Obed's Story

[Obed]

I am glad to find a local fourm that gives us an opportunity here in Houston to share our experiences and be able to help each other in our addiction. I have been in the Hobby since 1956, it started when my mother brought home 4 ten gallon tanks as a present for me. Currently I run about 100 tanks and raise angelfish, guppies and dwarf albino bristle nose ancistrus catfish.
I have a prefiltrtion system that consists of 20" filter housings in series, the first one has a 10 micron sediment filter, the next two have 5 micron carbon blocks, then I go thru a water softner canister filled with zeolite, then thru another 5 micron sediment filter, followed by a final filter of .5 micron. I use this water for my grow out tanks. For my breeding pairs I use a 600 gallon per day ro system with remix of the filtered city water.
all of my grow out tanks are on an automatic water change system that changes about 40% of the water daily.
My current activities include being secretary for The Angelfish Society and also being on the Standards Committee for TAS. That with my job and my Harleys keeps me pretty busy.
I have recently become a member of the Houston Aquarium Society and am looking forward to particpation in that group.
If I can be of assistance with any of your angelfish projects feel free to contact me.   Obed

[Smokin_Cache]

Re: Obed's Story

Wow! Sounds wonderful. Great to have you here.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Obed's Story

Welcome
Great to have you here.
For 40 years I've been learning how to take care of my fish by exception.
(Mother Nature is a hard teacher - first she gives the test, then you learn the lesson)
It's great to have this group of fantastic people shareing the knowledge base.
What's the biggest fauxpas you've made with your fish ?
Sounds like you really have a handle on water quality.  Have you always used the Houston water supply ?

[Obed]

Re: Obed's Story

I am not sure which of my many stupid mistakes I have made over the years could claim the title of the biggest mistake. I guess the one that makes me the angriest at myself happened several years ago, I made the mistake of buying some discus that had been imported and did not quarantine them in a seperate building and as a result lost several thousand dollars worth of discus to the plague. I know not to bring new fish in and not quarantine them, but I did anyway and paid the price.
I ususally will not buy any imported fish and bring it into my place, in fact I usually only buy from breeders I know, I try very hard to maintain a disease free hatchery and a moment of brainlessness cost me a lot in time and money.
As to always using Houston water, the answer is yes as long as I have lived in Houston. I had traveled quite a bit in my younger years and have had aquariums in California and Arizona and Washington state. I have always used a prefilter system of some kind where ever I lived, the prefilters will vary depending on what the local water supply is like and what I need to protect against or remove from the water. We have no major problems associated with Houston water except the use of chlorimine rather than chlorine, so when carbon is used to remove the chlorine you will have ammonia in the water, which is the reason for the zeolite, zeolite works well to remove the ammonia if you have the flow rate low enough. I use the ro water for the breeding pairs and egg hatch to keep the hatch rates up and it reduces any problems with bacteria that affect the fry.