I'm Travis. I found out about PVAS while picking up some albino bristlenoses locally. I've been keeping fish for more than 30 years since I was a kid.
I got a bit more active with my fish this year and started restocking my 55 then decided a 125 would be nice.
After a few months delay I got my 'new' 125 set up. I found it locally for including the stands, hood, lights and three canister filters. I first got it mostly filled in June and got a couple filters running. Everything seemed ok. Since I was sleeping on my couch that night I shut off the filters after running them for several hours without issue. Well woke up the next morning to squishy carpet and what looked like about 20 less gallons in the tank. I didn't have time to mess with it, had to get to work. So I put down some towels and disconnected the hoses from the canisters which includes closing some ball valves, well they're supposed to right?
Got home from work to find about 20 gallons remaining in the tank. Water had soaked through the floor, then the garage ceiling down to the garage floor and out the front. Apparently the ball valves don't seal tightly so the hoses actually siphoned out all that water. I finished draining it and moving the tank and everything on that side of the room so I could peel back the carpet and tear out the pad so I could get everything dried. Thankfully we had several days of dry air and it dried quickly. I decided now was a good time to just remove all the carpet and install something else. I finally found some luxury vinyl tiles at a good price and got enough of that installed to get the tank established again. I added a couple fish from my 55 to make sure all was well eventually added the rest. No issues now. I'm not using the canisters, I got a pair of Whispers like I've used on the other tanks.
I've got small schools of neons, cardinals, black neons, green fire tetras, ember tetras, emperor tetras; four peacock gudgeons, some CPDs, 8 cory cats of four species, a farlowella cat and some neocaridina shrimp that are rarely seen.
My 55 currently has four adult guppies and probably a dozen small ones now; the three albino bristlenoses until they get a bit bigger and about 100 baby bronze corys.
beautiful tank loo\ve what your doing
Corys have been sold off and recently decided I should do some guppy control after the last batch of 40+ popped out, all females. Plecos have been moved to the big tank. I need more than a few adult guppies in there. I considered a dwarf gourami but then after watching lots of Youtube videos I got the idea of some rainbows. I got two pairs of Boesemani from Capital Exotics and then later another pair from a PetSmart for some genetic diversity, go figure they actually cost less at Capital. Very competitive prices there even compared to PetSmart/Co.
And today I got the idea of going to Congressional in the hopes of finding some Praecox rainbows. Sure enough they had them and a bunch of other types of rainbows. Probably the highest-priced shop around, but I don't mind so much if I can find something less common there because I really don't want to do online and pay a load for shipping. But the prices for some common corys is perplexing, twice anyplace else. However there were some types I haven't seen anywhere else for only a few bucks more.
Last night a piece of Lexan I ordered showed up a day early so I was able to make new lids for the 55 that will allow for max light passthrough, precise fitting around filters, and ideally sized openings for the automatic feeder. and some pothos. $40 total for the Lexan and clear plastic hinges.
that squishy sound is farmiliar to me as well, dripped into my bedromm thru the air vent from the floor above, lots of mess and quick action needed. Beautiful tank. Cant wait to see you at the Nov meeting.
BUMMER> But most of us have been there at sometime or other.