Tank Redo

We'll be waiting for that thread

 

So had a busy day today.
@Whoknows built me a lovely cabinet for my 3ft, so today I moved the tank onto the cabinet. Thankfully nothing broke and the fish all seem OK still, plus I was able to rescape the tank a bit and now I'm a bit happier with it finally

thinking I'll put a bamboo palm or something similar on the left side as it's a bit empty there. Otherwise I'm so happy with this now, plus it hides all the cables and filter etc inside. Just need to put on the door handles lol


It is still a bit murky, I'll take another picture in the morning if it clears up nicely by then

 

Oh also I bought my mom a Siamese fighter from @AntonP today. She really enjoyed interacting with my previous one so she was very excited to get another. Of course I'll be looking after him and cleaning his tank and feeding, she'll just look at him and talk to him

 

Thanks @A new day! @Whoknows did such a great job with this!

 

Thank you!

 

Hiya everyone. Been hiding away again lol.

Disaster struck this past week. I got planeria and treated it with a dog dewormer after doing a bunch of research on it, then I left to Namibia for a week and a half for research and my parents were looking after the tank (they're not fishy peeps so it was just feeding and lights) and when I got back they informed me that a whole bunch of my fish had died. I figured out that the dewormer (can't think of what else it could be) killed a large amount of my snails and caused a nitrate spike. I managed to get things stable again with water changes but then had to go back to Namibia and just got back, and now I have only about 10 fish left. Quite depressing I'm not gonna lie. Still trying to keep things stable with regular water changes but I seem to still have a dead fish float up now and again.
It's got me thinking if it's even worthwhile to keep the tank running if I'm going to be away so often from now on but I reeeeeally don't want to pack up this tank

 

when it come to Planaria unless their are shrimp, I am never really bothered with it. Lot of fish like mollies and angels etc... in my experience actually eat the Planaria. From my experience I have noticed that I usually only get Planaria in one of 2 cases. Firstly if the tank has a lot of snails and I introduce assasin snails to control the "other" snail population, then 99% of the time the planaria appears after a couple of days. Pretty normal for this instance. Secondly over feeding in a small water volume tank also seems to produce planaria.

So I have found 2 solutions that worked for me so far. Firstly introducing fish that will eat them if that's an option. I say option since if you have shrimp and you add mollies or angels, your shrimp population along with the planeria will more than likely be eradicated after some time.

Second option, I purchased a bag of NO PLANARIA 2 years ago and it works brilliantly. I don't go by the instructions on the pack always as I have found that a little goes a long way and does not kill snails or shrimp, only the planaria. I purchased it from Richard at Aqua Empire and on his advice he told me that one bag would last forever and eh was right.

The issue with the dog de-wormer although a lot cheaper is that the active ingredient is not the only ingredient in the tablets and sometimes their are other ingredients as well. So I have always been a bit hesitant in using it for planaria. It may work well for actual deworming of fish (not sure since I have not tried this method) but also possibly safer on much larger fish than using it on smaller fish like guppies etc... Since its hard to get the correct dosage in a smaller volume of water.

I would say keep the tank going and don't use the dog dewormer again, rather use the NO PLANERIA product or, if you don't have shrimp in that tank then don't worry about it. Possibly even starve the tank off from actual feeding for at least 4 to 5 days and the planeria will go away eventually. The fish should be fine up to at least 7 days without any food.

 

Shame that's tough
Levamisole (in dewormer) will kill snails - I lost a nerite once before I remembered.
With fewer existing fish, the tank should be ok for periods away I'd imagine- adding floating plants (keep tank as lush as possible) could help as an added nitrate buffer, as could an extra sponge filter, which you could run temporarily to supplement the existing filtration.
Agree that No Planaria is the way to go in future, as well as smaller feedings. I have planaria at the moment as well, although seemingly minor for now, and I've just manually removed any of the worms as I see them (usually on the glass, so I wipe/drag them up and out with a small piece of paper-towel).
I've managed to get rid of them that way in the past, with the advised starve out period/ smaller feedings.

 

I have a large colony of cherry shrimp thriving in this tank now (the ones you gave me @David Kusner ) so I wanted to keep them safe. But I at least know about no planeria now for the future.
@Cale24 that is a good idea adding an extra filter for when I go away, I'll definitely do that next time.

 

@A new day I have only ever dosed 30L tanks and so never had issue with the snails. Usually the pack says Just add a scoop on day 1, then 24 hours later half and 48 hours later quarter. This is based on 50L I think, So I usually just add half that on day 1 and half on day 2 and that's it. Also daily small 5-10% water change is good during this time.

@T.guppy Dried out mulberry leaves are great for long periods when you are not around to feed. Put in 2 or 3 and you are good to go for at least 5 to 7 days and the shrimp will polish it all off eventually. I have plenty if you need. Going to harvest a big checkers bag full for winter!!

 

Hi everyone

Been hiding away for some time now. My tank has suffered a small bit. Plants aren't doing as well as they used to, and the light gave out so I decided to give up and try sell it, then my mom convinced me to keep it and bought me a new light for this tank.
So I'm going to try get it back up to it's former mediocre glory as best I can with what I have. I'll post a picture in a few with the new lighting