Epic fail! And I'm *still* not sure how/why

lauraf

lauraf

Superstar Fish
#121
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
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0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#121
bassbonediva said:
One of the new swords has a bloom on it! Squee!!!
Click to expand...
Thought that's what I saw in your pics. Nice!
But because these plants were probably raised emersed, as opposed to submersed, they are going to change being completely under water. Sadly, irritatingly, disappointingly, they will lose their emersed growth, and the new leaves that grow in won't be anywhere as strong and vibrant as what you see now.
(Thanks plant sensei OrangeCones for this knowledge!)
Were those swords the Tropica brand of plant importers by any chance?
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#122
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
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Northern Arizona
#122
They're whatever came from Petsmart. lol

Yeah, I know about the whole immersed vs submerged thing. I bought a massively beautiful sword for the old incarnation of the 55gal and put it behind the piece of driftwood that's on the left (the piece on the left in this incarnation is in the exact same place it was before)...within maybe a month, it had lost all it's tall growth and grown VERY bushy. I can handle these swords being bushy, though. They'll still look uber-cool. ;)
 

lauraf

lauraf

Superstar Fish
#123
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
0
0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#123
Immersed and submersed mean almost the same thing, lol. Emersed means rising out of the water. Sorry, being a picky English major here ;)
Lucky you that your swords got bushy. Mine just got small. I still have a couple - they look healthy, but the leaves are about 1/3rd of the height they were when I bought them, and a totally different shape!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#126
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
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Northern Arizona
#126
lol

Yeah, at least this tank is great. I just redid my 5gal bowfront (Edward's Meadow tank) and yeah, EPIC FAIL! The filter won't freakin' work! It worked for all of five minutes after I first plugged it in and then nada. I am so frusterated right now!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#128
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
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Northern Arizona
#128
No, I don't need the tank tonight (Edward is comfortable in the 20gL for now). No, I can't just replace the filter...it's an AquaTech 5gal bowfront with the Bio-Wheel filter built in (extremely similar to the Eclipse 6). Which means I'll have to replace the whole filter unit. Which is $25 plus shipping. Blah! https://www.marineland.com/store/PumpFiltration-Assembly-for-6-gallon-Eclipse-System-P347C0.aspx
Luckily Edward can survive without a filter for a while if I keep on top of the water changes.
 

lauraf

lauraf

Superstar Fish
#129
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
0
0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#129
Oh, poo! I didn't realize it was a built-in bio-wheel. That's what I have - an Eclipse built-in bio wheel on the 39g. I'm not very handy, so if I ever wanted to upgrade my filter or lighting, which I kinda want to do - I'd be at a total loss, and probably just get a whole different tank. Tell me how you can redo an Eclipse filter, please!
I love how the Eclipse has everything internal in the hood - very clean. For me, it was a bit of a compromise with my hubby about how big the tank would be and how *messy* it would look. Thus the Eclipse. Took weeks to find exactly the right stand, so it fits just perfectly in this little alcove in our condo. Looks like a piece of decor, except that what's inside the tank is beautiful, living life!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#130
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#130
I loved my 18gal Eclipse 1 tank I had. It was beautiful and like you said, seamless.

I'm not how I'm going to redo it. I'm going to have to get all handy on it. :p I need to check out my Hex5 as well (same type of integrated system). The filter on that one stopped working as well. Meh!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#132
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#132
Just quit. No idea how or why. I plugged in the 5gal bowfront's filter and it ran for maybe fine minutes, then just stopped working. Same thing with the Hex5 filter. The Hex5 is a few years old, but it wasn't run for a year after I bought it, so yeah. It's really irritating.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#135
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#135
Okay. No pics yet, but this tank has two new inhabitants. :D Today while I was at Petco checking out what kind of swordtails they carry (since my gorgeous male sword died while I was on vacation last weekend :( ), I saw this *tiny* albino cory that didn't seem quite...right. I couldn't figure out what was different/wrong about him at first. He was sitting on top of the little cup they use for salt in their tanks and kind of swimming almost frantically in circles. Upon closer inspection, the poor little guy didn't have a tail! It didn't look like it had been chewed off, it was like he never even had one! I pointed it out to the aquatics manager who was standing right there (she and I were discussing a complaint I had filed against their store a few months back when they were keeping male bettas in those little salt cups...but that's a different story). When she saw the poor little cory, she was like "I guess I'll just have to take him home with me and see how he does. He's been here for three or four weeks now." I piped up and said I'd take him (was prepared to pay for him) and he could have pretty much the run of my 55gal. Well, she gave him to me for free! :D He is maybe 3/4" long and except for the missing tail, a healthy, happy cory. He does have some mobility problems, but seems to have compensated for them rather nicely. I'll post pics when I can get them.

The other inhabitant is a new betta girl. I wasn't going to get any more girls, but I saw this girl at Petsmart today and *had* to have her. She is basically a veiltail female version of Edward, my marble halfmoon male. Again, I'll post pics when I can get them. I'm dealing with a diatom outbreak right now and while it's mostly cleared up, I want to get it completely under control before I take any pics.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#137
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#137
Oh my goodness!!! Imma steal that kitty!!! So adorable!

On a side note...OMG! The tag or whatever it was under that vid seriously made me want to vomit. I can't stand text speak like that!

Anywho, I need a good name for the cory. The betta girlie is Bella (to go with Edward ;) ). Something Percy Jackson-related for the cory would be awesome. I already have Grover (my SA bumblebee cat) and Kyron (even though technically it's spelled wrong...he's my horseface loach) and Annabeth (my BN pleco).
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#140
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#140
Just thought I'd post a little update...as you can see from my sig, I moved my BN pleco from the 29gal to the 55gal 'cuz I'm having serious diatom issues that aren't going away (I've fed less; left the lights off, but didn't want to do that for too long because of the plants; did every other day water changes for a week). Since Percy (the BN pleco) is being a little slow in devouring the diatoms, I decided to get him some help since my LFS has started carrying zebra nerite snails. So, there's now one zebra nerite snail in the 55gal (was gonna get more, but they're like $3 each! :eek: ). Also, I got a new angel for the tank since the other one passed away (he was doing SO well and then all of a sudden I came home one day and he was stuck to the filter...he'd even eaten that morning). He's a GORGEOUS altum-type whose body is probably 2.5" long already. He's floating in his bag in the 55gal right now and I'm just about ready to move him into the tank (about 10 more minutes...I'm slowly drip acclimating him). I got a couple pics of him in the bag, but they really don't do him any justice at all.


A pic of him with Rosalie inspecting his bag...gives you a good comparison on size 'cuz she's normal-sized for a female betta (about 2.5"):


EDIT: Just released the angel into the 55gal. Everyone is well. Oddly, the fish who is paying the most attention to him is my female hi-fin platy. Everyone else could care less about him.


And the zebra nerite doing what zebra nerites do:
 

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