Finally getting set up at my new house in Minnesota. Only fish I have seen since I moved are the lovely gamefish that my husband has brought home. Two days ago I hit my 55th year as a fishkeeper. Cannot WAIT until this tank is finally ready to receive them!
Hans Peter Jr coming soon?
Absolutely! Coming soon to an aquarium far from you! Miss you guys! So nice of you to remember my Hans Peter! Susan Peterson has one of his little girls. I must check on her. She was an OLD girl.
I have to say if I were a tropical fish all cozy and warm in my heated tank and saw an aquarium background of snow-capped mountains I might just turn belly up, four fins in the air from a fishy heart attack! Unless you're keeping your husband's game fish in the tank :)
You would be surprised at how warm it actually can be up there. Our kids swam in glacial rivers in May, surrounded by white capped mountains. In fact, a couple of years ago in late June, we were driving to the Munich airport and the Alps rose up from bottom to top, solid white. I had never seen them like that before but I was driving and himself doesn't know how to operate a camera if it isn't set up for him. It was GLORIOUS.
You are looking younger. Snow in the background must be doing it. We do not see such around here.
So how did you solve your water concerns? RO or stream water or ??
You flirt! Oh, you mean the sunbather in the second pic. Oh, well. Going with RO and raw well water, 2:1 gives me 8dKH. The plants will love the high iron content. Waiting for my TDS meter to check that. pH is 6.6. Got a propylene glycol barrel on Saturday and am washing the heck out of it. Might start producing RO water tonight, so maybe Friday I can put some in the tank. Will take more than 2 barrels to fill it.
First barrel in. Second one trickling. I forgot how much bigger and brighter the background would be once there was water in it!
What ya going to put in it? Trout? Bass? Bluegill? Stonerollers? Or something more tropical?
Blue gouramis - it should go without saying - but also ancistrus if I can find them, clown loaches, and looking at a big school/shoal of ember tetras. The water is in. Will pressure test the filter system overnight and if that passes, in goes the substrate. Picked up some H.ygro Pinnatifida and Christmas moss today - had to drive almost to Wisconsin for that. Also have some annubias nana in quarantine already. The new stuff has snails which must die. Should have the KMnO4 Monday. Soaking the wood right now. It has already dropped the hardness to 5dKH from 8dKH. Will be interesting getting this thing stable. This area is crammed with great LFS's! Some are even NEW. Of course, they are all on the other side of the cities, so it is a trip to get there but visited the BEST I have ever seen today. Will be a constant customer even if it is nearly an hour away. It was HUGE, clean, well-stocked, competitive prices, etc. My husband even loved wandering around in there.
What is the name of this great LFS?
Aqualand Aquarium Center http://aqualandmn.com/ is awesome. A World of Fish http://www.worldoffish.com/ wasn't as big, was moldy (Randy had to leave) and was too expensive. BUT they had the first gold nugget pleco I have ever seen and he was to die for!
Why do you think there are so many more LFSs in Minnesota and Wisconsin? A bigger local market or lower rent making it more possible to have a profitable business?
I have 3 tanks infested with Malaysian Trumpet Snails getting nuked with Potassium Permanganate right now. I just can't tolerate them and hate that I can't move plants around my tanks because of those darn snails. There's another species that has equally hard shells. I don't know what it's called but it's very tiny, not much bigger than the head of a pin full-grown, and forms extremely tight little flat spirals. They multiply like crazy and litter the tank glass. They also must die. I can control pond snails and Ramshorn snails but these other ones make me so crazy that I'm willing to nuke the tank with KMnO4 and have to recycle the filter just to get rid of them. Ugh!
One thing about having big barbs now, they can really take care of business when it comes to the softer shelled snails. The Clown Barbs are just as efficient as Clown Loaches in hunting down and feasting on pond snails.
Can't wait to see pics of your new fish.
Not sure. Rent is probably not the issue - possibily - taxes are at least as high, though. Fish prices are a bit higher, too, in an area where salaries lag behind the DC area. One of the stores we visited yesterday was nuts. I love my blue gouramis but I am not paying $8 for ONE gourami. Aqualand (the good one) has good prices, the place was jammed with people, and the selection and condition of the fish and the place were better than any other shop I have ever been in. People might be more likely to keep fish since the winters are long and cold here.
I have the plants I got from another fishkeeper yesterday sitting in a pail waiting for the KMnO4 to get here. I am still restocking things and didn't have that yet. Got some nice Hygro Pinnatifada (sp?) and Christmas moss. He had clean, algae-free tanks but did have snails.
Just added the substrate this morning, waiting for the water to clear again. Can't wait to get my tank set up!!!
Nice to meet you. I kept fish in Minneapolis/St. Paul for over a decade and used to shop at World of Fish. I'm delighted to hear that there are more LFS opening around there. It was always a drive, but sure easier to find fish stores there than in the DC area. I think the same was true for anything beyond the big box stores. I miss Minneapolis/St. Paul bookstores, surplus stores, cafes, etc.
I hope you enjoy your new home and that you come by here to post pictures of your tanks when they are up and running!
PJ
I probably will never go back to World of Fish. There is a good newer one close to me in Plymouth (I am in Independence on Lake Sarah) and the Aqualand store. I have checked out a few others, but it looks like the two of them have everything I could ever want and more.
So happy for you to have an excellent LFS nearby! Also a bit jealous. I am in Southern Maryland now, and options are slim.
Good luck with the new tanks and the new house!