This channel is all about becoming a successful and happy fish keeper. After relocating from SoCal to Middle Tennessee in Nov. 2020, my fish room includes SA/CA & African Cichlids, Live Bearers, a Planted Community Tank (egg layers) and Betta. The content I cover applies to all types of fish keeping and I enjoy being part of the friendly and helpful YT fish keeping community. The channel has two mottos: "Always be learning!" and "We all learn from each other." If you would like to support future content creation, here are a few ways you can do so: 1) Sub and hit that notification bell. 2) Consider becoming a Patreon monthly supporter at: patreon.com/user?u=13754188 (monthly memberships start for as little as $3 a month). 3) Visit my Spring Store here: teespring.com/stores/ben-ocharts-store. 4) Visit my Amazon Store at: www.amazon.com/shop/benochart I thank you for all the support and encouragement you've provided over the years. Truly YOU ROCK! -Ben O
A Finnex Poeer filter? Intersting 🤔 I had always been under the assumption that they only did lights. I'll have to see about aquiring one to give it a test run!
Hi Ben, I really enjoy your videos you have a reassuring presentation style :). I have a couple things to add about companies maybe pushing products we don't actually need and relying on peoples fears, I can honestly say that 30 years ago, I had 3, 4 foot tanks with oscars, jewel cichlids, convicts and red sharks in, I had small Fluval internal filters which I cleaned in tap water each month, changed the water once a month, never added water conditioners, and never tested the water ever. I had no idea about the tank cycle, any clue about testing kits or ever used products to cure fish. In returning to fish keeping in the last couple of months I simply cant believe the amount of products that now seem to be essential to keep fish, with the advent of social media, the knowledge available to a new fish keeper is staggering and choosing the right people like yourself to follow helpful advice is a must. To make this comment even longer I have another point, essentially about the effects of power outages on the bacteria within the tank. Maybe my question is a subject of another video idea for you so here goes, I was told today when talking to a fish store about backup air pumps during a power outage, not to turn the filter back on if the outage had been for several hours because it would deliver dead bacteria back into the tank?. I know you advise people to be extremely careful when doing cannister cleans not contaminate the bacteria, I wonder how long the bacteria can survive when the filter isn't running, is it a valid point that the bacteria can die off so quickly over a few hours? More importantly if the bacteria may have died off what could you do to save the fish if the bacteria in your cannister has died? - Nige UK
I had to move my 6 albino heckelii to their own tank when they were about the size of yours. Their growth had stalled since with their poor vision they could not compete with more aggressive eaters. Even though I moved them to a much smaller tank their growth then exploded.
Awesome rummy nose in your 29 having trouble keeping those.Maybe if I could find some locally bred in San Antonio area.The ones I get online are small about 1/2 ta 3/4 inches ... Have lost about 150 dollars worth of them😢
I love the 300 and all the fish! Wish I was able to get a tanks that size in my house. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit down the steps to the basement. Plus al the man power it would take to get that beast down there.
5:19 I recently watched a video of a guy using a soldering pen, to weld the cracked plastic brace back together. Held solid no issues, the plastic melts and rebonds really quick. It seemed really easy to do. Might be able to save that tank. Same problem on my 90, gonna try it.
Yes, a slow trickle would be better for the fishies to acclimate to the new water during water changes, but it would take 8 hrs for me to do water changes then 😂🤣😂
Thanks for your info as always Ben. I do have an idea, an idea I saw on Facebook. I think it might be a good idea to have flex tape on hand for those cracks in our aquariums that can suddenly appear. The fellow had a 5000 gal. tank in his basement and used the tape to temporarily stop the waterfall coming from the glass. It worked great until he was able to replace the glass. You won’t be using that glass anyway. That tape was so strong he couldn’t get it off showing us how strong it was. I have a 130 gal tank and live in a condo, I think I’m going to purchase the tape for the, just in case, moment. You never know.
replicating this design and I'm finding a lot of conflicting information on how large a sump needs to be, would a 4ftx34cmx46cm be sufficient for a tank of 1600 litres? (many forums argue that sumps should be anywhere between 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the display, and your design is obviously much smaller than that)
I'm currently getting great results with 40 gallon breeders under my 210 gal and 300 gal tanks. Both are further backed up by canister filters. Bigger, with the additional water volume, would naturally dilute more but is it the only way to go. I don't think so. For a while I had a 29 gallon sump on that 210 tank and it was rock solid.
I'm currently having this problem. Saw that my ammonia and nitrates were very high so did a 20% water change and added as the prime bottle says " in emergency up to 5 times the dose. I added 4 times the dose. The fish have been constantly working their mouths for 2 days. They are all in the mid section of the tank and now the water looks kinda murky. I got plenty of agitation any idea what idk how to fix it
Any of my newer fish room walk through videos show how far that planted tank has come. Here’s the most reason: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ba67Tfck0iQ.htmlsi=A0iBNTXxF921gm8_
Best $$$ no object, Matrix and K1 are the best in my opinion, and I like that many waste treatment plants and koi pond owners use it. Lava rock and sponges on a budget. The rest seem like theory or expensive money makers for the companies. I need a lot more proof before I waste my time and money on bio home.
@@BenOchart in my opinion Matrix isn't better than less expensive garden pumice, but I am not a rock expert so I will pay a bit extra and let Seachem pick the garden pumice for me. I guess am a believer in their products like Prime, Safe and my newest buy a Tidal 110 HOB, good products and decent prices.
The last hurricane we had here in Florida I used a bait bucket, battery operated air bubbler, and it kept all my fish alive for more than two weeks 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Hey Ben, Great video. You missed a great safety tool for sump users though. If anyone didn't know already, look into washing machine overflow shutoffs. These are amazing tools for shutting anything off when water is detected. I used one to shutoff the return pump in my sump to protect me from a clogged overflow causing water to overfill the aquarium and flood the room. They can be used for other aquarium applications as well.
Kind of lucky now that I live in Florida don’t need heater. I bought one when I set up tank. House stays at 78 degrees all year long. Also bought a controller which I don’t need. Another good thing is water comes out warm when I do water changes so I don’t have to worry about hot water running out. Make water changes easy.
@@BenOchart it’s says exactly how to do it on the bottle though. “Several drops in food once daily”. I always soak my frozen cubes in a shot glass of water with 8 drops vitachem
