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Postby Maryellen » March 1st, 2006, 10:31 am

i have blue gravel, and fake plants.. much easier for me to take care of. i am on as jesse212
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Postby SisMorphine » March 1st, 2006, 2:18 pm

Fish are WAY more work than dogs.

I think after Percy Kittens goes (yes he is still alive and kicking, crazy fish) I'm going to take a fishy hiatus! Picking up the poop of 30 dogs 4 times a day isn't nearly as troublesome/messy as cleaning out a tank/bowl.

Props to all of you who can deal with it. When I have enough money to hire a fish guy, I'll have a tank. But not until then!!
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Postby CinderDee » March 2nd, 2006, 6:02 am

msvette2u wrote:Thanks for the link! I will definately check it out. We got some bacteria starter. The old tank was doing really well, after we treated it, that is, when the new fish brought home fish sickness and we lost some :(
We ended up getting natural colored (tan and white) gravel, rounded rocks, not the blue or green rocks. It'll be nice. Part of it was on clearance! The plants we got were all on clearance. We tried live plants once, that may be what's in that tank, I don't remember, but once they brought home snails. We had snails all over!
So we're starting with fakies for now.
See you on the other board!! (Are you CinderDee there too!?)


Sounds great! :D I am CinderDee there too.

What kind of bacteria starter did you get, Yvette? If it's not BioSpira it's not worth using. The only product that will cycle a tank is BioSpira. The other things like Cycle are a waste of money. :evil:
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Postby CinderDee » March 2nd, 2006, 6:04 am

SisMorphine wrote:Fish are WAY more work than dogs.

I think after Percy Kittens goes (yes he is still alive and kicking, crazy fish) I'm going to take a fishy hiatus! Picking up the poop of 30 dogs 4 times a day isn't nearly as troublesome/messy as cleaning out a tank/bowl.

Props to all of you who can deal with it. When I have enough money to hire a fish guy, I'll have a tank. But not until then!!


Hey Sis,

I'm thrilled that Percy Kittens is still hanging in there! :D

I hear you about the tanks. I've done 6 tonight and am burned out on carrying buckets of water. :shock:
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Postby CinderDee » March 2nd, 2006, 6:07 am

Maryellen wrote:i have blue gravel, and fake plants.. much easier for me to take care of. i am on as jesse212


I have silk plants, ME. I bought a lot of real ones last May and they all died, even though I was assured they were low light. No green thumb here.

To top it off, a snail leech and pond snails hitched in on them. :o I had to nuke my tank and the leech killed a couple of my Apple Snails.
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Postby msvette2u » March 2nd, 2006, 12:15 pm

That's what happened to us. Snails all over the place. And the amt. of light necessary gave us algae!!
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Postby msvette2u » March 2nd, 2006, 10:33 pm

Crap. All we got was Proquatics Bacteria Starter, and Cycle. Should we take them back? We haven't even got the water in yet, so they are not used.
That's all they had at Petsmart!
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Postby CinderDee » March 2nd, 2006, 11:22 pm

Yes, I would definitely return them. They're a waste of money, IMO.
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Postby msvette2u » March 2nd, 2006, 11:34 pm

Thanks! They were spendy!!
OK So back to plan A. Get fish and let them cycle it. What type fish are best for starters? Or did you answer that? I haven't joined the other forum yet, I'm so busy it's not funny!
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Postby CinderDee » March 2nd, 2006, 11:40 pm

I know they are expensive! :o

I don't cycle with fish. You can do a fishless cycle, or you can go the BioSpira route.

If you do decide to cycle with fish, are you planning on keeping them?

Another thought...do you know anyone with a healthy, mature tank that would be willing to give you some substrate and a bit of media? You could cycle that way, but you must make sure not to take too much from them and that their tank is very healthy.

I keep extra media in all my tanks for cycling, so I don't use BioSpira anymore, but for new tanks that's my preference.
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Postby msvette2u » March 2nd, 2006, 11:57 pm

I remember starting the 40 gal. with our old gravel from the 10 ;)
We could keep them, I was thinking guppies!? Something fairly inexpensive and guppies are good breeders? The only drawback is guppies are so small. In my dream (yes I had a dream about a tank!) I was putting in Gouramis. LOL
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Postby Hoyden » March 3rd, 2006, 12:07 am

We used to have a huge 55 gal. tank, but got rid of it when we moved.

We had a vicious convict fish. The blasted thing would bite you when you tried to clean the tank. Petey used to lean on the back of the chair & watch the fish with his nose against the tank and the dumb fish would head butt the side of the tank like he was trying to get Petey!

Then the Pacu was HUGE - the darn thing was almost as big as a dinner plate. No one wanted the thing because it was enormous so it went to the zoo.

Never get snakeheads. Mark got one and it ate everthing in the tank except the convict, plako and pacu.
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Postby CinderDee » March 3rd, 2006, 12:09 am

Guppies are very prolific!

I love Gouramis! They were one of my first fish. However, the Dwarfs have had some health issues, so I wouldn't go with them.

You have tons of options for fish. Do you know what your pH is?

I think planning the tank out ahead of time is your best bet re: the fish. Do you want livebearers, maybe a school of colorful fish like Tetras or Rasboras, or a centerpiece, like an Angel or Gourami? You could also do a Cichlid tank, etc, etc. :D
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Postby msvette2u » March 3rd, 2006, 12:09 am

http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Fishless.htm

I found this site! Yay! I think we'll go to our old fishshop where we got the bulk of our supplies and fish and ask them for a sponge or some gravel! Or get the Biospira if all else fails!
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Postby CinderDee » March 3rd, 2006, 12:19 am

Thanks for the link! I'll read it later. I should have given you ours. Check it out. :)

http://www.flippersandfins.net/Cycling.htm

Did you get water testers? If not, you will definitely need them. American Pharmaceuticals makes the best kit, IMO. AP Master Test Kit. It sells for about $13.00 and lasts forever.

For a water conditioner, I like Prime the best.
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Postby msvette2u » March 3rd, 2006, 11:32 pm

The tanks are filled and we're going shopping tomorrow, with our handy dandy list made from the things listed on your page!! Wish us luck!
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Postby CinderDee » March 3rd, 2006, 11:36 pm

Good luck!

Sooo, what's on your list? :D
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Postby msvette2u » March 4th, 2006, 10:57 am

LOL Well we'd like to find some Biospira and then we'd get some guppies or some such, probably. Maybe some comets or goldfish. We can trade them in at the one fish store if we don't want them later, we used to trade fish in for store coupons, it's a great deal.
If we can't find that we'll go with some bacteria from the petstore, and ammonia to do a fishless cycle.
Also the test kit and the Prime conditioner! :)
The tanks look great. We set up the 10 with the divider and the 55 with all the beautiful plants and gravel, it will look really nice.
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Postby msvette2u » March 4th, 2006, 11:00 am

Oh, and I'm going to get some frozen fish food, we used to buy this green stuff in a resealable plastic bag, and it worked well. We'll get some of that today too. I don't remember what kind it was but I'll know it when I see it.
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Postby CinderDee » March 4th, 2006, 3:00 pm

Here's a link to the Marineland site. If you'll look on the left, there's a place to enter your zip code and find the closest retailer that carries BioSpira.
http://www.marineland.com/products/mllabs/ml_biospira.asp

Bear in mind that comets and Goldies need 10 gallons per fish and are very high waste. They are best kept in a species tank.

Have fun!
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