My beginnings

jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
Im buying 4 to start out with. I probably should have boughten 6-8 but was worried about stocking to many to soon. Not that it will matter with even 4 because the bio load is going to come from there food more so.
I think if my feeding station goes as I hope it will what I would like to do is set up a large display at the entry way of my house. I'd like my husband to build me a stand that is about chest high and have a row of 5 gallon sea horse tanks all plumbed together with a large sump underneath. It might not be possible though I haven't looked into it yet. The other concern is if something happened and all the tanks were plumbed together the whole system would crash and that would just suck.
I'm gonna have to experiment and see what happens. Im not even sure what --- ponies I'm getting they all might be girls LOL. For now I'll just take what I get love them and see how long I can keep them alive! Im crossing my fingers for beyond 1 year mark!
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
Tank still cycling sigh.....

But onto more exciting news! I got my first package from Abbie and Dan. It was most of the feeding items I will need. I decided to purchase decapped brine shrimp from them instead of using the ones I had. (I didn't feel comfortable trying to decapp them myself.) I still need shrimp and another enrichment plus my ponies of course. Ahhh Im so excited I can't wait. This tank is taking to long. It has been 1.0 ppm nitrite for days now grr. Okay off that rant. Heres another picture.

(You guys gonna get sick of pictures yet?)
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
20 ppm nitrates today!!! Wahoo.
I'm having a bit of problems with my brine shrimp though. They are being splashed onto the side of the hatcher and then they get stuck there. Any ideas how to keep that from happening.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
Just looked back at your hatchery setup! How many pumps do you have?? You can get(not sure what the name is) but it allows you to have one line feeding in and 3 or 4 coming out. Each has a control valve that allows you to adjust the rate of bubbles. Slowing the bubbles should prevent your problem!
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
I have a ton of different air pumps lol. I didn't know what ones to buy. I have a few 40 gallon ones that have two air sockets. (if thats what they'd be called) A few 10 gallon ones that only have 1 and a few 5 gallon rated ones that only have one too. I thought about turning the air flow down also but was worried I wouldn't have that "boiling" effect any more. Ill add one of the air flow controls and see what it does. Thanks!
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
One last picture of an empty tank I swear.
Do you think this is over crowded with stuff? Does it look bad? brutal honesty please! My husband says it has to much stuff in it. I figured more stuff more hitches happier horses. Would you do something different or organize something ?
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
I think it looks beautiful.
The only thing you might want to do is take some scissors and thin out the green grassy planton the right. More so you have a chance of seeing the ponies in there, than for the looks.
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
IT'S NEVER GONNA CYCLE lol!

I swear my nitrites have been bobbing up and down. They were 1.0 yesterday and now they are back up to 5.0. You know honestly I don't like a API tests there colors are all off. My ammonia test doesn't look like the card and my nitrate test doesn't look like the card either. :RANT RANT RANT: Okay I'll stop complaining now It hasn't even been 4 weeks yet. tomorrow marks the 3rd week my tank has been running! Time has really flown by.
 
bender77

bender77

Member
I think your tank looks awesome! Those horses will be happy. Don't get frustrated just yet, your tank will cycle. It just may need another week or 2
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
ah im just impatient :) I want an instant cycle so I can have some horses :) I did hatch a test run of brine shrimp. I only added 1/16 of a teaspoon and had thousands!! I feed them to my 40 gallon and it looked like snow in there
. Its gonna be over kill on my 4 gallon hehe. On a side not I thought brine shrimp were gonna be much bigger. At 24 hours I couldn't tell any difference from the egg stage except they now jerked around. 48 hours they were a bit bigger but not noticiable unless really trying to see them. And at 72 hours they were still itty bitty.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
No worries! The brine needs to be itty-bitty!
When you get your horses, you'l understand. lol
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
I'm afraid to get them though. I feel like what if I did something wrong. What if theres something bad on the rock that's gonna get my ponies. What if the my tank can't keep up with the bio load. What would you guys do at this point? Should I have them mail the ponies or wait? I'd like to get some snails but at the same time I'm to afraid they will introduce something bad. I also just got done treating the tank with panacur. I am gonna do a water change tomorrow. I dont know what to do ahhhhhhh
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
Ok...breathe...........
If you treated the tank with panacur, I would not recommend you put snails in there. Relax! Do your water change. If you ordered your hores today, I doubt they would send them ot until Monday.
My advise is to tell them to be ready to ship on Monday, keep an eye on your parameters, and if all is good still Then give them the "go ahead" to send them!!
If anyone thinks I'm wrong on this, feel free to comment! Otherwise,
CONGRATS!
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
HAHA Well I jumped the gun on shipping date a little bit hehehe. I just called and they are shipping them out today! Im picking them up at the fedex location tomorrow. I'll be there before the first employee HAHAH! We live in the next city over from fedex so I didn't want my ponies to be stuck in there truck until 3-4 pm. Ahhhh I'm so excited! Okay. Im off to do a water change. Wish me luck! And I will be posting a million pictures tomorrow. (well crap if I can get my camera fixed also) Have to call canon first.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
Awesome! I'd have done the same!
It's easier to give out cautious advise then it is to follow it!!
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
It;s 130 am and Im freaking out about the ponies. If I put a heater in the tank it's going to need a guard right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top