inverters (which convert DC to AC power), in the late 90s.

The first "cheaper" inverter (rated at 400 watts) although claiming to be a modified sine wave inverter, could not run many pieces of equipment such as drills and motors.
The second model although rated at 400 watts too (800 surge) had no problem loading up to its rating.

Both were connected to Deep Cycle batteries in parallel; by parallel, this means placing the batteries in connection in such a way that keeps the batteries at 12 volts, but nearly doubles amp output versus in series which would make the output 24 volts (4 1.5 V 'D' Batteries in series would be 6 V).
By using the same energy source, I knew this ruled out the lack of energy since you (for example) cannot connect a 1500 watt inverter to one standard auto battery.

I know true sine wave inverters are available, but according to reviews I have read from RV Journals, these give little more than the modified sine wave but for the most delicate of electronics, which your aquarium equipment does not qualify as.

What I do not know is why the more costly (triple the cost) heavy duty inverter worked better than the cheap one when the ratings were the same, but I suspect that the claim of a modified sine wave was not true, as it behaved more like a square wave inverter.

My suggestion is to get one or two deep cycle batteries and connect a good modified sine wave inverter to them, your run time will be vastly longer.

In fact in 2000, I used a couple of series 24 Deep Cycle RV Batteries and a 800 watt inverter for my Aquarium Store. We had a major blackout in 2001 and were able to run all our electronics (cash registers, etc.), pumps, lights (no heaters, air though, but then it was summer in LA). This ran fine for a few hours with a full load when power returned. What was interesting is that mobile 24/7 radio reporter for LA station KFWB was driving down the street we were located on and noticed our business was still functioning while others were in the black, and interviewed an employee of mine who showed them our system.

BTW, the Azoo continuous run pump I sell has an AC motor (at least it appears so when I took it apart since it uses a vibrator motor which require alternating current to function), so this pump is essentially an inverter as opposed to a converter (or DC switch). I should note that I only took apart the pump part, but I think this is a safe assumption.

fishfever
I was out of town for a few days but had a few minutes this morning to capture some waveforms. I used an old scope and a simple resistor network to divide the voltage down to something that wouldn't overload/damage my scope.

This is the way our normal 115vac right from the wall appears or when the UPS is plugged into the wall. As you can see, it's not a perfect sinusoid (could be to the various loads on it) but it's pretty close to a pure sinusoid:

This is the output of the UPS when unplugged from the wall and using it's internal battery-powered inverter:

I also had an old Tripplite inverter in my pickup truck so I hooked it up to a 13vdc power supply and looked at it as well:

As you can see these inverters are nowhere near sinusoidal output. They call them modified sine but the approximation is really, really poor. I was expecting (or hoping to see) small stair-step approximations but this is only slightly better than a square wave. The only thing that makes this slightly better than a square wave is the duty cycle (amount of time waveform is not zero per cycle) is a lot lower than 100%. It is no wonder that the ac motors don't like to run well off of these inverters. I understand from talking to APC tech support that they make a SmartUPS series that has sinusoidal output (but is also pricier). I think I can do better by getting my own sinusoid UPS and battery combination; I'll report back when I get around to this... But in the mean time, I'd steer clear of general run-of-the-mill UPS types for aquarium back-up power as it's likely to be a big waste of money and time.

Carl
Although I have never "scoped" mine (I do not have one, but my Dad does, so maybe he can check his someday), I have not had issues with my Tripplite heavy duty modified sine wave inverter that is hard wired into my camper.
I did have problems with a cheapie one purchased at Walmart than connects to a cigarette lighter or clips to the batteries.

My understanding is that the modified sine wave is more like the square wave when scoped than the true sine wave.

Please see this article from an online RV Blog I subscribe to:
RV Doctor – Should I Install an Inverter in My RV?

Likely there are differences in quality, as I had similar issues with the cheapie Walmart inverter of similar cost to yours.
Where as the heavy duty hard wired unit cost me $400 (although this price has come down since I purchased as most electronics have)

parker002
I take it nothing running in the aquarium requires any power conditioning? I have two UPS' but they're for computers. I could run my aquarium off of one of them, but I wouldn't think of running my servers off of a homemade DC inverter.

fishfever
Power conditioning is always better than none and is easily provided using an inexpensive passive wall strip to distribute power when there is no power outage. The sine wave output inverters we are talking about are not homemade; however they are more expensive than the cheaper modified sine versions (which is really just a square wave with the output suppressed to 0 for a period as it crosses through 0).

You may find that if your UPS is not sine output (most aren't) your motorized things like pumps will either run for a lot lower time than their power consumption would indicate or not run at all (about half the stuff I tried did not run). For computers and other electronics with switching power supplies the waveform type is not critical. A switching power supply rectifies and filters (converts AC to high-voltage DC) before chopping this DC at a much higher frequency than the 60 Hz line input. So it really matters little whether the waveform starts off as a sinusoid or not since it's immediately converted to DC. But many/most AC motors are not going to run right and/or run inefficiently with the non-sinusoidal power.

fishfever
Well I've made good progress on the new UPS testing and have learned/discovered an awful lot... a lot more than I can post here without getting into rather technical stuff and boring everyone to death. LOL Anyway this new UPS I bought charges up much faster (about 3.5 hrs from fully drained to fully charged) so I was able to run a number of tests in a fairly short while. One thing I discovered is this is more than an open box UPS - it has probably been in use for about a year. I found this out when I downloaded some software from APC's web site so I can monitor and tweak some settings (for example I don't want to hear it beep every 30 secs when power is lost).

There are tons of things you can monitor and/or change (like internal temp, battery voltage, etc.). One parameter was the battery installation date which was Nov 2008. Another giveaway that this is used UPS is some sticky residue on the case where someone pulled a label off the case. This is probably where someone put the user name/password needed to log into the UPS because this is also where I put my label with my created user name/password. ;-)

So a used UPS means the battery has some degradation from age and use. Batteries have a shelf/usage life and generally age faster at warmer temps. This UPS does not have an internal fan since it's a low-end model (the smallest pure sine UPS that APC makes). The monitor screen showed the temp at 36.9 C after it had been on a while so I clipped a tiny CPU fan (maybe 1-watt) over the ventilation holes and the internal temp dropped to 24.3 C (about room temp) after a while. This should extend the battery life going forward but whatever degradation has occurred in the past can't be reversed. The battery terminal voltage also increased from 24.57 to 26.59 volts after the unit cooled down (good sign).

I ran a test with the same 40w incandescent lamp I used with the previous (modified sine) UPS. I also tested it with all my filters/pumps. Every one of them runs just fine (not surprisingly) with the pure sinusoidal power. Here are the results:

TEST, 750VA/500W Pure Sine UPS
-------------------------

1. 40-watt lamp - ran 93 minutes (this is somewhat low compared to the APC run time calculator so this can probably be associated with not having a brand new set of batteries installed, APC estimates 126 minutes for a 40-watt load)
2. no-name small air pump that came with 3g hex tank - runs fine, did not time run length by itself
3. TopFin (Petsmart brand) 60g air pump - runs fine, did not time run length by itself
4. Whisper 10 air pump with 2.2-watt motor - ran normally for 4 hours, 17 mins
5. Aqueon 10 HOB - runs fine, did not time run length
6. Aqueon 30 HOB - runs fine, did not time run length
7. Via Aqua Vitalife 200 HOB with 8-watt motor - ran normally for 3 hours, 48 mins
8. Ran tests #2, #3, and #7 simultaneously - all ran normally for 2 hours, 40 mins
9. Nothing connected to UPS - shut down after 3 hours, 44 mins

So the revelation here is that the UPS itself with NO LOAD has a finite run time similar to a small load. Why is this? The reason is the UPS inverter itself consumes power EVEN IF THERE IS NO LOAD. This is why if you compare tests #4, #7, and #9 you will see it doesn't seem to matter if a filter/pump is connected or not - the limiting factor in the run time is UPS itself! (It is a little odd that the Whisper 10 actually increased run time over nothing connected at all but there is probably a good bit of variance repeating runs, I didn't bother to explore this.) Only when I connected several filters/pumps as in test #8 did the run time drop substantially from the rest of them (in other words, now the load is big enough to have a bearing on the run time).

Here is the efficiency curve of my UPS from APC's web site (copyright APC):

UPS Efficiency

This confirms that the efficiency (effective power transferred to load) drops substantially when using it at the low end of the load range. In fact with a small 8-watt filter like the Via Aqua, we are only at 1.6% loading (8/500) which is actually off the chart (well, well below 50% efficiency if you examine the slope of the curve which intersects with zero efficiency at 0% load). So this explains why it almost doesn't matter whether the filter is plugged in; almost all the power is being consumed within the UPS!

Although I'm satisfied for now with nearly quadruple the run-time with this new UPS (I think it would be closer to 5 hours or more with new batteries), this is still not the optimum solution for emergency run power. One could go to a higher VA/watt UPS as long as the batteries were actually higher amp-hours and not just a larger inverter (and hope the UPS low-end efficiency does not consume too much of the battery). But a better (and much smaller, less expensive) solution for a single tank or small number of tanks would be a smaller inverter that was sized just big enough to run the emergency filter/pump.

This would shift the whole efficiency curve to the left AND allow more reasonable sized batteries (i.e. smaller) to run your filter/pump. Unfortunately I don't know of anything like this out there because most who would buy a UPS are trying to run high-power equipment so this would be kind of a niche product. The closest thing is probably the Azoo UPS pump that American Aquarium Products sells but it would be nice if instead of the dedicated air pump they made one with just an outlet where you could plug your own small low-power filter or pump into (limited to maybe 10-15 watts). For a large number of tanks with lots of filters/pumps the larger inverter/custom battery solution is a no-brainer.

I'm of the opinion that the sine versus modified sine is primarily a factor for whether your motor runs or not based on the data I collected. It is much less a factor for determining how well the motor runs (i.e. length of run time, motor efficiency). So you can probably get away with a cheaper UPS (modified sine) if you are sure your filter/pump can run off a modified sine or are able to test your filter/pump on a particular UPS before purchasing it.

*** Several Skipped Posts***

fishfever
I have finished putting together my emergency power unit and installed it in the tank today. I have run many cycles and quite satisfied that everything is working as it should with full unattended backup power and recovery should we lose power while away on a trip or vacation. I did try the very simple battery/charger/inverter wiring connection but there some big drawbacks to this scheme. First the battery charger (which needs to be a "smart" or "staged" charger to avoid overcharging the lead-acid battery) is fooled when the inverter/load is also connected. The charge time goes up greatly and the charger doesn't behave well (hard to explain without getting real technical) which makes me believe it could shorten battery life by never going to a "float" charging mode. In addition, the inverter will not restart when the power is restored until it is reset by disconnecting the battery (which is not completely dead but measures around 10.5 volts).

So this would mean somebody would have to be present when power is restored to reset or else the filter wouldn't run even with normal power available. I was only planning to use this wiring scheme temporarily to check inverter reliability by running 24/7 for a while but after seeing these issues I went straight to my final scheme which has automatic switching circuits to overcome these problems. I have run many cycles and haven't noticed any issues. I'll probably continue running cycles for awhile more although I'm starting to get sick of testing! The switchovers (both from normal to emergency and emergency back to normal) occur almost instantaneously and I notice no break at all in the water flow from my Vitalife 200 HOB. I ordered a 7AH battery to replace the one I had been borrowing from my UPS but the battery company sent me a 9AH instead. It is physically the same size but weighs about 1.5 lbs heavier. With this battery I'm getting over 16 hours run time on the Vitalife 200 and probably over 60 hours with the small Whisper 10 air pump (but I have not bothered to verify the 60+ number).

Here is a picture of the backup unit ready to install:

The total weight is 9 lbs which is significantly lighter than the 30 lb UPS that it is replacing. I bought the base from a local Goodwill store for a whole $2! Since I had most of the small electrical items in my junk box, I probably paid about $75 for everything. I imagine with careful shopping one could put it together for about $100 from scratch not including labor cost of course. (Note: I was trying more for functionality than looks. LOL)

And here it is installed (vertically to save space):

It only uses about a 5" x 5" corner space so I have regained a good bit of tank stand floor space by replacing the bulky inverter (and more than quadrupled the emergency run time as well). My next project will be to clean up the ugly cable mess by mounting the power strip up high off the floor which will give me even more space for food, maintenance items, etc. I also plan on adding an audible alarm so that in the unlikely event we get a power interruption of more than 16 hours I can replace the battery with a fresh one (probably a 7AH from one of my spare UPS's).

To read the complete thread/blog (this is an ongoing blog): UPS Test

For another resource of related interest:
Aquarium Lighting; the most researched and updated article on the subject of aquarium lighting (including LED Aquarium Lights) found anywhere on the internet!

Aquarium Chemistry Suggestions; from Everything Aquatic

2010-02-22T14:10:00.001-08:00

Threads from Everything Aquatic Members

This post takes posts from many different threads at the Everything Aquatic Board (which do not appear in internet searches as Pro Boards uses “no follow” tags)
The obvious theme is aquarium chemistry as it pertains to minerals and buffers in aquariums and the importance of positive mineral ions for fish health, disease prevention/treatment and more.

Kagome:
I put a medicated wondershell in my 20g and this cleared up the floating algae. I now that I have changed the light in the ceiling next to it and have blocked off the sun coming in the nearest window I think I have finally beaten this back enough to resolve this issue. I am still very careful with food and have upped the cleaning schedule a bit. Things in that tank must not be going too bad because the rams are about to spawn again. They have dug a new nest and are guarding it.

fishfever:
So in summary I'd say you need to focus on getting the tank cycled either with fish or without (without is less work IMHO and usually won't require a lot of water changes). I'd consider upgrading the filtering depending on how much of a bio-load you plan on having. For example mollies are great community fish and very personable and friendly (ours lets us pet them for example) but they are also voracious eaters and create a lot of waste. They also get quite big (the 2 adults we own have doubled in length and probably quadrupled in mass/weight) so I'd say one is plenty for a 10g tank! Keep max fish growth size in mind unless you plan to upgrade to a larger tank in the future. Spot test your tap water so you know what you are dealing with; for example my tap water is soft and acidic so I treat it by adding Wonder shells to my tank to get the missing minerals and adding buffer to raise the pH to a level I'm targeting (and more importantly adding buffering capacity to keep the pH stable). Good luck and keep us posted!

fishfever:
You said the molly was hanging around the top which is usually a sign of stress and/or not being able to get enough oxygen. I've seen this before - in fact just recently with a blue Mickey Mouse platy we just got. We put her in an isolation tank with a medicated Wonder shell for about 1.5 weeks and gave her a couple of salt/MB baths and now she is doing very well in our main tank. Mollies are pretty hardy fish but if this one is already stressed it may not be the best one for cycling with fish.

fishfever:
I also have livebearers and tetras in the same tank with tetras generally preferring somewhat more acidic, softer water and livebearers preferring more basic, harder water. So I kind of split the difference on the pH (tap is very soft and acidic, about 6.4) and use Malawi buffer to keep it in the 7.0 to 7.4 range. Your GH/KH seems like it might be enough for tetras but I think you want higher numbers for the livebearers... an excellent and cheap way to do this is to keep Wonder shells in your tank. I always have 2 medium sized ones in my 26g, one that is almost wasted and one that is almost new. As babygeige says, once you decide on a target pH (if different from your tap), keep it consistent (so if it's different from your tap use the right amount of buffer with each water change).

Although this is subjective, the general health of my fish over the long term has improved since I started using the UV sterilizer. I am using the 5W terminator in my 26g (the UV Bulb should be replaced every six months for optimum effectiveness). I would recommend getting the kit form with the pump and tubes so there's nothing else to buy to get going with it. I was able to get mine hooked up and running in much less than an hour.

babygeige:
A lot of the science can be confusing, but I think the most important thing is to keep your tank consistent. Chasing after a specific pH, GH or KH number with chemicals will usually cause more harm than good. Wonder shells are handy for helping with minerals and such. Consistent cleaning and water changes will help you keep things in order.

ironbiker:
All the other fish appear fantastic, including the two other Monos.. I use the Seachem Malawi /Victoria Buffer in conjunction with the Salt...I also used a product called AragaMight by CaribSea I was told it was a similar product to Wonder Shells, which I cant find locally. I just re-read the whole thread and noticed you mentioned the salt ratio of 1 " Tablespoon" per 5 gal. .....my ratio is basically 1 "Teaspoon" for 10 gal which would mean I am at a lot less them your recommendations...3 teaspoons =1 Tablespoon...and my ratio is based upon 10 gal instead of 5... I am guessing my salt levels are way to low... ::) I have spent many hours on this forum reading the many informative and very helpful tips and articles posted by you , I have learned SO MUCH, since I found this place , I really cant thank you and everyone else enough for all your help and guidance....and A Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family

goldenpuon:

I counted my fish (Guppies) and again I got the feeling that a fish was missing. I kept trying to get the number of fish (again they swim super fast so trying to get their numbers is extremely difficult) and came to the conclusion that there was only 9 plus one of my blue tailed females was nowhere to be found. I searched around and then finally found her, mildly wet and flopping on the floor under my dresser. I immediately put her back in but shockingly, her only symptoms of stress was that her breathing was slightly heavy, her tail fin was dulled in color, and her dorsal fin partially down. I put in a regular wonder shell for a day to help with stress just in case. She is doing better now and is schooling with the others and eating well.

goldenpuon:
I have had scoliosis develop in young bettas and guppy fry before. Much of the time, even if the scoliosis was bad, they still ate well and acted healthy. I actually have a male betta that is almost two years old that developed scoliosis about a month ago. I have increased his food intake (he was losing weight as well) and added wonder shells and he is doing better now.

My best advice would be to feed her good quality food, keep the best water parameters possible, and if she is lacking any nutrients, add a wonder shell to the tank. Also, is she showing any other symptoms? In my experience, scoliosis is a sign of a deformed fish but not sickly one. If it is scoliosis and you take good care of her, she may last a while to come. Best of luck with her!

For recommended related reading information:
*Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle- this is by far the most accurate/researched article dealing with the aquarium & pond nitrogen cycle!

Other Suggested Resources:

*Aquarium Chemistry
*Aquarium Redox
*A Healthy Aquarium; Disease Prevention
*Freshwater Care, Basics to Advanced

If You Use Salt in Freshwater Aquarium

2009-11-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Interesting Aquatic (Aquarium/Pond) Posts from Everything Aquatic Page 1;

From this thread: If you use salt...

By Fishfever

Please refer to the above post for the full thread
First, this is not a whether to use or not use salt question. I do use it in the tank, hospital tank as well as baths and have been experimenting for a while with the very cheap water softener salt available at hardware stores. If you use salt and want to save money on aquarium salt, this might be helpful.

The only kind of water softener salt that I've found locally are the 40 lb bags with mostly huge crystals for about $5/bag. So once I figured out what 1 tablespoon of water softener salt weighs (I took a bunch of salt and crushed them to aquarium salt size in a thick bag and put it on a scale) I know that 1.XX ounces (forgot what XX is now) of uncrushed salt is the equivalent of 1 tablespoon of normal sized aquarium salt. So I adjusted the zero control on my scale with a container on it so that when I put 1.XX ounces or 1 tablespoon of uncrushed crystals it reads exactly 2 ounces. This way I don't have to measure 1.XX ounces, I just put enough crystals in the container to line it up with the 2 ounce line. Now I have all these clean jars (about 5 of them). I put 1 tablespoon of uncrushed salt in each except for the large container in which I put 2 tablespoons of uncrushed salt. Fill them with water and let them sit. I could agitate to speed this up but I don't bother since I have plenty of jars and there are always jars with fully dissolved salt. I use the big jar when I'm doing a larger water change and I know there are 2 tablespoons for dissolved salt in it by the jar size. Every time I use a jar I fill it back up with salt and water and rotate it to the back of the line.

I don't know how much salt I've used so far but the bag looks almost as full as the day I bought it so it's possible I'll never have to buy salt again. LOL

You can read more about salt use in freshwater setups in Carl's Salt Article (I believe in the fish illness section). Since I have cory cats and tetras in my 26g I use only 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons. Since each of my jars of dissolved water softener salt have 1 tablespoon, I normally use 1/3 bottle per 5-6 gallon water change. So at any time I may have some full bottles, 2/3 full bottles or 1/3 full bottles ready to be used. In my fry tank I use a full tablespoon per 5g since it only has livebearers (platys/mollies). I also sometimes increase the salt in the 26g to as much as 1 tablespoon or slightly more when treating for disease or a problem that is helped by salt over the short term (maybe 1-3 weeks). Then when I am done treating I can ratchet it back down to 1 teaspoon/5g by either making a larger water change with no salt added or a series of smaller water changes over a normal schedule with no salt added. Then it's back to 1 teaspoon/5g on future water changes.

I also note that since my tap water is extremely soft (no detectable hardness on my water test kits) I use Wonder shells to add the important missing minerals in my tap water.

© Everything Aquatic Forum Board 2009, fishfever, All Rights Reserved.

Other Articles that may be of Interest:

*Aquarium Salt use in Freshwater

*Aquarium Lighting; THE most complete aquatic lighting article available on the Internet!

*Aquarium Water Chemistry; a very comprehensive aquarium chemistry article that dispels many of the myths about aquatic chemistry, especially with Betta & Amazon River Water and positive mineral ion importance.

How to Perform a Methylene Blue Bath without Stains

2009-04-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

How to Perform a Methylene Blue Bath on a Small to Medium-Sized Fish without Stains

By Renee Wise
With editing by Kagome and Carl

Materials:
1. Eyedropper
2. 1 quart plastic container and top
3. Two or more large towels (old ones you don’t mind getting stained)
4. Net
5. Methylene Blue bottle
6. Two or more empty milk jugs
7. Timer
8. Clean Rags
9. One spare container: approximately 1 quart or larger
10. Access to a toilet to or a place outside to dump Methylene blue bath water
11. Hose

Introduction:
When you perform a Methylene Blue bath for your fish, it is important that you take precautions to reduce the risk of Methylene Blue staining anything in your house. Methylene Blue (MB) acts much like a dye and will stain almost any surface it touches including carpet, tile, and wood. The MB may be cleaned off with hard scrubbing or fade in time but any fabric stained with MB most likely will be permanently stained. Therefore, near foolproof plan to prevent spills is recommended. Here are some steps you can follow to avoid a mess and make these baths a more pleasurable experience for both human and fish alike.

The Process:

• Lay out your materials (as listed above) in a calm, quiet setting. Once you have the materials ready, clear some space near your aquarium on a dresser or a surface you know won’t be disturbed. Set one towel down there.

• If possible, try to ensure that the room temperature in this area isn’t much different than in your aquarium to help prevent temperature shock to the fish that will receive the bath.

• Carefully remove the top on your aquarium. Take your quart plastic container and fill it ¾ of the way with your AQUARIUM water. Then, carefully, spooking the fish as little as possible, net the fish you wish to bathe and gently place it in your quart container.

• Carefully unscrew the lid of your MB bottle, placing the lid face down so any residue on the bottle cap will not get on any surfaces. Make sure that your bottle of MB and any object with MB on it is kept on the towel at ALL times to help prevent staining should a spill occur.

• Now take your eyedropper and fill it with MB. Squirt as much as you wish to use into the bath. Squirt any excess back into the bottle. Immediately put the bottle cap back on the bottle of MB in order to help prevent spillage.

• Carefully suck up water from the bath into the eyedropper and squirt it back into the bath container several times to dilute the MB in the eyedropper. Set your eyedropper in your spare container.

• Put the lid on the bath container to prevent the fish from jumping out.

• Set your timer for the desired amount of time, 20-30 minutes is usually recommended.

• Make sure the room is not disturbed and keep an eye on your fish to make sure it is not showing any signs of distress. You may busy yourself with something else in the room while the bath is going on but don’t disturb the area where any of your materials or the fish are or leave the room completely.

• When the timer dings, carefully remove the top and net the fish. Release your fish back into your aquarium and put your net in the spare container with the eyedropper. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DUMP THE MB BATH WATER BACK INTO YOUR DISPLAY TANK!! MB is an excellent medication but if put into a display aquarium it may stain décor, silicone sealant, and worst of all it will kill the beneficial bacteria that make up your aquarium’s biological filter. A few drops of bath water won’t hurt anything but just pouring the fish back into the aquarium with the bath water will have disastrous results.

• Carefully dump your bathwater into the toilet and flush two or more times until there is no Methylene Blue residue in the toilet.

• Now grab a rag and head outside with your bath container and your container with the eyedropper and net in it. Turn on the hose and thoroughly rinse out your 2 containers, the net, and the eyedropper. Make sure you place your rag in an area where it won’t get wet. After there is no sign of MB on any of your materials, turn off the hose.

• Gently dry your eyedropper, two containers and net. When you come back in, turn on the tap and sterilize them with hot water, vinegar, bleach, or your preferred method for sterilizing your materials. Dry them off with your rag and return them to their respective places.

Note: If it is too cold outside to run a hose, use 2 empty milk jugs and fill them with water to rinse your equipment. Be aware that you may have to go back in to refill them several times.

• Any towels or rags that have MB spilled on them should be put in the washing machine immediately and washed separately from other clothes. Note that you may have to wipe MB off your washing machine afterwards. Also note that the stains on your towels may be permanent but they should not stain anything else they touch once they have been laundered.

• Search for any stains in your work areas and if there is any MB on hard surfaces such as tile, grab a rag, put a dot of soap on it and use a lot of elbow grease to get it off. Rinse to get the soap off when you are done. Afterwards, put the rag in the washing machine to wash it separately. Note that if you get any Methylene Blue on any fabric or carpeting, the blue stain may be permanent or require professional cleaning to get out.

Conclusion: With practice, bathing fish this way can be a trouble-free experience. It is a great way to lessen the effects of stress on fish, kill unwanted pathogens, and increase the oxygen in your fish’s blood or reduce the severity of ammonia poisoning. You may have a few problems at first but if you keep at it and follow these directions, in time you are likely to be able to perform a bath without ever getting a stain. Reread this as often as you want, whenever you need to perform a MB bath for your fish.

Please refer to this article in the Bath and Dip section for more about the methods (such as the use of salt and other medications to compliment the Methylene Blue in the bath/dip):
“Aquarium Disease Prevention; Section 9, Baths/Dips”
OR
Fish Baths; Aquarium Answers

Fish Bath Video

For Sponge Filters which are excellent for use in your hospital tanks for sick fish or quarantine of new fish, these ATI Hydro Sponge filters are second to none and this resource is the leader in use and knowledge of this product/filter; why buy from anywhere else?

SeaChem Stability can be helpful for emergency cycling of a hospital tank or a display tank damaged by treatment

Breeding of African Cichlids

2009-04-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Breeding of African Cichlids
by Jon Votraw

1. Introduction
2. Basic topics
3. Advanced topics
4. Comments

Introduction:

Welcome to the wonderful world of breeding African cichlids. I’d first like to start out saying, most of what I’ll be talking about are things that are already known or are in practice for the most part. I don’t want to mislead any reader into thinking this is some new revolutionary discovery. What I’d like to do with this article is take some of the known methods and aspects of African Cichlid breeding, and discuss them in depth as well as go into extra dimensions of the subject.

Basic Topics:

Where to start? How about we first start with sexing? This is one of the subjects that more experienced breeders often use what they have seen through numerous observations in their own stock. Sexing is an important aspect when it comes to breeding for several reasons, but a couple of the bigger points I feel, are that having too many males in one space can be a big problem in the overall health of your stock, and being mislead on the gender of a fish, could have you waiting to see something you won’t be able to see.

A. Sexing:

For the most part, one is going to find over time, the most accurate method of sexing your stock will be venting. In short, you will hold the fish in your hand and look at the underside of the fish, and examine the vent area just above the anal fin and anal pour. The size of the vent will give you a strong indicator of the gender of the fish. I and a few others have written up a basic overview of venting and to assist you with visual input, I’ll link you to that article. Please look on this page.

Sexing/Venting Cichlids

As mentioned above, sexing is something important to do as having too many males in one footprint can lead to fighting and dominance issues among the other males, as well as give you a harder time to determine which females have spawned with which males. If you are trying to rebreed females back with a certain male in hopes to bring out certain traits in your fry, you are likely best only keeping that one male in the tank with the females, and holding the subdominant males in other tanks. However, if you do not know how to sex the fish to begin with, this whole aspect becomes a moot point to discuss. This is just one of many reasons why you would want to sex fish.

When it comes to fish health, stress is a major contributor, among other topics, that can cause poor or degraded health. African Cichlid males really just do not tolerate other males in the same space very well, though, there are some milder aggressive species that don’t seem to exhibit this as much. On this subject, while not directly about sexing itself, it’s important to understand what happens with having multiple males in a tank. Out of a group of males, one male sometimes 2 depending on tank size, will begin to grow stronger and show more brilliant colors. As this male emerges the more dominant of a group, it will become aggressive and assert itself on other males of it’s species, and sometimes other species of similar look. The balance of the other males, will either stay mostly under cover, stay in a corner of the tank, and as well subdue their look to the point you could mistake this fish for a female, or even worse, be unable to cope with the constant stress that a dominant male will exert, and end up dying.

While the first two points deal with for the most part, mouth brooding African cichlids, it is also important for us to consider the aspects of egg laying or substrate spawners too. Knowing how to sex a species like this, while usually dimorphic, is important just as well. While I have no documentation to support this, in my personal observations of Pytchochromis Oligocanthus, in the tank as well as spawning, it does appear very much that substrate spawners of African cichlids imitate or follow much like South Americans in that a pair and bond will form. Sexing a group or species that spawns in the substrate is important to know, as you do not want to try to breed groups like this in the typical harems you breed mouthbrooders in.

B. Tank space

Once you have a grasp on the species you have and how to sex them, you should also be taking into consideration the amount of space you need to keep them. What I find important about this point is there is a difference in many cases, between breeding space, and community space. This subject may end up seeming complex, but it really isn’t. Let’s begin with looking at mouthbrooders, specifically, Mbuna.

Mbuna are for the most part, rather aggressive as a species, with some milder ones mixed in. Males compete for space among the rocks and décor, in the substrate area. Typically a male that is dominant will build or create a nest spawning area in which to lure a female into, for the purposes of spawning. A male will not always make or build a pit as flat surfaces such as slate or other rock types in your tank can be used as well. When a male is courting a female, the area in which he is trying to lure a female into will become a temporary territory in which the male will feel and claim as his, and drive off any other fish, except for females of his species. What I have witnessed in my Mbuna stock, is these area’s are basically temporary. The amount of time or duration it lasts is difficult to say and I have not actually measured the time frame, but at some point after spawning has occurred, males tend to go back to community dwelling boundries.

A male will typical cruise around or patrol a certain area, and the sight of other males when he is around will generally trigger a heightening of the colors, as well as fin flaring, and if the other male does not back down or yield to this male, eventually, either a ramming lip lock fight will ensue, or they may begin to circle each other, similar to a mating circle, but drastically more rapid. There will as well be times in this chase, they break from the chase, and lock lips in a fight of dominance. This is not unusual to see happening in community tanks and with having multiple species as well. Important point to bring up here, is that aggression among males is not at all limited to just within it’s own species, but can just as easily extend into males of similar species too.

When you have multiple males in a tank, as well multiple species, you must try to provide as much space as possible. The smaller the tank is in terms of footprint (Length x Width) the more compressed the area is and there is not as many chances for subdominant males, even females as well, to seek cover and shelter from stronger dominant males. Let me digress off this for one second here to illustrate why this is a problem. Consider your species in their natural habitat. Water chemistry aside, we are just looking at sheer space. Should any weaker or sub dominant male encounter an area where a dominant male has set up, should a weaker male not be able to compete, it can always take flight in such a large area, it would have a much better chance of finding a safe haven then in a tank. In a tank, the area in which a weaker sub dominant male can run to is drastically limited.

With regards to tank footprint, a secondary subject to consider with respect to your stock, is the area’s in a tank your species would tend to occupy. We first started speaking about Mbuna, but we also have many Haplochromies and Peacocks, which do not tend to dwell as much in the substrate area, but rather the middle and upper levels of a tank. While species like these two tend to improve your abilities to intermix more species in your tank, Haps and Peacocks also tend to grow MUCH larger then most Mbuna, and Haps and Peacocks also spawn in the substrate as well, so keep this in mind when you plan to stock up a tank and start breeding.

C. Water Chemistry

This is one topic area that in the internet and even in live practice of the hobby that is a semi big debate. I personally have found and would advise keeping your stock in water conditions that are as close to the natural habitat the fish have evolved from. My logic and reasoning is this. The species you keep, regardless if they are x number of generations removed from it, have evolved from a certain type of water, and evolution itself has clearly demonstrated, changes occur over the course of many 1000’s of years, if not 100’s of thousands. Your fish are genetically modeled out of certain conditions, and while it is possible they can live and maybe thrive in conditions that are not ideal, I feel it’s just irresponsible and lazy of the hobbyist not to make conditions as close as possible. To be more specific about this, let me explain. If you find your tap water is acidic and soft, and you use suppliments to try to raise them but cannot keep it stable, ideally, you may want to consider different stock, such as maybe Kribensis or Blood Jewels, maybe even going with South American type cichlids.

Generally speaking, the major Rift lakes, Victoria, Tangyangika and Malawi are very hard and very alkaline bodies of water. Tangyangika is worth noting that the water in many parts is significantly higher then both Victoria and Malawi, and may require use of suppliments at a higher level. Please see referenced link on the specifics of Tangyangika 1.

"The Chemistry of African Rift Lakes"

It should as well be noted that your stock being kept in waters not matching with the waters they have evolved from can be a contributor to many illnesses and pathogens. For this reason, respect to the conditions of the natural habitat should be given very careful consideration. Your stock could be at a higher susceptibility to pathogens they normally wouldn’t encounter by being kept in conditions different from evolution. The overall health of your fish as well may become poor when kept in less then ideal water chemistry due to poor electrolyte levels, mineralization of the water, among other factors that one can reference via this link also 2.

AQUARIUM GH, KH, Ph, MINERAL CATIONS/ELECTROLYES

D. Stock Selection
While there is no one sure fire method for picking out quality breeding stock, some common things in general that have been found ideal to look for in adults would be as follows.
1. Overall size – Look for males to be much larger then females and males that stand out among other males are likely to be dominant and possess ideal traits for breeding.
2. Colors – A heightening of colors in a community setting is another strong indicator of a dominant male. You would, based on your goal, want to select males that show the brightest and greatest show of colors.
3. Aggression – Aggression in your stock, for the most part is something you want to avoid, but when examining male stock, if you wish more hardy and assertive offspring, the assertiveness of males is something you may wish to promote in your bloodline.
4. Activity – You would want to look for males that are active in a tank, seeking females, building spawning pits, and keeping control over it’s area.

This is not to say these are the only factors you should or can consider. Much of what you might want to look for is totally up to you. It all depends on what your goals are and what you hope to achieve in your species you select. I am just offering some points on what I have picked up on from interacting with other breeders.

Advanced Topics:

Crossbreeding/Hybrids

Another aspect that really isn’t a category at this time is cross breeding. Cross breeding in itself is highly shunned in the African cichlid hobby, in favor of promoting pure bloodlines. A couple members on Everything Aquatic I have spoken with have brought up some valid points I feel worth sharing.3 Keeping a bloodline pure is vital in this hobby as with political unrest in Africa itself along with continued climate change causing endangerment and extinction of pure species in the wild, in my opinion make keeping fish of pure species even more important. As well, one way to help minimize the odds of cross breeding would be to avoid keeping species where females carry a similar look.

It is important again at this point to note, you cannot watch a tank 100% of the time to know just when someone spawned and with how. Sometimes you are fortunate enough to see a spawn occur which is beneficial in terms of avoiding crossbreeding, but if you find a female to be holding down the road, and didn’t see the spawn, you can detect if the offspring are hybrids by examining your offspring as they grow.

I feel yet another key point to bring up on this topic, is the view and definition of what a hybrid is, seems to be unclear in some circles. For this document’s purposes, we shall say that a hybrid or cross breed is of two fish which are NOT of the same species. I have read topics in other forums to the point that numerous European breeders of African cichlids are under the impression that line breeding or selective breeding to improve color varients of a species is hybridization. I understand the point and logic, but I do not agree with this being cross breeding nor are they hybrids.

Stripping vs. Isolation

Let’s assume that you have selected a species you want to breed, you have the right ratio’s, the proper tank size and water chemistry, and all is going well. You either see a spawn occur, or you find your female to be holding a brood. Now what do you do? Well there are 2 methods that we will discuss on what courses of action you could take.

1. Stripping a holding female

In order to perform this action, you are going to need an egg tumbler set up, and this process is by far, not a simple process, which I would advise some patience, as well as extended research beyond this document. In short, stripping a holding female involves netting up the holding female, having a bowl or small tank filled and ready, holding the female in one hand, while prying open the mouth with the other. This forces out the eggs or fry, depending on how far along the female is in the process. If you catch a female early in the process and they are still eggs, or half egg, half fish, you will want to place them in the tumbler to finish the incubation process. If the fry are already hatched and free swimming, then you would want to isolate the fry into their own tank.

There are two reasons why I personally do not like this process, but it is a valid procedure you can do. First is that this process is very stressful, and can result in fry loss, as well as physical injury to the mother as well. Secondly, again mentioned to me by one of the Everything Aquatic members, is that stripping a female, especially a young female in her first or second spawn, is likely to cause her to lose the innate sense to carry a brood to term. Thus, stripping a female early in her life, is going to likely cause you to have to strip her each and every time she spawns, and in my opinion, creates much more work for you then just isolating her.

2. Isolation

This is the process by which you identify a female holding a brood, and wait about 10-14 days, and move her to a tank by herself. It’s very simple in concept, not requiring much explanation. There is a few things to mention about this. One is that unless you know when, within a few days, the female spawned, you may find you net the female too early. Females in their first few spawns often panic during the netting process and have a high probability of spitting the brood out when in the net. I have had this happen to myself a few times, a few times, the spawn was not incubated fully. I would advise having an egg tumbler handy just in case the female panics.

Another point to discuss about this, is that the advantage I feel to doing this, is you are able to keep the mother isolated and allowing her to recover from holding the brood. Keep in mind, these females have gone over 2 weeks with no food. If you do not isolate a female that has held to term, and allow her to stay in the breeding tank where the male(s) are, you run a risk a male may force her to spawn again too soon, potentially resulting in the death of the female. Isolation allows you to provide some much needed recovery time for the female.

Aggression

For the most part, males are the larger, more active, and highly aggressive between male or female, though there are cases where you can have an aggressive female. Generally, males will fight/challenge other males in a tank on sight, such that in a group setting where there is multiple males of one species present, you generally get one male of the group showing the brightest most distinct of coloration, much larger then the others, and more assertive of the others. This is what many hobbyists have come to know as the dominant male. The degree of aggression you find among dominant and sub-dominant males varies by species, as well as tank size.

We consider tank size in this case, as we compare these same males in a natural habitat, should a dominant male be too assertive against a weaker sub-dominant male, that sub-dominant male would likely seek out a new area to occupy. In a tank, the space itself is limited by glass, and prevents weaker males from escaping a region a dominant male would claim. Caution should be taken when housing multiple males, so make sure you research the aggression levels of the species. Keep in mind, the space that 4 foot or 6 foot tank APPEARS to offer, really is small by comparison to a natural habitat. This is one of the main reasons I do advise, if at all possible when it comes to Africans, to house 1 male of the species only. As you gain experience with keeping your species, you might find yourself in a better position to try introducing more males into your mix.

Comments

As of now, this concludes my introductory document on the breeding of African cichlids. This is not to claim, state, or propose that this is ALL there is to it. There are numerous other sub topics as well as other issues that other keepers may feel would make a great category to discuss and present. For this reason, I am leaving open the comment section to allow for other users to provide constructive criticism as well as offer suggestions and improvements to this document. It is intended to be a basic tool for a beginner in African cichlid breeding. Input is always welcomed, but please mind tone and be respectful. I thank you for your time and attention, and is my hope, this document will evolve with additional input to be more encompassing of this subject, such to offer a beginner all the information they would need.

Footnotes:

1. Search engine reference provided by Carl R. Strohmeyer via email, March 5, 2009, source listed in main body.
2. American Aquarium Products research library, written by Carl R. Strohmeyer
3. Referenced individuals are Everything Aquatic members, Barbara, Brenda, 8 in the Corner, over various e-mail and online chat discussions.

Recommended Products:
*Aquarium Fluidized Sand Bed Filter; there are no equals in aerobic bio filtration over the newest generation of these filter, not even the Fluval FX5!

*UV Sterilizers; only the best in ultraviolet sterilization units for true level one sterilization; including premium hot cathode UV Bulbs for replacement

Sexing, Venting Cichlids; Determining African Cichlid Genders

2009-02-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

Venting Cichlids (to determine sex)

By Jon V, with input from Eve B and Carl S.

Venting is pretty necessary I think in many species. If we consider the ones that are not dirmorphic, this pretty much is not only a necessity, but the best way to know for sure. Why would we want to know our African cichlid genders? Well I think of it like this. How many people have or keep a tank stocked in the say, 55, 75 gallon tank sizes and up? I'd take a gander, just speculation here, but probably only the more dedicated and serious keepers do. I'm not downing a non serious keeper that just finds them interesting and nice looking, and just wants to have some either. There is a difference.

Please click the picture to enlarge

In my opinion, the more serious type keepers will keep them in tanks they can thrive and spawn in. They will want to know everything and anything they can about the species they keep. This is where sexing becomes an important issue to me. In John's case, he's using a 20 gallon, and wisely doing one species only, in the proper sexing ratio's. If we didn't put any attention on gender, and started getting 2, 3, or 4 males in that tank, it's not going to thrive and there's very likely going to be deaths in a tank like that.

So what happens if we have species, such as the yellow labs that are not dimorphic? Let me back track a second for the thread views and explain what I mean by dimorphic. Dimorphism is when males and females have completely different looks and coloration. A Kenyi or even Auratus are perfect examples of this. Kenyi males are golden yellow, Kenyi females are a nice deep blue. You can't miss that. Dimorphic species however, take some time to mature, and in a group, you might have only 1 or 2 morph the color, but still have other males in the tank. This is why tank size can be a big issue as well when keeping groups of one species.

Now, back to the venting and sexing aspect for the non-dimorphic. Since there is no clear signal by color change to sex the fish, and we need to know just how many males and females we have stocked, venting the fish will help determine this before the onset of aggression, injuries or death. Venting is the process by which the fish is examined on the underside, and the pour above the anal opening is looked at. A male of the species will have a certain look and size to the pour then a female. This really is the only way to know for sure, in a species that isn't dimorphic, in my opinion. Sorry this is long and probably repetitive for those that know this, but I figured I'd post this discussion aspect for those viewing the thread for information.

More input by Eve
Jon mentions other cichlids as well, just take as example the red zebras, both male and female will have the egg spots, but is it a sure sign to sex them???
absolutely not, not even my guy at the store I shop can sex them 100% and that should say something

The only way to find out for 100% is venting them.
I'm definitely not a fan of this method as it's very stressful on the fish as well as on the keeper

Further interesting resources (references)

• Male or Female
• Venting Malawis

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other helpful aquatic resources:

*For Aquarium Silicone Repair, Tips, Use, DIY Tanks, more
*To purchase first quality Aquarium Silicone
*Aquarium Parasites
*For the best in submersible aquarium pumps: Rio Plus Pumps
*If your Ciclhid aquarium has a UV Sterilizer, it is important to change the UV Bulb every six months for optimum performance

What do I need to start a tank, freshwater aquarium

2008-12-30T14:21:00.003-08:00

Must haves for starting a new tropical tank

♥ Tank itself ---- the bigger the better

♥ Lid with lights already installed.
(See this article for in depth information for those interested in more advanced aquarium light options: Aquarium Lighting)

♥ an aquarium stand ---appropriate to the tank size (a TV stand or similar things usually don't support the weight)

♥ heater ---- since it's for tropical fish (but get the one that is adjustable and submersible, because the preset ones don't really work)

♥ Filter ---- appropriate to tank size
There are many types to choose from, a few popular types include: the HOB (Power Filter), the Canister Filter, & the Sponge Filters (this is not a complete list of types).

♥ Thermometer ----to check the temperature

♥ Water conditioner ----to make the water safe for your fish

♥ Gravel siphon ---- to do partial water changes -----recommended partial water change of 25% weekly

♥ Carbon ---needs to be replaced every 4-6 weeks (not the complete cartridges but just the carbon itself)

♥ Gravel or marble or sand---- for the bottom

♥ A 5 gallon bucket for water change

♥ a net for your fish when you need to take them out

♥ A bacteria starter -----or water or gravel or squeezed out media from a filter, from an already established tank or pure ammonia

♥ A Fish less Cycling Kit which includes an Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test kit------ the liquid ones are recommended because they are more accurate

♥ LOTS OF PATIENCE
Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle, fishless cycling

♥ And of course Fish food when you buy your fish

♥ a basic Aquarium book is also always helpful

Recommended additional items are :

♥ Bubblers for additional oxygen including an air pump to operate your bubbler

♥ some decorations for your tank to make it look nice

♥ a magnet for the glass

♥ a timer for the lights ----- you're suppose to keep them on for 10-12 hours during the day and turn them off for 12-14 hours at night

♥ aquarium salt (which you can use twice a month or even weekly without harming your fish of 1 tablespoon per 10 gallon, and it also keeps some diseases at bay)

♥ live plants

♥ Co2 setup or plant fertilizer for your plants

♥ UV Sterilizer; although not an essential item, a properly installed and quality UV Sterilizer can make a difference in fish health from disease prevention to immunity via improved Redox. If purchased, it is important to change your UV Bulb every six months

This should help you to start into a wonderful hobby
Eve

For further resources, please see this article:
FRESHWATER BASICS, CARE, SETUP

How to make a 55 gallon tank stand (48X13X20)

2008-10-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

48X13X20; are the measurments
done with the help of my husband and brother

What i bought:
• 3 2x4x10
• 4 2x4x8
• 16 corner angles
• 2" wood screws (DON'T use nails)
• 1/2" wood screws (for the angles)
• 1 can of wood paint
• 1 2" brush

What else will i need:
• circular saw
• drill
• sander
• pencil
• meassuretape
• the triangle to draw the lines (no idea what it's called right now)

(Please click all pictures to enlarge for a better view)

already precut:
• 5 pieces of 2x4x54
• 8 pieces of 2x4x34
• 8 pieces of 2x4x15

my husband sanding the rough edges

measuring from the edge in on where the cross piece goes

measuring exactly the difference on how far apart the piece has to come

screwing on the pieces to the top first, which has 3 long pieces across

more screwing

an idea how it should look on the top, you see only 2 long pieces for the bottom

finally getting to the vertical pieces, which will be screwed on with the 2" screws first and then angles will be added with additional 1/2" screws

connecting the bottom and the top piece

final screws

hooray, the stand is screwed together

now painting it, to match the rest of my furniture in the living room

done painting, and ready to go into the house

the stand in my living room and my tank put onto it. It looks awesome, I love it, and it matches my shelving on the right and the left :)
It took me about an hour to build, it's fun and easy it's heavy, but well worth to build yourself I only spend 60 bucks on materials :), which saved me a bunch of money instead of buying a stand I will add later on a shelf on the left, add a door and cover the right side with siding :)

What else I bought:
2 sheets of 1/16x24x48 cardboard
1 pack of 1/2" nails

covered the front to about the middle which is 24" high

added another 4" piece on the top

and added shelving right on top of it for all my accessories and stuff Ii need for a happy fishkeeping ;)

And here is what the final stand looks like with front boards and shelving, and that all for a total of 70 bucks

Try it yourself it's fun
eve

Now you're ready to set up your aquarium!

For Lighting information for your new aquarium (especially if you plan to keep high light needs freshwater plants or a Marine Reef Aquarium):
Aquarium Lighting

Caring for your Betta

2008-10-04T15:39:00.001-07:00

Caring for a betta at home or office
By Evelyn Buchmann

A Betta fish has certain needs to be healthy and happy just as any other fish you would care for. Just because you can buy them in these tiny cups, doesn’t mean that he really likes it to be in such a tight space where he can hardly even turn around.

Please read here the myth about a betta in a vase The Betta Myth

I have had my betta in a 1 gallon bowl for about 2 weeks when I purchased him, but he was so inactive that I decided to upgrade and got him a 5 gallon tank with filter, heater and live plants.

You should have seen the difference, he started to swim around and his colors started to thrive due to the regulated temperature and he shows of his beautiful fins as soon as somebody approaches the tank.

They don’t live in tiny rice paddles like everybody seems to believe, their natural habitat is huge as you will see in the following pic. http://www.cultureshocktherapy.com/pic/id/rice_paddy.jpg

For further reading about Betta Habitat, please see this article: Aquarium Answers; Betta Habitat

What you will need:

1 male or 1 female betta

*2.5 gallon tank with filter and heater is the bare minimum for 1 betta (a 5 gallon tank is of course even better)
*Gravel for the bottom (fine #1 sand if live plants will be kept, see the link below for plant care, substrates)
*Live plants (They love to rest on them)
*Thermometer
*Liquid Tester

-Set up your tank with conditioned water and everything else.
-The filter and heater need to be plugged in 24/7.
-You should have a temp of 78-82 degrees, since that’s where your betta will start to thrive and they will be comfortable.

Once your tanks have cycled, that means no ammonia or nitrite present; you can add your betta. But don’t forget to acclimate him properly, by taking water out of the tank and filling it into the cup or bag, whichever he/she came in, put in about ¼ cup of tank water every 15 minutes, until you have reached double capacity of water in the cup then it was before, this will take care of the pH difference from your tank water to the pet store water.

Make sure you do weekly partial water changes of 25% with a small gravel siphon, and refill it with aged and conditioned water, at the same temperature.

3-5 female Bettas’

*10 gallon tank
*Filter
*Heater
*Thermometer
*Gravel for the bottom (fine #1 sand if live plants will be kept, see the link below for plant care, substrates)
*Lots of live plants
*Decorations without any sharp edges

Do the same thing as you would do it with the 2.5 gallon tank (setting up, cycling, floating the bag with fish, etc.) You will need to get at least 3 females thought (if you only get 2, one will dominate the other) they will choose a so called pecking order amongst them and will look like they’re fighting, but they don’t. Once they have chosen the rang order, the fighting will stop. You can also add 2-3 Cory cats into that setup, since they’re bottom dwellers, and you can have up to 5 females together in a 10 gallon tank.

1 male OR 1 female betta with tropical’s

Same setup and maintenance as the above 2.

Example setup in a 15 gallon tank:,

1 male or 1 female betta
2-3 Cory cats (bottom dwellers)
5 neon tetras (schooling fish)
3 platy’s (males only if you don’t want any fry)
5 rasboras (also schooling fish)

Conclusion:

You can’t keep male/female together unless they were properly conditioned for spawning

You can’t keep male/male together, or they will kill each other

But you can put females together with a minimum of 3 in at least a 10 gallon tank

And you also can put a female or a male with other tropicals, as long as the others don’t have long fins like a male guppy or a serpae tetra.

You can keep males/females together however if you have at least a 55 gallon tank, which is heavily planted and you have at least some experience on keeping fish

Feeding them;

You should feed your betta twice a day 3-4 pellets at each feeding, but change their diet up with frozen blood worms, Baby Brine Shrimp, Pellets and live Baby Brine shrimp, and also a thawed pea about once a week. Also fast your betta one day out of the week, which will keep constipation at bay

For further information about Betta Feeding and Fish Nutrition in general, please see this article: “Aquarium Fish Nutrition, all about”

Final Thoughts:

Please do yourself and your betta a big favor and get a tank instead of a stupid bowl. With proper care they can live up to 8 years.

Sure they can survive in a bowl, but let’s face it, are you willing to do partials every day, when you only need to do it once a week on a tank with a gravel siphon???? Well what ever you decide, happy fish keeping and have fun with your hobby. It gives lots of joy in ones life!

OTHER ARTICLES/ RESOURCES:

“Aquarium Size and Stunting, beginner to advanced aquarists”
“Over a Copper Moon Betta”
“Freshwater Aquarium Basics and Care”
Betta Profiles
Or for UV Bulb replacements for large scale breeders with their Bettas placed in systems with centralized filters with UV Sterilizers

Chris4Reef

2008-09-13T23:20:00.001-07:00

Chris4Reef is currently an information site about betta splendens and various other topics that i want to educate people about. Also you can find BioHome which is professional public aquarium grade bio filtration media that is available to the public. BioHome is new to america and can only be bought online from BcAquatics. The dream of Chris4Reef/BcAquatics is to one day, be one of the few home breeders of quality marine life. To be able to provide quality tank raised clownfish, coral frags, and various species of freshwater fish at a cheap price and high quality. Offering cheap stuff for beginner marine keepers. Trying to open doors that werent always open for me is the goal. I would like to be able to produce, keep, and sell clownfish under BCA clownfish. Look for this project to occur in the year 2012 when im out of school. While this is all a dream, Chris4Reef/BcAquatics im hoping will succeed on the small scale level. One of my policies are to always show the exact fish that you will buy. That way there are no tricks and that i 100% back my live stock. one of the many policies that i looked for when i bought fish. So while this is still a long way away, this is the goal that i hope to achieve with Chris4Reef.

Pictures

2008-09-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

This Page is an ongoing project with members pictures added as well as links to member picture hosting accounts (such as photoshop or privates sites such as Carl's web site)

Please let us know (via the pictures thread in the Forum Board) if you would like changes to this Post (Blog)

Please click pictures to view full size

*fishfever's Pictures: fishfever's Photobucket Albums

*corycatwoman's Pictures: corycatwoman's Photobucket Albums

*Ironbiker's Pictures: Ironbiker's Photobucket Albums

*Babygeige Pictures: Babygeige Photobucket Albums

*Barbara's Pictures: Barbara's Photobucket Albums

*Daharkazangel's Pictures: Daharkazangel's Photobucket Albums

*mematrix pictures: mematrix's Photobucket Albums
mematrix's Betta Picture Album

*Murdocks (Johns) Pictures: Murdocks Photobucket Albums

Bikeguy's Pictures: Bill (bikeguy33) Photobucket Albums

Demfish's Pictures: Demfish's Photobucket Albums

Sammiesam's Pictures: Sammiesam's Photobucket Albums

Renee's Pictures: Renee's Photobucket Albums

*Supi's Pictures: Supi's Photobucket Albums

Brendas Pictures: Brendas Photobucket Albums

*Eves Pictures: Eve's Photobucket Albums

Jon's Pictures: Jons Photobucket Albums

*Carls Pictures: Carls Pictures Pages

For one of Carl's business resources, please see UV Bulbs for the best in high performance UV-C lamps at competitive prices!

Indonesia 3, Manado

2008-09-01T15:17:00.003-07:00

Manado, Sulawesi

By Jon Votraw

Well after a great short trip in Bali, it was off to the final leg of Island stops. This time it was up to Manado, Sulawesi. Manado is home to the largest Christian population in Indonesia, as well as home to Bunakan Island which is in the process of becoming the second largest tourist spot for the whole country. Bunakan Island has caught the attention of the World’s Ocean Forum as well. Manado is in the process of upgrading its hotel and restaurant capabilities to accommodate the upcoming conferences. Another interesting fact about this Island is that it was formerly known as Celebes which is indigenous to many half break species of fish, and the Celebes Rainbows.

Upon arrival in Manado, we were picked up at the airport by a gentleman named Henke, who is the tax minister for this region, and his family. One very new thing for me here was that most anywhere you go; you are expected to eat something. So the first thing, even though the plane served food, was to bring us to a place to eat. I really was full and not in the mood to eat, but at the same time, you have to balance respect for their culture. I’m very much a believer that if you want respect for your ways and points of views, then when you are in someone else’s home or country, you need to follow their ways. So I ordered just drinks.

Henke was particularly interested to hear about the USA and how life is here. I was quite happy to provide him with my points of views. I can say this much, while this diverts off the topic, the Democratic candidate selection process was still going on very much while in Indonesia, and it received a tremendous amount of media attention there. There really isn’t many other ways to put it except straight out, but I absolutely cannot stand Hillary Clinton, her double talk, politics, her family or most anything about her.
I firmly believe she has little to no actual talents and basically plays off her name only. We’ve heard her health care stories over a decade ago, the State of New York which she is supposed to represent is for the most part, in even worse shape then before she was elected, and her arrogance to suggest Obama should run as VP while he’s leading her should tell most anyone with common sense, she’s not the answer by far.

Sorry for that rant, but I am very much appalled and disgusted with everything that she’s done during this campaign, and the lies she tells. The conflicting point of “Every State matters, that’s why I’m staying in this nomination” vs. “Well I won the big electoral states, those are what matters in November, is clearly a direct contradiction of herself, and another good reason that anyone should see, this woman will tell you ANYTHING it takes to get a vote.

So upon sharing this point of view with Henke, he did at first appear a little confused. It took me a bit of time to ascertain if it was a matter of the English or just the point of view. I suspect it was a little of both though Lotje insists he understands English ok. After a rather large fried fish dinner, we then adjourned to the Ritzy Hotel in downtown Manado and I’ve included some shots from the sixth floor of the view.

The following day, Henke picked us up at the hotel, and brought us up to Soputan, a very large active volcano in the area. It was a very interesting site, and had more activity then Tangkuban Parahu. The smell of sulpher was distinctly present as was a much larger amount of heat. I took some shots of Soputan from a distance and at the site. Due to recent volcanic activity, people are not allowed to approach closer then 10 KM of Soputan. Being that Henke is in the local government there, I didn’t consider it wise to try to press him to get to the peak.

The local’s in the 10K zone have a small market of goods they sell there. One unique feature is corn, and they actually prepare and boil the corn in the volcanic waters in the area. I was a bit hesitant at first to try this, but everyone else was eating it. It still had a rather raw taste to it, with a small hint of smokiness. I found some interesting face statues at this site which I took shots of as well.

From there, it was off to view some local properties Lotje’s family has, and graves of relatives. I noted the rather vast amounts of dark green vegetation in this area as well. It’s very heavy and much like a jungle there. We stopped by Henke’s mom and dad’s house, which of course I had to eat food there. I don’t think they spoke English but they were rather friendly. However, I still haven’t determined if it was just how they prepared and cooked the food, or just simply the food itself, but from that day forward until about three days being back in the USA, I had the worst intestinal cramps you could think and felt like I had to run to the restroom every 20 minutes. While waiting for the ladies to finish their visits, I took the time to explain more about US culture with Henke. I explained to him about being charged double being white at Tangkuban Parahu, and how that would be very illegal to do here in the USA, and the basis for discrimination laws actually originate from the US Civil War. Again this is funny how from a historical point of view, there are still opinions. From my point of view, which I shared with him, it depends on where you were educated actually. Most places in the North will teach you the civil war was fought over slavery. In the South they teach you what I accept as the real issue, States rights vs Federal Goverment. From how I understand things, slavery was actually secondary to the main point, with the North saying, what DC says is law, and the south saying, no the State laws are higher then that. I'm not sure if he fully understood, but I explained it the best I could.

The day following that was a trip out to Bunakan Island with Henke’s wife, Shenna. She’s quite a lively lady to say the least. Bunakan Island is only accessible via boat. The ocean is quite blue in appearance as well. It takes about 45 minutes by speed boat to reach the island area. From there, we were transferred to a private charter boat where the lower half is below the water line and paneled so you can view the ocean from there. However, being only about 10-15 feet below the water line, there was a high amount of UV distortion in the pictures and most of the reef and fish shots did not turn out well. The reports on the unpredictable currents discouraged me from contemplating trying SCUBA. I settled for the shots I could get, and other then the reef shots, they are quite a sight.

Finally that evening, Henke and his family took us out to a famous restaurant in the area. It was a nice place, but less then two weeks in Indonesia, I still hadn’t fully acquired the taste for their foods, so I stuck to the more traditional American types. Lotje was able to get a few pictures of what I suspect is a Blood or Chili Red Arowana, though the area that is showing red isn’t where you’d typically expect to find it. At the age of this fish, it really shouldn’t be showing red there, and I suspect this to be a dyed fish. I also included these shots as well.

Yet another interesting fact about Manado is while they are trying to upgrade the capacity to accommodate the future influx of tourism, they still have issues with supplying power to what they have established currently. In the Ritzy alone, while Lotje was out looking around and I was resting up, the power went out about 10 times. On the day we were heading back to Jakarta before coming back to the USA, Shenna took us to a place to eat, and they also had no power at 10:00 AM. In my opinion, this would be an ideal situation to employ solar or geothermal means for power. However, Indonesia is government run when it comes to electricity, and would take some significant political clout to have a private company to explore this. All in all though, it is a place you’d want to visit.

Sorry I had forgotten to add the video information.
Part One

Part Two

Indonesia 2, Bali

2008-09-01T15:15:00.002-07:00

Welcome to Bali
by Jon Votraw

Following the first part of the report on our trip to Indonesia, the time line is now this:
18 April- Departed JFK enroute to Jakarta Indonesia
20 April- Arrived in Jakarta Indonesia
21 April-Toured Safari Park and Tangkuban Parahu
22 April- Prepared for departure to Denpassar, Bali
23 April- Departed for and arrived in Denpassar, Bali

We had decided to stay along Kuta Beach in Denpassar. Kuta is very famous for it’s beach and tourism, and was also the area in which the terrorists had bombed the café. We stayed at Istana Rama about 2 blocks up from downtown Kuta. It’s about 4 blocks south east of the bombing location and slightly smaller in fame. This helps you in the sense that should anyone feel like doing something, it’s less likely to be targeted. When you are travelling abroad, especially in the world’s largest population for Muslum’s, it never hurts to think about security and safety.

Our Tour guide, Agung, picked us up from Denpassar airport and dropped us off at our hotel. This is one of the advantages of arranging a guide in Indonesia ahead of time. Most of your needs are going to be catered to. As with many Indonesian’s, Agung only goes by that name. Agung is also a Hindu by religion as most of Bali is. Agung was very fluent in English and understanding him was by far not difficult. Should anyone wish to tour Bali, I have his contact information and would highly recommend him for a guide. His company will cater to smaller groups, couples or whatever your needs are.

After Agung laid out the plan for the next two days, we started to enjoy the scenery in Kuta. Kuta is well, a high tourism area. Compared to Jakarta, it’s different in the sense that I saw more white people then in Jakarta. Australians, Germans, and some Dutch were the languages I picked up on in Kuta. The local population mix in very well with the white tourists. You can easily find a taxi along Kuta as well should you not like to walk around in the heat. The strips of hotels and stores are located literally across the street from the beach. It’s a view you would not forget.

About the only disappointment I could think of for Bali was the hotel food was not quite the same selection as Intercontinental in Jakarta. However, their breakfast foods I will say, left you nothing to desire when done. The heat in the mornings is still oppressive. Sitting in the open restaurant you are sweating even at 8 am. It is rather calm and peaceful in the surroundings however. Bali and Kuta are soon to spring to life for the day. Agung would be there around 9 AM to begin the tour on the first day.

Upon Agung’s arrival, we were shown around Denpassar for a little bit. Bali is broken down into “Provinces” though this isn’t the exact word used for it. It’s more like regions. Our first destination was to a traditional Balinese Dance which is actually more like a play. I have to say this much, the performance though I could not understand what was being said all the time, was very well performed. Balinese dancers are trained in the arts from a very young age, around 3 I believe. It would be similar to the actors on Broadway or an Opera. The costumes are all handmade as are the music instruments. They did have some fans in the theater, so it wasn’t nearly as hot as it could have been. I have about 40 minutes of the play on camcorder, but it was a camcorder borrowed from a relative in Indonesia, so I haven’t been able to find an acceptable format to display this. I assure all that I will post this as soon as possible for it was an event I will not forget.

After the play, we headed off to a location that makes Batik. Batik is a traditional garment made in Indonesia. Traditional Batik is hand made. The materials have the same feel as silk, but the patterns and designs are striking and bold. The prices for higher quality Batik at this location is around 300,000-400,000 Rupiah. The currency exchange rate after our arrival in Bali had dropped from 9100 Rupiah to 1 USD, to 8800 Rupiah to 1 USD. Using that conversion rate, a high quality Batix shirt is around 35.00 to 45.00 USD. I bought about 5 of these, two for myself, one for my dad and brother, and an alternate patterned one in case they didn’t like the pattern.

Shirts are not the only items made from Batik. Batik also has money/change carriers, purses, handbags, slippers, pants, and pillow covers. I think all tolled that day at the store, we had spent about 2.5 million Rupiah. If you do consider that you cannot get this same material here in the US, I felt it was money well spent, and shopping for well over an hour.

The final destination on day 1 was, according to Agung, the biggest, most famous, main temple in Bali for the Hindu’s. It is called Tampak Siring. I am providing a link to the temple’s in Bali, I do however have to say, I am not trying to dispute the information provided here, but only relay what I was told from our tour guide, Agung. As you can see from this link, Agung is also the name of the biggest mountain in Bali. The Grand Istana Rama listed on this link is the hotel we stayed at, as well as you can see some information about the temples located in Bali using this link. It's very useful. http://www.bali-indonesia.com/attractions/temples.htm

The story surrounding Tampak Siring as told by Agung is this. Many centuries long ago, a certain King in Bali became very powerful and very strong. He came to believe of himself that he was actually a God. This very much displeased the actual Gods, and the King became so bold as to challenge the Gods. He amassed a huge Army, and the God’s decended into the earth to do battle with him. The main God, I apologize I do forget his name, but he is the God of the Earth I believe, led the way against the king. The God’s Armies were winning and the King began a retreat. With the God’s army in pursuit, the King took refuge in this location. The King created a mirage of water for the tired Army of the God, and they soon fell asleep after drinking the water.

The King used this time to continue distancing himself from the God’s army. When the God reached his army and found them asleep, he used his trident and stuck the Earth with it, and from the Earth flowed natural water which the God blessed. The Army woke up after drinking this water, recharged and angry. They continued the pursuit of the King and defeated him after finding him.

It is the spring located in this temple that the story is related to. Because of the story, the people believe this water to be holy and have magical properties. They believe the water from this temple can cure afflictions and disease, and they openly bathe in this water. Also at this location is a presidential palace at the top of the hill, which I was able to capture some shots of. This as was explained to me, is the main temple of the Hindu faith in Bali. This concluded the first day of tours.

On the second and final day of the tours, we first proceeded to a location which works in raw silver, and examined the processes in which the hand crafters take raw silver and convert it into jewelry. At this location I got Lotje a Jade necklace and earrings. One other thing that is important to know about Bali, is that when buying from most vendors and stores, it’s EXPECTED that you bargain with them. You never want to pay the price listed on an item. It’s just a price listed to begin the bargaining process. Agung advised me before touring this location, that the typical mark up was around 40-50%.

Bargaining in Bali is not difficult to do, but we as Americans are not very used to doing this. Sure we might find an item that is defective or damaged at a store and ask the manager for a discount, but Bali bargaining is as I said, expected and it’s almost an insult to the shop owners if you don’t at least try. The tag on the necklace and earrings came to about 1.5 million Rupiah, and using Agung’s mark up as a basis for my bargain, I was able to work the seller down to 100.00 USD. Again, this was the very first time I Bali bargained, and I didn’t want to aim too low and appear cheap. I could well have probably gotten them to go down to 80.00 USD, but the fact I was able to get it lowered pleased me enough.

After finishing at the Silver location, we then went up to a Temple location that was dominated by monkeys. We had a local guide for this location take us around the compound, and the guides at this location also have shops and we were able to pick up a few more Batik clothing there. They also have HUGE vampire bats there as well and I have a shot of those in the movie clip.

After the monkey location we then went on to Tanah Lot. THIS location is probably the most beautiful and stunning location for pictures in all the islands I saw. As you’ll see in the movie link, most of the Bali pictures are from Tanah Lot. This temple sits right on the ocean, facing south south east. If you consider this temple was built originally back in the 12th and 13th centuries, it just adds even more to how spectacular it really is. I think you all will enjoy these shots very much and I did a couple panoramic shots to recreate the scene as best I could.

Finally, one last temple, Ulun Danu aka Bedugul which is in Ubud province. This temple is located up in the mountains, and we came across a site of rice paddies that I HAD to take a panoramic of. Ulun Danu with it’s setting on a lake with a mountain backdrop is quite a sight as well. This is a very camera friendly location as well as Tanah Lot, meaning the shots you can capture here are rather breathtaking is many aspects. This should show you as well how most of the structures inside a temple compound appear.

With our tours of the Bali temples done, as we only had 2 days to allocate for tours, Agung brought us back to Istana Rama, and indicated he would bring us to the Airport in the morning. Lotje and I headed out to the beach to capture some final sunset along the beach shots, develop and print what we had taken so far on camera, and saw a little of downtown Kuta. We had coffee at the Starbucks at Kuta Square and visited the Hard Rock Café as well. Ironically, another funny story occurred while Lotje was doing more Bali bargaining.

To start with, there are horse drawn carriages in Kuta that will likely appeal to some. Lotje as always was looking over the clothes and I was just waiting for her to get done making her bargain pitch. After she finished, of course she must show me what she got and how happy she was, so while I’m looking over the things she just bought, she’s talking to the advertiser of the store who is sitting out on the street where I was waiting. As she’s talking to that lady, the sales people at the store next door, a cosmetic store of all stores, asked me “Sir, can I help you with anything? Would you like to come see my store?” The voice was coming from the tallest one, and as I just glanced over, I noticed had blonde hair. Rather unusual for an Indonesian to have Blonde hair was my first thought. As I am saying oh, “Tidak, tapi termia kasih” (sorry but no thank you) the “lady” came out to check the bags on some people just leaving the store, and I got a good look at “her” face. Sure enough, it was a man all right, but skinny as a rail with long Blonde hair. I didn’t know what to think, but I kept poking Lotje, “Hey, Banci (gay, feminine man, transvestite) over there!!” So she’s just laughing and keeps talking to this lady on the street and I’m like hey come let’s get out of here before it decides to come talk too.

As Agung picked us up in the morning we had decided to give him and the driver 50 USD for the special attention they gave us. This isn’t a high amount to us and even could seem cheap to some, but in Indonesia, that much money is A LOT. As Agung and his driver were taking us to the airport, we passed over the bombing location in Kuta. To see how much got wiped out and how it was detonated about half an hour before closing, it’s not hard to see it was clearly aimed at hitting as many Americans or Bule as possible. I can’t believe there are Muslum groups protesting the captured people for this deed, receiving the death penalty. One final thought in closing, as this concludes report 2 of 3 on Indonesia, and the Bali page, is that in Indonesia, drug trafficking, as in Malaysia as well, carries very stiff penalties, including death. Rest assured, the medications I have to take, I made sure it was known they were just that, prescriptions. This now brings us to 26 April, departing Bali, en route to Manado, Sulawesi.

Please see this video slide show for a pictoral documentary of the trip:

Indonesia Report

2008-09-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Indonesia -Massive Archipeligo
By Jon Votraw

April 18, 2008, I took off from JFK en route to Jakarta Indonesia. I had no idea setting out on a large comfortable Singapore Airlines plane I was on my way to a country that is sprawling with so many tiny islands and each with it’s own sub culture. Sure I had read about the many things that makes Indonesia unique, but until you see it first hand, even the words here won’t do the same justice as experiencing that for yourself.

As with many Indonesian people who think snow is such a wonder, to us here in the United States, Indonesia is by sight a tropical paradise. Upon landing in Jakarta, I felt what I had anticipated from the beginning. Heat. It really is not the same kind of heat as we have in the deep south. This is a heavy humid blanket heat that never seems to let up. Arriving in country on April 20th, Indonesia was at the tail end of the rainy season. It was still in the lower 90’s despite that.

Very sunny from the get go, one thing I noticed riding towards the hotel is that in Jakarta, there is little special differences in class and income. Along what would be considered a highway or Interstate to us, there were numerous little shanties and shacks built. It was a shock to see so many people living out of these structures that are little more then just a shack. These people will sell goods such as rice or bananas or coconuts off the highway for a living. I have seen things like this in the City of New York, but never in the numbers like this and for such a vast distance.

Even when entering the inner city of Jakarta, the shanties and shacks still exist, which is a stark difference from over here. Jakarta by far is no outdated city in terms of buildings and population. Many of the high rises are modern looking and large. Though Jakarta does not posses the number of large structures as lower Manhattan, you know from the beginning you are in the country’s capital city. There is on going construction of new buildings and the decay of older ones just as you would see in any major American city. Again though, the difference I noticed is the lower class and poor are all over this city, not just isolated or located in one area.

Street vendors dominate this country. Almost any area you go to, you are going to find people living in a small home on the street and have a small stand selling something. In my opinion, this brings new meaning to scratching a living off of almost nothing. Indonesia does not possess a social help program such as we have, nor do they have social services or social security. Jakarta is home to about 12 million people and a large number of these people literally live off a few dollars a day. I explain this like this. The Rupiah is the monetary unit in Indonesia. When arriving in Jakarta, the dollar was getting 9,000 to 1 USD for bills of 100 and up. Bills from 20 to 50 USD were getting 8900 Rupiah, and anything lower then 20 USD got 8700 Rupiah.

If you use that factor above, and figure for example, the price of say a bottle of coke is about 12,000 Rupiah, you can see how many sales someone would need to make in order to have a large sum of money. But there is caution to take when making this comparison. We must endeavor not to think in terms of our money and our way of life. One might think the poverty line here in the USA could be say about 20,000 or under? And by that basis, we cannot fathom how a person could live making maybe about 5 to 10 US Dollars a day. Yet even this much money is at least enough money for people to get food.

I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in midtown Jakarta. It’s extremely high class. The security at this hotel was so high, you would think you were trying to enter the White House. I did note that the street vendors and stalls lined this area just as much as the outer city, and found this odd. You would think you might have even more people operating here as this is the money section of Jakarta but you don’t. As you approach Intercontinental, you hit a check point in which security will find your business for being there, do you have a reservation and such. Then you pass to a second check point in which police and local security scan your car for any weapons or bombs. After this check point, you reach the hotel entrance and you are screened yet again by a metal detector to enter the hotel.

I will say that all these measures does make one staying at the Intercontinental Hotel feel very safe and secure. It also makes one wonder, WHY? One traveling from the US to Indonesia would be well served to remind themselves, the major religion of Indonesia is Islam. Also that with the massive area of the archipelago, Indonesia is also the worlds largest Islamic nation. This is not to say that Islam in itself is violent or dangerous. I am a Catholic by education and being raised as such. I also have probably a higher tolerance and understanding about Islam then many others. I do realize that a follower of TRUE Islam would never support or condone many of the violent actions we see reported on our media, and I also know that in any argument, fight, or conflict, there are two sides to a story. I do believe very much in my heart, the people that do the many violent and evil acts we see, were and are doing so believing they are righting some sort of wrong done to them.

American in an Islamic nation, you still have to consider your own security. Intercontinental certainly does provide that. This hotel, is very striking as soon as you enter the lobby, and you’d think you just entered the Grand Hyatt in downtown Manhattan. There was a delay in the room being not ready, and consider this as well. Time departed JFK NY was April 18, 2008 at 9:00 PM. Arrival at Jakarta Indonesia was April 20, 2008 at about 8:30 AM. By the time customs, immigration, and luggage is cleared, the traffic on the travel to the hotel, it’s now about 10:30 AM so rooms are not always ready at that time. In the above travel listings, there was about a 90 minute wait in Frankfurt to change planes, and that plane goes to Singapore. Stopping in Singapore for about 60 minutes, change planes, then into Jakarta, so in many senses, this was a straight line trip with very minimal delays. 28 hours on a plane, and you have to wait for your room. While understandable, you are tired and this is something you don’t like to have to deal with.

First day in country and in the hotel room, it was time to unwind a bit, stretch out the legs and relax. The room was 620, on the 6th floor of 14 floors. It was high enough to see the sights of the city. I took a couple clips off the phone camera: Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

The next day was scheduled to go East to the local Safari Park and then to Bandung and the Volcano Tangkuban Parahu. I have prepared a video/slide show presentation of both:

Safari Park and Tangkuban Parahu.

I had planned on going to Krakatoa, however, it has become active again. For those that are not familiar with this historic Volcano, a few interesting facts about this volcano island. When Krakatoa blew in the late 1800’s, it was the loudest sound ever heard by man. If that same explosion had occurred today say in New York City, it would be heard at the same time in London and Los Angeles. When Krakatoa blew, it ejected over 100 cubic miles of material into the atmosphere and temperatures globally dropped about 2 degrees for numerous years. It’s hard to imagine this amount of power but even simple atomic weapons do not have this much power. Where Krakatoa sits in the Sunda Straits, it’s in close proximity to both Western Java and South Eastern Sumatra. Due to the face of the volcano, when Krakatoa blew, the Sumatran coast bore the front of most of the damage. Tsunami’s were also generated off this explosion. The island literally blew itself apart. In the late 1950’s, Anak Krakatoa, (Child of Krakatoa) emerged and surfaced from under the Sunda Straits. It is still an active Volcano and growing over 3 feet a year. Needless to say Krakatoa again will blow in the future.

Another interesting fact about Indonesia is it’s government is both weak and powerful. It’s powerful in the sense that it has it’s hands into everything that goes on in the country. There is little privatization of business’s. The power and medical are all in a sense, government run as is gasoline. The price of gasoline in Indonesia, by far is cheaper then here. I calculated based on the exchange rate, they are paying about 1.50 USD a gallon. This is due in part to oil located in the country and the government does not have laws like the United States does. They keep the oil and process it for themselves, thus gas is subsidized by the government and the price of gas is the same regardless of what island you are on. If someone tries to profiteer off gas, they will lose their business. At the same time it is also weak and layered with corruption almost as bad as here. I will go into that a little bit more in later pages.

As interesting as this is, another non law they have or rather do not have is laws against discrimination. Before going up to the Tangkuban Parahu site, they have a check point. At that check point it was assessed that I being white or "Bule" as the word locally is, I had to pay 50,000 Rupiah to enter. The Indonesian people in the car with me were only charged 25,000, and this was a big shock. It made little sense to argue or say anything about this as it would have likely resulted in my being charged double again or denied access. This concludes the initial leg of my report on the Island of Java and I will be preparing a page about Bali and Manado, Sulawesi next.

Fish Doctor (Bikeguy)

2008-09-01T15:08:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone.My name is Bill and I live in Calgary Alberta Canada and work for a company called "Aqualease". I am an aquarium Technician....or as my clients would say, the fish doctor. I have only had this job a short time but have kept fish for as long as I can remember. I gave up a 20 year career as a graphic artist with absolutely no regrets. To most of us in the trade it doesnt even seem like work.

Over the years I have become fairly knowledgeable in tank maintenance and disease recognition and the treatments for these condition. A lot like ms.Crabs, if I don't know I will research it till I do. Carl has also been a large part in my recent knowledge by sending me in the right direction to discover the true answer for myself. I am very flattered to be asked to help out here and I am never more than an email away for those who need my 2 cents or advice. I love to share knowledge...and from time to time I will be asking for all of your advice. when I know everything about aquatics it will be time to change careers, but I expect to be in this one for the long haul.

I hope to meet you all in the forums and lets learn a lil from each other. after all...we took our beloved finned pets from the wild and imprisoned them....lets make their captivity as comfortable and healthy as we can possibly do.

I will post more but just wanted to say hello!!!

Products we Recommend:

UV Bulbs
Premium UV-C Replacement Bulbs to keep your UV Sterilizer at peak performance for Aquarium & Pond Disease Prevention, Redox Balance, and Green/Cloudy Water Control.

Loris Aquarium Page

2008-09-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

My name is Lori, and I have been keeping fish off and on for over 20 yrs. I have at the moment, 1-5.5g with a male Betta, another 5.5g that I sometimes use to spawn in, a 10g with 3 month old PKCT fry (Planted), 2-10g Spawning tanks, a 10g with Red Cherry Shrimp (RCS), and a 55g with Endler's Livebearers that I am starting to breed and my female Betta sorority. I have also started breeding White, Black/Red Copper, and Orange Halfmoon Betta. I have imported 1 male and 6 females (3 Thai girls have died) from Thailand. I love keeping fish. It is very relaxing. I have planted my 55g...or at least I am in the process of it. I have lots of photo's that I will add, but at the moment, I am a bit busy.

Please visit my site at: http://www.freewebs.com/over-a-copper-moon-betta/index.htm

Fish As Pets

2008-09-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

ARTICLE (POSTS) FROM FISH AS PETS
We will be adding guest posts from members here at Everything Aquatic (such as Jon V)
For members interested, please email me (or other managers) your post, including relevant pictures and links

Selected Current Posts

*Google IS Evil, Content Plagiarism
*Submariner, AquaTop Internal UV Sterilizer Review; Kokos Goldfish
*Pet Mountain, TruAqua Review
*Aquarium Moon Lights; Is Moon Light truly Blue?
*Aquarium Maintenance/Service Companies/Referrals
*Wonder Shells; Aquarium Forums Hall of Shame from "Aquatic Community"
*Yahoo Answers Hall of Shame; LED Lights
*LED & T2 Aquarium Lights, News
*Aquarium Yahoo Answers Hall of Shame #7; UV Sterilizers (Again) Part 2
*Columnaris Disease; Aquarium Wikipedia/Blog Hall of Shame #6;
*Aquarium Forum/Blog Hall of Shame #5; UV Sterilizers for Aquariums
*Three separate fish are actually the same
*Possible Melafix, Pimafix Dangers; Labyrinth Fish
*Aquarium Filter Innovations in History
*UNUSUAL FISH AND NEW DISCOVERIES
*Aquarium Forum Hall of Shame 4; SHO lights
*Yahoo Answers 3; Yahoo Answers exposed further
*Aquarium Cleaning Machine (Hall of Shame #3)
*DMOZ & SEO Chat; Forums Hall of Shame
*Reef Clams with Foreign Disease Sold for Reef Aquariums
*Yahoo Answers Part 2; Vote Tampering, by Jon V
*Yahoo Answers; a poor place to go for accurate aquatic (pond and aquarium) information
*Zebra Fish for Human Cancer Study
*Aquarium Forum Answers Hall of Shame Part One
*Eatery with 100 Aquariums (Bahooka Restaurant)
*iPod Speaker Betta Tank
*Planaria, Detritus Worms, & Internet aquatic Answers
*Monogenean Parasites, Marine Fish
*Moon Jellyfish
*Aquarium Experience
*Piranha caught by fisherman; are Piranha really a threat
*Celestial Pearl Danio (Galaxy Rasboras Part 2)
*Chloramines in local water supply
*Fair Trade Pets; Cardinal Tetras
*Prescription drugs flushed may harm fish
*Turtle Bill
*Galaxy Rasbora under Threat
*Fish Doctors make a splash
*Another Dead Koi puzzler in Fresno
*Owner admits Game Wardens confiscated 13 fish
*Aquarium Information or lack of (Yahoo Answers, UV Sterilizer)
*

Fish Profiles

2008-09-01T15:03:00.008-07:00

Freshwater Fish Profiles:

Links to fish profiles that include member contributed notes
This is a new page that will grow and be updated over time, so please check back often or send in your contributions to management here.

LIVE BEARERS;
*Guppies,
*Swordtails,
*Mollies,
*Platties,
*Endlers Livebearers

NORTH AMERICAN CICHLIDS;
*Quetzal Cichlid
*Red Bay Snook
*Jack Dempsey, Powder Blue Dempsey

SOUTH AMERICAN CICHLIDS;
*Ram Cichlids
*Angelfish
*Severums
*Uaru Cichlid

EAST AFRICAN CICHLIDS (Malawi, Tanganyika);
*Frontosa
*Venustus
*Cyrtocara Moorii
*Taiwan Reef Cichlid
*Yellow Lab

LAKE VICTORIA CICHLIDS;
*Kyoga Flameback
*Neochromis Omnicaeruleus
*Mbipia cf. Lutea
*Christmas Fulu

BETTAS;
*Veiltail
*Crowntail
*Halfmoon
*Plakat

GOLDFISH;
*Comets (Fantail), Common
*Orandas, Lionheads

LOACHES, BOTIA, DOJOS;
*Clown Loach
*Angelicus Loach
*Zebra Loach
*Kuhli (Coolie, Khuli) Loach
*Skunk Botia
*Blue Botia
*Ladder Loach

RASBORAS, DANIOS;
*Celestial Pearl Danio

Tetras, Characidae
*Serpae (Red Minor)
*Black Phantom

Other Charachins (Non Tetras)
*Leporinus Faciatus

CATFISH;

Useful Resources:

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