Fish Tank

[Guest]

I've been feeding my fish hempseed products, and boy, yet another shameful waste of resources.

I run a small (30gal) freshwater community tank, and I've been feeding them their micro crabs mixed with hempseed oil, as well as plain 'ol shucked hempseed.

They go wild over 'em. Funniest part about the whole seed, they like em so much but cannot swallow them immediately. This results in about 20 fish, each with a hemp nut in their mouths protruding at interval.

Reason for my post, is I've noticed the colors in my fish more vibrant, and with the danios, a color-shifting green to red effect that wasn't there at all. They're also much more active swimming about.

Has anyone else had experience with this? I'm concerned that these benefits might be all in my head since I'm under the impression that the plant as a food source is just short of magical. :joint

Oh post up your pics if ya got 'em.:

 

[Guest]

ive been wanting a aquarium...sea horses and clown fish...
but thinking i'l catch a walleye and cage it instead...feed it worms and leeches...
nay...propbaly just eat the walleye...i'l get a cat,but wont eat that.....

 

[Stoney Bologna]

I love aquaria. I used to keep ciclids. A friend used to work at an aquaria store. He told me once that hemp seed does what you descibed to the colors. I think it was the fatty acids he said.

 

[NOKUY]

read up on Breeder Steves (SOL) experiments with "guppyponics"

he fed some MJ plants nothing but guppy shit and they seemed to love it....there are links to the article on here somewhere...I'll try to track it down.

 

[NOKUY]

ok I found it (I'm sure someone will find it of value)

GUPPY-PONICS
What does it take to breed truly fine cannabis? It requires an acute sense of the universe and unwavering attention to detail. Of all the people I've met who consider themselves breeders of cannabis, none embrace the spirit of organics quite like Breeder Steve. Never one to follow the traditional path, Steve began experimenting with a technique he calls "guppy-ponics" to feed all his plants. Essentially bioponics (biological hydroponics), the name reflects the fact that all the nutrients Steve's plants need come from the water in fish tanks that have been stocked with guppies and other fish.

As fishes live, they eat, then poop. Over a short period of time, fish waste converts itself into all the essential nutrients plants need. Steve drains the water from his tanks to water the plants. Then he tops off the fish tanks and the process starts again. The plants themselves are not grown in one particular style. Steve has used this method to feed plants on ebb-and-flow tables and pots filled with grow rocks. He does prefer, as I do, large buckets filled with a high-grade soilless medium. After feeding a 4,000-watt room exclusively off a 90-gallon tank for over two years, Steve learned exactly how to make this system swim.

BREEDING SPICE [cont.]

Zen Grow-Master Steve explains: "Conventional aquarium wisdom dictates 1 inch of fish (measured head to tail) per gallon of water, but I've happily kept up to five times that amount, or 5 inches of fish per gallon. Feed the fish well using plenty of frozen and live food. Cheaper food like pellets and flakes leave their scent in the herb, so I recommend only occasional feedings with these products."

"How often do you feed the fish?" I asked.

"Every three days I put 100 feeder goldfish or guppies in the tank. That's a lot of fish emulsion, but filtered, not raw." Steve uses a wide assortment of life in his tanks. His collection is comprised mostly of cichlids, goldfish and guppies, but also a variety of algae-eaters and other assorted sweet-water tropicals. There are also plants, crawdads, crabs, shrimp, snails and eels. "Oscars are a fish that do well and grow large quickly, which is great for larger systems. They will eat a lot of fish--it's best to raise feeders for them. I have gone so far as to feed my Oscars an entire hamburger, which was gone in minutes. That's my idea of bioponics, to be able to drop in hot meat and a sesame seed bun and turn it into kind bud."

The conversion of a hamburger into fertilizer is all taken care of by nature. "It takes about 12 days for the nitrogen cycle to complete itself. The ammonia in the fish waste is converted to nitrite by aerobic bacteria (nitrosonomas). Then, by the colonization of another aerobic bacteria (nitrobacter), nitrite is converted to nitrate. Nature is perfect, if chaotic. The growth of these bacteria is virtually unstoppable anywhere the right conditions occur on Earth. The natural filter of water is plants. This cycle is the basis of life on our planet. The waste of aerobic bacteria is nutrient. It is not difficult to comprehend--have you seen the growth of plants by a rich pond?"

Rather than try to ascertain and then apply changing levels of nutrients during different growth phases, Steve ensures that a light amount of all nutrients is constantly available and never depleted, meaning he doesn't change his mix when he switches to flowering.

"The best method is to have all stages of growth feeding from one reservoir. This creates more of a balanced demand on the available [low] nutrient levels. This reservoir passes through the flowering room, then drains into the mother buckets for another filtering. This water also works great for clones. In the event of a larger ratio in flowering, I add a nylon sock stuffed with guanos, meals and naturally occurring minerals. This soon becomes a green log of algae with a dozen algae-eaters feeding furiously. This boosts the PPM as high as 400! It's usually around 350, but it doesn't mean much in bioponics."

Steve hopes to have a book with complete details about guppy-ponics out late this fall. During our visit there was one tank feeding a room with about 5000 watts. Unfortunately, most of the plants came down a few weeks before we arrived. The plants we did photograph were beautiful but had obviously been held over for our arrival. The proof is in the smoke, and I'll reiterate just this once: The cured Sweet Pink Grapefruit nugs were like candy.

 

[Guest]

I have gone so far as to feed my Oscars an entire hamburger, which was gone in minutes.

Thats funny stuff. You may see me experiment with this 'guppieponics' in the future, very interesting indeed.

Thanks for the post!

 

[asa42]

caught a show on PBS where a small farm grew its crop by "guppy-ponics" to be used at a restatrant the farm works w/. think both applications are awesome.

as for the color change in your fish, the fatty acids sounds right.

 

[Guest]

Come on y'all I know theres some sweet aquariums out there... lets see 'em!

 

[Irishslappop]

Wow man, thats a great idea! thats awesome that the fish's colors are more vibrant. i don't doubt it for a second.

 

[Kirby]

You should get an African Butterfly fish. That's probably one of the coolest fishes I've ever had. If you have a place to store some crickets (what they eat), it's definitely worth it.

 

[Kirby]

Come on y'all I know theres some sweet aquariums out there... lets see 'em!

I took mine down last year.

 

[cough_cough_eer]

got a new freshwater tank as my last one spung a leak.. It was a 30 gallon freshwater. Started with a small drip(the back was comming off) and got larger and larger like you see a crack in a dam on TV, but as luck would have it I had a bucket right beside the tank that cought the water, and gave me time to get more buckets to get the rest. not one drop got on the floor, and I had another tank handy to keep the fish in. How lucky was that??

I have a new pink skunk (sounds like a plant uuhhh) that was a goood find and a new brittle star in my saltwater tank, I'll edit in pics later.

:
Brittle star

Pink skunk




new fresh water tank

 

[geedub]

got a 30 gallon saltwater
35.5 lbs of live rock, pair of percula clowns, algae blenny, skunk cleaner shrimp, sand sifter star, hermits and snails.. its definitly got a few newb mistakes, but my next tank will be better... heres some various pics.. none of the clowns tho, the lil frickers never sit still lol





cool thread and idea with the tank water.. stay high everyone

 

[NOKUY]

well ...on the aquarium note...I had a few aquariums, but most were more of a pain in the ass than they were worth.

I know quite a bit about the hobby tho...and I have successfully kept octopi in aquaria (almost 2 yrs once on a single specimen)...thats long.

I love the octopus, and they are badass in an aquarium if u know what your doing. (again they don't live long)

they are strong, and they pretty much need their own place...a welded lid on the aquarium is a VERY good idea.

they are easy to aquire...many places will mailorder them, and thats really no different than getting one at a petshop...some will ink themselves in transit from stress tho, and that kills them.

"blue ring" is deadly, but one of the easiest to get for aquarium.

I really wanna set up a new one, but it takes a long time to condition an octopus tank.....(about 6 months)

like I said a pain in the ass, but they are so sweet!

www.tonmo.com has all the best info on them

 

[Guest]

no pics but i keep a number of cichlid tanks...you can actually hear them thru the glass breaking open hemp seeds as well as other cichlid-specific pellet diets it's kinda funny hearing their jaws just crush 'em...messy eaters but i love watching them...i think i've seen an african cichlid tank in the background of some of ograskals beautiful plant shots

i keep a number of africans, have a 250gal with oscars and jack dempseys and a pleco that's nearly a foot long i've had it for years...also a red devil that has managed to kill everything in its path over the years in a tank alone, and another tank with smaller south/central americans like c. nigrofasciatum (convict cichlids) c. meeki (firemouth cichlids) and a few others that are able to hold their own...tough to keep a planted aquarium with them tho cuz they love diggin and rearranging the tank to their own liking with anything they can move lol

cool photos geedub

pretty setup sgt but come clean now, is that really a 30gal or a 29gal high? lol

 

[marx2k]

The 'guppyponics' was Aquaponics on Overgrow and is actually a good way to have a sustainable hydro setup without using up resources, especially synthetic ones.

Check it out-
http://rps.uvi.edu/AES/Aquaculture/aquaponics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

 

[Guest]

OK OK ya got me. It's 29. So I round up

Nice pics all, keep 'em coming.

 

[nycdfan042]

id hate to see such a beautiful creature held captive...there are plenty of other critters you can keep with a better shelf life dont you think??(talking to the guy with the octupus). I dont know what about a cuttle fish?? those things are beautiful!!!

i can identify with the fact that they are so beautiful(i would love to be able to keep a 2 or 3 ft. humbolt squid, but as you stated these creatures need large spaces.

 

[Chuckleberry]

a few discus

a few discus

 

[Guest]

Got myself some live plants today


Hey chuckleberry;

How do you think those discus would hold up in my setup?

I keep it around 82 degrees