BliffBlam

no thanks I just bought thesa a few weeks ago. very nice barrels, only the spouts leak alittle. I have a friend tht works next to the pepsi plant, I can get those all day for free. I dont want to worry about cleaning them. Thats why I bought these rain barrels. they also have a screw on lid so the whole top opens for access, only paid $15 a piece for those. thnks for the offer though.

i have a storage barrel that I bought tat leaks everywhwere. to seal all the plugs and spout, I dont think silicone will work. the plugs and spout r threaded however barrel is only about an 1/8" thick. Im thinking pvc cement. Any ideas. thanks.

cant open either, from ur description sounds like it coul be spaghetti worms. From what I understand they are harmless and actually r beneficial. I have one in my tank, doesnt bother anyone.

Since cyano is considered more of a bacteria, would a uv sterilizer help with its removal?

or sterilize or nothing. just use and put back on the shelf. do rinse before use. Or what? Iusually just rinse before and after use in the sink and call it a day.

I had the same prob, I cut back my lighting cycle do 20% waterchange every week and i syphon the algae of the sand and rock using like 1/4 tube as of not to suck all the sand out. Then I also use a turkey baster to blow crud off the rocks and my mechanical filter normaly gets it all and then I cahange that too. I only started dointhis about 6 weeks ago. I skipped last week cause i was so busy and my tank is not that bad at all, considering when i first started within a couple days sand, glass and rock would be covered again. it been 2 weeks since last cleaning and water change. its dirty but no where near like before. so its been working for me. goodluck.

I was thinking more about contaminating the tank not myself.

Just thought this might be helpful to start, And curious myself also. what are common practices among people putting hands in their tank? should you were gloves or not? and then do you wash your gloves everytime or just let dry out? I for one wash my hands with a mild non antibacterial soap or sometimes just rinse them off before putting in the tank and sometimes nothing at all. I kind of feel that washing your hands is pointless, unless your gonna scrub up like a surgeon I mean your still gonna have stuff under your fingernails. Unless you have something toxic or greasy on your hands does it really matter. Too bad there isnt something they sell that you can rub on hands and arms before doing so. Just looking for opinions and personal experiences.

I think thats an awesome idea, I just said in another thread that I would like to see this turn into a closer nit group instead of just a place for info and to buy things, since we are so close to one another. I would also like to see more socials were people could hang out and debate different ways on running and maintaining their tanks as there are so many different ways and personal opinions. This woul be of great help to people just getting started especially.Great idea jan. i am in 22204 arlington.

ahh, I see You gotta love this hobby. It would probably be cheaper and easier to take up heroin instead. Yeah, I guess my tanks a little different i dont have anything on the back 2 bulk heads 2 hoses easily accessed from the top. Its only a 35 hex. and some breeders. everything else is in the sump. My 110 that i am worikng on is gonna be a little different though. My light went out today in my tank, and I was about to have to get real creative. Then decided to use some money for my 110 setup to buy a new one (That sucked) But the light that broke was garbage anyway. Well hope it works out for you, we do what we got to do. Goodluck!

about 75%

Not trying to be rude or insulting but am I missing something here? When you say it worked out better than just having holes drilled. In what way? Imo, it seems like it was alot of work and probably not cheap either and its kind of an eyesore and sloppy and now you have a big box on the back so you cant even push it against the wall. Why go through all that when you said yourself your not even going to keep it? Was it just the syphon factor? you could have just drilled the tank got a overflow box from glassholes and done. Is it serving another purpose other than an overflow? Like I said I'm not trying to insult you, just trying to understand.

Thanks for the info. I thought the same of muriatic acid (that it rinses clean with water) as I was a lifeguard/pool operator for 5 years. we used to put it in squirt guns and have battles, what idiots lol. but all you had to do was splash alittle water on you and you were good. He also told me phosphoric acid was much stonger than muriatic. As for the haze it does disappear when theres water in the tank but since I just bought it i would really like to get it off. Like you said though it does appear to bond so I dont think it will come off. Thanks again.

What about phosphoric -phosfuric acid or how ever the h#% you spell it? I bought a 110g with some sort of residue on the back which I believe to be coraline, the tank was clean when i got it but theres just that film I cant get off. tried razor, bleach, clr, and straight muriatic acid with no luck. And it was suggested that I use phosphoric said it woul remove anything and is safe for aquarium use, they said it will actually rinse clean with water unlike muriatic that you should use baking soda to neutralize. Any thoughts? and where can you buy it?

What do you use to bond acrylic? Is it any harder to do then silicon glass together? Just something to consider.

I cant remeber what site I read it on, I think seahorse .org. Where people were saying you should use the foam in the black can. also it said you should let it fully dry for like a week and rinse very well before putting in your tank. furthermore, if you soaked the rock in freshwater leads me to believe it could just be alot of organic matter from the die off. I think your on the right track with a huge water change. Or maybe you just have a really kick A*# skimmer. keep us posted , i am about to set up a 110g and was cosidering a rock wall as well. Goodluck, dont get to frustrated and rip it all out before giving it a little time to clear up. Alot of work building those walls.

No doubt!

1st. tank design. not to much different from your typical tank with sump. the specialized comes in with the overflow. drilled bottom 1"standpipe with a round filter sponge like the ones that come from a hang on overflow then you wrap the sponge in pantyhose. Then small return pump for low flow. return line on one end of the tank airline on other side have to play with them a little bit to get circular flow motion not so much that you blow them around, but enough to keep food suspended in th water column and push any horses down that tend to stick around at the top. although they do need to reach the surface to fill their swim bladder with air. I am currently working on a design, that i am not going to discuss yet until its finished. i also use a small pc for lighting and heater in the sump of course. you can also go the 10g no sump method, but then you have to do 50% waterchanges everyday. Too much trouble, money and stress on the horses. 2nd. i gut load newly hatched artemia for 48hrs with a mixture of phyto, cyclopeze, vibrance. blend it in salt water then strain through a brine shrimp net into the grow out tank. only enough to make the water a little cloudy. When it clears up repeat.

That is odd, sorry for your loss. They are such pretty fish. i have had mine for about 5 mos I dont have a fuge so no pods. I was feeding arcti pods as I was told thats all they eat is pods. However i noticed him eating forzen mysis that I feed to my horses so I stopped with the pods and he is doing great even getting bigger. just shows that you never know in this hobby. It keeps you on your toes.

Thanks for the input, However Iexpect to be much more successfull than that. They should actually be converted to froz mysis by the third to fourth week. This is achieved by feeding a variety of foods at the same time from the start. newly hatched artemia, 48hr gutlaoaded artemia, cyclopeeze and chopped mysis slowly decreasing live foods. as well as different sizes as horses grow at different rates. With southern erectus 50% survival is considered good 80% excellent. Also specialized tanks are used. theres alot more invoved in raising horses than just throwing them in a tank feeding them and hoping for the best. So far a week later they are already tripled in size eating well and doing well. I have lost a few mainly from neglect, my sponge fiter was a little to big at the base and they were getting trapped underneath. since changing that I have only lost 1. I am already designing a new type of tank for my next brood that should be here in about another week. I have been working closely with another breeder that has been doing this for 6 years very suceesfully 80 to 90% survival rate. And they make a fortune. I am already comming up with innovative ideas to make the process easier and more successful. I cant speak intelligently on your methods cause I have no idea what they were I can only say that you were doing something wrong or just gave up to soon. I expect to be in the 70% survival rate with my first brood, should be more than that if I would of had the correct size filter to begin with. Stupid mistake. However sorry to hear that you werent successfull. It really takes alot of time and dedication. Maybe one day you will give it another shot as the hobby grows so does the demand for horses and there just are not enough breeders out there to protect the wild caught. The breeder I deal with cant keep up with the demand. If you want to make money you have to market just like anything else. your heart also has to be in it, you have to really care about them to be successfull. Not just try to make a dime. Anyways thanks for sharing and maybe you will give it another shot one day.

No prob. db I understand completely. I ended up buying 2 dt's copepod cultures and dumped in the tank it held them over until I could hatch.They seem to be doing well. This is my first time so we'll see what happens. Its funny cause i suspected the male was pregnant and was going to give birth at anytime so for about 3 days i was hatching brine. then i noticed he was still trying to mate every morning, which 99% of the time means no pregnancy. so I stopped hatching. 2 days later we had babies. go figure. I will keep you posted as I have taken this on full time. I am slowly converting my house into a breeding facility. The parents are captive bred and tank raised as well. In theory I would like to become the supplier to the lfs as well as anyone interested in keeping horses. Captive bred is better all around for everyone. Especially the seahorse population. I have only been in this hobby about a year, and i started with horses,(crazy right) but i put alot of time and research and money into it and so far have been sucessful. I've had several casualties of horses purchased from a shady lfs that I wont name. I bought 7 at one time to try and save them, they were in really bad shape. despite all the money time and effort I lossed all but one. They were a lost cause, parasites, worms, malnourished you name it they had it. poor guys. So take note if your intersted in horses be very wary of the source make sure the people you buy from actually care about them and are not just tring to make a dollar. The species I am currently working with is H. erectus (southern erectus) An excellent beginer horse, But make no mistake all species are difficult to keep. Fyi, for those interested they are usually not ready for sale until about 4 to 5 mos old, However if you have experience with them i would consider parting with them sooner. At this time i do not want to give up fry for experimenting in raising them. In the next few months when I start to have more broods I may reconsider. As I said i put alot of time and research before taking this on as should anyone thinking of keeping them. Sorry to go on here, just wanted to give a little backround. Thanks for reading. P.S anyone iterested can p.m me or respond here. I,ll keep you posted. Does anyone know if i can edit the title to include seahorses as i would like to continue on this thread for updates, and dont want people to miss out because of the title needin bbs.

wish you would have pm'd me like i said. was so busy yesterday i didnt have time to check back here. a pm goes straight to my phone. I already hatched myself. Thanks anyway.

i need newly hatched artemia no more than 24 hours old for newly born seahorses. if you have please pm me. thanks