Cleaned up the plants in my aquarium

[MadAsAHatter]

The java ferns in my 60 gal aquarium grew enough where they were taking over. I hacked the shit out of them yesterday and cleaned up the tank a little. It's not perfect, but now I can actually see the fish. The 2 main ones are an African Leaf Fish and a 25 cent feeder goldfish that started out as turtle food. The goldfish didn't get eaten by the turtles so I threw him in to see if the leaf fish wanted a snack. Now he's the biggest fucker in the tank.

There's a few other fish in there. A small albino cory catfish, angelicus botia, albino bristle-nose plico, and a pearl gourami. You can kinda see the gourami in the back, top, center of the tank @Monkey Man He likes hanging out by the filters.

 

[IndyWS6]

You just using the HOB power filter?

 

[VonBonfire]

When I was a kid I'd buy 4 goldfish for a dollar. One of them got so big he got stuck in some of my aquarium decor and didn't make it once I freed him. I loved my 10 gallon and would seine net sunfish, bluegill, bullheads, and little crayfish outta the lake. I'd dig up big nightcrawlers from behind the shed and the bullheads would gorge themselves on them....swimming lazily headfirst into a corner with a worm hanging out it's mouth. The crayfish would dig out the corner for it's nest and keep the tank pretty clean. Once the fish got to big I'd release them back into the lake. I had a lotta fun with that.

I was thinking about putting another aquarium together one of these days now that my house projecting is on the downhill run but I'd want to go 150-200 gallons and there is quite a bit of money involved in that. Maybe 75-90 would be more reasonable but I don't think I'd get the same enjoyment out of it as I did when I was a kid. Still, listening to the air pump run at night and having it lit up in the evenings is pretty relaxing....

 

[MadAsAHatter]

You just using the HOB power filter?

Yeah, just the 2 filters you see in the pic. They're more for waterflow than anything. The live plants do most of the heavy lifting for oxygen and biofiltration. It's pretty self sustaining. All I really do is add water when needed, clean the glass when algae builds up, and hack the plant back once a year or so.

 

[Monkey Man]

... but I'd want to go 150-200 gallons and there is quite a bit of money involved in that.

Buy 2nd-hand bro'.

Even almost-new tanks are cheap that way.

Moving this to Pets where the other Aquaristic stuff is...

 

[Monkey Man]

Funny that this thread appeared today.

I've spent most of it trying to fix my 35-year-old Shego M2K3 air pump.

Unfortunately, even with new diaphragms, it's a goner so I ordered a new one. At $150 I figure if I get 30+ years out of it again, that'll be $5 year, so not bad when you look at it that way.

Not many peeps have heard of this brand. It's a German, family-owned outfit that I swear by. The consensus is usually that Tetra, Sera, Eheim et al are the go-to brands for value and reliability. None of them can touch Shego 'though.

That said, I've managed to get 40 years out of my Eheim 2217 canister filter by replacing parts as they die and it's still going "strong".

 

[Monkey Man]

The live plants do most of the heavy lifting for oxygen and biofiltration.

If you want more of that goodness, bearing in-mind that none of those plants is a hard worker in this respect:

Conventional wisdom says:
Add some floating and / or fast-growing stem plants.

Monkey says:
Giant duckweed 25% coverage (take a bit out each week 'cause it grows fast).
It's an ultra-fast nitrate consumer.
It's easy to fully remove, unlike normal duckweed which can be a life sentence for some and which your goldfish will demolish anyway (they love it).

Pearlweed bunch in the left-rear corner.
The candidates many would recommend are hornwort and guppy grass as well, but hornwort doesn't grow roots and is therefore a PITA to maintain in the substrate as a bunch, and guppy grass tends to break up and end up everywhere in addition to only exhibiting minimal root growth.

The pearlweed stays put and grows fast. It can simply be trimmed and will regrow.

It can be encouraged to carpet via trimming low-to-the-ground.

It can be employed as a floater (that left-rear corner would work well) if you wanted a place for baby fish to hide, but of course it looks messy and serves that purpose as a planted bunch anyway.

Lastly, the pearlweed is resilient and maintains its structure when the other candidates' stems might rot and cause them to break up annoyingly.

 

[Monkey Man]

One additional note, and it's kinda-obvious:

The goldfish will become a problem as it continues to grow. You'll have to be lucky for it to top out at not much larger than it is now.

 

[70 Mach 1]

i had one when i was a kid. it was a big TV to my cats.

One would get up on the ledge to go fishing. he was able to them out. then he'd just leave them on the floor and watch them die
what a sadistic cat. i always said to him you went through all that trouble at least eat them

yrs later I had another outdoor cat that went fishing in the pond 4 houses away. He also left them for dead

man was that homeowner angry with me. i had to keep the boy away for fears that he was going to hurt him