[AquaAurora]

[3/15/20]tearing this tank down, plants for sale here:
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/153-sale-trade/1305337-tank-tear-down-big-driftwood-plants.html
last photo of tank

[older still working photos start here (click)]


[12/9/12]

Tank Info:
Tank: 75g
Heater: Ehiem Jagar 150 watt
Filter: Aquatop submersible pump(315 gph) on large sponge filters (x2)-
Lights: Finnex 36" led (can't recall which planted plus maybe?)
Substrate: Black Diamond
Stand: hand made by hubby
Fauna: 3 amano (2f, 1m) and 1(f) nerite
Submerged Flora:
Aponogeton crispus (lot of this), Jungle val, Amazon sword, Crypt wendtii brown/green

[11/24/19]

[11/20/19]

[4/19/19]

[3/21/19]

[update 1/11/19]
back to aquarium and just 2 goldies. For a while I had 4 or 5. go to page 5 for more recent updates. sorry for pages of broken images. Thank photobuckets big old [censor] over of users with their $399 a year fee.
If anyone wants to see some old tan photos let me know I'll dig them up.

[edit] more details on tank:
[Fauna] 1 fantail goldfish (Tarragon), 1 oranda goldfish (Pepper)
[Flora] Aponogeton crispus jungle val, amazon sword, crypt wendtii brown/green
substrate] black diamond blasting 'sand'
equipment 75g aqueon tank+ black paint, lexan lids, 2 giant spong filters, largest whisper air pump I could find, eheim jagar heater
~~~~~~~~

Sooo on Sunday this happened...(ignore the container on top)


Yup, goldfish..specifically a tricolor oranda (I think is the color term? s/he's a silver with bronze and black) and a calico fantail.




Tank Info:
Tank: 40 gallon breeder
Heater: Ehiem Jagar 150 watt
Filter: Aquatop submersible pump- 315 gph
Lights: will be Finnex Ray 2 LED 30", currently 1x 14 wtt 6500k cfl in reflector lamp
Substrate: Black Diamond
Stand: re-claimed 40" table
Fauna:1 Oranda and 1 Fantail goldfish
Submerged Flora:
Anubias barteri 'broad leaf'
Anubias barteri 'wrinkle leave'
Water Sprite
Riparium Flora: soon to come
Ferts:Seacehm Flourish

After speaking with xjasminex, Moonshayde, snakeybird as well as a member of another forum I'd seriously considered getting some fancy goldfish. Did a lot of research but didn't buy for several months as the original plan changes a bit... I was going to condense my 55g and 20g long into 1 tank then re-purpose the 55g for goldfish (at my husband's suggestion), but I ended up keeping the two existing tanks as is. For my birthday I splurged on about $100 of anubias from an e-bay seller that would refund for rhizome rot ridden plants for the first 14 days after delivery Tank has a side and back section (essentially an in tank sump) with pop-display black Lexan (great prices), got a pump, heater, heater controller (as I read to many reviews of cooked fish these days). Husband drilled holes in the Lexan faux walls that I stuffed black foam in, and on the left side I packed in foam and ceramic media around the pump.
Anubias is still going through the quarantine time but when we went to a non chain pet store on Sunday to buy some black worms.. we got drawn in at the goldfish display. WE left but ended up turning around after 2 minutes and going back to grab 2 we really liked, then made a quick top at Home depot for Lexan to make a lid.

After a massive water change on the 40g breeder (which swim room dimensions are just a bit larger than a 20g long with the black lexan walls in) to removed ammonia I dosed to start a cycle + feed anubias I acclimated the goldies and got them in... If they do well and grow (aka I don't [censor] things up) I'll plan to get a 75.. maybe 125g (or a custom 6' long) for them down the road.

They're doing well so far, doing 15 gallon or more water changes a day as the tank gets cycled, knowing goldies are big poop machines. I bought another finnex ray 2 from amazon, waiting for it tom come in then going to go raid the local garden centers for riparium plant possibilities! Once I get the goldfish eating veggies and their various other foods and am sure they're done nibbling plants (so far I've busted the oranda 'testing' the anubias several times) I'll add some more large aquatic plants, possibly an amazon sword or slightly smaller sword, maybe a Aponogeton... I really wish the store I got the goldies from did a better job with their live plants.. all the tanks have hair algae+ green spot algae >.> do.not.want! May also buy some more anubias. I have several small anubias I moved out of the tank before the goldfish were added, may put them back in once the goldies know anubias doesn't mean salad bar(leaves) or spaghetti(roots).

Officially the goldfish are not named yet (I wait at least 1-4 weeks before naming new fish in case of death), but my husband has already unofficially named the oranda Vasco da Gama.. I got 'Calyspo' by John Denver stuck in my head after buying the fish (specifically "Aayyee Calipso") and have been thinking of calling the calico fantail that but would rather look into a more meaningful name.. waiting to see personalities once they're settled in before they have official names.


Anyways they're getting use to different feeding-store did floating I use sinking (soaked) pellets, they LOVED repashy soilent green for lunch today, and thawed blood worms yesterday.. all get soaked in my DIY garlic extract for 2-6+ minutes before feeding. The oranda is a bit more shy and tends to go int the anubias when I take the lid off, calico is fearless except not use to my hand getting really close yet. No problem having me hold a pipet with food by 'em though. I've been feeding the soaked pellets via pipet to make sure the oranda is getting some and trying tog et them use to me, once they stay in the open area for feeding time I can just sink pellets.

 

[CowBoYReX]

I Love the anubias

 

[AquaAurora]

They're getting use to the routine fairly quickly, the oranda which has been more shy before doesn't head into the anubias when I take off the lid now and they're getting better at grabbing sinking pellets (store use to feed them floating) then foraging through the sand to get what they missed.

Still have a few details to figure out for them like how many times a week they can get meaty meal. xjasminex told me the young ones need protein for growth but I'm unsure for long long they're considered 'young' (to what size) and how often to feed still... Also read that they release growth stunting hormones into the water (a good reason to do water changes.. besides the high nitrogen levels they produce), but don't know for how long? Until sexual maturity? Also curious about how often/many peas to feed for periodic digestive help (clear out)..

I Love the anubias

Thank you ^^

 

[Nordic]

Shame you have only two, you could have named them after the four apocalyptic horsemen.
Those two could pass for death and pestilence

 

[AquaAurora]

Shame you have only two, you could have named them after the four apocalyptic horsemen.
Those two could pass for death and pestilence

I don't think I could take the amount of water changes I'd have to do for 4! Would probably have to start off with a 75g just for my own sanity.

 

[AquaAurora]

Had a busy week/weekend! I tried to order a Finnex Ray2 30" light... piece of [censor] only has LEDs covering 22" inches of it! Sent the piece of junk back and bought a planted + 36" since I already had on and knew it was 34"+ of light and not a rip off. Got the new one mounted using some leftover shelving materials, but will probably have to lower it. Giant dark blob in reflection of second photo is my old dog laying on my feet ^^



I'll be moving the anubias around so it gets decent light from the LED once the riparium is planted and hopefully getting more vertical smooth rocks in there to hide the rhizome/anchoring. I also am waiting on a sword plant that should be here tomorrow for the tank.


Went shopping yesterday at local garden centers. I'd hoped to get purple queen and coleus, but the former was not at any garden center I visited and the latter I didn't realize could get so big/wide-some tags read max at 30"x36"! They looked so small on others ripariums, I wonder if the centers just had larger species, or if on a tank light they stay smaller? I was tempted by sedum and geranium but couldn't recall if I'd seen them on a riparium before so did not buy 9need to go look into them).
Either way I ended up with these:

sweet potato vine, lime green and dark purple, and a friendship plant. I had the friendship plant before on my 55g but sold it when it was being out competed for light. Want to try it again.

I also managed to get old seeds from my aqauponic system days (3 years ago) to sprout so I'll be growing some organic lettuce. I'm hoping to get spinach seeds to sprout too but they were mostly duds back then so not too hopeful (may have to buy a per-sprouted plant), as well as some oregano.. I can't find my other seed packs any more sadly.


Going to set up the tank as a sort of aquaponic/riparium with some edible and non edible plants in the back section. I'll probably buy an air pump and toss some air stones in the back for oxygenating the roots since its not going to get much in the way of water flow. Kinda of excited to grow my own greens again since I can feed them to the fish and save on $. I've thought about buying a cucumber plant too but don't have the proepr kelvin lights for fruiting.

I hate seed starter kits after trying one for the aquaponic system, [censor]y plastic lid did not stay on, so instead I start seedling in a clear tuper wear with a paper towel dampened with tank water and either with its lid with some tiny holes for venting, or clear sandwich bags. Currently trying to get spinach and oregano to sprout. Once sprouted I'm putting them on my old riparium trellis rafts on the worm culture bin to grow a bit. The foam absorbs water from the tank and the light on the tub is on 14 hours a day. once they get a bit bigger I'll move them to the tank.




On the goldfish front they're settled in very quickly and use to me. I've had the oranda nibble my finder by Wed' last week, and the calico the day after. Now they both eat from my hand at the beginning of feeding but once food start getting to the bottom they stay down low to go after it. The oranda lets me pet it only lightly and slowly on fin tips, calico isn't in a petting mood yet. Haven't named either until I can be positive on gender.. I'm 85% sure the calico fantail is female due to vent shape and a symmetrical body shape from above. Oranda... not so sure, has a female vent shape but is not a symmetrical body wise from above. My husband hopes the oranda will be a male.

This past weekend I had a mini panic attack...Every day i am doing 15 gallon water changes, and every 4 days or so a 25-30 gallon water change since the tank is still cycled (doing prime to bind ammonia/nitrite each day too). Well during one of the water changes I knocked out a chunk of foam in the faux wall (the black lexan has holes drilled in it with black filter foam stuffed in to allow water flow threw). I didn't notice when I did this and when refilling the tank I use a pump to make it go faster. I put the hose in the back part of the tank to refill to not disturb fish/substrate. I noticed only the oranda was coming over to hang with me while refilling.. where was the calico? I looked all over, in the anubias.. nothing! Then.. light bulb.."OH [CENSOR]!" I turn off the hose nozzle and look in the back section. My poor calico fantail had been blasted with high pressure water for a good minute back there! I ran and turned off the pump then had to carefully net her and move her back to the front section (she was very calm about netting and being taken out of the water for a moment and stuff the foam back into the hole she'd gone through. Thankfully she managed to be undamaged-neither scales, eyes, gills, or fins showed issues from the lil' adventure. I think I need to get more egg crate and make a little box behind each of the foam pieces to keep them from going through again. I'm hoping any future mishaps I can pick them up by hand to move back.



Some other photos taken during water change. That's not uneaten food on the substrate, black diamond has a lot of orange hued particles in it.

 

[AquaAurora]

First riparium plants are on after a 1 hour fully submerged dip in water to remove any possible pests.


Hoping to get the edibles grown enough to slap on there in the next few weeks.

 

[CowBoYReX]

Looks good

 

[AquaAurora]

[5/2]
Still haven't names them but they eat readily from my hand now. The oranda lets me pet it, fantail isn't too keen on petting yet though. I'm actually not 100% if my fantail is a fantail or a ryukin that hasn't gotten eh accentuated back arch yet.. hope its not ryukin (nothing against ryukin, its just not what I wanted for a first goldfish).
spam-o-fish-photos! I need to find the cord to upload photos from the real camera and stop using my phone, can't get good shots with this but oh well.

*ninja nibble*










Adjusted the lights, tossed a scallion on test tank 9far left) it grew a new blade of 'grass' in 2 days! Also put on the sweetflag from my 20g long since it wasn't getting enough light.




Oh I also stuffed aquacelar 70 foam media behind the cut outs in the lexan so the goldies can't get in the back section any more. And got an air pump set up for them. I think the outflow arrangement puts a lot of oxygen in the tank (i see bubbles at the opposite end) but sometimes I knock the spraybar under water which defeats it so air stone doesn't hurt ^^

I still need to add more black diamond and plant the sword plants I got from a RAOK.... right now they're just floating.

[5/5]
If you've read my other journals (specifically the 55g Riparium Reign journal) I make mention of my angelfish, CarmelYumYum. My husband named her when he first saw her as the tan/brown marking on her dorsal fin was the hue of carmel, and he was hungry haha. Well my husband finally decided on a name for the blue oranda, he wanted to call him/her Chocolate for the bronze hue in its body (though I explained that will likely go away as they grow). If I'd known he'd do a food name I might have bought an orange fantail instead to name Orange Sherbet (my favorite ice cream flavor... which I annoying have a heck of a time getting the good brands of around here >.< ), but as I have a spotted calico I named her Sprinkles to go along with the food theme.
I planted the swords I'd gotten as a raok last week finally. SO far the goldies are leaving them be (not dug up or completely destroyed).. I expect to loose all the original leaves but knowing how resilient swords are from my very old Argentinian sword (only plant still alive from my first aquatic plant purchase many years ago) I'm not too worried.
Lettuce seedlings are about ready to go on the tank, and I think I'm going to try to take photos of the terrestrial plant growth from the angle shown below from now on to see growth easily-resting phone on tank trim so its always same angle/distance. I managed to get a decent shot of Chocolate.. wish the dorsal and top of the caudal was in focus too but the rest is. Sprinkles doesn't want to hold still for a decent shot =.=






I'm able to pick up/handle Chocolate now.. Sprinkles is still being shy about getting petted or manhandled but it doesn't stop her from attacking my fingers when they're in the tank, especially when there's food involved.

Looks good

Thanks ^^

 

[AquaAurora]

So I've ditched the riparium plants and decided to go aquaponic- growing veggies for my husband and the goldies on the back section instead.
Btw the friendship is still available if anyone wants it.
I may be selling the swords in the near future too..
Anubias in other quarantine tanks are about ready to be transferred over.

[5/17/16]
So made some changes for terrestrial plants.. took out the ornamental sweet potato vines and sweet flag, also going to remove the friendship plant soon. I'm doing all vegetable -aquaponic style for above water plants. Decided to grow the lettuce that's already spouted (its been moved to the tank), as well as some scallions and cucumbers. The latter two I just got seeds for this week and sowed directly onto the expanded clay media in the shower caddies on the tank, should see spouts in 1-2 weeks ^^ Look forward to having some yummy organic home grown veggies this summer. The scallion I'd put on the tank a few weeks ago is growing real fast.
Anubias are doing good, some are a bit more beat up than I'd prefer but there are new leaves coming in so yay! Swords in front have lost most of their old leaves and have new healthy growth. Goldies haven't dug them up yet, though one baby sword with short roots sometimes gets knocked loose when they swim through the plants. I really need to find my bag of root tabs to stuff 1 under these plants.
Anubias in quarantine tanks are also doing good and I'm hoping to give them a did to remove algae and transfer them to the 40g breeder by the end of the month ^^
Fish are doing well. Chocolate has no issues with handling but Sprinkles is still a bit iffy, she's most tolerant of touches at feeding time when preoccupied by trying to snag food before her tank mate. Their tank has been doing well and nitrates are staying at about tap's nitrate range (5-10ppm).

Just some photos after doing a water change.. need to get a better in focus shot of the tank. The large green mass at the surface is all my water sprite. its been my biggest nitrate absorber in the tank and more than tripled in mass from the amount I first added!Sprinkles:"Food?"

Waiting on those seeds to sprout....

Friendship plant.. I need to find another place for this once the veggies start growing so i can add more seeds/plants in the back.. anyone want this plant (its 2 large stems and several small stems)?

Cheap and easy seed sprouting: plastic zip bag, container, paper tower dampened with tank water and seeds. Set in sunny window or under tank light and wait. These are spinach seeds, for some reason the packet I'd gotten has a low sprouting % compared to my other veggies, lettuce for example was a 99% sprouting success in same setup).



5/22/17]
So I transplanted the spinach seedling I got from my seed sprouting setup and tossed in what was left of my old spinach seeds to see if any others might sprout. I also split up the cucumber seedlings between 2 planters, i may split them up more. Cucumbers are showing some sighs of potassium deficiency (yellow pinholes started), so upped my potassium dosing. I need to buy another shower caddie/planter or two to maximize available space for plants, soon I'll have to split up the lettuce seedlings. Also need to pull out and sell the friendship plant.


I have a TON of water sprite in the tank now, its been growing like mad.. wish I could put up a for sale thread in this forum for it but I'm not at the 200 post minimum yet to open the privilege for private messages.
Ah well have some photos


Pardon the diatoms, I'm letting them build up and will eventually buy either a mystery or more preferably a nerite snail... I hate female nerites though, their eggs are a real pain. I did a big water cahnge earlier today but the fish have eaten since then so of course there's some more turds.. Should have used light brown gravel in the tank instead of black 'sand'.

[5/31/16]
Ended up buying a nerite, fingers crossed its not a girl!! I let the diatoms run wild before getting it. Amusingly when I went to buy the snail it was hauled out of the holding tank with a pond snail riding its back.. who's just deposited eggs on its back. The petco employee who runs the fish section pulled the snail off and looked perplexed at the egg sack. I told him what it was and laughed at that snail's choice of location. The egg sack was scrubbed off and my snail was bagged and come home. After a good long drip acclimation I put 'em in (after feeding the goldies so they would not be hungry and trying to have escargot).
Snail went to work but not anywhere I wanted... rather than clean the front tank glass and plant leaves it decided to clean the black back wall and stones anubias were tied too... ah well I won't have to worry about feeding it for a while.


Current veggie count is 4 cucumbers, 4 lettuce, 7 scallions, and 7 spinach..tosed in a few more scallion seeds. I'll be thinning these plants out more as they grow.


Have some snail photos, a diatom-y tank, and quick view of the veggies.

 

[AquaAurora]

Wow I've been terrible at updating this!
[6/3/16]
I'm a bit disappointing my my nerite, he's so insanely slow going.. I put him on an anubias leaf at lunch time yesterday, 24 hours later he is still working the same leaf and not even 1/3 of it is clean yet.. ugh!! My pond snails clean faster!! But I don't want a population explosion (and it would be nuclear) with all the diatoms present for them to feed on... thus leading to dangerously high nitrates. So I decided to start cleaning want I want clean and leave the rest for the nerite, I'm working on the anubias leaves during water changes with a paper towel, and then will get the front glass. Between the rock and back/side walls and the entries slow eating habits I'd say its set for life.

Need to dip my qt anubias to get rid of pond snails then transfer them over tot eh goldfish tank.. also need to get to a landscaping yard some time to pick up some nicer looking rocks to tie the anubias too.



Oh I don't know if I mentioned it but a few weeks ago I found out both goldfish are girls! At first I thought I saw mating behavior as Chocolate chased Sprinkles around and nipped at her crotch. I thought "oh great I'm gonna end up with eggs and more goldfish that I don't have room for!" But then I saw Sprinkles do the same to Chocolate, and periodically they'd break off and eat the eggs they were releasing... that's some fresh roe!


[6/7/16]
Sadly the nerite died. I noticed 2 days ago that it wasn't moving, I put it on a rock and checked every hour.. nothing.. Pulled it out and phew... yep, dead snail stench. Kinda sad, loved the shell.. so debating if I want to return it for a refund or get the 'meat' out and save the shell.

I went back to the petco I bought it from yesterday and after tangent-ing on bettas (omg they had such a lovely selection of kings this time!!! Not the standard wild coloration but 2 blue and blacks (one a darker blue, the other a more blue-green), a metallic green and red, and a marble with lovely tropical feeling hues-light blue, white, light green, and peach-ish sort of orange-pink) I spoke with an employee who kinda knows me (always use to play with/gave treats to my previous dog-she knew the dogs name but I don't think she knows me.. but I can't recall her's either so shh). She said all the snails up and died a few days ago (after I'd bought mine), I suspect it was ammonia positioning as there was a dozen in small under 1g hang on breeder baskets...Who knows when/if they ever got water changes. So now I'm not blaming my goldfish for the nerite's death, but likely ti was already deing from poor water quality at the store, hence its insane slow-ness to eat... New shipment will be coming in in a few days so I'll pop by the store and snag a new snail before it has time to stew in filth too long.

 

[Varmint]

Uh oh. Once you go goldfish you never go back. :surprise: The Betta boys are gonna get jealous.

Love the set up. Subscribed.

 

[AquaAurora]

[6/9/16]
So I decided to buy a peppermint mystery snail from a member on anther forum. It should be here tomorrow, fingers crossed it makes it ok! I've always wanted to try a peppermint mystery snail very since I fist saw a photo of one, so when I saw a journal for someone breeding mystery snails that had some peppermint babies I asked and bought one ^^
Its still a baby around nickle size so I'll likely let it grow in some of my qt tanks and clean out my black worm culture bin that has diatoms too.
Not sure how big I should get it before putting it into the goldfish tank, anyone have suggestions for minimum mystery snail size to try to reduce it being on the menu?


Veggies are growing nicely, need to rip out 3 of the 4 cucumbers soon.. debating if I want to stick others in my qt tank and just dump in removed tank water each day for nitrates or if I should simply toss em.. hmm.. Lettuce is starting to look more like lettuce as it grows, spinach is still a bit puny..
Crappy underwater shot sorry. Water sprite has been growing like a beast! Had to thin it out today to give the anubias and swords some light. I have 2 packages for sale in the "For Sale" sub forum.
No shots of the goldies, everything came out supper blurry today.






[7/10/16]
Mystery snail arrived this morning. It was wrapped in a not so damp paper towel and looked very retracted into its shell.. at first I thought it was dead and dried out but it was cruising around the anubias qt tank shortly after putting it in!

I moved the sponge filter over from my unused black worm bin as well as sticking in a heater... and an air stone for good measure.
For a peppermint its a bit more purple-burgundy than I'd thought but its still cute



I put some soilent green in but so far the snail is just scouring the walls looking for diatoms (sadly I'd cleaned the walls a few days ago since some greens pot algae was taking hold in the qt). If it doesn't take an interest in the soilent green by fish dinner time I'll remove it and try an algae wafer.




This one is still young, about thumb nail size-maybe a little larger. Can't wait for it to grow up more.
I'd be tempted to buy more of these snails but most of my tanks already have smaller snail species cleaning things up so don't need one there,no lid (ripariums), betta in the tank that eats snails (and large shrimp), or just too small a tank for the bioload (2-3g betta tanks).. I'd like at least 5g for a big snail species, or 10g like the qt this one is in.



[7/15/16]
Mystery snail was added to the goldfish tank several days ago. Its still alive/not on the menu and munching away on diatoms. Most of the time I can't find amongst the plant mass. But got a shot of it before it left qt tank, and a shot today during water change. Its shell is a pink-ish purple but the spiral/tip is more purple. I'm thinking of naming it something along the lines of "Very Berry" and calling it "Berry/Berrie" for short. I'm nota fan of that flavor of ice cream but mmm there are some yummy looking photos of it on google! I think I'm going to go make a chocolate and orange sherbet (yes if I ever get an orange goldie that will be its name) cone now ^^






Have a [censor] ton of removed water sprite I don't know what to do with too, 5 10"x6"x2" bins worth.

Uh oh. Once you go goldfish you never go back. :surprise: The Betta boys are gonna get jealous.

Love the set up. Subscribed.

I do enjoy them, but I think I'd be more mts over bettas than goldfish (simply because I'm cheap and smaller tank=less $ than a big one.. and bigger filter/heater/lighting). But I REALLY want to get my hands on a 125g without spending half a grand and getting some more goldies (after DIY in tank sumping it like this tank moving all my 55g riparium plants onto it, and having room for more plants YAY!!).. maybe someday.

 

[xjasminex]

I have tried to have mystery snails but could not keep them alive!
I put it down to lack of food. Between piggy goldfish and the other nails i figured that they where out competed.

Your goldies are filling out nicely tooo! Look at those bellies!

 

[AquaAurora]

[6/20/16]
I promise to get a shot of the goldfish again someday! But for now have another couple photos of Very Berry. Love the spots on their flesh.





[6/22/16]
Ok got some not so great but at least not complete blur shots of Chocolate and Sprinkles! Hate the glare/reflection from the other tanks.. Also one more of Very Berry ^^ Slow snail is much easier to photograph than speedy goldies.


Isn't s/he cute?!


Not full tank shots at I have a diatom explosion atm, and Very Berry did not get the memo about cleaning the glass and anubias leaves as top priority =.=


Sprinkles is getting noticeably fatter than Chocolate, I'm assuming because she's more aggressive at eating food off the substrate. Chocolate has no problem with hand feeding (prefers it to sifting sand) so I'm trying to make sure more foods gets sucked in to Chocolates mouth rather then mostly fall to the bottom.
Speaking of eating, Very Berry was on the cucumber munching away when I gave the other two their breakfast ^^
I may actually try catching and weighing them today, might take some above perspective photos of them in the smaller bucket too if they aren't splashy spaz-zoids about it.
[later that day]

So finally weighed them. Used 2 orange 1g (or less?) buckets from home depot I got specifically for this and borrowed a food scale. Chocolate was very calm the entire time. Sprinkles wasn't too keen on the initial grab to remove from tank but did great for the rest of her handling! Not much for photos, orange bucket doesn't make for good photo shoot.
Pudgy sprinkles actually weighs as much as Chocolate, both at 39 grams. Going to go weigh out food for them now to have a better idea of how much to give each.
Here are some quick photos

I have tried to have mystery snails but could not keep them alive!
I put it down to lack of food. Between piggy goldfish and the other nails i figured that they where out competed.

Your goldies are filling out nicely tooo! Look at those bellies!

I put in a cucumber slice 1-2x a week and usually see the mystery snail eating it more than the fish. My goldies eat any pond snails that get into the display section of the tank (didn't even know I had any in that tank for a long while because of this). SO only way mystery snail misses out on food is if I clean the front and side glass (i don't clean the false walls though).
If you ever used any meds with copper in it on the tank snails and shrimp won't live in there, mystery snails also need calcium for their shells.

I was kinda over feeding them for a bit >.>''' I thought I read you feed 10% body weight a day, then found I should be feeding only 2-3% body weight >.<

 

[AquaAurora]

[6/24/16]
Loooook deeeep into my heaaaart (of lettuce ^.~ )
Tasty looking isn't it?



I tore off two pieces from a smaller lettuce plant that had a little damage and put them in with the goldies to try. No blanching. Spotted Chocolate under the lettuce nibbling at it a short time ago.


Sorry so many shots of the snail but its just so much easier to get non blurred shots of! Hubby really liked how this one turned out. Ignore the algae covered food clip and particles floating around-took this right after dropping in soilent green dinner.




And this was the day I realized I was over feeding >.>



[6/28/16]
Ended up pulling off the scallions and shifting the lettuce around so the smaller lettuce plants had a chance to grow (and not be smothered by the big one). Cucumber plant is getting big. I realized I probably should have kept 2 plants to cross pollinate.. oops >.> Fish are doing well as well as mystery snail which i feel has noticeably grown more since it arrive! S/he has been working on the diatoms, side wall has the cool tracks of sail noming all over. Water sprite is growing like a bloody best, need to thin it out AGAIN!

Quick batch of photos showing the plants. Debating if I should raise the lights to keep them above the cucumber or let it just do it's thing.

Water sprite mass is huge! its 30" across, 13" wide, and a good 4.5"+ deep! I'm debating if I should keep the water sprite more aggressively thinned or sell off the anubias that's smothered under it.






Speaking of pollinating.. first cucumber blooms are started already! That was fast 0.O

Dunno if I can pollinate successfully with 2 blooms from same plant but will try once I have a few opened up.





Suction cups keep giving out on the food clips.. I'm thinking to getting magnetic ones.. but I may also simply DIY with glass beads and fishing line (like my rhizome plant anchor diy).

 

[AquaAurora]

[6/30/16]
I spotted Very Berry on the substrate with no body parts sticking out of the shell like usual (foot was not out/no eyes/antenna etc). For a second I was afraid the goldfish ate him/her so I pulled 'em out of the tank and checked-trapdoor still intact so they're just hiding out. After getting over that initial scare I noticed something.. my mystery snail seems to be changing color its going from an almost burgundy with lighter pink accents color to more solid color/starting to get a bit more purple. This is my first (and currently only) mystery snail, is it common for them to darken up?

First photo is by goldfish tank (where the other snail photos have been taken) which has 3000k T5 + 7000k LEDS, second photo is by 20g long with 6500k cfl bulbs.





Photo from last week to compare



Took a better comparison shot of it in the tank to show how much snail changed in a week


June 24-------------------------------------------------------------------------June 30



Lettuce monster continues to grow





But hey it (and all that water sprite) are sucking up my nitrates! Tank on left, tap on right:5ppm!





"Welcome to the jungle we got fun and games" popped into my head when I looked into the waster sprite mass




Some day I'll get some in focus shots of the goldfish again!




[7/5/16]
Decided to sell off the anubias in my goldfish tank+ all the extras I had just hanging out in lit qt tanks. Sold most of it to a member on another forum. Just have the small species left to sell (micro (rare) petite, and nana-great for a betta or other small nano/pico tanks!).

Raffled most of my water sprite to thin it out

My husband had a simple salad using the lettuce grown on the goldfish tank last week, said it was delicious. I haven't had any yet. Biggest lettuce is 11" diameter! Cucumber blooms I keep dabbing with a paint brush to try to pollinate.. no signs of success yet but giving it time..may have to sprout a second plant. Spinach is still small and has sown signs of magnesium deficiency. Easy enough to fix with a tiny bit of Epsom salt (added a little last week). Also shown: cucumber roots in sump section of tank.







Took some photos of Chocolate and Sprinkles.. can never get both in a shot and in focus =,=.. I made a mini GIF of them dancing around eagerly waiting for food but can't figure out how to upload a video/animated GIF to photobucket grrr

Almost a great shot but then Sprinkles hid behind Chocolate =.=


How most photos turn out:

 

[Nordic]

Good luck with your cucumbers, I got tired of the fruit flies coming from the neighboring farms to sting mine. I think the only things I grow without much interference is aubergines (yuck, but they like the summer heat), and peas (also yuck, but they like the winter cold). At least my wife eats the peas. Oh and some potatoes come up every year.

 

[AquaAurora]

[7/7/16]
After reading on modded gel foods I'm excited to finish the batch I have to try making my own, will still use soilnet green as the base but add some other yummies..
Thinking of using baby carrots, lettuce or cucumber, garlic, little bit of meat pie (another repashy gel), goldfish pellets, omega one flakes. Will mess with amounts when I make it.
I have a ton of soilent green powder. When I ordered it online somehow it left an extra soilent green in the cart which my husband kindly bought since he though I forget to order, so I have 2 huge containers of that.


[7/11/16]
water sprite mass was too much so had to pull it out!
Some pre-gutting shots. They were not amused that I as holding a phone rather than their lunch.


I shipped out 3 boxes of water sprite (and some sampler other plants) from my raffle on a goldfish forum. Hopefully I'll be over flowing with water sprite again in a few months and can do another raok/raffle.

So when I got my mystery snail the seller told me they don't like strong flow and prefer warmer temps than I have it at.. but the seller has seen recent photos and sees a little baffled that mine is growing faster than hers now (might be because I have just 1 so no growth stunting hormone fun). But also the past 2 days I keep finding Very Berry at the stronger flow point in the tank: right under the spray bar output! Guess when I cleaned the front and side glass i took a bit of their food away so now they're cleaning the otehr side by the filter a lot.




Last photo of sexy lettuce for a while, having family over tonight and am going to hack off a lot of leaves for a salad!



Also WOOT CUBUMBER BABIES!!!

lettuce post dinner shot. Not much of a dent in it, just bottom leaves.


Empty tank + how I keep the water sprite in place: glass beads+ fishing line!





And finally some post rescaping shots




Sprinkles is explaining or plotting something!

Good luck with your cucumbers, I got tired of the fruit flies coming from the neighboring farms to sting mine. I think the only things I grow without much interference is aubergines (yuck, but they like the summer heat), and peas (also yuck, but they like the winter cold). At least my wife eats the peas. Oh and some potatoes come up every year.

I'm not a fan of eggplant (aubergines) either, but my husband likes it as eggplant parmesan.
So far no issues with fruit flies *knocks on wood*. We keep fly tape up in the left corner behind the tank, and also have apple cider vinegar in jars with a plastic bag over it (rubber band to hold it on) that has a small hole-gnats/fruit flies go in but can't get out and drown just in case.
Having plants indoors and grown from seeds really helps reduce insect issues, but then you have to provide them with proepr lighting instead of just using the sun (unless you have a green house).
I had wanted to grow sweet potatos from plants bought at a store (not seeds) but they had aphids so I had to toss them, and cleaned/put in new media for the new plant seeds to grow it.

 

[Nordic]

I honestly think you would regret sweet potato indoors, if how they grow outdoors is anything to go by.