where's everybody?

[scott53326]

Bueller? .....Bueller?....... Bueller?

Wow...not many Wisconsinites here.

Any Northeast Wisconsin guys/gals on the forum?

-Scott

[KevinC]

I've been on the board for a while, but just moved to Oshkosh in August. Setting up my main tank (72 bow in sig) as a planted african mbuna. The 4 labs are settled in, and I'm picking up 15 demasonii on Saturday. Should be an active tank!

I'll tell you one thing - size does matter . . . . of the town you live in. In Charleston, SC I had one great fish only store and several adequate fish only stores to choose from. Here in Osh there are only "pet" stores - with very few plants and certainly not "plant tanks". I've heard of a good store in Appleton and one in Green Bay, just need to get up there.

Kevin

[scott53326]

Howdy Kev,

Yes it is pretty sparse around here. Not much up here in GB in regards to plants. There is a good fish store here in GB that recently opened so it is still in startup mode and he does not have much plants at the moment, but is slowly getting some more in. The name of the place is Fish Unlimited. All the employees know there stuff when it comes to fish keeping.

The managers name is Scott. Very good guy.(of course he's a Scott like myself) ;-)

Other than that there is Advanced aquariums downtown. It's ok.

-Scott

[rlong]

Hi all,
Randy in Milwaukee here.
Hey Kevin, have you seen the posts of my 72 gallon bowfront?

[markkoelsch]

Hello,

my name is Mark, and I live in Muskego (Milwaukee suburb). I jsut got back into the hobby after a 10 year absence. When I say just got back in, I mean this last weekend.

I setup a 38 gallon all glass. It has 50 pounds of medium fine river rock with 4 pounds of laterite mixed in. Lighting is via a Current USA Nova Extreme (2 39 watt T5HO-1 6700K and the other 10000K). Filtering is via a Rena XP1.

I set it up on Saturday, loaded in plants on Sunday. I went for 6 mediumish Amazon Swords, and a couple hygrow (at least I think that is what they are). Today, after work, I setup a Red Sea yeast and sugar driven CO2 system. It is basically a DIY setup for the person without time to do a DIY.

The water parameters of note a ph of about 7.7, GH of over 300 ppm (water in these parts is very hard). I am a bit concerned about those figures, but I a can only go with what I was dealt. I hope the CO2 will knock down the ph a couple of points, but only time will tell.

What do you guys use for measuring PH and hardness. I would prefer a test kit versus a meter right now do to budget constraints.

I am figuring on live bearers for the tank...probably swords. When I have pics I will post some.

Mark

[KevinC]

rlong:

Yes, nice tank. How many discus are in there? Do you use RO water since our water (in general in WI) is so hard? I built a canopy for my 72bow to put in lots of DIY fluorsecents. Then I upgraded to the Coralife T5's (Normal Output) - 6 bulbs over the tank, so still a decent amount of light.

markkoelsch:

Regarding testing, well, I'm a chemist so I can do things a little differently. Also, I teach so I have students doing some tap water testing as well. The hard water isn't such a big deal if you let the plants take time to adapt (or collect some locally - if you like vallisneria americana or ceratophyllum demersum, there is plenty in Lake Winnebago). The biggest issue will be if you want the fish to spawn - I've heard soft water fish just don't have the success rate in hard water. That's why I went with the African Mbuna - they are from very hard water environments.

Kevin

[Twistedream]

Greetings & Salutations, I've been lurking and just started posting, nice to see there are others in the area. I'm currently in the process of planning and setting up a 50g paladarium. I'm also working on setting up a nano reef, although that is a far off project

[rlong]

Hi Wisconsinites,
For those in the Milwaukee area, there is the Milwaukee Aquarium Society (http://mas-wi.com/). I'm a member. It meets once a month, there is usualy a speaker and other events like the club auction of fish and plants that member bring.

My primary focus is on Discus so I do use a lot of RO water. I am planning on writing an artical on water and tank set ups, so I'll post a link in here. I started out using chemical drop and dip strips test but I found that it was costing me a small fortune in both time and money. I now use meters, super fast and once you first lay out the cash you are set for years.

I use a DIY CO2 set up as well, it lowers my PH reading by at least .5 in my 72 gallon.

[prototyp3]

Hi neighbors.
I'm from Milwaukee and getting back into the aquatic scene after a long absence. I'm in the process of setting up two planted tanks, a 35g hex and a 40g breeder. A bit slow going with the holiday season but I'm getting there.

[RipariumGuy]

I am from the N-E Wiscosin area also. I have a planted 20g high, thats it.

[Luecke1548]

Originally Posted by scott53326

Howdy Kev,

Yes it is pretty sparse around here. Not much up here in GB in regards to plants. There is a good fish store here in GB that recently opened so it is still in startup mode and he does not have much plants at the moment, but is slowly getting some more in. The name of the place is Fish Unlimited. All the employees know there stuff when it comes to fish keeping.

The managers name is Scott. Very good guy.(of course he's a Scott like myself) ;-)

Other than that there is Advanced aquariums downtown. It's ok.

-Scott

in my opinion advanced aquariums is full of friendly and helpful employs and i give it 2 thumbs up fish unlimited is more for salt water but still just as helpful and they have some cool corals

[1987]

Advanced is the place to go. I go to fish unlimited, and I hardly see any plants.