Gold Fish Love

Gold Fish Rule. Plain and simple. They are hardy and have great personality and colors. It's funny because I love my rainbows and they are skinny and fast. I've also always loved nice fat fantail goldfish.

When I was about 13 I bought my first big tank. (big to a 13 year old is a 29 ;) I kept my ever growing comets and fantails in there. I also had a golden dojo loach which I would like to get another of. (The loach and the goldies got along, who knew?)

So I pumped up because yesterday I was out poking around in my ABOVE ground garden pond outside. The thing with this pond is that it sits above ground. So theoretically the water could entirely freeze because it doesn't have the natural insulation that normal in ground ponds have. So why am I pumped?

Well I didn't take out one of my boys this year and yesterday I spotted him swimming around! I was trying to take him out in December but he was hiding. I said, "alright dude, good luck." He made it.

What is also even more encouraging is that I spotted a baby today as well! So I have a second generation of goldfish rolling into this summer. Actually, this would be the second generation as I had one make it of a batch I had last year as well. (though he isn't as sexy as the ones this batch.) This makes me unafraid of leaving them in, but my problem is myself... I wanna enjoy them in the winter!

I'd like to back up and discuss how this breeding happened. I would have to say that the heavy almost 90% water changes that I did early in the summer almost weekly helped. NOTE: I did these water changes to get the muck outta the pond. Not intending to breed fish. I am excited for this summer as I am going to attempt to breed for specific types of fish. RYUKINS. Oh yeah baby, ryukins are my style. I love their high bodies and red colors. So that's the plan....too bad it's March!

Home Made CO2 Injector.

I should have done a before and after with this because I am shocked how well the CO2 works. (ok not shocked, but I had forgotten how great it was).

FULL DISCLOSURE: I found a dead rainbow in my tank this morning.

Probably the heavy drop in the PH at night when the lights were off.

However my objective was great lush plants. I have succeeded there. I'm paying the price fish-wise.

Here's how it is done...



So I added a glop of molasis, just dropping it down in.

Slap on the top with the airline tubing glued into it, screw it on, and we are done.

Bryan's TV fish tank

I have to start by saying that Bryan is the complete package when it comes to fishtanks. He's uber knowledgble. He's smart but not in a considending way like a bunch of fish people I know. He'll look right at your tanks and tell you what the heck is wrong and he's usually right. He's also pretty much always down to help with whatever project I have brewing. If I had to pick one man to help me with my fish it would be Bryan...

My only real beef with the kid is that he hasn't gotten into putting dirt in the bottom of his tanks like he should. I can't blame the man for wanting to clean his gravel good with the siphon.

He's the only cat I know who can rock a school of glass cats and make it pop. But there isn't anything I can put into words to describe this kids game on his TV tank.

CHECK IT!



The kid has serious game. He's got a bunch of time wrapped up in it. But it is so worth it.

This is one of the few fishtank projects I have seen done that could actually be profitable. Much skills man. Nice Job Bryan.

(this tank had 40 views and a comment in less then one day on YouTube, the comment, "Badass"

Badass indeed

Month to Month Coraline Algae Documentation

While I haven't always been the best at keeping corals. I am sweet at getting my rock to be purple. The trick is simple. Use Calcium. Use Calcium. Use Calcium. If you have hair algae. USE Calcium. Corals are made of Calcium. Use it. I first learned this when I started dosing a tank with Kalkawasser that had horrible hair algae. It cleared up in about a month or two.

But the Proof is in the pudding.

I added 75 pounds of live rock that was ugly with no coraline algae on it at all.

Here is a video taken February 1st.




Here is a video I took on March 2nd. (Pause both videos at 20 seconds to see a clear difference on the piece laying horizontally.)



I use Seachem's reef calcium 10ml about everyday or so. Every two weeks I do about a 16 gallon water change.

Why Fish Tanks?

The Chinese believe keeping fish will bring you good luck. I am not a big believer in luck. I believe hard work and putting yourself out there creates luck. Never the less, keeping fish has always been something I have just flat out loved doing.

The roots of my fish keeping go way back. Like most I had the carnival prize goldfish that we took home and raised. Honestly I was too young to pin point exactly how or why we got the fish. I just remember that it's name was Dibloon. (like the gold coins you'd find in a treasure chest.) My dad named him and took care of the tank. I guess you could say he was the reason I got into tanks.

It's funny to think about it now. When I was probably 5 I remember on the weekends my dad would do water changes. I'm not talking about 25%. He would have me hold the door for him while he lugged the entire tank out the garage and dumped out the whole thing. Yep, 100% water changes that probably killed all of the good bacteria and certainly stressed out the fish. I do remember he always told me to make sure we used the Dechlorinator though...a lesson I have failed to remember on occasion.

I think I like the idea of raising something and caring for it. May be it is because I was born on January 24th, which make me an Aquarius. I've always loved water, lake and oceans.

Here's the main reason I keep tanks and have so damn many. They make me happy. I read in a book that you should try to do something you love for 20 minutes a day. I know I love fishtanks so that is how I spend my 20 minutes. Actually. I probably average about 20 minutes a day with them coincidentally. On the weekends, well that's another story. I don't feel like it's even a good weekend if I don't by something for my tanks.

But there is a great reward with the tanks. There are cumulative games. My work pays off. I have a buddy who keeps a pretty sick reef tank. He thinks I'm nuts and asks me how I keep up with all of them. I simply like keeping up with them. I can see the fruits of my labor when I am done messing with them. I started getting into this whole blogging thing so I can share them with more people who are in to them. Nothing is cooler then having a stranger come across your stuff and say it's sweet.

This might be out there to some, but. I am also a believer in Yin and Yang energy. I teach a Qi Gong class twice a week too. (its out of the scope of this blog, but Qi Gong is the balancing of one's Yin and Yang energy.) I burn up all of my Yin energy worrying about work, selling, cold calling and in general...hustling with my brain and mouth. Nothing creative about it.

With tanks I get to express myself in an artistic way. My Yang energy is working. I get my hands in my tanks and I almost instantly feel better. It is release I have found. Trust me, It's WAY healthier and safer then a few other hobbies I used to have.

So here's the bottom line. Fishtanks are something I love. If you dig what I'm posting let me know. If you have a question PLEASE ask away, I'll give you my best answer and if your lucky a video with some kind of example...

Pictures found from 2007

These are some pictures I found from way back of my tank. I think this was probably at the best the 125 ever looked. You can see that I spent a decent amount of time in it.

I was playing with that moss in the bottom left. Let me warn you, once you put it in your tank, it is not coming out. Period. That was a move I regret.

I like where the dwarf sag is next to the moss. That plant goes like a weed once it hits the soil. While it is a simple plant and gets out of control, dwarf sag, along with jungle val (tall skinny plant you see to the far right) are two of my favorite plants because the grow so well. The really helped me see some results in the hobby which kept me moving forward with it. If you look closely you can see that the val has gone all the way along the back. Great plant.

The 220 a few weeks rolling

I really like the amount of fish in the tank at this point. The contrast of the Emerald Rainbows and the New Guinea Reds is slick...